Posted on 04/28/2007 9:21:19 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
CLEVELAND — Buying an antenna for a high-definition television seems as out of place as using a rotary phone to make a call. But some consumers are spending thousands of dollars on LCD or plasma TVs and hooking them up to $50 antennas that don't look much different from what grandpa had on top of his black-and-white picture tube.
They're not doing it for the nostalgia.
Local TV channels, broadcast in HD over-the-air, offer superior picture quality over the often-compressed signals sent by cable and satellite TV companies.
And the best part? Over-the-air HD is free.
(Excerpt) Read more at spokesmanreview.com ...
“Question: Why does my cheap itty bitty little TV that I can put on a bathroom vanity get better reception than a 32” Sony that we have in our family room?”
Very often, television manufacturers don’t bother building a tuner with decent weak signal performance. They assume that you will never use an indoor antenna. Small sets come equipped with an indoor antenna and HAVE to work with them.
They have better “front ends” than the big sets.
I haven't subscribed to cable since 1992, for two reasons:
1) I don't watch nearly enough TV to justify the monthly expense, and
2) I resent the legal extortion perpetrated by cable/satellite companies which suggests that I have to "pay a reasonable fee" for broadcast channels.
I'm gonna utter a little blasphemy here...there's more to life than TV.
Gee. I had forgotten all about our old antenna. MY Daddy had it mounted on the roof and we had a gadget that rotated it. I haven’t thought about that in years.
LOL we did this when we first got our 42” plasma! *giggles* It looked rediculous — but it worked! Now we have dish (which bites).
You’re absolutely right, but for general info I’ll detail what my Mom did. It may be the only scam she’s ever pulled in her life!
Where we are there is practically zero TV reception sans cable or dish. We’re not far from civilization, but we’re behind hills from the nearby urban areas where broadcasts originate. So without an antenna, we get maybe 2-3 channels so weakly that the TV intermittently blanks them or just plain loses them. Unwatchable.
Meanwhile, “basic” cable has crept up from $20 to $40. Mom decided it wasn’t worth it. So, she actually called the cable co and said she wanted to cancel because she just didn’t get the use out of it.
Cable co ended up giving her some kind of ultra basic rate that’s actually not listed on their rate sheet = $18 or $19 a month! Obviously, the wire is in place and they’re $18 better off getting $18 than nothing! She lost only a thin tier of maybe half a dozen “above basic but below premium” channels. For most, that tier is History-CNBC, maybe a few others. Yeah, I like the History channel, but after you learn about every stinking rivet on a B-17, you’re pretty much covered.
I’m gonna utter a little blasphemy here...there’s more to life than TV.
I turned off the TV on June 15, 2006 and this was one of the most empowering things I have ever done. I read alot more and I don’t receive the “lack and garbage” programming that goes through the airwaves and cable.
I read alot on personal development and also on postive attitude.
This totally confuses me. I bought my Mom, who lives in a rural area with broadcast TV, a Phillips HDTV for last Mother’s Day. The picture is brilliant, and she gets channels that I don’t get on my cable service, like the PBS Create channel, which I’d never heard of.
So when I call my cable company lately to ask what would happen when I get an HDTV (because I want one soon and I am checking it out), they say I would need an HD box, not my current digital cable box, even if I buy a TV with HD in it, as opposed to the “HD-ready” TVs. Then, even though they have been advertising that they now carry local broadcast HD channels, she tells me I’d need an HD antenna for that! I am fed up - it’s kinda pathetic when I might have to trust the guys at Best Buy who sell me the TV more than my cable company (Mediacom).
“You may have to fiddle with the antenna, direction wise...”
I have a vague memory of a friend’ house growing up that had a dial near the TV that would rotate the antenna up in the attic/roof to get the best reception.
In my state, wabbit season is any months with a "R" in it. That leaves the summer month with no wabbits. That won't get it.
Another no-TV Freeper here! We have a set but no cable, antenna, reception at all.
We do watch DVDs from Netflix, however.
The only things I’ve missed from TV in the past decade are: presidential debates, State of the Union addresses, and the Olympics.
When I’m in a hotel I check TVland sometimes—it seems as bad as ever. No loss.
I don’t care what kind of reception you’re going to give me,
I’m not getting an enema.
The big detail missing from this article is that in order to receive the HD signal & see it as a HD picture on your HD TV, you must have a TV that has a HD receiver! MANY sets sold now are simple HD monitors which lack a built in HD receiver because most people aren’t going to need the receiver since they will be using a HD cable box provided by their cable company which acts as the HD receiver. If U get a HD monitor & throw an antenna on it you won’t be seeing a HD picture!
I had a set of rabbit ears for the HD TV. We replaced them with another antenna we mounted in the attic.
The rabbit ears were not that good, when I was washing the dishes in the kitchen, the signal would go bye bye. Because my body was in the way of the waves on their way to the antenna.
Yes, this is accurate.
I had a set of rabbit ears for the HD TV. We replaced them with another antenna we mounted in the attic.
The rabbit ears were not that good, when I was washing the dishes in the kitchen, the signal would go bye bye. Because my body was in the way of the waves on their way to the antenna.
Yes, this is accurate.
I had a set of rabbit ears for the HD TV. We replaced them with another antenna we mounted in the attic.
The rabbit ears were not that good, when I was washing the dishes in the kitchen, the signal would go bye bye. Because my body was in the way of the waves on their way to the antenna.
Yes, this is accurate.
Why do I imagine Al Bundy instructing his family to “assume Fox viewing position” with coat hangers and tin foil?
I have a Channel Master 4228.
Who’s got the HDTV ping list?
That’s almost exactly my setup. I’m really not all the far from the broadcast antenna district, but I’m behind a ridgeline, and have lots of trees to contend with. In short, my line-of-sight, sucks.
Do you know anything about satellite PC?
Does it work?
Is it a scam?
What is the cost?
Thanks . . .
Actually, almost everything sold now, has a built-in HDTV OTA (Over-The-Air) tuner.
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