HD antenna issue

[Jeff Scott]

Originally Posted by Earl49

...we don't care about the Home Shopping Network in either English or Spanish...

What's your preferred language for HSN?

If it weren't for one program that runs from March through November every year I would not ever turn the TV on except for watching DVDs.

[robj144]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

What's your preferred language for HSN?

If it weren't for one program that runs from March through November every year I would not ever turn the TV on except for watching DVDs.

What a DVD?

[Gunny]

What the heck is an HD antenna? It's a misnomer to get people to buy overpriced stuff. There is UHF and VHF, the same for decades. There are however OK, good and better antennas. I have a rooftop as my job calls for monitoring. I tried those goofy indoor units, but it didn't compare.

Digital signals are much more tolerant than analog and will perform great at lower signal to noise ratios. Many stations around the country are moving frequencies and going to low power. A re-scan from time to time is a good idea.

Some broadcasters were paid millions to vacate certain frequencies and they are then sold to various entities.

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by Jeff Scott

What's your preferred language for HSN?
If it weren't for one program that runs from March through November every year I would not ever turn the TV on except for watching DVDs.

That would be my wife's favorite channel: OFF. The first TV we bought in the 80's was shortly after moving to the SF Bay Area upon graduating from college and was exclusively used to watch 49'er games, back in the glory days of Joe Montana and then Steve Young.

Our TV gets used mostly to watch mindless sitcom reruns while eating dinner or as a distraction when exercising, or winding down mentally after a day of work. It also gets used to play my collection of guitar instructional videos - on DVD - from Homespun Tapes, Stefan Grossman Guitar Workshop, etc. When that TV set eventually dies, we'll think long and hard about replacing it at all - I can always watch guitar DVD's on my computer.

[619TF]

Originally Posted by BigMo66

What the heck is an HD antenna? It's a misnomer to get people to buy overpriced stuff. There is UHF and VHF, the same for decades. There are however OK, good and better antennas. I have a rooftop as my job calls for monitoring. I tried those goofy indoor units, but it didn't compare.

Digital signals are much more tolerant than analog and will perform great at lower signal to noise ratios. Many stations around the country are moving frequencies and going to low power. A re-scan from time to time is a good idea.

Some broadcasters were paid millions to vacate certain frequencies and they are then sold to various entities.

^^THIS. I actually have a TV that has a wire hangar shoved into the ANT slot and it works just fine. "HD antenna" is, no doubt, a huge marketing ploy. "Amplified antenna"? I suppose that depends on how much amplification of the signal. I never found there to be much of a difference in reception where I live. YMMV.

[k_russell]

I had to scan the channels again from the TV last week. The networks made some changes to their broadcasts.

[Inyo]

Most indoor or outdoor antennas--no matter the relative price--are presently marketed as an HDTV antenna.

Those specifically marketed as HDTV antennas are in general no more expensive than antennas not marked HDTV. There is no overpricing. No marketing ploy.

[srick]

Bottom line from a very old radio guy... the higher an antenna and the more directional it is, the better it is. The trade off is that as you increase the antenna gain, you decrease its ‘aperture’ and aiming becomes more important. Preamps are indicated for long runs of cable (ie > 30 ft) or in low signal conditions.

With the recent change in frequencies, the old style yogi antenna with rotator sitting on top of the roof is king.

Here is my living room antenna - it’s a dual bay Gray-Hoverman design, obviously home made out of #10 copper and some wall moulding painted to match our living room. It hides very well! I keep telling my wife that a bigger tv would hide it even better, but she doesn’t buy that argument.

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Its twin is in the attic and connected to an Amazon Fire Recast. In all, I pick up about 47 stations. Our biggest disappointment is that one of our local PBS stations, which is on the fringe of our receiving ability, just changed its frequency; instead of 7 public stations, we now only get three. And if that’s my biggest problem, I’m a pretty lucky guy.

And yes, I do use an expensive Channel Master filter\preamp on both antennas and yes, it makes a difference.

PS - I wonder if using my Tone Rite could help?

[Inyo]

Originally Posted by srick

Bottom line, the higher an antenna and the more directional it is, the better it is.

My take: It's all about antenna location-location-location to attain that glorious condition of digital television signal receptivity optimum. Sometimes you have to calculate with creative out-of-the-box imaginative ingenuity.

[srick]

Inyo, your experience is very common - in fact, my downstairs antenna probably works really well because about 2 feet behind it (on the outside of the house) is a very substantial raingutter. Many items in the house (including human bodies) act as reflectors at these wavelengths and the waves themselves bounce all around. So you found a sweet spot - congrats!

The high, big antenna provides the most reliable, and predicatable signal. Ideally, a vhf\uhf signal is received line of sight. Atmospheric (weather), ionospheric issues (E layer) and foliage can also affect things.

And that's the joy of working with these little beasts - it's sort of like tinkering with your guitar and getting the most out of your set-up.