Today's windy weather may challenge reception but did you try moving your antenna towards Hudson?
I note that my ClearStream 4MAX in the attic pulls in the Needham broadcasts with 100% signal strength but the ATSC 3.0 signals from Hudson are only at about 67% (per the Channels "Show Stats")
I'm in Arlington MA as well, and getting good reception of RF27/ATSC 3.0 lighthouse signals here. Before the switch, I was getting good reception of the ATSC 1.0 on the same frequency.
I suppose it will depend on your antenna orientation, and whether you've got unfavorable terrain from the Hudson antenna (that you might not have from the Needham antennas)
What are the recommended settings for Apple TV with this content?
No change. ATSC 3 is no different in content than ATSC 1. It's just a different method of encoding the signal. It's 1080P or 720P depending on your stations decision for up-converting. It's not HDR, it's not 4k. BTW on ATV in many markets you only get stereo 2 channel sound if you use a Silicon Dust tuner. ATSC 1 you get 6 channel sound.
I get 6 channels with codec ac4 at an incredibly low bitrate of about 100kbps. The issue with getting only 2 channels must be your local broadcaster or selecting a 2 channel audio track. In my area the volume of the 5.1 track is very low (-20dB?). It was suggested to select 2.0 audio as a workaround.
Ther is a setting in the HDHomeRun APP to select the type of Audio your audio system supports. I have yet to see an ATSC 3.0 stereo broadcast.
I am not using their app. HDHR is connected to Channels. The info page when watching any of the 7 ATSC 3.0 stations in my market show all of them only have 2 channel audio. Same for the last market I lived in. If you use the HDHR app it sends the AC4 audio back over the internet to SD to be decoded and then they send it back to you. They are handling it. It has been documented many times in several forums that the ATV does not handle AC4 decoding properly.
Using only Channels as the viewing app? I can get fake 6 channels using the HDHR app, all the channels it outputs are the exact same audio, just the rears are 20db lower. That is documented on their site that they take the audio to the rears and drop the level. The only TRUE 5.1 audio I get is using the built in HDHR app on my OLED TV because the TV does have a proper AC4 decoder.
Which tuner do you have? I have the HDHR5-4K. Its on the latest firmware.
Is there a way to see the channel stats on the HDHR app for ATV. Curious to see if it shows true 5.1 decoding.
Use VLC^H^H^H ffmpeg
channels@debian1:~/channels-dvr/latest$ ./ffmpeg -i http://172.31.31.33:5004/auto/v104.1
Input #0, mpegts, from 'http://172.31.31.33:5004/auto/v104.1':
Program 3
Stream #0:0[0x31]: Video: hevc (Main 10) ([36][0][0][0] / 0x0024), yuv420p10le(tv, bt709, progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], Closed Captions, 59.94 fps, 59.94 tbr, 90k tbn
Stream #0:1[0x32](spa): Audio: ac4 (AC-4 / 0x342D4341), 46034 Hz, stereo, fltp
Stream #0:2[0x33](eng): Audio: ac4 (AC-4 / 0x342D4341), 46034 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp
Stream #0:3[0x39](eng): Data: bin_data (STPP / 0x50505453)
Stream #0:4[0x3a](spa): Data: bin_data (STPP / 0x50505453)
Well as the devs for Channels said sometime back, it really depends on the market you are in and how your broadcaster is encoding the signal. There are currently two different encoding schemes being used by stations across the country. My luck I have lived in two markets that both use the one that ATV does not like.
That sounds reasonable ... My Market was one of the very first to convert to ATSC 3.0 maybe they have ironed all the bugs out.
I have heard the ZapperBox will decode AC4 in the box and send it out as Dolby or PCM. May have to switch to that if I want surround sound.
Of course once the stations turn on DRM then Channels wont be of much use unless they can get the decryption keys. WESH in FL already turned on DRM and SD boxes can't decode it yet. SD says they are working on getting the certs, but it will only work with their app.
And the ZapperBox has the same problem with WESH encryption.
HDHomeRun App - Windows 10 / XBox One (20230202)
HDHomeRun App - Android / Fire TV (20230202)
HDHomeRun App - iOS (20230202)
HDHomeRun App - AppleTV (20230202)