OTA Station Status: Montréal, QC, Northern NY & VT

[BaconBoy]

@Yuprules : I noticed they have an e-mail for OTA reception difficulties with CBC Radio 1 and 2, but nothing for OTA TV

Sounds like stampeder's approach may draw some attention to the issue

[Yuprules]

@BaconBoy Yes this "stuttering issue" seems to happen more on older TV's, BUT it also seemed to happen on a converter box I bought last year. Newer TV's still have the "Just Scan" issue, but DON'T stutter. Something funny in the video signal that's for sure.

@stampeder
I've been here a while, not sure who you are referring to. Could you tell us who, or send them a message on our behalf about this thread on 6-1 "stuttering" issues?

[Apple IIGS]

Well, looks like CBC (6.1) and Global (15.1) dropped their signal strength, AGAIN. I no longer can pick them up, at least not without realigning my antenna, and even then, the signal is weak.

What are they doing exactly? Everything was finally perfect, and now we're going backwards. Plus every night for the past few weeks all the Montreal stations (from Mount Royal) go off the air from about midnight to 6am. This kind of long-term maintenance and experimenting should have been done last year, BEFORE the digital switch over. Sigh, only in Montreal...

[BaconBoy]

In checking other forums, notably Ottawa, it seems not all stations are 100% perfect there either, and some lack PSIP data causing reception issues with cetain tuners, etc. It looks like PSIP data and so forth on CBC is also lacking in various cities across Canada, but is gradually being corrected.

I would imagine our troubles are comparable and will be resolved at some point. Unfortunate timing with the Cup playoffs. At least we're not missing any Habs games

[BaconBoy]

@Yuprules : I scoured Samsung tech support and another forum. You can try shutting off Auto Motion Plus (AMP) and Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) which are 2 known issues with Samsungs causing stutter, depending on your firmware version.

I shut off DNR and it's a little better. I don't have AMP or it's not selectable with my firmware. Good luck.

[morningwood]

Originally Posted by Apple IIGS

Everything was finally perfect, and now we're going backwards. Plus every night for the past few weeks all the Montreal stations (from Mount Royal) go off the air from about midnight to 6am. This kind of long-term maintenance and experimenting should have been done last year, BEFORE the digital switch over. Sigh, only in Montreal...

Yup, I agree, Global (15.1) was actually worse yesterday. Today, it seems a bit better, at least where I am. How about you?

[balm]

Yep, this flackiness is definitely annoying, really gives the impression that OTA is AMATURE....I guess this is the disadvantage having all transmitters on the same location, I assume for safety reasons, they need to shut ALL of them down, to work on one channel...

Incredible, that no one knows whats going on...& no PA ! Nice !

Its really annoying when you are in the middle of watching "Le MATCH" on TVA and then GONE !

I emailed them, no response so far...

[SuperJ2]

It is quite deplorable and unprofessional they way they do things here in Montreal concerning OTA...I wonder how many more weeks these shutdowns will continue??? Every night they cut you right off in the middle of a broadcast with no warnings and as usual our complaints fall on deaf ears!

[Jase88]

^^^
I'd say that's a harsh assessment.

The reality is that maintenance work is a necessary evil. And for the safety of workers, it's necessary to power down transmitters. Scheduling this work at midnight impacts the least amount of viewers.

[cm3020prob]

Radio-Canada/CBC could potentially turn on the transmitters located on the roof of the Maison de Radio-Canada as soon as it's turned off on the Mont-Royal, especially when there's a late night hockey game.

But...
1) it's just a few hours so it's not worth it
2) It can confuse tower workers, is the antenna still up or down?
3) As per Radio-Canada, OTA viewers are a tiny minority (or unexisting, which is why they'll turn off all remaining analog transmitters by July 31, 2012), and cable subscribers are not experiencing any service outage.

Neither TVA or CTV have setup a backup site... Unless CTV kept the facilities they used for CFCF-DT in pre-transition on UHF 51 and updated it to VHF.

[stampeder]

Only posts about the actual operational and technical status of stations are allowed. The effect of engineering decisions (as annoying as they may be) on OTA's popularity is definitely off topic here.

[schoenbe]

TV listings for CFTU have been added to the program guide of Microsoft's Windows Media Center. Now all Montreal stations are included in the program guide. Montreal viewers should choose country USA with ZIP code 12919 when setting up Windows Media Center's guide.

[Apple IIGS]

I've been using Rovi (built-in software on my Sony Bravia) for a program guide, and noticed CFTU 29.1's listings are just a duplicate of CFJP 30.1 on my TV. Been using my NDG postal code. Is the guide from the same source?

FYI: According to the Montreal Gazette, CJNT 62.1 was bought by Roger's and (pending CRTC approval) will switch to Citytv by the fall. As of next month expect to start seeing some Citytv content. Sounds good to me!

[alien0]

I've been using Rovi (built-in software on my Sony Bravia) for a program guide, and noticed CFTU 29.1's listings are just a duplicate of CFJP 30.1 on my TV. Been using my NDG postal code. Is the guide from the same source?

My Sony Bravia simply blanks out the entire TV guide when using my actual postal code. Been writing to Rovi for months to get them to fix it, but they aren't doing anything about it. I have been using US zipcode 05446 which fills out the TV Guide but for the US stations only. I am going to try switching it to the zipcode mentioned by Schoenbe to see if that adds montreal stations.

FYI: According to the Montreal Gazette, CJNT 62.1 was bought by Roger's and (pending CRTC approval) will switch to Citytv by the fall. As of next month expect to start seeing some Citytv content. Sounds good to me!

Wow, that's awesome! Citytv in Montreal? Can't wait. Metro 14 is mostly useless.

[Apple IIGS]

My Sony Bravia simply blanks out the entire TV guide when using my actual postal code.

Hmm, I find that happens intermittently. Sometimes the entire guide is blank, other times everything is there (yes, including all the local Montreal channels). I thought it had to do with a server connection going down since there's no pattern to it.

I tried using "12919" as my zip code, and US as location last night. Oddly it completely wiped out ALL my digital channels from memory (replacing them with a handful of analog channels), forcing me to do a channel rescan.

Here's a thought. Zap2it.com was missing several US and local channels when I put in my postal code years ago. I wrote them and they corrected it, but ONLY for my specific postal code. Maybe it's linked to the same database? Send me a personal message and I'll give you my postal code to try. Please tell me if that fixes your guide.

Wow, that's awesome! Citytv in Montreal? Can't wait. Metro 14 is mostly useless.

Agreed. The only thing Metro 14 is good for, is as an occasional re-broadcaster of ABC/WVNY-22--a lot of people have trouble picking up that station in Montreal. I don't, so I personally couldn't care less about the channel...it's almost as useless as CFTU.

I used to occasionally pick up CityTV on channel 65 once in a blue moon. It's far, far better than CBC, Global or CTV! I'll welcome it!