Where did my over the air (OTA) TV channels go????

[roamer65]

https://www.fcc.gov/about-fcc/fcc-initiatives/incentive-auctions/transition-schedule

We are 1 week away from completion of phase 3 of the FCC repack of digital TV stations into channels 2-36. The upcoming phases are going to get more intense.

If you watch TV over the air (OTA), some of your channels may be moving. You will need to rescan your TV to get them back. Check under “transition data files” for the list of stations moving at the above listed link.

Check your user’s manual to see how to rescan for the change in channel assignments.

[Kitchari]

1. Thank you for this--

My fam was complaining about different channels not coming in, and this explains why

[roamer65]

6. No problem.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Just recently helped my brother mount an antenna...

It's a high gain digital one with a lot of arms and wings and stuff on it.

Seems to work pretty good. He was 'cutting' the cable for TV, though he was maintaining his high speed internet connection. He never had the premium channels anyway, not even extended basic, so he was paying for what he can get over the airwaves anyway.

I might do the same except that I'm in an apartment and can't really do that.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. For a couple of my devices, this is not big deal. For the TV I watch all the time, though,

it will be an effort. The TV I watch all the time doesn't have an "update" function. When you attempt to rescan, it wipes out all the channels you have saved and starts all over again from scratch.

Imagine a word processor that wouldn't let you change a comma into a period. Instead, you had to rewrite the entire document. Yes, it's like that.

I don't know who came up with that idea.

Anyway, for DC-area viewers:

Listing of Digital stations in the Washington / Baltimore Region: (Revised May 26, 2019)

There are a few stations broadcasting above actual channel 36. Things are about to change for them.

Thanks for the news.

[roamer65]

5. Yep. It's easy on my converter boxes.

But on my TV’s it’s an all or nothing full rescan each time.

Sounds like TV manufacturers are going to stop putting tuners in the TV’s soon. ATSC 3.0 is likely to be a converter box only standard.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8. It is currently an FCC requirement that television sets be equipped with tuners.

I don't know how that's going to play out. Sinclair is big on ATSC 3.0. They were testing that around here last month. WJLA is the ABC affiliate for Washington, DC. It is owned by Sinclair.

VIDEO / VIDEO HARDWARE
Demo Set for Live Reception of ATSC 1.0 & ATSC 3.0 Signals Via One Home Gateway

NEWS WIRE FEED
LIGHT READING
5/23/2019

WASHINGTON, DC -- A live ATSC 1.0 signal will be acquired from WJLA – TV in Washington, DC while the ATSC 3.0 signal will be acquired from the Baltimore/Washington Sinclair ATSC 3.0 experimental SFN. The live signals will be converted to broadband using a DigiCAP “HomeCaster” home gateway device. The Wi-Fi distributed video will be simultaneously displayed on a TV screen and tablet. In addition, the control UI for the demonstration will be viewable on a separate laptop.

According to Sang Jin Yoon, SVP Business Development, “This demonstration is important because it shows that the home viewer experience of watching over the air TV can be as convenient as watching OTT services on the same devices. This can give local broadcasters the ability to compete with new forms of internet protocol services.”

The ATSC 3.0 signal for the demonstration will be delivered through DigiCAP’s ATSC 3.0 “DigiCaster” head-end system. In the short history of ATSC 3.0, DigiCAP was the first live ATSC 3.0 head-end gateway system provider. This early start began in 2017 as DigiCAP technology was deployed extensively in all TV stations that broadcast live 4K for the 2018 Korean Winter Olympics.

In the two years since that deployment, DigiCaster has evolved along with the ATSC 3.0 standard. The first Korean deployments were hardware-based using 9 separate components to construct each station’s ATSC 3.0 head-end system. Today’s DigiCaster is a completely virtualized system with all functionality supported in a single COTS server. Said Yoon, “We learned from our experiences in our early ATSC 3.0 deployment and used the knowledge to create an improved, virtualized ATSC 3.0 head-end system.”

DigiCAP Co. Ltd.

Whoa, that was fast:

The First FCC Approved Public ATSC 3.0 OTA TV Stations Will Go Live on July 1

by Luke Bouma on June 8, 2019 in All News, News

Last week, the FCC started to approve applications from TV stations that want to switch over to ATSC 3.0 OTA TV. Now the FCC has approved a low-power broadcast in Portland, WatchTV, to start offering ATSC 3.0 service in K28GG-D of Medford, K14SC-D of Ashland, and K25GA-D of Redmond/Prineville on July 1.

This will be the first set of stations to go live with the ATSC 3.0 for public use inside the United States. WatchTV already had an experimental license to allow testing of ATSC 3.0. Now it will be able to go full time.

There are some ATSC 3.0 tuners out there, but broadcasters have promised more options are coming soon.

Here is everything you need to know about ATSC 3.0:

{snip}

Will you need a new TV?

The good news is no, but you may need a new box. The FCC requires TV stations that move to 3.0 OTA to offer the current OTA standard for five years after the move. That means if a station moves to 3.0 OTA TV next year, the day they turn on 3.0 OTA the clock starts for five years to still offer the current standard.
....

[roamer65]

10. Here's the fun part.

ATSC 1.0 is 8-VSB, ATSC 3.0 is COFDM. Two separate modulations on the same channel.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. Is COFDM the European standard? I know I could look that up, but.... NT

[roamer65]

12. Yup the European OTA modulation.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. I have a Toshiba flat screen with buggy software.

It would be easy to reinstall the software, if Toshiba made it available, but....

The result is that the built-in tuner drops stations whenever it feels like dropping stations. When it's working, the picture is great. What I'm using for the tuner is an external CECB, a Zenith DTT901, fed to the set through one of the composite inputs. It's only 480 lines of resolution, but that's no big deal. The DTT 901 has a rescan function that lets me add on to existing stations in the memory, rather than starting all over again.

[llmart]

4. Thanks for the link.

My local ABC channel had a blurb on one morning reminding their viewers to rescan. I had no idea what the reason for that was, but I had not been able to get the two other ABC channels for awhile and wondered why. So I did a rescan and they showed up!

Now I'm thinking that I should invest in an outdoor antenna. I've had an indoor rabbit ears type antenna for seven years plus my Roku box and a Netflix subscription, so I felt like I had enough to watch, but sometimes the over the air channels don't come in that well, usually in bad weather.

[roamer65]

7. No problem.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. I keep rescanning, but there hasn't been any change here yet.

"Here" being northern Virginia. There will be, though.

Your TV channels may be moving frequencies. We're here to help.

I can hardly get channel 4 at all now. I gather they have dropped their output power in advance of the move.

How to Rescan Your TV to Receive NBC4's Signal

Published Jun 14, 2019 at 4:09 PM | Updated 6 hours ago

More, and really, everything you need to know about this, is at AVSforum:

AVS Forum | Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD - HDTV

Yesterday, 01:10 PM
joblo
AVS Forum Special Member

Phase 4 changes

Quote:
Originally Posted by al.rob View Post

WETA says rescan TV after July 29, and WRC says to rescan after 8/1. I guess we will be doing a bunch of rescanning.

To clarify:

WRC says "NBC4 and Cozi are moving to a new frequency on Aug. 2."

WETA says they "will make the transition on July 29", and rescan "on or after July 29", so I think that means they will move in the wee hours that Monday morning.

And there is this from MPT:

Quote:

Schedule for frequency changes

Midnight 12:01AM
Friday, August 2, 2019
Annapolis WMPT 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4
Frederick WFPT 62.1 62.2 62.3 62.4
Oakland WGPT 36.1 36.2 36.3 36.4
Salisbury WCPB 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4

March 3, 2020 (tentative)
Owings Mills WMPB 67.1 67.2 67.3 67.4

May 1, 2020 (tentative)
Hagerstown WWPB 31.1 31.2 31.3 31.4

Also, WPXW must move before or at the same time as WRC, and WDVM must move no later than August 2nd because it is part of large phase 4 linked set.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Trip in VA View Post

[WETA] will be moving to a temporary facility after the change in channel, rather than before like WRC.

Will that be at their new AUX at the Arlington FM site?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Trip in VA View Post

DC: https://www.rabbitears.info/repackch...=&lss=&status=

Baltimore: https://www.rabbitears.info/repackch...=&lss=&status=

- Trip

Don't see Local Media's WIAV-CD in the DC list, but they are class A, right? So do they have to move in phase 4, or have they been granted an extension of some sort?

Also Local Media's other class A stations in DC DMA have CPs expiring August 2nd, according to RabbitEars. Any idea if they actually plan to light up either of those channels by then?

Last edited by joblo; Yesterday at 01:15 PM.