# New Member New Question



## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Hi everybody. I'm Robert, aka North Texas Dude. I am a new dish subcriber and a new 921 owner. Mine has worked flawlessly in the 10 days I've had it - fingers crossed.

I've read many of the posts on the board and want to ask something I haven't seen covered. I have the local channels package which means I get local CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox through Dish. These locals broadcast in HD but they are analog when coming through the bird. I installed a UHF/VHF antenna in hopes of getting local HD and hooked up the RG6QS cable to the 8VSB input and I can't get ANYTHING on the siganl bars. Just for an antenna test I hooked up an analog 
tv and got great pictures. This lead me to believe the jack either wasn't working or wasn't activated somehow. I spent 40 minutes with tech support which was a complete waste of time. He thought I should just be happy with SD locals and couldn't understand why I trying to use an antenna.

My question to you guys is this: Shouldn't I be able to use the OTA digital tuner and an external antenna to get HD locals in addition to all the other dish programming??? Am I missing something here? One of the reasons I bought the 921 was for that functionality.

I like to get it resolved before the Superbowl. If this isn't possible I'll return the antenna to Radio Shack.

BTW - when I stand on my roof I can see both the CBS and NBC 1000 ft braodcasting towers so I know it's not a distance/signal quality issue. I think somehow the 8VSB input jack isn't working.

another BTW - I'm an engineer with military radio and telephone experience but none with satellite. 

Thanks guys. Any comments/replies would be greatly appreciated.

Robert


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## Mikey (Oct 26, 2004)

ntexasdude said:


> Hi everybody. I'm Robert, aka North Texas Dude. I am a new dish subcriber and a new 921 owner. Mine has worked flawlessly in the 10 days I've had it - fingers crossed.
> 
> I've read many of the posts on the board and want to ask something I haven't seen covered. I have the local channels package which means I get local CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox through Dish. These locals broadcast in HD but they are analog when coming through the bird. I installed a UHF/VHF antenna in hopes of getting local HD and hooked up the RG6QS cable to the 8VSB input and I can't get ANYTHING on the siganl bars. Just for an antenna test I hooked up an analog
> tv and got great pictures. This lead me to believe the jack either wasn't working or wasn't activated somehow. I spent 40 minutes with tech support which was a complete waste of time. He thought I should just be happy with SD locals and couldn't understand why I trying to use an antenna.
> ...


Welcome, Dude. :wave:

If you can get the station's analog signal, you should be able to get the digital signal. Just to be sure:

1. Check again that you're using the right antenna input on the 921 for OTA.

2. Are you doing the Scan for Local Channels from the 921 Installation Menu?

Check http://www.antennaweb.org to see what stations are there, and what kind of antenna would be required from your location.

P.S. Don't take offense at my avatar. It's an OU/UT tradition.


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## erasmu (Nov 17, 2003)

ntexasdude said:


> These locals broadcast in HD but they are analog when coming through the bird. I installed a UHF/VHF antenna in hopes of getting local HD and hooked up the RG6QS cable to the 8VSB input and I can't get ANYTHING on the siganl bars.
> Robert


What do you meant they are analog coming through the bird? Did you go to locals and do a scan digital? Depending on where you are located, a scan could detect 20 or more digital stations in the Dallas area. Did you scan for analog stations? There are also many available there. I do not use any analog stations because all of the digital stations are received well from my Carrollton location. There are some settings in the menus for local setup, but I don't recall having to do anything specifically to enable the antenna connections. If your tv can receive the stations, your 921 should be able to. As you said, much of the programming from several of those stations (i.e. 4, 5, 8, 11, 21, 33) is in HD. Assuming your 921 is not damaged, you should be able to get it working. Good luck.


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

erasmu said:


> What do you meant they are analog coming through the bird? Did you go to locals and do a scan digital?


They are the local channels that are up-linked digitally and down-linked digitally. They are the standard definition format (4x3 only). In fact, the picture quality of the, "lil" is generally worse because of the super compression that E* makes us swallow.


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Erasmu, I mis-spoke. I know that ALL siganls coming through are digital. What I meant was the locals coming thru the bird are SD and not HD.

I've checked everything twice. I know I'm using the right 8VSB, TV Antenna / Cable In jack in the lower left corner. It just as if the jack doesn't work. I also know the antenna set up is good because I've checked it with another small TV. I've checked antennaweb.org and the same 4 local channels I get thru dish are available OTA in HD. I have not scanned analog or digital because I can't get a signal lock on ANYTHING OTA. I thought you had to lock a signal first and then scan.

There doesn't appear to be a switch or setting to activate the jack. However, page 37 of the manual states: "The input connection can only be used when your receiver is activated with qualifying Dish Network Programming" which it is.
I'm leaning towards a defective unit

From reading the other threads it looks like people use this jack all the time for OTA regardless whether or not they live in a "Dish local market".

The guy at tech support today didn't have a clue. He was clearly reading from a script and asking me stuff like "Is the unit turned on?" and "Is the TV working" and "did you plug the external antenna into the RF remote antenna jack?" aaarrrggghhh!!!!

I'll call back tomorrow and get second tier support.


Thanks guys

Robert


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## Allen Noland (Apr 23, 2002)

If I'm reading your posts correctly, you have not programmed your 921 to receive the OTA channels. The easiest way to do that is to "Scan" them in. So, try the following.

Press the menu button.
press 6 for system.
8 for Local Channels.
Choose Scan DTV.

The 921 will scan for any DTV channels. Press Save when it is done.

If it finds anything they will be in your guide. If you have Locals from dish the guide data will be there also.

Let me know if this helps.


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## zer0cool (Nov 24, 2004)

When I first got my 921 (just before the 211 software update), I tried everything I could possibly think of to get my local OTA HD channels to come in. No matter what I tried, scanning found no DTV channels at all. Finally, I tried manually adding channels, and was able to get all the local HD channels easily. All the locals had a signal strength of well over 100 too. After the L211 software update, I deleted all the channels I had manually added and was able to successfully scan for them.
And by the way, I'm in North Texas myself.


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

There have been previous reports of 921s with dead OTA hardware. That is, the port basically doesn't work at all for OTA HD reception and the unit has to be replaced. So it actually could be an issue with the 921 hardware (in which case you'll need a new one) if you exhaust all your other avenues.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Robert, if after using the Scan DTV function, you 921 still doesn't find any OTA channels, it's possible your OTA tuner is dead. If so, email me your contact info, a description of the problem, what you've done to fix it, your receiver CAID, softcard ID #, boot and flash versions.


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## markcollins (Jan 27, 2004)

I'm in the Dallas area and am wondering if anyone has had problems recently with losing the NBC 005-01 channel.I have 2 921s and they both tune to 005-01 and show a 100+ sig strength but no picture or audio.All other local OTA digitals are fine still.Tried manually re-adding and scan..The channel is there but no pic or sound.Also their 005-02 channel (news) Is still fine.


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## kmcnamara (Jan 30, 2004)

Mark C., I noticed this a couple of nights ago. I'll check this evening to see if it's still happening to me.


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## zer0cool (Nov 24, 2004)

markcollins said:


> I'm in the Dallas area and am wondering if anyone has had problems recently with losing the NBC 005-01 channel.I have 2 921s and they both tune to 005-01 and show a 100+ sig strength but no picture or audio.All other local OTA digitals are fine still.Tried manually re-adding and scan..The channel is there but no pic or sound.Also their 005-02 channel (news) Is still fine.


I had this exact problem about a week ago. I rebooted the 921 twice with no success. I finally fixed it by deleting the channel, rebooting and rescanning. :grin:


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## markcollins (Jan 27, 2004)

Thanks for the info I'll try the delete rebooting option!


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## ntexasdude (Jan 23, 2005)

Hi guys, thanks for the many posts and great suggestions. I haven't had time to reply but I think my problem has been solved. I am now getting local OTA HD but I still have a few more questions. I'll post a detailed message in a day or two telling everybody how and what happened. Maybe I can save someone else the frustration I endured.

Right now the boss is calling. I actually have to work.......uuuggghhh.

Robert


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## markcollins (Jan 27, 2004)

Tried the delete channels,reboot readd.Nbc came back on both receivers and also I was having a problem with cbs reception,seemed to fix that too(keeping fingers crossed).Just for some info and if anyone else knows anything about it.I emailed NBC tech dept and they said they were aware of the problem because they upgraded their software and hardware recently.They also suggested rescans.Also they made reference to an FCC deadline for compliance by Feb 1 as the reason for upgrades???


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