Help with converter installation
June 5th, 2009 at 2:04 pm by Dennis Majewicz under TV Tech Talk
Just a reminder that if you are experiencing difficulty with your converter setup, you can get help locally. Free help is available for basic converter installation. That is a converter with an indoor antenna. For help with outside antennas, premium help is also available for an extra charge.
For help, call 1-800-582-4250.
I do NOT understand why the media seems to want to NOT readily publish digital TV channels!!! They keep on telling us to “perform a scan.” Well, what if the antenna needs to be adjusted, and you just want to manually punch in the digital channel number, and then adjust the antenna???!!! The TV stations, the Buffalo News, and others are all guilty of this incredible lunacy.
For crying out loud, just give us the digial channel numbers. AND, give us ALL of them; i.e., if there’s a XX.1 and a XX.2, let us know what the differences are… is XX.2 a lower resolution, or maybe an alternate program??? Just let us know!!! We’re not idiots!!!
Thanks for listening!!!
Brian,
I can tell you what I know about the current Buffalo lineup.
WGRZ: 2-1 is main program channel. NBC and local.
2-2 is Universal Sports
WIVB: 4-1 is main program channel. CBS and local.
WKBW: 7-1 is main program channel. ABC and local.
WNED: 17-1 is main program channel. PBS and local.
17-2 is SD version of main channel.
17-3 is Think Bright. Educational/Informational.
WNLO: 23-1 is main program channel. C-W and local.
WNYB: 26-1 is SD version of main channel.
26-2 is main program channel. TCT.
WUTV: 29-1 is main program channel. Fox and local.
29-2 is SD version of main channel.
WNYO: 49-1 is main program channel. MyTV and local.
49-2 is SD version of main channel.
WPXJ: 51-1 is main program channel. Ion TV. (Note: starts Friday morning, 6/12/09.)
This may not be complete, only to the best of my knowledge. In most cases the main channel is HD (except for 26-1).
For more information, including Canadian digital channels, go to this website:
http://www.remotecentral.com/hdtv/.
Another web site that will give you actual frequencies and available sub-channels is http://www.rabbitears.info. Click on listings at the top of the page and then at the next page type WIVB, and it will bring up all the stations in the Buffalo market. Click on the right corner where it says expand all and you will see all the information on frequencies and sub-channels, or just click on the individual station.
It has been my experience with some converter boxes, that you have to tune to the real RF channel and then add the the station in the menu. One very popular converter box sold in Wal*Mart and Kmart only works that way. You can only get away with an updated scan, if you live with your antenna fix in a direction, because every time you scan with that converter box it will overwrite the previous scan, so if you have a rotor, you need to know the real frequency and add it by doing the above. However every converter box is somewhat different, some will allow you to update the scan. One box I have, you have to bring up the antenna level and then with that up, tune to the real frequency with up and down key and then when it picks up the station it will add it to the channel list and keep it.
Thanks for the information.
BUT… my point is that TV listings, such as the Buffalo News TV Topics for one, seem to totally ignore the digital channels. Why do I have to go on-line to get such BASIC info? Aren’t my concerns and questions the same that most all TV views have? As I have stated in my previous post, it just seems that the digital channels numbers are being ignored by the media. When do you ever see a TV station display their digital channel number (and not just some totally useless “XXXX-DT” designation)? Here we are just days away for the digital conversion, and the digital channel numbers are still a mystery to 99.97% of all TV viewers!!!
AND… I’m confused… my TV displays a decimal point (”.”) not a dash (”-”) to indicate a digital channel. So, which is it… 4.1 or 4-1? The dash seems quite confusing, to me. Again, my point, mass confusion reigns concerning absolutely basic info that, by now, every TV viewer should have down pat.
ALSO… what’s up with those low-resolution channels (often X.2)? What is the purpose of those? Are they easier to get with a low-cost antenna? Or, if there’s frequent data loss, do they offer more stable reception? I don’t understand the need.
FINALLY… we have Time Warner digital cable on one of our HD TVs, but not the other. So, we have a basic cable hook-up on that 2nd HD TV. Guess what, that 2nd HD TV gets many HD channels (e.g., 1.1 is digital 2, and more listed below). Yet, whenever I ask someone at TW about this, they have absolutely no idea that these are even available. I tried over and over to get them to understand this concept, yet they are totally lost. If the cable companies don’t even know when they have HD digital channels being carried over their basic cable, then isn’t the whole digital conversion process an absolute mess?
Thanks for listening!!!
PS, Time Warner HD channels over basic cable are listed below, just in case no one believes me (it’s not a complete list).
1.1: WGRZ-DT (ch-2/TWcable-2)
1.2: WIVB-DT (ch-4/TWcable-4)
1.3: WKBW-DT (ch-7/TWcable-7)
89.1: WNED-DT (ch-17/TWcable-3)
106.1: WUTV-DT (ch-29/TWcable-6)
106.2: WNLO-DT (ch-49/TWcable-8)
107.6: CFTO-DT (ch-9/TWcable-15)
107.8: CBLT-DT (ch-5/TWcable-17)
111.4: WNLO-DT (ch-23/TWcable-16)
http://www.remotecentral.com/hdtv/
Great web site… BUT…
What in the world do they mean by “actual” and “virtual” channel numbers here? People shouldn’t have to look up non-obvious terminology.
Talk about making something that’s already confusing even more so!!! This only reinforces my point about the entire digital process being confusing, and no one seemingly wanting to make it less so to THE AVERAGE TV VIEWER!!! (AVERAGE!!!)
I mean… if a GEEK/NERD like me gets all confused by this digital conversion, then what do the other 99.97% of the population (i.e., the non-geek/nerd percentage) do to try to understand this mess?
Thanks for listening!!!
(Brian Szafranski of Elma, NY says: isn’t the whole digital conversion process an absolute mess? )
Yes it is very confusing. But if you get past the confusing aspect of the digital conversion, and they are too many to list. From the standpoint of watching TV with and over the air antenna, at a good 50 miles from the transmitter, it is indeed a 100 percent improvement in picture quality. Also when you consider most viewers of the local stations including WIVB, are watching over cable or satellite, I very impress and grateful that the local Buffalo Stations are putting forth the effort to continue to service viewers who watch their signal over the air. If you are watching TV via an antenna, the digital conversion is a great improvement, even though it is confusing in many ways.
Brian,
You probably should take up the TV listings question with the newspaper as we don’t control what they print.
The digital channel number is really unimportant to the operation of your set (or converter). By law we are allowed to continue to use our legacy call sign to maintain the familiarity for our viewers. A lot of people don’t even know our call letters, just know us as Channel 4. To keep that relationship we identify as WIVB-TV, Channel 4-1 or 4.1 (both mean the same) not 39-1.
Regarding the multicast channels XX-1, XX-2, etc, they are secondary, value-added services that have what you might call bonus programming. They are generally lower quality streams, usually standard definition, to conserve available bandwidth. Since they are part of the whole transmitted stream, you still need a good antenna to receive them.
The channel numbering scheme you are seeing with the cable company is completely separate from what we provide. These channels are unencrypted and can be detected by using the QAM tuner in your set. The channel numbers are what they choose to use.
Actual channels are the assigned channels for the TV station’s digital transmitter. In our case it’s UHF channel 39 for WIVB and channel 32 for WNLO. The virtual channel is just a label that the TV or converter maps in memory. Our virtual channels are 4-1 and 23-1 (or 4.1 and 23.1 if you prefer).
Thanks for the kind words, Warren.
At best this has been an education process for all of us. You wouldn’t believe the hoops we have to jump through at our end to make sure it works. Analog was easier for all of us but the future of enhanced television with digital transmission is bright and will be worth the effort we put into it now (from our end and the viewer’s). And Brian will find it becomes second nature to navigate through all that is available over the air.
Thanks for all your comments and help. BUT… just to get my basic point across one last time…
It’s not me that I’m concerned about with respect to the digital conversion mess. My concerns (call it simple empathy) are for all the non-geeks out there who, to me, aren’t getting the basic info they need from the places that they should get it from.
Does that make sense?
Good luck to WIVB. I hope that this conversion will help all the TV stations cut costs by concentrating on just their digital transmission(s). Then, maybe… just maybe… they can start to say no to all the goofy ads featuring nasal, homely lawyers… all of whom seem to think that they have to appear in ads for their firm. [Side note: everytime I see Mattar's ads I think of Rain Man... don't ask me why... just picture Rain Man swaying back and forth like he does saying over and over: "Call William Mattar, William Mattar, William Mattarrrrrr." Spooky, huh?]
Happy trails.
Thanks, Brian, for caring about us non(semi)-geeks.
I have a cable connection in my home and no problems there. However, I have a camper with what I believe to be a VHF antenna.? I purchased a converter box and I am only able to receive UHF (WUTV, WNLO, WNYB, etc). If I manually add channel 4(WIVB)the actual number 4 on the converter, I am able to receive it using rabbit ears. But, holy cow, the tuning of the rabbit ears is ultra sensitive.
After reading the previous reply from Dennis Majewicz, should I be adding WIVB to channel 39 on my converter box? If so, what the heck are the other UHF stations for WGRZ, WKBW, CBC, etc.
I’M SO CONFUSED!!