No Digital Channel Reception?

[bobo17]

Hi
I live in Kanata, Ontario Canada (just outside Ottawa).

I have just hooked up a wire to my TV (LG model # 37LG30), its about ~ 3 years old.

Question I can receive the analog channels that I am suppose to for my area (some are fuzzy but they are there - I will get a better antenna / experiment soon), but I cannot receive the "digital" channels that I am suppose to.

ie. analog channel CBOT, 62.9 NM(dB), PWR -15.9 dBm BUT,
for the digital channel CBOT, 57.1 NM(dB), PWR -33.7 dBm

Not sure why the pwr is so different as they are coming from the same tx'er 14.5 miles away?

Question: Should I have to do something different to receive the digital channels? The digital channels are completely "ghosted" with no hint of signal. I thought since my TV was a relatively new one and HDTV capable the tuner would automatically receive digital signals?

thanks
bobo

[canant]

I suggest you post this question, with more detail (e.g. a link to your TV Fool Signal Analysis Results and your antenna type) to the Digital Home Over-the-Air forum.

Here's the link:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=129

People on that forum are from your area and can tell you if you have an appropriate antenna for the channel frequency that will be used to broadcast that station over-the-air in digital.

In addition to having an appropriate antenna, you need to verify that your TV has an ATSC (ie digital) tuner and you have to autoprogram the TV.

[bobo17]

thanks
I am just "getting" into over the air, standard TV broadcasting so I thought I would start here.

bobo

[mtownsend]

This thread has been moved to the proper area within the forums. You're more likely to get good feedback here.

[mtownsend]

I have just hooked up a wire to my TV (LG model # 37LG30), its about ~ 3 years old.

Question I can receive the analog channels that I am suppose to for my area (some are fuzzy but they are there - I will get a better antenna / experiment soon), but I cannot receive the "digital" channels that I am suppose to.

Yes, your TV is capable of receiving digital TV broadcasts (ATSC signals). Just be sure your TV is set to "air" or "antenna" mode rather than "cable" mode since this controls how the TV scans for signals.


ie. analog channel CBOT, 62.9 NM(dB), PWR -15.9 dBm BUT,
for the digital channel CBOT, 57.1 NM(dB), PWR -33.7 dBm

Not sure why the pwr is so different as they are coming from the same tx'er 14.5 miles away?

Power is less important than the Noise Margin (NM) numbers. The digital signal format is completely different than analog, and needs far less power to achieve the same range. Knowing the signal power is only important if you have very strong local signals and need to worry about overloading an amp or tuner.



Question: Should I have to do something different to receive the digital channels? The digital channels are completely "ghosted" with no hint of signal. I thought since my TV was a relatively new one and HDTV capable the tuner would automatically receive digital signals?

I don't know if your TV needs to be told to use "antenna" mode instead of "cable" mode for tuning. Some TVs do not make that determination automatically. Your TV does include an ATSC tuner, so that means it can receive over-the-air digital station.

Do you have an amplified antenna? If CBOT is coming in at -15.9 dBm, that is a very strong signal and will likely overload any kind of signal amplifier (built-in to an antenna or stand-alone). When you have very strong signals like this, you can't have any kind of amps in the signal path.



BTW, the Canadian analog shutdown is scheduled for completion on August 31st. Most of your analog broadcasts should go away, and a few of your digital channels may be switching their channels around. When that happens, you probably need to have your TV re-scan all the channels to get all the changes.



If you post a link to your signal report (should look something like "http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"), we can get a better understanding of what kinds of signals you are dealing with.

[John Candle]

As the other question askers do , Do This --> http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=4 , make a tvfool radar report like the other question askers do.

[bobo17]

here is a link to my TV FOOLs report:

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d3e47a2db134680

I am interested in receiving only local digital signals and would greatly like to receive ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX, in the states, but not sure this is possible.

I am planing on putting an outside antenna on my second story house , so it will be about 25 feet off the ground. Hopefully stationary, but I am not adverse to putting a rotor up if necessary.

I will be looking for recommendations from members on antennas and preamp's once I get myself up to speed.

thanks
bobo

[John Candle]

The default antenna height is 10 feet. To get accurate information about reception of the American stations , will need a radar report with the antenna height at the height of a two story house , 25 feet.

[John Candle]

A rotor will be needed , OR , a 2 antenna set up. The situation with a rotor is that if more then one Tv is connected then who ever has control of the remote control rotor clicker has control of where the antenna is pointed. If more then one Tv is connected or more then one person is watching Tv or Tv's then this can lead to disagrements. A 2 antenna set up is better because 2 separate coax cables can be run to each Tv and a remote control A/B switch at each Tv then the person at each Tv can watch what ever they want. We need to know how many Tv's will be connected and we need a tvfool radar report with the antenna at 25 feet.

[Dave Loudin]

Please note that there are differences in law with regards to external antennas in Canada [in comparison to the US].

[John Candle]

Here is information about Canada Digital and Analog Tv , http://www.user.dccnet.com/jonleblanc?Canada_TV_Stations , http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/117022 , http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/105462 , http://www.saveandreplay.com , http://www.trentondistributors.com , http://www.friends.ca , http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/home-accueil.htm , http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum

[John Candle]

Need that tvfool radar report with the antenna height of 25.