Welcome to the WFTV-DT & WRDQ-DT digital television blog. I’m John Demshock and I lead the engineering and operations team here at Channel 9 and 27. This is my first attempt at a blog, so it’s a learning experience for me. Speaking of learning experiences, the transition of our industry to digital has has been one for all of us. But, when we see and hear the quality of high definition, or enjoy the additional programming on digital sub-channels, it’s really cool. And there are more cool things right around the corner, like mobile services that promise to go way beyond ‘TV on your cell phone’.
Right now, all of the Orlando area TV stations are already broadcasting in digital and many stations are featuring HD programming. So, the digital transition has actually already happened. The next step is to turn off the good-ole’ analog transmitters. That will happen at the end of the broadcast day on February 17, 2009.
There are several sub-channels on the air. My favorite is RTN, which can be found on 27.2 over the air and on Bright house 1028. It’s the “Retro Television Network” and it features all of the old programs I grew up with. WFTV also has a sub-channel, which is our weather radar.
I will be checking in over the coming weeks and will do my best to answer questions and concerns about digital TV.
April 2, 2008 at 10:06 pm
STILL CONFUSED about whether or not I’ll need to get a converter box! I have Brighthouse as my cable carrier. The cable from the wall goes directly plugged into the tvs. QUESTION: will I need to acquire the converter box or not? Brighthouse tried when I called to inquire about this upcoming change and try to get me to subscribe to get the digital tv box. I’m not interested in all these extra channels nor the fact that my monthly fees will be higher. QUESTION #2: if I have to have the box, then it’ll be cheaper to get the coupons to purchase it than to pay the cable company right? or the LAST option, get a HDTV. then what to do with my existing TVs? It’s gonna ruin the already violated atmosphere! PLEASE ADVISE. THANK YOU.
April 5, 2008 at 4:36 am
Hi,
Could you tell me why DTV 27.1 and 27.2 have black bars on each side of the screen? I love RTN 27.2 but hate the black bars.
Thanks.
Brad
April 6, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Hi, is there a program schedule available for RTN 27.2?
Thanks,
Brad
April 9, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Cable sets will not need a converter box to receive local stations after the analag sunset. Your set will work just like it does now.
The black bars on WRDQ and RTN are because the programming is in 4:3 format, but being broadcast in 16:9 format. The black bars ‘fill in’ the blank space. Try using the zoom on your TV to fill the screen.
There is a program guide for RTN. You should be able to find it here:
http://www.wftv.com/tvlistings2/index.html
Thanks – JD
June 1, 2008 at 8:54 am
John, we live in Leesburg and would love to get RTN. Being the dummy that i am i cant figure out how to get 27.2 on my tv’s
June 25, 2008 at 6:05 pm
If we have dish network,will there be any problem with the digital change?
June 25, 2008 at 9:10 pm
The transition test has only added more confusion to an already conflicted issue. Com Cast in Lake County did not work. Will your station do an investigation of this and issue a report.
June 29, 2008 at 9:21 am
I hate the converter!! the picture and sound suck bad. my antenna gets 23 channels. if the converter stops me from seeing the channels i watch most I’ll just give up tv…
June 29, 2008 at 9:38 am
The convert works if you tune to ch. 3 and let it program your channels. but i only got 4 channels with very bad pictures with dots, boxes and lines and some had no voice at all.
MY ANTENNA CHANNELS: 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 18, 24, 27, 28, 32, 35, 44, 45, 50, 52, 56, 65, 68, and a few spanish chs, i delete. only 2 or 3 have bad reception from an antenna that is over 20 years old with no knobs just 2 retractable and movable rods!!!! it’s worked great for the 10 years i”ve been in FL and since 1986 when i got the tv. in PA.
That is why I think this is a “Public rip-off” to let the cable companys run everyone household. The goverment taking over our livingrooms!!!!!
July 3, 2008 at 8:48 am
Product sponsers pay to put their commercials on TV
then the cable companies charge me to watch the
commercials. Either i’m very stupid or the sponsers
are. What do you think?
July 19, 2008 at 5:46 am
Will an outside antenna work in Deltona and get a quality picture. I have about had it with the $140 a month cable bill, I think brighthouse is owned by EXXON! If I knew what antenna to purchase and the quality of the reception to be good I would drop brighthouse in a minute. How about the networks helping us make that decision with some sort of guide to receving DTV in your home without cable?
August 19, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I think the fact that the government is forcing us to convert to digital is communistic. I have my converter boxes, used my coupons early on to purchase them. Yes, I have more channels, not much I want to see but do have more channels. Yes, the quality is highly improved for the times it ACTUALLY WORKS! I hope whoever the communist is that came up with the idea of forcing digital television on us will work out the kinks so that we don’t have all these digitized moments when all you see is a bunch of little squares and no sound! It took a couple of weeks for me to realize that the set up on the box had to be programmed so that I had full use of my screen and not the preset screen size and to prevent the stupid box from turning off every four hours. Whose idea was it to set that as the default anyways??? Probably the same government commie who has all the telephone answering systems set to ask you to press 1 for English! God bless what is left of America, it is shrinking fast!
August 21, 2008 at 10:47 am
I purchased three digital converter boxes this past weekend, set them up, read the manuals and programmed everything perfectly. All worked fine. Then TS Fay hovered and then no reception on any of the TV’s no matter which way the antenna’s were moved. It was horrible and gave me a headache getting only every other word of the broadcast. I stayed tuned to Channel 9 to try and get updates but it was so broken up I did not have any real idea what was being said. Finally this morning I unplugged it and was able to at least watch the news. So with this switch happening in February it means that whenever any bad weather comes around there will be no reception?? I am in Orlando, I live in a condo so an outside antenna is not an option. I have three sets from various years, the most recent a SDTV. It made no difference the location of the TV in the condo or age of the set. This has been the most frustrating few days. Luckily I was able to unplug it but come February won’t have that option. What a horrible thing. I won’t pay the high cable fees and was happy with the options available for TV viewing through antenna. So what are the millions of people going to do when their weather goes bad? Really a mess.
November 10, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I have been using a digital conversion box for several months. I enjoy the shows on RTN (27-2). However there is something I do not understand. The program data (EPG) for channel 27 seems to be messed up. There is no EPG for Ch 27-2. However, if I am tuned to CH 27-1, there is EPG shown, but it is actually the EPG for CH 27-2. I do not see the EPG for CH 27-1 at all. This seems to be the case for different brands of the digital converter (I have several). The EPG for CH 9 seems to work just fine as expected. I wonder if you are aware of this problem, and if you have any idea about the fix.
Thanks
November 30, 2008 at 7:46 am
I have hooked up my converter box and CANNOT get channel 9. What must I do?
December 3, 2008 at 11:48 am
If your converter box doesn’t get a particular channel, it’s probably your antenna. You need an antenna that is capable of receiving UHF channels. That’s because most DTV stations actually broadcast in the UHF band. So, channel 9 is actually broadcasting on UHF 39. Your converter box or digital TV maps us to show up as channel 9.1.
Try visiting http://www.antennaweb.org to find out the best antenna solution for where you live.
December 3, 2008 at 11:51 am
If your program guide is not acting properly, you probably need a ‘firmware’ update to your converter box. I’ve heard of situations with earlier Zenith converter boxes where the program guide may be listed on the wrong sub-channel. Please e-mail me directly if you are experiencing this. john@wftv.com Thanks.
December 3, 2008 at 11:57 am
If you live in the Deltona area, an outdoor antenna that is ‘digital ready’ will probably do fine. By ‘digital ready’ I mean an antenna made to receive UHF and the high VHF channels. A color code has been set up by the Consumer Electronics Association to help viewers determine which antenna to use. In Deltona, you proabably need a ‘blue’ code. Try http://www.antennaweb.org. It will tell you the best antenna for your location.
January 5, 2009 at 2:46 pm
we really enjoy27.2 and would like to find a programming schedule. this is my first reply to any blog
January 7, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Channel 27-2 program volume is to low. The commercials come in to loud. Annoying watching a show at full volume to have to turn it down every time a commercial comes on. Lets get it fixed up there will ya…
January 7, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I have a radio that gets TV band. Is there any way that I will be able to receive this after the change ? New equipment ? if so, what ?
February 1, 2009 at 9:36 pm
I live in Melbourne approx 40 air miles from Orlando DTV stations. I bought a small battery operated DTV for use when Powers out, Hurricanes, Etc. I scanned for channels and get the old analog signals, but only one Digital station. It doesn’t have news or weather. It looks like the new digital signals don’t transmit signal as far as the old analog.
Will Orlando have a digital retransmission tower for Melbourne residents?
February 19, 2009 at 11:27 pm
got an converter box wrdq says gone digital but cant get programing on ch#27 but get most other channels fine and that channel comes in clear vith that posting thats it ?? im confused
February 21, 2009 at 3:45 pm
I can no longer get WFTV 9.1 over brighthouse basic cable (started about a week ago). Have rescanned channels on 2 sets to no avail. I get all the other QAM channels.
Does anyone else have this problem???
February 21, 2009 at 10:05 pm
got box and ch#27 and the screen gone digital no programs ect all other channels are ok whts up ive scaned channels ect ??? help would be nice ok with ch#27 and all comes up clear love 2 get help on whts up thanks
February 22, 2009 at 6:11 am
I don’t know how far you are from the transmission tower , but here in Melbourne, I’m able to get both Channel 9-1 and 27-1 with a small indoor uhf antenna. My guess would be that its your antenna. Try moving your antenna around, and try another rescan Greg. As for Toms problem with QAM, I really don’t know, but would try hooking up a small UHF antenna , if you have an open cable connection, then rescan your set
February 22, 2009 at 10:21 pm
Some converter boxes have ‘analog pass-thru”. That means that they pass through the analog channels and provide the digital channels. It may be that you are tuning channel 27, which is the analog station that is no longer broadcasting. Try 27.1 which will provide the digital station. The same is true with other stations, like 9, 9.1; 2, 2.1 and so on.
Thanks for watching
-JD
February 22, 2009 at 10:24 pm
If you are a Bright house customer and no longer get 9.1, 9.2 please go to your menu, select ’setup’ and then select ‘learn channels, or acquire channels’. Bright house moved us and a few other stations on their system, causing this problem. If you still have the problem, please let me know. My e-mail is john@wftv.com. Phone is 407-841-9000 ext 8400.
March 19, 2009 at 12:30 am
Whats with the white dots everynight on WFTV-HD during ABC programming?
March 19, 2009 at 8:49 am
WFTV is the only over-the-air HD channel I’m getting which has issues with pixel “sparkles” in the dark/black areas of the screen. I’m running a UHF antenna directly into the back of a 47″ Philips TV. All my stations are coming in great, including WFTV except for the white sparkles (or dots) dancing around in dark areas of the screen during HD broadcasts.
To make sure it was not my TV, I also checked a digital recording captured by my HDHomeRun which was grabbing the live ATSC from the antenna. It too records sparkles in the dark areas of HD broadcasts from your channel. Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Keith
March 19, 2009 at 5:04 pm
White sparkles on WFTV (1090). Super annoying when trying to watch “atmospheric” shows like Lost and Life on Mars. We are experiencing them on both of our tv’s. Our neighbors also experiencing the same problem here in our condo building.
March 25, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Also have the white sparkles – and also only on WFTV 1090. Since both HD over-the-air and Brighthouse customers are seeing this, it must be in your broadcast. This is really awful. Is anyone looking into this or working on it? Please let us know… we’d all really appreciate it.
April 30, 2009 at 4:08 pm
WFTV-HD 9.1
WFTV-WX 9.2
Abc show playing on WFTV except ABC Kids. On a Saturday morning,
WFTS-HD 28.1 plays ABC Kids while WFTV-HD 9.1 Orlando plays Channel 9 Eyewitness News Saturday Morning. Then 10am play ABC Kids minus POWER RANGERS RPM. I watch ABC ACTION NEWS (WFTS-HD) Tampa for POWER RANGERS RPM. WFTV-HD 9.1 should play ABC Kids. I’m a fan of POWER RANGERS on ABC Kids.
BTW WFTV and WFTS is not the Same ABC Saturday Morning Broadcaster. WFTV PWNED.
August 30, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I live in Sebastian and we no longer get WFTV (Channel 9). This is especially devastating to us as we have come to depend on WFTV for much of our local news, weather, current events, sports, etc. We can’t get this service from West Palm as they seem to ignore what’s going on in northern Indian River County. Is there anything that can be done to return this station to us? We feel absolutely lost without it. Whatever you can do will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much,
Bobbie
October 16, 2009 at 8:28 am
I live in the ocala forest and on days that are clear and sunny i loose your signal completely but when it,s raining or during storms i get excellent recption also i get great reception late night and lose it in morning after 8;30 9;00am why is this it makes no sense to me? thank you,chuck