BC - City of Vancouver, North Van, West Van - OTA

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by blakew

Do you think you can get a db of 17 or greater with your silver sensor on the 2nd floor running a cable to the first floor (by any means nessesary)? Maybe bring your BRAVIA upstairs to try it out (I know, it ain't light I have the same tv)?

Keep in mind that cable line loss is very predictable according to its length, so moving an actual TV can be avoided by using amplification or attenuation in the antenna line, as the case may be. Don't hurt your back!

[VBC1]

Hello Everybody!

After a long time of visiting and reading these forums, I am finally able to join them as a new member.
I live downtown and I recently got myself the ATI HDTV Wonder PC card (the cheapest way to get HDTV, as I am not into buying a big HD set yet, and even if I do, I am not willing to become Shaw's slave with having to buy 1000$ worth of hardware alone to get HD channels).
I had many problems with this tuner card, and no video on CBC, but I finally got that resolved. I spent a lot of time configuring it and playing with it to try to get as much as possible out of it.
As I said, I live downtown, in an apartment building, on the 9th floor facing north-west.
These are my findings for digital channels:

- CBUT-DT "Vancouver HD" ch. 58-1 (2-1) 59%
- KBCB-DT "KBCB-1" ch. 19-1 (24-1) 57%

- CIVT-DT ---- absolutely no signal! ch. 33-1 0%

The signal on CBC is very good, I keep the small 20 cm. ATI antenna on the balcony pointed north-east (I have a clear full view of Grouse Mnt in that direction, Seymour is obstructed though), no dropouts.
For CTV, whatever I do with antenna, there is absolutely no signal!

[Michael DeAbreu]

I'm surprised you are getting any stable pictures with those signal strengths. Recently, CIVT has dropped to below 60% on my ATI HDTV and it is unwatchable with all the drop-outs as was KBCB beforehand. (see my previous post) So I'm not surprised you aren't getting CIVT.

[markjanzen]

i just received my silver sensor antenna and hooked it up just to my tv tuner since my hd ota tuner is still in the mail...i get ctv very clearly and also cbc fairly clearly...does this mean that the hd versions will come in at my location?

[blakew]

Originally Posted by markjanzen

i just received my silver sensor antenna and hooked it up just to my tv tuner since my hd ota tuner is still in the mail...i get ctv very clearly and also cbc fairly clearly...does this mean that the hd versions will come in at my location?

If you can get CBC analog on your silver sensor you must have a prime spot. I have line of sight, and my CBC analog is unwatchable. You'll get CBC-DT no problem, but all bets are off for CTV-DT, their power is lower than it used to be. Again, I have line of sight and I'm only pulling it in at 76%.

[markjanzen]

my french analog cbc is very clear along with a channel, ctv and (m channel is weak)...ill post my digital results when i get the ota box...
right now the antenna is just on top of the tv pointed at seymour (going through 1 wall and one window)...

whats the lowest percent to make the digital channel 'watchable' ? 60%?

btw i am near hastings and nanaimo in the main floor of a older house with a fairly clear view of seymour

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by markjanzen

whats the lowest percent to make the digital channel 'watchable' ? 60%?

The analogue signals are subject to multipath distortion and so the garble you might see on the screen is because of that. Digital OTA also suffers from multipath, but it is an all or nothing proposition - either the tuner can make sense of the signal and therefore presents it crystal clear, or else it does not present it at all even if the signal strength seem high. Regarding percentages or signal strength values, unless you are using professionally calibrated gear it is not really meaningful to compare such numbers with others since one brand of HDTV might use a different scale than another. If you find someone who has the same type of tuner as you then you can compare numbers.

[markjanzen]

ok i finally got my STB and set it all up. its the hughes e8 and silver sensor combo and im in east van near hastings and nanaimo. i have a fairly clear line of sign to seymour.

i get 100% cbc hd and ~79 for ctv hd. there are some dropouts with ctv but it is pretty watchable (although have not seen much hd material to test with ctv yet). the picture is very good compared to some of the compressed shaw hd signals although cbc hd and ctv hd are not compressed with shaw.

im wondering why are there duplicates with the OTA HD channels? and is there any date for global hd to launch in gvr?

[blakew]

Originally Posted by markjanzen

although cbc hd and ctv hd are not compressed with shaw.

Are you sure? 'cause I've been to London Drugs, and Futureshop, and seen Shaw HD there, and their CBC-HD and CTV-HD offerings don't have anything on OTA. It's like watching HD with beer goggles, it's just not as sharp.

After emailed someone at KOMO, I learned of how Shaw receives their KOMO-DT signal. They pick it up out of the air on Saltspring Island. I guess Shaw knows how to best get a feed (other than using fiber), but they don't want their customers to know about OTA. How ironic

[cohoho]

I am in a ground floor condo on the west side of Vancouver with no line of site to Seymour. After several months of poor reception (lots of dropouts on CBC-HD and no signal on CTV-HD) I elevated my Silver Sensor about six inches and got decent reception again (CBC-HD is perfect and CTV-HD has occasional dropouts but is more watchable than ever). This is great but I am wondering what has changed that necessitated repositioning of my antenna to restore my reception quality. Could this be the result of high-rise construction in downtown Vancouver that has caused changes in the reflections or multi-path signals? If so, I suppose that I'll probably need to make more adjustments in the future so I'm glad my antenna isn't permanently mounted.

[stampeder]

Wow, that is really fine-grained interference you've been having, and it is a good example of some of the problems with indoor antennas if you live near the ground floor. You might need to take your antenna for a walk around your place again for a new sweet spot!

[patchesninja]

I live in Vancouver near, Victoria & Kingsway.

I have a Terk/Winegard HDTVs/Squareshooter directional antenna pointed at Mt. Seymour from my Rooftop.

I receive the following channels crystal clear in NTSC:

2 CBC
17 A Channel
26 CBC French
32 CTV
44 M Channel

I receive a few others such as Global and City, but to me there un-watchable to fuzzy, and I've given up trying to tune them. I did get Global clear when I turned the antenna directly to Global in Burnaby, but lost all other channels. Global does transmit from Mt. Seymoour as well, but can't get clear picture.

Its a sacrifice I'm willing to make, unless anyone has any other ideas?


On my ATSC Tuner I receive in Digital HD:

2 CBC HD at a signal strength best I can is 80.
32 CITV (CTV HD) at a signal strength of 74.

To date I believe that's all that is offered in digital.

Cheers,

Roger

[zivan56]

I just got an Air2PC card and a directional amplified antenna from ebay
Near cambie and 16th facing toward Seymour

With amplifier enabled:
CBUT-DT 90-100%
CIVT-DT 54-60%
without:
CBUT-DT 70%
CIVT-DT no signal

[stampeder]

I just had a look at that antenna on the ebay listing, zivan56, and it appears to be a Zenith Silver Sensor clone judging from its general shape and the performance you are getting. When you turn on the amplifier, is CIVT-DT steady and clean?

Here's a photo of the included antenna:

[zivan56]

stampeder, yes, its coming in quite clear when they actually have HD content. I was just enjoying some real HD content a few hours ago on it (although the signal is hovering around 56%). CBUT-DT is way better in terms of quality though. None of them have any stuttering problems or anything related to missed frames (at least from what I can see)
Here are some samples: link. Not sure if CTV news is in HD, but its looks quite horrible compared to other shows.