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Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 4:56 pm
by fortyshooter
The digital vs. analog TV signal. The switch to digital was NEVER intended to benefit the consumer!
We use off the air TV for one in bedroom and kitchen to keep Comcast cost down. The wife LOVES her TV especially the old classics that come on a sub
freq. of our channel 12 NBC. No issues until last week when the signal disappeared! Called them up and was told it was due to a frequency conversion
which is going on everywhere required by FCC to free up more frequencies for Communication companies....read as not in YOUR favor!
Result was they now have a much weaker signal than the other stations we can get. Now I must mention that channel 12 is only 24 miles up the road!
So I went out to my antenna which is up about 8ft off the back deck made a slight angle adjustment which helped the other channels a bit but still no 12. So then I moved the thing up on the roof...8 ft. above the roof and after many rotational positions....still no channel 12 or it's sub channels.
Other channels have 4 bars of signal!
Told the wife that's it and not spending anymore time or money trying to get it. Jack it up any higher and I would need clearance lights on it!!
Back in the old but simpler better analog days I would be getting stations from 100 miles away like I used to!
Amazing how something as simple as television was in the 50's now in 2020 we have screwed it up!
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:03 pm
by RanchRoper
Old time radio is where it's at...Saturday nights with Jack Benny and the Lone Ranger...
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:10 pm
by fortyshooter
RanchRoper wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:03 pm
Old time radio is where it's at...Saturday nights with Jack Benny and the Lone Ranger...
There are stations that still do that??
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:25 pm
by Grunt67
Do you have an amplifier inline with the antenna? Helped mine quite a bit. Got mine at Wally World for about $15.
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 7:10 pm
by BigAl52
TV is a racket. When my Dish contract is up there gone. They quit showing the local NHL team because the billionaires are fitting over how much each one is going to pay or charge so now only Direct TV has the locals. I just fire up the computer and hit the streaming sights and get them that way. Might look into youtube TV is half the price of comcast and Dish
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 7:17 pm
by RanchRoper
fortyshooter wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:10 pm
RanchRoper wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:03 pm
Old time radio is where it's at...Saturday nights with Jack Benny and the Lone Ranger...
There are stations that still do that??
I wish.
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 7:41 pm
by Sir Henry
I stopped watching tv on a regular basis years ago. Now I just invite myself to the neighbors to watch things like the Super Bowl and Daytona.
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 7:47 pm
by Greyhawk
fortyshooter wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 4:56 pm
The digital vs. analog TV signal. The switch to digital was NEVER intended to benefit the consumer!
We use off the air TV for one in bedroom and kitchen to keep Comcast cost down. The wife LOVES her TV especially the old classics that come on a sub
freq. of our channel 12 NBC. No issues until last week when the signal disappeared! Called them up and was told it was due to a frequency conversion
which is going on everywhere required by FCC to free up more frequencies for Communication companies....read as not in YOUR favor!
Result was they now have a much weaker signal than the other stations we can get. Now I must mention that channel 12 is only 24 miles up the road!
So I went out to my antenna which is up about 8ft off the back deck made a slight angle adjustment which helped the other channels a bit but still no 12. So then I moved the thing up on the roof...8 ft. above the roof and after many rotational positions....still no channel 12 or it's sub channels.
Other channels have 4 bars of signal!
Told the wife that's it and not spending anymore time or money trying to get it. Jack it up any higher and I would need clearance lights on it!!
Back in the old but simpler better analog days I would be getting stations from 100 miles away like I used to!
Amazing how something as simple as television was in the 50's now in 2020 we have screwed it up!
If your wife LOVES the old classics, just remind her that she is living with one! She's got it made man!!!
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 9:17 pm
by Ernie
RanchRoper wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 7:17 pm
fortyshooter wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:10 pm
RanchRoper wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:03 pm
Old time radio is where it's at...Saturday nights with Jack Benny and the Lone Ranger...
There are stations that still do that??
I wish.
Satellite radio has a channel for the old classic radio shows, but that too is not worth the money.
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 10:06 pm
by fortyshooter
With Comcast we have the land line for phone,internet and the big screen in den on the basic digital channel tier with DVR.
The other TV in dining room is just basic. Again the wife loves her TV shows and she pays the bill. When it hits 200 bucks a month I hear about it!
This is the reduced level we cutback to and it was around 168 bucks. Now it has crept back up to 200 bucks!
If we drop the TV part then we would be around 110-120 I believe. Of course there is no competition for a CATV provider in our city.
Had the Direct TV some years ago as a package with Verizon but their internet was crap always cutting out and the dish signal would do same
depending on weather. I prefer the cable for stable and a faster signal. But like I said only one company allowed in town.
Of course Comcast bought all it's competitors out. Remember when they split up AT&T because they were to big!!!
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 10:13 pm
by fortyshooter
Grunt67 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 08, 2020 5:25 pm
Do you have an amplifier inline with the antenna? Helped mine quite a bit. Got mine at Wally World for about $15.
Never needed one before this and my thinking is why should I have to spend more money to fix something they screwed up?
If enough people complain to the station and I will come Monday,maybe they can do something about it.
Funny thing though.....when the digital TV signal swap started some years ago channel 12 was the first and had the strongest signal.
Later after the other local stations did same...the FCC made 12 go to another frequency and then their power dropped to the weakest of the 4
local stations! So here we is again!!
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 7:19 am
by Mistered
You should consider getting a ROKU stick.
Providing you have an ISP the variety it provides is an excellent alternative to 'pay' TV.
There are literally 1000s of internet 'channels' that can be accessed and if you like classics it's an excellent resource.
I 'cut the cable' about a year ago and pay nothing
For TV and never will again.
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 9:11 am
by fortyshooter
Mistered wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2020 7:19 am
You should consider getting a ROKU stick.
Providing you have an ISP the variety it provides is an excellent alternative to 'pay' TV.
There are literally 1000s of internet 'channels' that can be accessed and if you like classics it's an excellent resource.
I 'cut the cable' about a year ago and pay nothing
For TV and never will again.
Can't get the local stations here on Roku and when you can it's subscription $$ package.
I like the local TV weather broadcast especially when strong storms are moving thru.
Now I just saw the banner rolling across bottom of screen on our Channel 8. Guess what?? Yep they are going to do same signal change come March!
Guess I'll have to find a used radio tower and put it up in the backyard so I can be covered for any other signal weakening Gov't mandates
to git rid of FREE local TV! The big communication companies want you off free TV.
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:31 am
by CT_Shooter
fortyshooter wrote: ↑Sun Feb 09, 2020 9:11 am
I like the local TV weather broadcast especially when strong storms are moving thru. ...
Now I just saw the banner rolling across bottom of screen on our Channel 8. Guess what?? Yep they are going to do same signal change come March!
Forty, I don't like what the FCC has been doing either, especially by eliminating Net Neutrality (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality). But, for now, you can still watch channel 12 in Virginia on a computer or Tablet.
https://www.nbc12.com/live/
Channel 8 is also available to watch online, but it requires users to download and install an extension to Chrome.
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:58 am
by fortyshooter
Thanks but you know how a woman is.... she wants to lay back comfortable and watch Me TV on her TV......you know just simple stuff.
We have a 50 inch Sony computer type TV in the den and whenever the power goes out and comes back on the "Fix the Date" box will pop up for several days after even you correct it ! Nothing simple no more!
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 11:15 am
by Mistered
Can't get the local stations here on Roku
Look into Clearstream TV.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=161IB-YCr ... e=youtu.be
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 12:23 pm
by RanchRoper
Looks good to me...no tv at all...
...not sure the Mrs would go for it.
- d04bd5db9ad44be55cd9d6f4cee6b5bd.jpg (153.82 KiB) Viewed 1750 times
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 1:32 pm
by BigAl52
Might get a little smokey in there wouldnt be able to see the screen anyway
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 1:58 pm
by Cowboy Gun Fan
We find the Digital age to be great, in comparison to the old Analog, but it does have some drawbacks. The great thing is the quality of it when the signal is strong enough. The other great thing is the amount of channels we now get. I believe we are up to 28 and we just got word to re-program as we were told that they recently added some more. Now all this is on an Indoor Antenna as I'm hesitant to put one outside permanently with all the lightning we get in this area. If I do cautiously put in an Outdoor one, we could get even more. When we want to watch a show that we cannot get in good enough, right now I'll put the antenna outside on a table on the front porch temporarily. We can't complain on the reception too much, as we are pretty far out in the country, closest station is about 20-25 Miles away.
Some of the drawbacks are the recent frequency change. We lost some, others are weaker. You gain some, you lose some. One station just put in a stronger antenna on a mountain and we now got that one back. It also does not like wind. On real windy days if putting the antenna outside doesn't work, we just run a stronger station, Roku or put in a DVD.
But the greatest thing of all, except for the Antenna (won it) and the Amplifier ($20), is the cost.
Our monthly bill is $0.
Re: Wasted the afternoon foolin with TV....
Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:26 pm
by RanchRoper
Speakin' of tv....watching Unforgiven right now.