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Cleveland TV topic

J

johnbasalla

I'm posting this here as I'd to know if others in the Northeastern Ohio area are experiencing the same thing.

I don't have cable TV or any other pay-TV services. I have indoor, rabbit ears antenna's going into digital converters that go into the old TVs. Over the past few weeks, I've experienced a lot of digital break up, both visually and with sound completely cutting out for a few seconds. I have a friend who expressed the same thing at his house. Any others experiencing this recently? Would a roof top antenna be a potential solution?
 
johnbasalla said:
I'm posting this here as I'd to know if others in the Northeastern Ohio area are experiencing the same thing.

I don't have cable TV or any other pay-TV services. I have indoor, rabbit ears antenna's going into digital converters that go into the old TVs. Over the past few weeks, I've experienced a lot of digital break up, both visually and with sound completely cutting out for a few seconds. I have a friend who expressed the same thing at his house. Any others experiencing this recently? Would a roof top antenna be a potential solution?
Click to expand...
No issues here where I'm at. How far are you from the Parma towers, and which stations are affected?

If your friend lives nearby, it's possible that there is some sort of electrical interference occurring in your area. An outdoor antenna may overcome this, but at the same time, it may receive more of that interference and make the situation worse.
 
snowdog88 said:
No issues here where I'm at. How far are you from the Parma towers, and which stations are affected?

If your friend lives nearby, it's possible that there is some sort of electrical interference occurring in your area. An outdoor antenna may overcome this, but at the same time, it may receive more of that interference and make the situation worse.
Click to expand...
I'm in the Berea- Brookpark-Middleburg Hts. area. My friend, who has experienced the same problem, lives further northwest.
I was thinking that, maybe, the digital converter boxes, which I got when the TV stations changed to the digital broadcasting technology, might be breaking down, although there's one that I have not used much at all. My brother wonders if it is an atmospheric thing.
 
johnbasalla said:
I was thinking that, maybe, the digital converter boxes, which I got when the TV stations changed to the digital broadcasting technology, might be breaking down, although there's one that I have not used much at all. My brother wonders if it is an atmospheric thing.
Click to expand...
Possible. A while back I was still using a Zenith converter box, and one day after it was on for about 30 minutes, reception on all stations became weak, and some were breaking up. After power-cycling it, reception returned to normal. Converter box was connected to an outdoor antenna.

The biggest problem with an indoor antenna is that in most cases they require constant adjusting. Reception for a certain station maybe fine for a couple of hours, but changes in the weather, atmosphere, etc. may alter reception to the point that the antenna will need to be adjusted again. Also, it is almost impossible to get solid reception across all stations at once without constant adjustment. An outdoor antenna will eliminate this issue for the most part.

Another thing to mention would be multipath issues from planes, seeing that you're close to Hopkins Airport.
 
snowdog88 said:
Another thing to mention would be multipath issues from planes, seeing that you're close to Hopkins Airport.
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That is certainly an issue I have. When planes are flying into the Akron Municipal airport [the one by the former Goodyear air dock] my signal breaks up no matter what station I am on.
 
John, It sounds like you have multiple TVs and converter boxes. Are you having the issues on all of them?

It might be a good idea to bite the bullet and purchase a new TV which would eliminate the need for a converter. And you would also get the full effect of the HD broadcasts.
 
skiwest said:
John, It sounds like you have multiple TVs and converter boxes. Are you having the issues on all of them?

It might be a good idea to bite the bullet and purchase a new TV which would eliminate the need for a converter. And you would also get the full effect of the HD broadcasts.
Click to expand...
Yes. Having issues with all of them. For the record, I never saw this much trouble with the analog broadcasts.

I don't want to buy a new TV. I can play videos just fine on it. If I get a new TV, I'll want to make sure that it will hook up to my system.
When my brother got a new TV and got cable TV, HE WAS LIED TO BY THE CABLE COMPANY. He told them what he had -- DVD/VCR -- and wanted to continue using that. The cable TV liars told him that would be doable. With me not having cable TV, he could record something at his home, bring it over, and play it at my house so I could enjoy it. After they got it all set up, then came the news that he could no longer use his DVD/VCR and had to record directly to, what I presume to be, a hard drive in his new system. Additionally, he couldn't, necessarily, keep things forever like you would with a DVD or videocassette.
 
Dtv reception problems are an active topic on the avs local tv forum and I say the same there: The entire dtv/repack transition has been a botch up and the FCC and the broadcasters don't care about the OTA viewer. Their bets are on streaming and the internet. And they do not want you to be able to record and save anything in fear of their copyrights.
 
I am having similar issues, and all my TV's are all newer (2022+). I have an amplified indoor antenna but I have noticed a degradation in signal recently. I especially have issues with 19 and its subchannels, with pixilation and the sound dropping for a second or two. I had hoped this would improve with their new transmitter, but if anything it has gotten worse.
 
Brian K said:
I am having similar issues, and all my TV's are all newer (2022+). I have an amplified indoor antenna but I have noticed a degradation in signal recently. I especially have issues with 19 and its subchannels, with pixilation and the sound dropping for a second or two. I had hoped this would improve with their new transmitter, but if anything it has gotten worse.
Click to expand...
I saw an improvement with WOIO's RF 10 on all my antennas when they lit up their new transmitter. However, within the last 3 months, it appears that they are back on their former transmitter. My outdoor antennas were all getting a constant 35-36 dB SNR, but that has now degraded to 31-32 dB, which was what I was getting with their old broadcast. Other people have noticed that WOIO appears to be weaker or at reduced power. Even WTCL-LD's reception is weaker as well. I have no problem with the other Cleveland stations.
 
snowdog88 said:
I saw an improvement with WOIO's RF 10 on all my antennas when they lit up their new transmitter. However, within the last 3 months, it appears that they are back on their former transmitter. My outdoor antennas were all getting a constant 35-36 dB SNR, but that has now degraded to 31-32 dB, which was what I was getting with their old broadcast. Other people have noticed that WOIO appears to be weaker or at reduced power. Even WTCL-LD's reception is weaker as well. I have no problem with the other Cleveland stations.
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If I recall correctly, the new 19/35/43 transmitter came online late July. That's when the signal started degrading, it got worse instead of better. Channel 8 is always a crapshoot, usually bad.
 
radiofollower said:
Indoor antennas do not work well with the new digital channels. You need an outdoor antenna with a good antenna amplifier.
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He's only several miles away from the broadcast towers in Parma. An amp will cause even more problems as it will take an already strong signal and overload it, creating a weak/no signal situation.
 
radiofollower said:
Indoor antennas do not work well with the new digital channels. You need an outdoor antenna with a good antenna amplifier.
Click to expand...
I suppose it depends on location. I am in south Parma (State & Sprague) not far from all the towers and have had no problem with indoor rabbit ears antenna. Maybe occasional issues with 17/23 from Akron under certain conditions, but I rarely watch anything on those channels.
 
snowdog88 said:
He's only several miles away from the broadcast towers in Parma. An amp will cause even more problems as it will take an already strong signal and overload it, creating a weak/no signal situation.
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Digital TV reception, even near the towers, can vary greatly. If an indoor antenna is inadequate, you need an outdoor antenna. As far as an amp goes, try it and see what happens. If it cuts up locals stations, you may want to only switch it on when trying to get stations further away.
 
radiofollower said:
Digital TV reception, even near the towers, can vary greatly. If an indoor antenna is inadequate, you need an outdoor antenna. As far as an amp goes, try it and see what happens. If it cuts up locals stations, you may want to only switch it on when trying to get stations further away.
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I never had any luck with amps. At ~18 miles from the towers, amps either degrade my reception to the point that the station breaks up, or have no effect, both with indoor and outdoor antennas.

One of my DVRs, a RCA DTA-880, had an internal amp built in, but had no option in the menu to turn it off. All the full power stations pegged the signal meter at 100%, and at times, stations would break up from overload. The built in amp seemed to have no effect on the weaker stations.

Also, amps have the tendency to amplify interference as well, further causing problems.

Distribution amps, however, are useful to make up for signal loss in the cabling caused by long cable runs or when splitting to other devices. This can be anywhere from a 3 to 5 dB signal loss, and the distribution amp is designed to make up that amount. While this usually doesn't affect strong signals, it can be critical for weaker stations that are on the edge of decoding.
 


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