I understand that the OTA channel becomes flaky. On a TV the signal becomes choppy, sometimes disconnects, then the TV starts working again. But Channels on my AppleTV 4K 100% disconnects from my Channels DVR on a Windows 10 Machine using an HD HomeRun Stream 4. Channels will then give some error message, I'll have to take a picture next time it happens. Have to press Menu, then click on the channel again for it to return. I wish it would go blank, then attempt to reconnect on its own. Unfortunately, we are close to a helicopter flight path and this is constantly happening.
Interestingly, the Devs just made a post today that they are working on improving how Channels deals with HDHR connectivity issues. You may want to join the beta and install that version to try it out and see if it improves your situation there’s a pinned topic on the subject.
Thank you. I sent an email to join the beta.
The message I am getting is "Connection Lost"
This is likely bad reception from the antenna for that moment. If too many moments then it shows connection lost as the error. I also live by an airport, and fixed it with a directional antenna that gets less interference from aircraft than an omnidirectional one. If you want to confirm this, watch the signal on your hd homerun when the helicopter goes over you... either using the hd homerun program on the pc or with the SignalGH app on iPhone (highly recommended!) or by refreshing the settings page on your dvr server page to see current signal strength. I predict you’ll see the signal strength go below 50% for an extended time while the helicopter hovers. If you have access to the same channel via TV Everywhere or Locast that would be a fix, avoiding the antenna altogether.
I also used to have trouble with multipath, living in a city and busy traffic would mess up my signal. But since I have installed two RCI Yagi antennas on my roof, I get all OTA channels perfectly, in all traffic conditions and in all weather. I'm not talking about an expensive antenna. This is a $40 directional antenna you can find on amazon. You just need to find a good place to mount it and point it in the right direction.
Yup my antenna is just like you described, $40 on amazon, but bigger and inside my attic. Nice part about HD Homerun is that it can sit by your antenna, not like you need a big antenna in your living room.
I've got a large $40 RCA Yagi antenna in the Attic. Signal strength is awesome until the helicopters come flying by. It is pointed at the providers towers. Would just like Channels to wait a little longer trying to reconnect. Watching on a TV set loses the signal, then reconnects. Signal Strength 87%, Signal Quality 94%, Symbol Quality 100% at this moment. Not many helicopters on the weekend.
"Cancelling stream 15203D2B/0 ch4.1 after no data was received for 6s" is throughout the logs, of course different stream ID and channel. 6s is just a bit too quick. Have some recordings that this happens to it appears, no one has complained about this but I'm certain they know it was a helicopter.
2021/03/10 10:08:10.168700 [TNR] Cancelling stream 15203D2B/0 ch4.1 after no data was received for 6s
2021/03/10 10:08:10.168700 [TNR] Closed connection to 15203D2B/0 for ch4.1 WRC-HD
2021/03/10 10:08:10.169711 [SNR] Statistics for ch4.1 WRC-HD: ss=71%,70%-78% snq=69%,0%-76% seq=99%,0%-100% bps=6794198,0-13590144 pps=645,0-1289 sigerr=1%
Ok then yes, you’ve exactly diagnosed the problem. I don’t have an issue with helicopters so 6 seconds hasn’t been an issue for me. Funny how these odd use cases pop up!
The Helicopters have always been here, their use has increased considerably lately. Typically we are just signaled that something big is going to happen. If channels would wait longer than 6 seconds, or attempt to reconnect 2 or 3 times that would be appreciated. At least we don't have the V22 Osprey's flying over anymore, while awesome to see, they are a bit louder than the helicopters.
It's vanishingly unlikely that the aircraft itself is blocking the signal (unless they're actually hovering between your antenna and the TV transmitting tower, which seems improbable).
It's much more likely that the avionics are causing some interference. That could be something like radar, but is most likely the radios. Military aircraft frequencies are about 230MHz to 400MHz, between the VHF and UHF TV bands. A filter like this https://www.amazon.com/VHF-UHF-Band-Pass-174-214-470-700MHz-Special/dp/B07HQX5VT2 allows the TV bands through (with a tiny bit of loss) and filters out other bands.
If it turns out it's radar causing the problem, something like this would probably work: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z8YKFCK/
If you know someone (a ham, EE, or electronics tinkerer) with a spectrum analyzer you could probably identify the frequency and get the right filter for it.
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jdw,
Thank you. Ordered the LTE filter to see what it does. We are just under 5 miles from their landing zone, which is another mile from a national airport. So they are busy on the radio most likely. They do hover occasionally, as they come in groups of 4 or more. The local elementary school is the emergency landing field because of the huge wide open grass field there, it is just a block away directly between house and transmit towers, but they don't hover over it but on the rare occasion.