Thursday, February 19, 2009

DTV Reception Problems??

The most common DTV reception problem is folks did not rescan their digital televisions or converter-boxes. Rescanning was necessary to capture the changes we made to our signal. WWNY also learned that it is good practice to delete any reference to channel 7 before rescanning. Generally speaking both add/delete and scanning (auto-program, scan for channels etc) is found in the setup menu of the TV set or converter-box. For info on re-scanning click here or to watch a video click here.

The second most common problem is anntennas. Theoretically if you received our old (analog) signal well your antenna should work for DTV. WWNY has found that is not always the case...we suspect its because "well" is a subjective thing...in actuality if the signal was only OK the box or TV set may not "lock-up" and display the new DTV programming. An outdoor antenna is always the best choice. Most indoor antennas (esspecially those marked as DTV or HDTV) are better suited for reception close to stations and for stations who broadcast on a UHF frequency. WWNY now broadcasts digitally on a VHF frequency. Why our switch from a UHF frequency to VHF??? VHF signals are less affected by the terrain, weather and travel further distances...however the antenna has to be well suited for VHF reception to capitilize on these improvements. Orientation towards the station is also critical. After making any antenna adjustments you should rescan. For info on antennas and their orientation towards the station visit www.antennaweb.org.

Many folks have told us we got your "old" DTV signal and now do not receive your new & improved DTV signal...what gives? Its likely an antenna issue. Try reorientation, rescanning, and unfortunately you may be faced with an antenna upgrade.

We are tracking reception complaints and trying to determine if there are any problem areas. Please contact us if you have taken the above steps and still have issues. Our new DTV signal is full-power, in fact, we actually were permitted to boost the power over what was originally assign to us. It has an omni-direction pattern (as opposed to the old DTV directional pattern) and its antenna is mounted at the top of our tower (as opposed to the side-mount the old DTV signal had.) We have spent a considerable amount of money on equipment to best serve our vast geographic area...we are here to assist you so you can enjoy our programming. If you have issues you can contact us at 315-788-3800 or at wwny@wwnytv.net.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

For sites like antennaweb, one should use latitude and longitude to enter Canadian locations, ie: Kingston is (44.24°N, 76.5°W)

TVfool is another similar site and seems to give more reasonable results - antennaweb is usually a wee bit pessimistic. http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=80&q=call%3dWWNY gives an overview of the entire WWNY coverage, with the blues and violets representing weak signals which will require an outdoor antenna to get anything. That site predicts that a huge antenna should be able to receive the station in or a little beyond Potsdam, but nothing beyond that.

Anonymous said...

Well I dont know about everyone else in this economy but I dont have a few hundred dollars to go out and spend on an antenna and then I have to pay someone to put it up on my house. I dont have much money to spend on "upgrades" to my television all for a better picture? I am sorry but television is supposed to be entertainment why does the picture need to be crystal clear? They VHF is better in weather but so far if the wind is blowing here I lose most of my DTV stations and end up missing half of the program. i never had that problem with analog tv, it may have been snowy but at least I could see and hear what was taking place.

I am just going to give up watching television because most of my favorite programs are on wwny and I hate to give them up but this is what it has come to.

W said...

The FCC/Industry Canada Letter of Understanding lists WWNY-DT's maximum ERP at 42 kW, omnidirectional. Does this means that you would be able to apply for a further increase in power?

Jim Corbin said...

WWNY might be able to apply for an increase, however we've been told the FCC won't even consider such a request until after 6/12/09.

Anonymous said...

Are you reaching Long Lake NY? The cable system used to carry WWNY. Also..are the DWS systems in Star Lake, Cranberry Lake, and Piercefield still able to carry WWNY?

Jim Corbin said...

Charter Cable in Long lake reported no problems receiving WWNY's DTV signal 2/18. Same for the DWS systems. We had contacted them regarding the changes and from what I've heard the switch went well for them.

Anonymous said...

How about asking WWNY to start

WWNY-DT3 7.3 NBC service...

Jim Corbin said...

You never know WWNY/WNYF might investigate adding a subchannel for another programming channel. There are ownership issues, equipment issues, programming rights etc that would have to be worked out...and in this tough economy the station would need to feel confident there'd be a return on any investment. Also, there's a bandwidth issue. Realistically a station can only really manage 1 HDTV channel and 1 SD channel, unless the material is essentially static and doesn't require much of a bit-rate.

Anonymous said...

They would essentially replace the majority of the North Countries NBC service up to Malone.