OTA digital TV?

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Anyone in the Davis Square area successfully pulling in TV signals with a TV antenna?

For a variety of reasons I'm looking to retire our cable, but I want some feedback before I buy a large antenna.

Comments

Yup

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

No problem for me. I pick up plenty of broadcast stations. They are less robust than the analog versions, though. At times, just walking around the room totally disrupts the signal.

Re: Yup

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

What are you using for an antenna and converter box, if I may ask? I'm interested in peoples' practical experiences as to what works.

One big problem with digital TV is the "cliff effect"...analog works better at the limits of reception. You get a degraded but still intelligible signal. Digital simply cuts off.

ETA: I should add that I'm looking for something that will work inside an apartment, since I have no roof access.

Re: Yup

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

I did not need a converter for my TV, since it is not that old. I just have a stupid rabbit ears antenna behind the TV (perhaps 2.5 feet long). Digital is way better than analog in terms of pic quality, but not in terms of robustness (as you say, probably because I pick up weak signals, reception is easily disrupted and you get those "frozen screens" while it waits for new, usable signal).

Re: Yup

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

I have an ancient television...over 15 years old and still works.

Re: Yup

[ron_newman]

How does it work? I didn't think any TV had a digital tuner 15 years ago.

Re: Yup

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

well, in the sense that it works when I hook a DVD player up to it. I think I last tuned in broadcast TV during the 2004 World Series.

[gandalfgreyhame.livejournal.com]

I'm using one of these with fairly good results: http://www.amazon.com/Terk-Amplified-High-Definition-Antenna-Reception/dp/B0007MXZB2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1252274612&sr=8-1

(I've got it perched atop one of my bookshelves, I'm in a first floor flat by Morrison & Cedar)

I get more TV stations than I know what to do with, including all of the network stations, and they all look great.

Works fine

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

I have a 10-15 year old TV with rabbit ears and using a converter, I get all my previous analog stations plus the new digital ones. r\Reception is great and I rarely have problems. Every now and then a station cuts out for a while but I assume that is their problem not mine. I should note that I am on the third floor.

[ron_newman]

Tagging as 'utilities' for want of anything more appropriate. There's been some past DTV discussion under this tag.

[http://users.livejournal.com/cgull_/]

I put a larger rooftop antenna in the attic 10+ years ago, before I had cable. Worked fine then, works fine now that I no longer bother with cable, and I get more stations than ever.

[masswich.livejournal.com]

I have a Zenith box and a very standard antenna. Not much of a problem except the occasional "cliff."

We actually have a roof antenna in our attic but we've never bothered to hook it up. But we are up on the hill, which may help.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I tried it briefly about 3 years ago, with a $20 "HD antenna" that sat next to the TV (as opposed to needing to be installed on the roof or something) on the 1st floor of a 3-family house near Powderhouse. It seemed to work fine, though the occasional drop-outs were a little more frequent than what you get with digital cable. But I switched to HD cable a few days later so I didn't use the antenna for very long. I'm not sure if it's somehow improved since the digital switchover.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Yes. I have three of those boxes ( one is from the pre-coupon days ).

The one I like best is from a company called Channel Master. It seemed pretty sensitive, had an electronic program guide and S-video out, and doesn't get "fussy" about the signal when you walk around the room.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=CM-7000

Any rabbit ears will do. You can collapse the VHF part as most of the digital signals are UHF. You may want to put it up on a shelf; height counts. You might not want a fancy amplified antenna in the city.

I use the type that looks like two copper bow-ties over a grate. Radio Shack doesn't sell them anymore, but the aforementioned catalog has something similar... http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?PROD=AD-DB2

Also, can anybody get that German station on channel 26? It's low power and coming from downtown; West Somerville doesn't have a clear shot at it. If you're west of Cedar St I'd like to hear what antenna you're using myself.

[zmgmeister.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'd like to shout out that the computer shop that recently moved from Davis to Ball square installs free-to-air satellite systems. So if you want to supplement your digital locals with some satellite signals ( free satellite has lots of foreign language broadcasters, public television, government ( NASA, Pentagon )), give them a call.

I've also read on forums that one of the pay satellite providers ( forget whether it ws Directv or Dish ) has a prepaid option. Some people report that they were actually able to buy service on a per-day basis ( it had something to do with a "Green Dot" cash card sold at Wal-Mart ), which would be good for us who might only need big channels when we're entertaining.

[ron_newman]

Computer shop is called Angeltronics; here's their TV FAQ page.

[artguychris.livejournal.com]

If you have an old UHF bowtie or loop antenna, give it a try. The new HD stations use the same frequencies, so the antenna should work OK for at least the strongest local stations.

I built one of these from coat hangers and it worked really well. My mother in law is using it on the south shore with a cheap converter box and works great.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/maker_workshop_dtv_antenna_steadyca.html

[lefauxfrog.livejournal.com]

I bought one of these antennas from Amazon and it works perfectly. Crystal clear reception of about 15 channels.

Terk HDTVa Indoor Amplified High-Definition Antenna for Off-Air HDTV Reception
http://www.amazon.com/Terk-Amplified-High-Definition-Antenna-Reception/dp/B0007MXZB2

Admittedly, my apartment is on a hill so your mileage may vary.

I also picked up a standard HDTV converter box from Radio Shack in Porter Square. No problem using that either and the remote control it comes with is well designed.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

We have a converter box and an TV that is maybe 7-10 years old (from when the previous TV that dated from the early 1980s died!), with a pair of plain old passive rabbit ears (whose mechanical attachment to the TV cracked, and is now kind of wobbly, so we can't even guarantee that they're always pointing the same way) that we bought to improve analog reception when we cancelled cable 4 years ago. The converter box we got is the Dish Network TR-40 (priced at the cost of the DTV coupon plus $8 shipping).

We get better digital reception than we did analog. I am not a big TV watcher so I did not really notice whether we lost any channels we used to have in analog or gained any new ones - the number is roughly the same, besides the fact that now we get a half dozen PBS choices from GBH and GBX instead of only 2, yay. All the major channels are fine.

One thing I have noticed about the TR-40 box, fwiw, is that if you turn off the TV and not the box (say, because your small child presses the TV button herself and then you do not notice), and then leave the box on for a few days, it tends to "hang" in some state where the power LED is on but it's not sending signal to the TV anymore, and you have to power cycle it to get it to turn off and then respond properly to being turned back on.

We live up near Powderhouse and the Tufts athletic fields (chenoameg knows that, but other readers who might care where this reception cmoes from.