Hi there xeon450,

Just wondering if you ever got your reciever to update thru the satellite ?

I have the same reciever, and the same problem when tuning to ota NBC 2-1 - reciever just keeps rebooting; I've left it a friends house for the last few weeks plugged into his dish, (I dont have sat or cable) I dont know if the reciever updated yet, I havent checked. - fortunately for me I also have a T151 which I upgraded using the PC, so I'm just using that receiver right now.

I also called Samsing USA, they said I could ship them my reciever but they wont ship it back into Canada, so I need a US address for the return shipping. - I may yet have to go this route.

Anyone know why ATSC tuners/recievers are so hard to get in Canada ? or when the electronics companies will start selling them here ? (Maybe they do and I can't find them ?) I've bought my recievers through the eBay route - I'm sure many other people have done the same, trouble is, it leaves you with no service/support from the manufacturer, the TS160 firmware upgrade problem is an example of that.

With recievers so hard to get, I dont imagine CityHD have too many ota viewers.

I'm hoping the situation will improve, especially now that CBC will soon be joining CityTV and Toronto1 - I was recieving their test transmissions, but they seem to have gone off the air, I guess they're still setting things up; Mmmmm, but with the Hockey lockout do CBC have any other HD Content that's worth a look ?

This message was edited by ontariocraig on 01/16/05 11:46 ET.

Odd, couldn't get ABC tonight... but no trouble with NBC (which is usually what drops off first).

Hmm ... really odd ... I watched Golden Globe on NBC from 7 pm to 10 pm with many drops off then I switched to ABC to watch Boston Legal and I watch it without any problem...
I am on the north-west side of GTA (more exactly on Bolton)... maybe the snowstorm from Buffalo somehow affected only your area...

Canada in about 6 months behind US in getting new TV models. The only tvs in Canada with built in ASTC and QAM tuners are the new Sony and Hitachi LCD rear projection TVs ( both about $5000).Cheaper CRT based big screen HDTV's will hopefully be in Canada by April. But the Cable tuner (QAM) may not be able to get cable unencrypted HD signals ever with cable card(Rogers claims they will have cards by April but no pricing info) I'm trying to get a straight answer on if the built in Cable tuner will cover the 200-300 channel range where Rogers puts all the HD signals but can't get a straight answer from anyone.
MY big screen broke recently and i'm waiting for the new sets to get up here....but it could be a long wait.

Seems to be something odd going on with WKBW 38-1 for me... just can't get a lock for the past few days. Which is odd, as I've never had trouble before, and can get WGRZ 33-1 OK which is always the one to fade out first if there's atmospheric issues.

I just purchased a sealed virgin P5 card off of Ebay that should have been able to receive the preview channels, but the error message still appeared "Please insert a valid Access Card" on channel 100...what card are you or your friend using to try to get the update?

I use a P3 card, as I've never had the satellite connected - I use it purely as an OTA reciever.
I've still not checked if it's updated, it'll be another week or two before I go pick it up. When I spoke to the tech at Samsung he told me to leave it uned to ch100 - said I dont need a subscription. From your experiences it sounds like Im going to have to mail it to Samsung.

Just some thoughts....

I was just looking at DirecTVs channel lineup, it says a few of the channels are free to those who have a "DirectTV Multi Satellite System" - Im not sure what that is, but maybe, if you have the latest card, you can try tuning to some of the free channels, see if they come "in the clear" - and see if it updates the firmware while tuned into those channels ?

[Link: directv.com]

I also remember reading somewhere that they dont send out the firmware very frequently - every few days at best, possibly less now, as the TS160 is a discontinued model, and from DirecTVs point of view, all of them that are out there, should've been updated by now ?

Another thing Im not to clear on is whether it needs the phone connected - Samsung said not, but I'm not 100% convinced.

I'll post my results on here when I get my reciever back, let you know if I had any luck or not.

Thanks ontariocraig for the info.

The problem I had of not receiving the preview channels was actually due to a defective card slot reader!! Luckily, the Ebay seller agreed to exchange the unit with another one. So far I've left the receiver on channel 100 (but powered off) for the past two days...no upgrade yet. In the meantime, I've emailed Directv support and asked when their next transmission of the upgrade is...I'll keep you posted.

Have you had any success with your TS160??

Sanyo has a 27" 4: 3 and a 30" 16:9 with built in ATSC tuner. Both available at Wallmart. I got the 27" to play my Xbox on. Tuning in the OTA channels was a unexpected bonus. It's all I watch now.

Well, something weird going on with NBC... I know I've seen reports that it causes some Samsung receivers to reboot, and sure I've had that a couple times over the past few months with my SIR-T165, but tonight I simply can't lock in - no matter what it causes the unit to crash and reboot. Sometimes I get a half second of picture and then it locks up with repeating sound.

Now normally when something like this happens it will lock into the signal after rebooting no problem, but now it just sits there stuck on the "Hello" message, I have to channel up/down repeatedly to get it to go elsewhere.

Yesterday it was working fine - watched Medium.

Hi Xeon450,

Sorry, Still not picked it up yet ! I have my SIR-T151, so I've been lazy about driving over to my friends house to pick it up, that said, I plan on getting it this weekend, so I'll post results here during the weekend. I'm hopeful, but not optimistic...

I'm up here in Peterborough and I just wish they'd put HDTV on this nice shiny new 1000+ foot tower that they just put up (replacing old shorter one). We can't get anything up here other than cable/satellite for hdtv.

Does anyone know if anyone has plans to put an HD transmitter on it? I got really excited when I saw Peterborough was marked on the map, but then realized there weren't any stations associated with it.

Thanks,
Bruce

Yeah, I've just tried to map any and all TV transmitters in the region. Only the ones with labels are broadcasting (or planning to broadcast) HDTV. I show that channel as CHEX, and I can't find any HDTV plans for them.