[mythtv-users] Increasing ATSC signal strength going into DVB card

[Vern]

Is your antennae UHF, VHF, or both?

The reason I ask that is because I had a very similar problem (still do).  I use a UHF only antennae for ATSC and it worked great.  I always thought all DTV was going to be in the UHF frequency range.  After the switch over last week, I had two channels that were very low (10%) and not usable at all (not found on scan) even though the others were all very high (80-90).  After a lot of messing with the antenna on the roof and getting them up to about 40% tops, I discovered with google that those channels were on temporary UHF frequencies for the last few years but now are back on their original VHF frequencies only sending digital (at least that's what I was lead to believe).  So I think I need a combo UHF/VHF antennae now to get them.  It kind of pisses me off.  I would have just bought and aimed a combo antennae from the start if I thought that could happen.  Even their little clips on how to receive the new channel on their web site showed using a VHF
 antennae still.  I didn't know that was even going to be allowed.

Since you lost across the board, not just on some channels, that might not be your problem but worth checking into before you start looking at amplifiers.




________________________________
From: MythTV <MythTV at assuredsolutions.com>
To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 11:41:55 AM
Subject: [mythtv-users] Increasing ATSC signal strength going into DVB card

Ever since the decommission of NTSC, my ATSC signal strength has been about 30% lower than before across all channels.  Unfortunately, the channel we watch the most now only has a signal strength of 11% which is not enough for MythTV to lock on nor record from.  Before July 12th, our favorite channel had a signal strength 51%.

I do have a signal amplifier on my antenna cable. It's a Blonder Tongue Broadband VHF/FM/UHF Distribution Amplifier.  I've been told that it is good enough for my area but I'll change if there's a better one to use.  Here's the URL to my amplifier:
http://www.sjmediasystem.com/zta-15.html

I also have a Digital Converter box connected to the same splitter where both pcHDTV HD-5500 cards are connected; the converter reports a signal strength of 40% on the channel in question where MythTV reports only 11%.

I have tried changing the direction of my antenna.  No luck.

Is there a way to increase the signal strength going into the pcHDTV HD-5500? Or, is there a way to make the pcHDTV HD-5500 more sensitive to the signal it is being fed?

Rob
My configuration is:
MythTV version: 0.21.20080304-1 18722
Ubuntu 8.10, kernel version: 2.6.27-9-generic
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.2GHz Socket 775 800 FSB w/Hyper Threading
Technology
Memory: 1Gig DDR 333 Memory 180 Pin
Motherboard: ASRock 775i65G Mother Board
Optical Drive: LG 18X DVD RW + Dual Layer
Hard Drive: 1 Western Digital 250 Gig HD contains the OS and 1
Western Digital 1 TB 7200 RPM Cache Serial ATA contains the video data
Video onboard: Integrated SiS Ultra256 2D/3D Graphics
Video card: Micro-star International (MSI) AGP GeForce FX5200-
TD128LF, 8X, 128M, DDR1, D-Sub, DVI-D, TV-out
Audio onboard: AUDIO ADI AD1888 6-channel audio CODEC
Audio card: Riviera C-Media CMI 8738 (Connected to my entertainment
center via the optical cable)
Network Card: Onboard 10/100 Network Card
Tuner cards: 2 pcHDTV HD-5500

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