A year and a half after the DTV transition, and it still sucks

[vchimpanzee]

During bad weather last week, I got "No Signal" on the channel where I tape "The Simpsons". On another TV with a different converter box the coverage of the storms was wall-to-wall, although it was during the newscast. Hail was bad and there may have been possible tornadoes, though I don't recall any damage reports. Now the fact that I was seeing the weather coverage proves that at least the one station wasn't afffected.

The next day the "Simpsons" station was still out. The other stations' towers are nearby, though, and they were working. Actually, one was, based on one converter box, and the other was, based on my cable system still carrying one out-of-market signal.

I finally realized that what was happening was the same thing that frequently happened to my other converter box, but hasn't happened lately. A call to Magnavox about the other problem resulted in a Magnavox employee trying to blame the stations. All of them? No, not a chance. The person who answered the official DTV number (which no longer works) blamed Magnavox and said I should report them to the FTC.

But I accidentally discovered the solution was to turn off the converter box and turn it back on. Perfect signal!

 

[landtuna]

But I accidentally discovered the solution was to turn off the converter box and turn it back on.

Remember when PC's were given the advice "if it isn't working, first, reboot"?

Same advice for converter boxes.

Surprise! Surprise! ;D

 

[vchimpanzee]

But I accidentally discovered the solution was to turn off the converter box and turn it back on.

Remember when PC's were given the advice "if it isn't working, first, reboot"?

Same advice for converter boxes.

Surprise! Surprise! ;D

On a related note, I got up in the middle of the night and saw only two lights on my modem. The one that counts wasn't on. It's probably a good thing I look at the thing every time I pass it, because occasionally I can fix what goes wrong. I unplugged it and plugged it back in, and it kept turning itself on. I finally gave up. Fortunatley, my phone company refused to take responsibility for their problem and sent me a free replacement modem one time, and although they fixed a problem that was theirs, I still have the modem. It works! The activity light won't light but that's no big deal. Only that middle light, which blainks when the Internet goes out temporarily, has to be lit.

 

[Bud50]

What with LIN TV Communications cutting off 27 stations in 17 markets, or Dish Network blocking them, (depending on which side of the fence you're listening to the story) in a contact dispute (LIN is asking for a 175% increase in payment from Dish Network to air local signals), my local over-the-air LIN signal is in the dirt....I might get 10 minutes of pixels out of an hour, estimated.

I'll have to investigate an outside antenna for this...in some cases, us folks out in the boondocks are not getting a good signal, either, with commercially-made outside antennas. I guess I'll have to engineer a better antenna using my Amateur radio knowledge and the ARRL Antenna Handbook.

All this because of $$$- which, indeed, makes the world go 'round- but hurricane season awaits no man or his contract disputes and we here on the Gulf Coast NEED reliable news and weather info!

 

[landtuna]

Personally, I think dropping locals is GREAT for us OTA viewers. Obviously, this will mean some sat subscribers will get an antenna and an A:B switch to be able to watch the locals and then discover how inept a POS DTV is and maybe add to the increasing chorus of dissatisfied OTA viewers and get the damned system fixed!