CET HD using DirectTv or DISH Network

CET viewers have called to ask why they can not get CET HD as part of the local channel line up on Direct TV™ or the Dish Network™

The two satellite services handle local High Definition channels differently. 

Direct TV does not offer CET HD or any other public station’s HD service in the Cincinnati Market.  Customers should contact them directly and ask for the service.  If enough paying customers ask, they may reconsider.  It is worth a try.

The Dish Network does not offer ANY local HD channels using satellite transmission. Instead they will provide you with an outside TV antenna that connects to the satellite box and receives CET HD and other local HD stations off the air.  Of course if you have an HD set you don’t need either Direct TV or the Dish Network to receive any local signal off the air.

If these services should change, I’ll post the changes here.

Ten Things You Should Know About Digital TV

There is a lot of misinformation about Digital TV and what the new system means to the average viewer.  The following should provide a simple guide. 

On February 17, 2009, all analog broadcast TV channels (e.g. CET, WCPO, WLWT, WKRC, WXIX, etc.) in the United States will cease operation. The stations and programs will still exist, but on new digital channels.

The US, like the rest of the world, is converting to an all digital system that increases the quality of the picture and sound and makes a much more efficient use of the available electronic spectrum (i. e. available TV channels.)

Eventually you will have to buy a new digital TV since analog sets are no longer manufactured. You may still be able to watch most of your favorite programs on your old analog set.

There are ways to use your old set after February 2009.  1. You can get an inexpensive digital converter that will capture the digital signals off-the-air and convert them to signals your old (analog) TV can display.  2.  You can pay for a cable or satellite service.  The cable and satellite set top boxes already convert digital signals to analog signals.

If you keep your old TV and use a converter, cable or satellite you will not enjoy the vastly superior picture and sound of High Definition TV nor will you have a wide movie-like screen.

Your VCR and DVD player will still work with your old analog TV as will the tapes and DVDs that you now have.  You will be able to connect your current VCR and DVD player to most new digital TV sets, but they will not give you a HD experience.

TV stations will still BROADCAST through the air, and using an antenna, you will still be able to get local stations on a digital TV without cable or satellite.

The new digital TVs come in many sizes.  The sharpness of the picture is a product of screen size and resolution.  TV’s are available in CRT (picture tube), LCD, and plasma and DLP.  Shop with your eyes.

Digital over-the-air channels may provide more than one program at the same time.  For example, CET’s digital channel has both High Definition Programs  and a separate CET World Channel. 

The prices of new digital sets are becoming comparable to the old analog sets. Be sure your new set has an ATSC (digital) tuner!

Getting CET “Create” Channel

Please tell me how to get CET - Create on any one of my 9 analog TV’s.  We have Time Warner Cable service with 4 Digital boxes and 5 wired direct.  However, the last T/W technician that was here told me we weren’t really getting digital service since our neighborhood is an old Adelphia area and doesn’t have any fiber optic cable yet.  T/W said they can swap out my current digital box for an HD box but that the HD box will only work with an HD TV.  Is that true?  They also say that WCET HD is on channel 706.  I don’t want to buy an HD TV at this time, so is there a solution?  Thanks in advance……. FYI, I live in the northern most part of Ross Township in Butler county directly west of downtown Hamilton & south of SR 129 in Indian Creek Trail subdivision.  It was an Adelphia neighborhood until about a year ago. 

     In the Cincinnati area, including your area, CET HD is on 948 (in the Dayton Area it is on 748.)   Create is on Channel 949 on Time Warner Digital Cable.  Nowhere in this area, to my knowledge, is it carried on 706.  I might be wrong, since with the Adelphia sale to Time Warner some line ups have changed.  I will look into it.

     I am puzzled why your cable technician indicated that an HD set top box will solve the problem.  It will not.  The HD box can’t get Create if indeed the system in your neighborhood is not upgraded to Time Warner Digital Cable with all the 900 series channels.  In fact, while Create is a digital channel,  is not an HD service.

     Buying an HD set will not solve the problem since Create is not broadcast over-the-air.  Currently the only way for you to get Create from CET is to get Time Warner Digital Cable with the 900 series of channels activated.       If you do get an HD set and choose to use an antenna for over-the-air reception, you will be able to get CET HD and CET World.

Outdoor Antenna Recommendation

    I got a call from a viewer living in the Dayton area asking what type of TV antenna he could get to receive CET DTV.  It seems that he was switching to one of the satellite carriers from his cable company and he knew that the only way he could get CET would be via over-the-air reception. 

    Well there is no easy answer.  The caller noted that he was about 40 miles north of Cincinnati.  That distance places him within our potential coverage area but there are many other factors that can impact on his ability to receive our DTV.  One way to know for sure is to actually install an antenna and see if it works.  Another is to hire a technician with a signal strength meter.  He or she can measure the quality of the signal and recommend an antenna.  There are several models available that can work. (cf. below) There is absolutely no way to know for sure without actually installing the antenna.

    A byproduct of Digital TV transmission is the “cliff effect.”  Simply put, the digital picture on your TV is either perfect or non existent.  With older analog broadcasting, the farther you traveled from the transmitter the more the picture would get snowy.  Eventually it would just vanish.  With digital signals the new DTV tuner locks on to the signal and keeps the picture perfect until it no longer has enough bits and bytes of information.  When that happens the picture vanishes.  From perfect to non-existent in an instant.

    Since I don’t know if there are hills or buildings that might block or reflect the signal, there is no way of telling what, if any antenna, will work for our caller.  I know from experience, the orientation of the antenna is critical.  The CET studios are located less than 2 miles from the major commercial and non commercial transmitters.   When we try to receive these channels we have found that even over this very short distance, the antenna needed to be precisely oriented.  If it was not, there was no signal at all.

    We have two staff members who live in Butler County.  While they live only a few blocks apart, one gets perfect reception from all Cincinnati DTV stations and the other gets none, no matter the antenna he tries.

    We have reports from other viewers of two antennas that have been successful in receiving signals from as far away as Dayton are the Antennacraft HBU22 and the Radioshack V-190.    An antenna installation company here is Cincinnati that has gotten good reviews is TNT Pictures.  Here is a good place to buy antennas in Dayton http://www.daytonwintronic.com/.

     If you do go with a company to install your antenna you might negotiate with them that you will pay for it only if it works.

    I know it might seem strange that as high tech DTV seems to be, the over-the-air reception problems seem to be reminiscent of the aluminum foil on the rabbit ears days.