Posted on 08/13/2015 6:46:13 PM PDT by dennisw
The same rules of line of sight reception apply to digital as they did to analog. Your surrounding terrain means everything. If you are at the foot of a ridge and the towers are behind you no antenna will help. If you are higher up or in flat terrain an outdoor digital antenna can do wonders. Check for line of sight for issues before investing in an antenna. By line of sight I simply mean no terrain obstructions close by.
When you put an antenna onto them, yes.
There are some homemade designs out there to try. Let the wind blow in your hair. Buy a signal amplifier (or 2) to put in line.
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There is no such thing as a ‘digital antenna’. It is just marketing hype. Rabbit ears indoor, or a standard outdoor or attic antenna works as well. If you find the signal too weak, put in an in-line amplifier (some rabbit ears come with them.) When I want over the air (I haven’t cut the cord - yet) the rabbit ears with the built in amp work fine for the Dallas stations, but Fort Worth is too far. Rabbit ears without an amp are iffy for some of the Dallas stations. (Most Dallas towers are probably about 25 miles). If I decide to cut the cable, I’d probably install a rooftop style antenna in the attic or strap it to the chimney.
The inline amp (built in or separate) will need to be plugged into a wall outlet.
In the Dallas area, WFAA chanel 8 is broadcasting digital, but VHF. So, if you live any significant distance from the tower, you’ll need the larger combination antenna.
bump
As others mentioned, antennaweb and tvfool are great resources.
Note that there is a presumption in antenna sales and designs to only design/sell UHF antennas. Check the above sites, you may still need to receive VHF signals.
Antennas designed in 1954 will work better than most of the UHF only antennas; square panels, flying saucers, built today.
TV stations now use, in most cases, virtual channels. For example in the Lansing market:
WKAR 23 is on RF channel 40
WLAJ 53 is on RF channel 24
WLNS 6 is on RF channel 36
WSYM 47 is on RF channel 38
and
WILX 10 is on RF channel 10 (still on VHF)
Converter boxes will work. I've found them at thrift shops for $10.
Leaf Amplified. Bought at Sam’s Club.
We bought convertor boxes initially as we had two tvs that were not digital.
save the brain cells and don’t watch TV
I still have my very old antenna. The only thing I did was replace the baluns (the piece that converts the antenna leads to the coax cable) and the coax cable from the antenna to my TV. These pieces are exposed to the elements and were very old, so I decided to replace them when the digital transition happened.
The main difference with digital vs analog is this: As the analog signal gets weaker (because of distance, trees or other obstructions) the signal would get snowy. We each had our tolerance for how bad of a signal we would put up with. Digital needs a certain percentage of the ones and zeros to come through correctly to work. If it gets them you have a perfect picture. It it doesn't, you get nothing. There's a small range in the middle where the TV tries to fill in the missing parts and you get some square frozen blocks in the picture, then you fall off the cliff.
An outdoor antenna with some elevation above the roof will receive signals further away than an antenna on the TV inside. Direction is important. It needs to point towards the transmitters. Depending on where you live, they may be mostly in the same place. Other places have them spread out in different locations. A rotatory device may be necessary, depending on the strength of the signals.
Hope this (non-technical) information helps. As my name implies, I work in the business.
Good Luck!
Pretty sure that was ME-TV (aka Memorable Entertainment television). AntennaTV is another good one.
A traditional directional TV antenna will work fine for receiving digital Over the air broadcast. The transmission is on the same frequency as the old analog broadcasts, but the content is now a digital stream.of course for it all to work, your TV must contain. A digital tuner or you can use a converter box to take in the digital signal and convert it to the old analog.
I have an antenna in the attic and it works just fine.
can I pull in fm radio too?
Today I'm about 15 miles from a number of towers...no problems with a $10 antenna.
The mileage claim stated is only for flat terrain with no obstacles.
On another note... A friend of mine bought a cheap 10 dollar set of rabbit ears at Walmart. He later gave those to someone and bought a more expensive amplified set of rabbit ears. He states that the cheap ones worked a lot better and he wished he had them back.
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