ATSC 3.0 Washington, DC

[decaym]

It appears that the Washington, DC ATSC 3.0 channels are offline this morning. HDHomeRun app wouldn't connect so I fired up the Config GUI to try manually tuning in. The signal strength and quality was showing 100% but the symbol quality would flash on and off without ever locking in. Will be curious to see what if anything is being changed when the programs come back. With my luck, they'll add DRM on every channel.

Code: Select all

Virtual Channel	none
Frequency	587.000 MHz
Program Number	none
Modulation Lock	atsc3
Signal Strength	100%
Signal Quality	100%
Symbol Quality	none
Streaming Rate	none
Resource Lock	none

[doctorwizz]

Same thing here.

[uspino]

Still nothing... I have signal strength, signal quality and symbol quality at 100%, but I get no video. Anybody knows what is going on in the DC area?

[decaym]

Still nothing... I have signal strength, signal quality and symbol quality at 100%, but I get no video. Anybody knows what is going on in the DC area?

Interesting, mine came back later in the same day as my original post, but it is out again now. Same behavior as before with good signal but no symbol.

There are still programs being reported, or maybe those are an artifact of the previous scan. Currently shows these programs:

Code: Select all

2: 107.1 WJLA
3: 105.1 WTTG
4: 104.1 WRC
5: 109.1 WUSA

[foxbat121]

The latest downtime started last night and recovered this afternoon. It seems they are doing a lot of maintenance recently. None of that has anthing to do with HDHR ATSC 3.0 tuners though.

[green97]

The WHUT ATSC 3.0 signal is causing folks some grief the past week. I've shared diag info from my Windows HDHR App for device xxxxxxxx with me flipping between subchannels. Can you all at SD provide any insights, please?

What I see in config_gui is that WHUT 132.1 is absent. WJLA 107.1 seems to ride on both PLP0 and PLP1. config_gui doesn't show PLP1 channels in the programs drop down if the PLP1 box is ticked. All present subchannels are watchable, however.,

Normally,

PLP0 = qam64 WJLA 107.1
PLP1 = qam256 WRC 104.1, WTTG 105.1, WUSA 109.1 (and the missing WHUT 132.1)

I've shared some config_gui images in this avsforum post:

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/washin ... t-62475119

Could possibly be related to arronwt's DVR problems.

[foxbat121]

Add to above, my Sony TV still shows WHUT channel w/o problem. It's just Flex 4K refuse to list it in channel list.

[jhsmith]

I'm having the same issue with ATSC 3 in the DC market. I can receive multiple NextGen channels on my LG tv but can't recieve any on my HomeRun Flex 4k. Even my Flex Duo gets significantly more ATSC channels than the 4k. Overall reception is good here, I get 53 ATSC 1.0 channels on my LG TV. Using a Hi VHF/UHF antenna with an Philips LTE filter and a Channel Master antenna amp. (Tried the silicon dust filter but the Philips gives me more channels. Measured both on a s-parameter analyzer and they show similar performance.). All Homerun and TV's are fed by the same antenna/filter/amp.

Is my HD HR 4k bad or do I need different firmware or ?

[decaym]

I'm having the same issue with ATSC 3 in the DC market. I can receive multiple NextGen channels on my LG tv but can't recieve any on my HomeRun Flex 4k. Even my Flex Duo gets significantly more ATSC channels than the 4k. Overall reception is good here, I get 53 ATSC 1.0 channels on my LG TV. Using a Hi VHF/UHF antenna with an Philips LTE filter and a Channel Master antenna amp. (Tried the silicon dust filter but the Philips gives me more channels. Measured both on a s-parameter analyzer and they show similar performance.). All Homerun and TV's are fed by the same antenna/filter/amp.

Is my HD HR 4k bad or do I need different firmware or ?

I'm in NoVA about six miles west of the DC towers (according to RabbitEars). I just did a rescan and I'm picking up 104 channels in the DC and Baltimore markets. That includes 15 ATSC 3.0 videos channels and 15 audio channels (from Baltimore). This is done with an Antennas Direct ClearStream 4V antenna pointed directly at the DC towers. No amp and no filter. Oh, and the antenna is in the attic. Firmware on my FLEX 4K is "20230505". I have "104.1" (WRC / NBC 4 DC) on right now.

Try running a RabbitEars report on your location to see which stations you should be able to pickup in the direction your antenna is pointing.

Also, if you bring up the HDHomeRun Config GUI and then tune in a channel, what signal levels are you seeing? I'm pulling in 100% across the board for WRC.

Just for fun, here are the channels I'm detecting:

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2.1	WMAR-HD	
2.2	GRIT	
2.3	BOUNCE	
2.4	MYSTERY	
2.5	ION TV	
2.6	CourtTV	
2.7	Newsy	
4.1	WRC-HD	
4.2	COZI	
4.3	LX	
4.4	Oxygen	
5.1	WTTG-DT	
5.2	BUZZR	
5.3	START	
7.1	WJLA	
7.2	Charge!	
7.3	Comet	
7.4	TBD	
9.1	WUSA-HD	
9.2	Crime	
9.3	Quest	
9.4	Twist	
9.5	QVC	
10.1	WDCO	
14.1	WFDC-DT	
14.2	getTV	
14.3	GRIT	
14.4	UniMas	
20.1	WDCA	
20.2	MOVIES	
20.3	HEROES	
20.4	FOXWX	
22.1	MPT-HD	
22.2	MPT-2	
22.3	MPTKIDS	
22.4	NHK-WLD	
23.1	WDDN	
25.1	WDVM-SD	
26.1	WETA-HD	
26.2	WETA UK	
26.3	KIDS	
26.4	WORLD	
26.5	METRO	
31.1	Grio	
31.2	ThisTV	
31.4	HSN2	
32.1	WHUT	
32.2	PBSKids	
44.1	WZDC	
44.2	XITOS	
47.1	LATV	
48.1	MeTV	
48.2	STORY	
48.3	CATCHY	
48.4	MeTV+	
48.12	EMLW	
49.1	DABL	
49.3	QVC2	
49.4	NTDTV	
49.5	SonLife	
49.6	ShopLC	
50.1	WDCW-DT	
50.2	Antenna	
54.1	CWWNUV	
54.2	Antenna	
66.1	ION	
66.2	Bounce	
66.3	CourtTV	
66.4	Laff	
66.5	Mystery	
66.6	SCRIPPS	
66.7	Jewelry	
66.8	HSN	
68.1	Entra	
102.1	WMAR	
104.1	WRC	
105.1	WTTG	
106.1	WDCN	
107.1	WJLA	
109.1	WUSA	
111.1	WBAL	
122.1	WMPT	
132.1	WHUT	
145.1	WBFF	
154.1	WNUV	
154.20	MobileW	
154.21	MobileM	
158.1	WIAV	
158.5	24/7MMT	
10001	Hit List	
10002	Classic Rock	
10003	Greatest Holida	
10004	Alternative	
10005	Pop Adult	
10006	Hip Hop	
10007	Hot Country	
10008	Flashback 70s	
10009	Everything 80s	
10010	Latin Pop	
10011	Karaoke	
10012	Naturescape	
10013	Qello Concerts	
10014	Classica	
10015	Djazz

[signcarver]

I'm having the same issue with ATSC 3 in the DC market. I can receive multiple NextGen channels on my LG tv but can't recieve any on my HomeRun Flex 4k. Even my Flex Duo gets significantly more ATSC channels than the 4k. Overall reception is good here, I get 53 ATSC 1.0 channels on my LG TV. Using a Hi VHF/UHF antenna with an Philips LTE filter and a Channel Master antenna amp. (Tried the silicon dust filter but the Philips gives me more channels. Measured both on a s-parameter analyzer and they show similar performance.). All Homerun and TV's are fed by the same antenna/filter/amp.

Is my HD HR 4k bad or do I need different firmware or ?

What stood out to me there was that the duo is getting better reception. I would first try swapping coax between duo and 4k and see if performance is same but if there is no improvement on the 4k, I would ensure your signal levels are not reporting 100% strength as unless you have the developers edition, you won't have any idea of how much above 100% it is and it is most likely the signal is to high for the internal amp of the the 4k. If the signals are not at 100% strength, then it either could be a bad unit or it just needs a just a tad bit more.

My personal feelings is that a tV often works with a wider range of signal levels so comparing to that is more like comparing apples to oranges as you must make the signal appropriate for the device you are trying to use. Also for the case of ATSC3, if there is any DRM, involved, those stations will not work until SD can support DRM.

[jhsmith]

signcarver and decaym,

Thanks for the advice.

I'm also in NOVA, about 8.9 from most of the towers (NBC, CBS, PBS, ABC) and 7.4 from the Fox tower. I was using the Apple TV HD app and the MacOS HD app that don't appear to have signal strength and other info. Time for me to dig out a Windows machine and try that. My antenna is an attic mount about 30 feet above ground (wood siding) pointed in the middle of the NBC, CBS, ABC... towers. Only about 4 degrees between these stations so I put it in the middle, 2 degrees off each.

HD flex and duo are right next to each other on the same splitter but good idea to swap cables and see if that changes anything.

Curiously, my reception had been good for a few years and about May 12th I started getting a lot of pixelation. In particular on ABC. I generally blame 5G interference on that. I cured the pixelation by switching from a Channel Master LTE filter to a Philips LTE filter. I checked both filters on a GENCOM S-parameter analyzer and both gave roughly the same performance so I can't explain that. But something changed on or about May 12. Perhaps T-Mobile activated a new tower in that direction.

I'll dig out a windows box and let you know.

[aaronwt]

I hope I don't ever need to worry about 5G interference(C-Band 5G is in my area). I'm still using a couple of square shooters, with a preamp, that I installed in 2004. On the outside wall of my Condo. I'm in Woodbridge, around 25 miles from the transmission towers in DC. And I am getting solid reception from the DC stations, with my Flex4K. Although, the only time I will get Baltimore stations is when the Tropospheric Ducting is very favorable. Since I'm unable to have an antenna pointed toward the Baltimore area.

[green97]

Get a cheap rabbitears & loop antenna (e.g., Philips SDV8201B/27) and use it to test the flex 4k. You are close enough that it should work unless it's in a basement or the unlucky side of a building. That will tell you if it's your antenna / cabling system or the flex 4k.

You can check signal strength via the hdhr's web interface. Tune to a channel with your apple app or whatever, then in a web browser go to URL (replacing the 12345678 with your device ID)

http://hdhr-12345678.local -> Tuner Status -> Tuner[0-3]

ABC (WJLA in DC) is on high VHF RF7. Would that be affected by cellular? Could be some other source of noise. The ATSC 3.0 channels you want are on UHF 33. They would more likely suffer, I'd think, along with other ATSC 1.0 channels on 30-36 nearest to 608+ MHz cell signals.

Also consider that you are over amplifying the rather close signals and that inserting the filters weakened the TV signals for the better. Make sure the amp is working and getting power if you must have it to compensate for splitters and/or long coax runs. Some don't pass signals when they break.

[foxbat121]

The RF33 ATSC 3.0 stations in DC are located in Merrifield, not DC, from the information I gathered. They are the easiest to receive for me even though I'm 20+ miles out in the west. All I need is the cheap indoor square antenna with or without amp as long as I use the side of my house that facing that direction. Flex 4k has no issues even if I just lay the antenna flat on the top of the table.

The ATSC 1.0 VHF stations are a different story (needs larger VHF antenna), and I don't really care for them as long as I can receive the ATSC 3.0 counter parts.

[jhsmith]

Fascinating. I took the suggestion above on swapping the cables (and the ports on the splitter). The 4-way splitter I'm using has a power passing port and that seems to be an issue. Perhaps that is passing a ground loop or some other noise. When I don't use that port, I get the ATSC 3.0 channels back. Thanks for the advice.