CBS-HD?!?!??

[Slimbo1977]

Anyone else having problems getting CBS in HD tonight? Trying to watch Cold Case tonight and nothing. My signal strength is way down, 20-30%. I have never had a problem before. I rescanned for myu locals but that did not correct the problem. Any suggestions!?!? Or are they screwing around with the equipment again. I live in the Brandon/Valrico area.

Thanks

[FTBoomerIII]

I just turned on "Spring Break-Shark Attack" just for the eye candy......HD I mean and the pic is fine.


EDIT** Opps! I didn't notice the category this was in, I'm on BHN, sorry.

[Floyd]

I had trouble with CBS Saturday night, but then it was OK tonight until about 10:15, in the middle of the Shark attack movie, it started with the dropouts. The signal meter is at 100%, but then the picture drops and the meter says 0%(searching for signal). I'm wondering if it is a PSIP thing or what. I switched to the analog feed and there is no ghost, so I don't think it's a multipath problem. I have a Samsung T-160, and this is a recurring problem for me.
Who is it on this forum that also has the T-160?

[Slimbo1977]

What's going on? Once again i have lost CBS HD. I have had nothing but good luck with CBS but untill the past few weeks i have had no signal. The signla meter moves all over the place 0%-40%. I have tried rescanning but nothing seems to work. Anyone else experiencing this or have found a solution. Please help.

Thanks

[ThomasSampson]

My signal kept dropping during Joan of Arcadia last night, very annoying!

[Floyd]

I also got dropouts during Joan of Arcadia.
My screen is now showing "loss of signal input" during the brief dropouts, which it never did before. When I first saw it I thought that it was a dropout of the network/affiliate feed, then after it kept showing up I thought that maybe DirecTV sent out a firmware update for my Samsung T-160, but there isn't one listed in the upgrade history.

[Slimbo1977]

Well, i would have rather have intermediate dropouts, compared to no picture/sound what so ever. Any heard from the local CBS station as what could be causing the problem?

[Floyd]

I solved my CBS-HD problems yesterday!
I have been using a bay-area special antenna in my attic. The antenna has two pieces. There is a larger U/V antenna that has elements cut to receive the local channels, and a second smaller antenna with all the elements cut the same length, to optimally receive ch-10, which is pointed towards the Tarpon Springs location of the ch-10 transmitter towers. Living in N. Carrolwood, I had assumed that the secondary ch-10 VHF antenna would pick up enough of the HD(ch24) signal to work fine.....the analog side of 10 looked ok.
I got up into the attic and took some measurements with my RF signal meter and found that the UHF signal for HD-10 was fluctuating from a reading of -23db and worse, depending on antenna orientation. So, i got a 4-bay Channel master UHF antennna and put it in place of the single-ch VHF-10 antenna, using a regular splitter/combiner to join the two antennas. The result was a ch-24 reading of +2(which is an improvement of 25db, and each 3db is a doubling of the signal).
The receiver now reports a signal of 100% on ch 10-1, as opposed to the former reading of 20-40%, with dropouts under many atmospheric conditions(including wind blowing the trees, and planes passing within several miles).
The UHF antenna picks up enough(9db) analog-10 signal to still provide the other sets around the house with a good CBS picture, at least here in N. Tampa.
Now, I have decided to move the main antenna outside to a regular pole so I can get a better signal for the 3, 16, 44, and 66 digital suites, which now are intermittent in reception, and show major tile-freezes, due to the sub-channels sharing the bandwidth. I'll let you know how that works out.
If you can accomodate a UHF antenna for reception of 10-1, it might be the answer to your CBS-HD problems.

[Dknow]

You're 75% of the way there. Now all you have to do is replace that combiner with a channel 24 jointenna so you can get the rest of the channels in better. You must have some ghosting going on with that set up.

[Floyd]

No ghosting visible. I tried the main antenna without the UHF antenna to see if it helped, and it didn't, so maybe using a jointenna would wipe out the analog ch-10 feed that I want to retain for my other TV's around the house.
The UHF antenna has a 2'x3' reflector grid on the back side, and it's pointed almost directly away from the riverview antenna farm, so maybe the extra antenna isn't picking up any significant ghosts.

[Dknow]

Well you are definitely right about channel 10 analog for the rest of the house.....you would lose it just because the jointenna separates channel 24. I just have never seen the other channels not suffer from a combined set-up such as yours. Hey, good news, you saved $40 by not having to buy a jointenna!

[Bschneider]

...
My screen is now showing "loss of signal input" during the brief dropouts, which it never did before. ....

That "loss of signal input" is the feed from CBS Network to the local station.

[bdraw]

Thanks for the explanation Brian, and tell them thanks for not giving up on the HD feed and switch to SD when they have those problems. Let the people who complain switch to the SD feed.