Question to Ontario guys: is anybody getting reliable City TV signal?I've had "flakey" problem for at least a month.Specific thing is: picture comes in partially and sound is skipping.It won't change no matter what.Moving of antenna changes nothing.Though seems like there's no signal jump and signal is high enough most of the time.Also, should note that other CN Tower channels are just fine.I doubt it's "fringe" related this time.
Asking because few posters above, including Daniel, have mentioned same thing.

No problems here. The signal is consistent. I am using a home made cm 4221 clone too.
I am about 25 miles north east from the CN Tower.

rob2687, thank you.At least now i know that it's, probably, too much of various "ghosting" that comes from few directions.

In response to DJG and CITY-TV; The last time I checked, I couldn't lock onto their signal. Tonight, however, the signal (in St. Catharines) was 64%--relatively high compared to what I was getting before. The odd line showing up here and there because of such a weak signal, but the sound wasn't off.

I doubt they will ever up their signal south of Lake Ontario.

I think I asked this once before, but is there anyone picking up signals the way I am with an antenna and tower either in Buffalo, or Toronto or vicinity? Just wondering what your reception, from ascross the lake is like?

Keaster

I just found this group and being new to OTA HDTV reception I have a couple of questions which are probably easily answered by the experts. I'm using my LG big screen for local reception and I live in Caledon (NW of Toronto). I've got my antenna temporarily installed at the eaves level and I'm getting good reception of the Buffalo stations. Channel 2 HDTV is a little spotty and pixelated but I suspect this will improve when I raise my antenna and install my preamplifier. My first question is about audio soundtrack. I find that I have to keep changing it through the channels to pick up the right audio. This is very annoying so I'm wondering if there's a way to programme each channel with the appropriate "English 1", or whatever the option is for the channel in question. The owners manual is a little light on some features. Some like the one to show the mode, channel, start and end time aren't even in the manual. I found them by accident. Which brings me to my next question. Some people cite a % reception for their HDTV. I don't see any function on the TV which gives me signal strength. Are you folks just guesstimating your performance here or do other ATSC tuners provide this kind of information?

Cheers!
DJ

Hey donnyjaguar;

I can help you with one thing: The signal percentage I get is through my Bell ExpressVu HD receiver. Since my TV doesn't have an built in tuner, my dish AND antenna are connected to the satellite receier. Both satellite and off-air channels come up in the guide. Unfortunately, for the local ota channels it either only says "Local Programming" or "Local Digital" The percentage I'm talking about is the signal strength the receiver is telling me I'm pulling in from these ota channels.

I'm pretty sure you'll see improvements when you raise your antenna up, and welcome to the forum!

keaster2000

Hey DJG,

I am having the same issue as you. I'm in Mississauga in the 403 Winston Churchill area. Sometimes it scans, other times it doesn't. I'm using an ATI TV Wonder 650, so I don't have any quality information. It could be the direction of my antenna in the attic, because I don't go up and move it. CITY is coming in fine now, but I'm missing FOX (again).

Paul

CTS remaps from 35-1 to 36-1 with no problem on my old T-151. Has 3 bars just like Fox. EPG data just says 'Event' so hopefully they can get that fixed.

I decided I am going to go to Bestbuy or Circuit City across the boarder this week and get a new ATSC reciever, upgrade from my 1st generation chip to the 5th generation in an attempt to fix the odd glitch I get due to having an older reciever...

Okay, good info on the Bell box, I didn't know it offers that option.

Since my last post I've discovered that if you go to Setup=>channels=>manual on the LG HDTV you can enter the DTV channel number and it gives you a signal strength. This is marked as Bad-Normal-Good. I've found that once you get about midway between Bad-Normal the picture starts to suffer. This is the case with Channel 2 Bufalo much of the time. There's one last HDTV station in Buffalo I can't get as the signal is only just above Bad. Once again, I suspect this will improve once I get the tower up and the preamp installed. I'm going to try to shoot for the Rochester stations too. There are 5 down there on HDTV all on the same hill so fingers crossed.

I wrote LG but the response was from some loser directing me to a service centre. I wrote back and asked for the spec's on the ATSC tuner inside the set. I shouldn't have to go to a service centre whom I've never dealt with to get this information. This is standard stuff! Next they'll want me to sign a non disclosure agreement to view it. LOL.

If you're getting WUTV from the attic you are doing very well!

As an aside, I'm thoroughly delighted with this TV set. Its exceeded my expectations on all fronts. My only beef is a second 75Ω antenna input would've been very nice.

DJ

Question regarding Buffalo HD station reception from the Toronto Beaches area. I just got back from the US and noticed that I have lost all signals to NBC 33.1, CBS 39.1, ABC 38.1, Fox 14.1 and PBS 43.1, Strangely I still get the CW 32.1 crystal clear. Has anyone else lost any channels recently?

If you've been gone for a few weeks, check your antenna's orientation outside... we had some rather strong winds.

CW is a very strong, close signal compared to all of the others, so it's easier to get even off-angle.

All is good in Caledon. Still having problems bagging WGRZ regularly, but I can see the low-level signal there. Once again, should improve once I upgrade antenna.

thanks for the advice. Hopefully I can safely get on my roof sometime soon to readjust the antenna.

I have tried to read through a lot of this thread, and also tried a search for reception in my area.

I am about to replace my old Big screen, with a plasma. I'm in Burlington, actually a few streets away from another poster I saw in the last 20 or so posts.

From the bits and pieces I have picked up is seems a lot of people us the CM4221 antenna with pretty good results. I have a small tower that will get me above the roof lines.

Just wondering, to receive both Toronto and Buffalo HD signals should I be looking at installing 2 4221's and aiming them in each direction? If so is it just as simple as putting both into a splitter / coupler then feeding to the new TV tuner?

Is there an amplifier that I should be looking at adding too?

Or do I pop one 4221 and see what I get, I might get lucky.

Here is the issue with 2 lines. You have to make sure they are measured EXACTLY the same length to avoid multipaths at different speeds. For example, lets say CM 4221 #1 gets CBC and has a 20 foot line, and CM 4221 #2 also gets a CBC signal but has a 12 foot line. This will cause the reciever to pixilate and probably just not work, becuase of the timing of reciving the digital signal. Yammon over at DHC had this setup for a while as he was doing a Buffalo and Toronto only point (then a Rochester/Toronto-Buffalo only point, until he said he doesn't really recommend it, lol).

In regards to an amp, that is a hit and miss thing. I am over in Thornhill and don't have an amp because I get better results on my external Samsung T-151 than when the amp was in line. I went to Buffalo yesterday and picked up the new external Samsung DTB-H260F (the reciever after the T-451, so the 551 I guess). I will post results later today or tomorrow when I have a chance to actually test it out. It is possible the amp may or may not be needed with this reciever over the older one. Every area is different. I could be next door to you and the slightest change in geography could be the cause for an issue.