Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

[mdunn]

I live in the sticks. Have been using rabbit ears so because analog signals are going away purchased a converter last week and hooked it up.

Great picture I must admit.

Only problem is that on some stations we get a kind of pause in the audio signal and a funny little "jiggle" in the video at pretty frequent intervals.
Is this how a weak signal manifests itself in digital format?
Where before with standard analog the picture is just not as clear?
A little more annoying to put up with then just a crappy picture.
Could be a good thing. My wife is thinking more favorably to approving a dish.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

If you are using rabbit ears you may want to consider mounting an outside antenna...it will make a huge difference.
Digital signals when weak will pause,freeze up and have audio problems.

This is the one i put up and i'm very pleased.Picks up stations 80 miles away.
http://www.antennasdirect.com/DB8_HD_Antenna.html

Here is some great info too,
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

 

[joed]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

Digital image will start pixelating when the signal gets weak or it will disappear. The symptoms you describe do sound like weak signal.

 

[mthieme]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

Yup.
Time for a roof mounted antenna.
I'm shopping around for the same thing.
Go to www.antennaweb.org. you can put your zip code in and see what stations are around you and their distance which will help you decide what kind of antenna you need.
I made an antenna (indoor) out of coat hangers - there's a you-tube video that you should be able to find easily on this - but it isn't much better than rabbit ears.
I'm torn between a newer style amplified multi-directional or a rotating old style yagi (which will give you the greatest distance).
I have much shopping info at the moment.
If you come up with how far away you want to pick upp stations and a particular style, I can post some products for you to look at.

 

[gbb]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

I live in PA and went to Radio Shack and bought an hd anntenna, I think for $80.00. It looks like a dish. This thing is great I pick up all the Balto. channels and also getting them in HD. Its great to get hd channels and not be charged an arm and leg.

 

[rwise]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

Yep, time to put up an outside antenna, mine is on the way should be here tomorrow at a cost of about $35 delivered. It is made by GE and is an omni directional amplified antenna, looks like a can on a pole I'll post back when it's up about 30 - 40 feet,,,,

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

get a kind of pause in the audio signal and a funny little "jiggle" in the video at pretty frequent intervals.
1.) Is this how a weak signal manifests itself in digital format?
2.) Where before with standard analog the picture is just not as clear?.

1.) Yes
2.) Yes

Yep, digital is great for a clear strong signal, but any interruption it just goes away. No digital signal in mean blank screen or cuts away. Just as with a lot of other digital technologies (cells phone most notably) digital is better in perfect conditions. In the real world, it sucks!
Yeah, wasn't it nice in the old days, the screen just got a little fuzzy when the Mrs walked from the kitchen to the couch? But you could still make out what just happened or was said on the screen. But NOOOOO, not anymore. My three year old moves, and I miss David Tyrell's (is that the correct guy?) most amazing grab in the Super Bowl, cause the screen go blank as he leaps and returns when he's already standing up.
Technology, got to love it! (Especially when the Federal Government gets involved!)

 

[chrisg]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

we all have to lower our expectations!

 

[rwise]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

Put up an *Active 5* antenna last night. 40' up (gets above the trees), multi directional DX, remote control, all I can say is it works better than the rabbit ears, I get more stations but not all I do with analog, and some I dont but did not want,,,

 

[rogerwa]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

One thing that is helpful to understand is that many of the HD and digital channels are in the UHF range and not the VHF that the lower channels are on. The UHF requires a different type of antenna than the VHF.

When I switched from analog to digital this past summer I bought one of those huge antennas that is supposedly VHF/UHF but did not get a reliable HD/digital signal.

I ordered the DC9 (Ithink it is) from antennas direct and wired it into a signal combiner and then an amp and I watch perfect HD.

Check the Antennaweb site to find out where your broadcasts are coming from, how far to the tranmitter, and whether they are VHF/UHF and plan you antenna accordingly.

I am ~ 20-30 miles to the transmitters and am doing just fine. I assume that once I pull that big antenna of the combiner and remove those connections, my signal will be that much better.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

The digital signal is more directional for sure.
Heres the link to the maps from your house..

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx

Here is the same antenna that antennadirect.com sells for 118 bucks.

This one is 69 bucks....
http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?main_cat=03&CAT=&PROD=AD-DB8

Solidsignal.com has some good prices.
I bought the same antenna and it reaches out almost 100 miles when aimed at the transmitters.

 

[rwise]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

I dont think Antennaweb site is very accurate, I believe EUREKA SPRINGS, AR is a bit more than 24 miles from Tulsa OK! And that was not the only one,,,,

 

[mthieme]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

When I switched from analog to digital this past summer I bought one of those huge antennas that is supposedly VHF/UHF but did not get a reliable HD/digital signal.

If you look at the gain curve on a typical UHF/VHF antenna, each end of the spectrum usually has very little gain.

 

[bowman316]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

you guys all know that basic analog cable will not work anymore after feb.
you can no longer hook up the cable line directly to the back of your tv.
you will have to rent a digital cable box from comcast for each tv, and it will cost $5 a month for each tv, just like sat.
so now sat is looking better than cable, because now it will be cheaper, no matter how many tv,s you have.

 

[Arkman]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

you guys all know that basic analog cable will not work anymore after feb.
you can no longer hook up the cable line directly to the back of your tv.
you will have to rent a digital cable box from comcast for each tv, and it will cost $5 a month for each tv, just like sat.
so now sat is looking better than cable, because now it will be cheaper, no matter how many tv,s you have.

Bowman:
I'm not sure that that is true. I would do some more research on that and don't believe what the cable company tells you. From my understanding the switchover only affects over the air signals. When your cable company sends those signals to you they are more or less converted to a digital signal even though they are called analog. I've heard a lot of discussion about this topic and from what I understand your cable tv will still work its only if you use rabbit ears to get tv you will need a converter box. I'm not 100% on this but this is my understanding. Take a look at this website and look at the very bottom. It talks about in on there. http://www.dtv.gov/whatisdtv.html

 

[Arkman]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

Does the DTV transition affect TV sets that are connected to cable services?

No. If you subscribe to cable service, the DTV transition should not affect any TV sets that are connected to your cable services. The DTV transition applies only to full-power broadcast television stations ? stations that use the public airwaves to transmit their programming to viewers through a broadcast antenna.

This is from the DTV.gov website. I have heard stories of people having their cable company tell them that the government is mandating them to switch to digital cable. Digital cable and over the air broadcast are two different things. If your cable company calls you and tells you that you are required to switch to digital service this is there business decision...not government mandate. Take a look at http://www.dtv.gov and click on faq section. There is a cable section that talks about it.

 

[joed]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

Technically the Feb digital switch over will not affect analog cable however some cable companies are pushing the digital services. So saying the Feb digital switch over will not affect cable subscribers may or may not be true although they don't have a Feb cutoff date.
Mine is cutting back on the channels available on the analog service and not cutting back on the price they are charging me. They want everyone to switch over to the digital service.

 

[bowman316]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

yea, old nazi comcast said that you can only get the major networks with no box,
and that you will have to get the box to get more than 10 stations.
they are taking about 2 stations a month off the air already.
they are forcing us to digital, and now i do think that it is not mandated.
but they could just pay off washington to pass a law mandating it.
i say it is time that we fight back, and ditch cable, and go to sat.

 

[Gary H NC]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

That really sucks! Comcast is such a ripoff!

Regular cable that i have gets over 100 channels without any box.
The digital tuner in my TV does all the work.
Its got me wondering what our local cable will do after the change.

I get 27 channels at least with the roof mounted antenna..I may tell them to stick cable..

 

[mthieme]

Re: Have Gone Digital on Home TV-Question

you guys all know that basic analog cable will not work anymore after feb.
you can no longer hook up the cable line directly to the back of your tv.
you will have to rent a digital cable box from comcast for each tv, and it will cost $5 a month for each tv, just like sat.
so now sat is looking better than cable, because now it will be cheaper, no matter how many tv,s you have.

In Feb. on-air will be digital as per fed. regs.
Comcast has already stated that are going support analog over cable for a couple more years yet. This is a private server and are not affected by the regs.
I put a homemade p.o.s. antenna and got 37 HD on-air channels.