OTA Station Status: Vancouver, Victoria (Closed - use 2011)

[stampeder]

By all means contact CIVT-DT and tell them about any new reception problems with CIVT-DT 33.1 (I will) and maybe they'll find out what's gone wrong with their system. I think their problem is somewhere in their system because their OTA signal was great for such a long time and suddenly dropped.

Contact their Engineering staff at this email:

bcengineering@ctv.ca

and please be nice to them because we NEED them "on our side" as they say on their web page.

Regarding turning up their juice, they have to abide by Industry Canada levels, which are included in their CRTC broadcast license parameters and cannot be changed without an application being filed and approved.

[stampeder]

Here's the email I just sent to CIVT-DT's engineering staff. I encourage those of you with reception problems to send a similar one, with as much detail as you can give about the situation at your end to help them.

Hello CIVT Engineering staff,

I live in North Delta [details about my home address]

I have been receiving excellent signal from CIVT-DT 33.1 from Mt. Seymour via
a Channel Master 4228 8-bay bowtie reflector UHF antenna mounted about 10
feet above my house, feeding into a top quality ATSC tuner without need of an
antenna preamp. Except for some cedar trees in the distance I have clear
line-of-sight aim at your transmission antenna site and I have used a very
accurate signal strength meter to peak the aim.

As of December 14, 2005 I have found that the signal has deteriorated
significantly to the point of being unwatchable due to low signal strength,
pixellation of the picture, audio dropouts, and some complete signal
dropouts.

Please let me know if there is any further info I can provide to assist with
your repairs.

Thanks and best regards,

[4DTV HD]

I've also been having problems with CIVT-DT lately from
my location in Aldergrove.

If I point my antennas (2 Stacked CM4228) at Mt Seymour
I get a smooth waveform on my Spectrum Analyzer but my
receivers will not lock. This is also the optimized position for CBUT-DT. Should be the same for CIVT-DT

If I move the antennas away from Mt Seymour by 45 Degrees I get a jagged waveform but I can lock the channel with both of my receivers.

Go figure.

I offered to share my readings with the CTV Engineer a few months ago before they went on the air but he was not interested. Good luck to those of you that are trying to get an answer from him.

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by 4DTV HD

Good luck to those of you that are trying to get an answer...

I've found that the engineering staff at Global/CH, CITY, KVOS, and Channel M have been terrific about getting back to me in the past. CBC of course has a resident DHCer here, and AVSForum has a KOMO staffer on their Seattle forum. I never received a response to a technical question I emailed to A Channel back in May. Lets see if CIVT-DT get back to us.

[Snorf]

I have noticed some drops on CTV as well. They must be having trouble, even some of the regular shows that are in HD are being sent out in regular. Corner Gas this week was not in HD (one that I noticed).

Snorf

[stampeder]

I'm pleased to say that CIVT-DT's Chief Engineer got back to me with an email today indicating the cause of the signal dropout trouble:

Thank you very much for the information regarding our digital transmitter
performance. Yes, we were experiencing some problems with one of the power
modules. Fortunately, everything is back to normal now and I hope you will
enjoy watching CTV programming in HD.

Happy to be of help!

[faston]

That sounds like somebody who could do something about those horrid grey bars. Don't suppose you asked him about that?

[stampeder]

My gratitude to BC's Knowledge Network for responding to my questions about their digital OTA future:

I would like to know whether the Knowledge Network intends to transition its Over The Air translator network from NTSC analogue broadcasting to ATSC digital in the future. Looking through Industry Canada's database of television transmitters I can see that the Knowledge Network's string of translators is quite extensive across British Columbia.
________________________________________

Knowledge Network does not yet have a confirmed time frame for a standards
change.

We are closely watching industry peers and conversing with our
distribution partners and our regulator (CRTC) regarding the inevitability
of the change. We don't expect to lead our peers in the transition, but
to follow, shortly after key issues, policies, and technologies have been
decided on.

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by faston

That sounds like somebody who could do something about those horrid grey bars. Don't suppose you asked him about that?

Sorry faston, I didn't clue in to what you meant earlier, but you are referring to CIVT-DT's practice of using gray bars to fit 4:3 images into 16:9. Its all about minimizing screen burn-in. You may find them irritating to view, but they are very sensible to have:

The goal for limiting burn-in is to have the screen wear as evenly as possible. Gray bars are the least likely to cause screen burn-in because they are the closest approximation of the phosphor-wear happening in the 4:3 area without biasing towards any particular colour. Black bars are the worst since the 4:3 area undergoes phosphor-wear while the black bar areas undergo almost none.

Earlier this year I changed all of my gear to show gray bars when possible, and went into my TV's service menu to change its bars to gray too. I would say that CIVT-DT's use of them is good for consumers. See the FAQ on "Burn-In":

http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/for...t.php?p=167486

For any further discussion of gray bars please go to the General HDTV forum and maybe ask 57 for clarification.

[TedS]

I created the following Wayfaring.com map to allow us to compare locations/signals: http://www.wayfaring.com/maps/show/5091

I should have my system up and running in the next week or two. Will expand on my results then.

Ted

[stampeder]

Omni BC, the relocated Rogers-owned entity that used to be Fraser Valley TV's NOW-TV on channel 66 in Abbotsford has been granted a change in its broadcasting status in Victoria.

Channel 21, CHNU-TV, will broadcast at 17 kW:

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/De.../db2006-42.htm

[thenewguy]

Anyone have any issues with CBC-HD dropping out after Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night? Mine is still not back and the 2.1 channel has remapped to 14898 (or something similar) and tells me 2.1 is 'not available'. CTV-HD still comes in perfectly, so i am 99% sure it's nothing with my setup. Anyway, just curious.

Thanks.

[OldTech]

While veiwing OTA on my BEV 6100.

CBC HD (CH 58 VANC 2.1) Vancouver B.C. went blank monday about 9:00 am and the PSIP info was missing. I then tried to receive CBC HD on my HP TV with built in ATSC tuner just to check the signal. To my surprise the HP TV received the blank signal and diplayed 58.8 for the first time ever and around 9:30 am CBC HD returned to normal and the picture returned on both the 6100 and the HP TV. I checked the BEV 6100 and the PSIP was correct. The HP did not display the PSIP info, but displayed 58.8 and was now available in the channel list. (Very happy about this.)

Here are the questions: Why was I never able to tune to CBC HD with the Hp TV either manually or by channel scan when PSIP info was being broadcast?

Is this a problem with CBC or is it the ATSC tuner in the HP TV since all other channels are OK and display the PSIP info?

My 6100 shows a signal strength of ~95% on CBC HD 2.1.

I use a CM 4228 with rotor on a 10' mast to receive OTA signals.
---------------
HP md5880n, BEV 6100.

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by thenewguy

Anyone have any issues with CBC-HD dropping out after Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night?

No problems with CBUT-DT from my house, so maybe your tuner is misbehaving?

[stampeder]

OldTech, we had a report of CBUT-DT dropping out by another DHCer - check out thenewguy's post in the main OTA Forum and maybe we're onto something about the station's PSIP acting up. Just a guess.