Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: Please clarify the digital TV (DTV) transition in 2009

Being a former "cable guy" my question was, "How far will a digital signal travel over the air?"

ANSWER: A hell of a lot further than an analogue signal! Strictly OTA - we could only receive one analogue channel clear. With digital and High Def - I now get 7 channels crystal clear. More once ABC finally gets its butt in gear.

This digital changeover is a huge plus for those of us who don't want to pay for cable or satellite!

You can get TV via any means you like. But since you have a tuner in your PC, just connect an antenna to it, run the software, and you should be watching TV. Certainly you can connect cable instead of an antenna ... but if you want to see High Definition, you'll get much BETTER pictures from an antenna (unless you are in a very rural area). Most cable companies charge extra for HD, and the pictures are not as good (because they reduce or limit the data rate).

I live in country victoria aussie and have a big 26" television between my sons and mine computers thats analogue.We cant miss programs for heavens sake on free t.v so about 6 months ago with the rabbit ears i bought an on special sd digi box and it works perfectly.we dont have an antenna connection in this room and we were amazed on the great reception from these rabbit ears.we needed a new tv in the family room so have a plasma in there with h d tuner built in,and in the lounge for the ones that want to watch something else an old 80cm analogue is there with another sd digi box which is plugged into an antenna outlet there and that works great.If they keep working they wont be replaced until they give up the ghost.I have a friend who complained about her reception as she wasnt savvy on the new technology and couldnt afford a new t.v so told her to do the same with me setting it up and shes happy now. So I recommend keeping your old tellies until they give out.The only down side is the cheaper ones interfer with radios for people who like listening to radios during the day so you have to turn them off at the power point.

Please share how you were able to hook up both a VCR and TV to one digital converter box. I have a similar situation, but haven't been able to figure out how to use just one box. Thanks!

Rabbit ears to converter box with coaxial cable.
TV to converter box with RF cable. (I think it's the same as coaxial, came with the box and called RF)
Converter box to VCR with audio visual (3 colored prongs) cable.
Converter box to TV with 3 pronged audio visual cable.

Thanks. This is great!

Digital TV?

I didn't wait for the discount coupons to arrive because I knew that when they started shipping people would be calling me for advice and assistance. So I went to my local RadioShack and bought a digital converter in order to familiarize myself with the mechanics of using it.

Before I connected the dtv converter, I could get only 5 of the stations available in Pittsburgh, PA. If I used a rabbit-ears antenna with the amplifier disconnected, I got one set of stations (see table below). When I plugged the amplifier in, I lost one station but picked up another. Notice that the end result was still only 5 stations.

Note that with an external antenna I might reasonably have expected to receive perhaps two to four additional stations.

After connecting the dtv converter, I discovered that I could easily receive 5 times as many stations (see table below). I also discovered that, HD or not HD, the picture quality was superior to the analog stations. And the old artifacts of interference (i.e., snow, lines and shadows) were absent. But when there is interference, or the signal is weak, the on-screen image can either
momentarily freeze or else break up like a jigsaw puzzle. And if the signal fades even more, both the sound and picture can disappear until signal strength increases sufficiently to restore them.

And the antenna? Rabbit ears will work just fine without an amplifier, but you will want to extend them fully for best results. The number of stations you may expect is dependent upon how many ancillary stations are broadcast by the stations in your area.




Analog Digital
w/o amp w/amp

2 2 2
4 11 4(1,2)
13 13 11(1-3)
16 16 13(1-3)
53 53 16
22
40
53(1-3)

Leo Toribio

I liked the analog reception better because I now get freezing of the picture. It only happens in the evening and I wish I knew why it does it and how to stop it. It really sucks. Sometimes it's just momentarily, and then sometimes I have to change the channel to get it to unfreeze. This is ruining my television viewing. I have an outdoor antenna that is able to rotate to get the best reception. And the picture is wonderful until it freezes.

That is a maojr difference between analog and digital. A weak analog signal will get snowier and snowier as it gets weak. Digital signals are either there or not and when the signal gets weaker, it starts missing pieces of the picture causing those blocks you see at times and when the signal gets weak enough, it freezes while it tries to get enough info to create the next frame.

Everyone talks about "rabbit ear" antennas. With conventional the part you pull out to make it longer is used for VHF (channels 2-13). The round loop is for UHF (14-83). The new digital signals, are all in the UHF area, so you should see very little difference in how much you pull them out or mess with them. The loop can be turned to adjust for best signal. If you go with an external antenna, don't waste your money on something with VHF built in. It will only make it larger, more expensive and not help you. Get the best UHF antenna you can, if you are in a remote area. I am about 40 miles from Buffalo,NY and one of those "corner reflector" (looks like an alligator's mouth with its tongue sticking out) works great. Be aware that the way antennas get "gain" or increase the strength of the signal is by narrowing the beam. This works fine if the stations you want are all in one direction. If you live between 2 cities and want channels from both, you will have to rotate the antenna to aim at the city you want. ie. I can turn my antenna around and get signals from Rochester,NY.

As some of the other responders have said, you want any amplifier (booster) to start with the strongest possible signal. This means it should be as close to the antenna as possible and again be made for the UHF band. There are "mast mounts" that have the amplifier mount to the antenna and another box in the house that provides power and a place to hook up your tv to. This is the best for fringe areas. In addition, if you want to hook up more than 1 TV to the antenna, you may need a "distribution" amplifier that often has multiple jacks to hook up each TV. A splitter does just what the name says... divides the signal up between however many plugs it has on it, weakening the signal.

I reguards to not needing a box if you are on cable, most cable companies have agreed to continue broadcasting analog (those you can get on channels 2-13 or more if you have "Cable ready" TV's). There is no guarantee of how long they will continue to do so. At some point, they will probably need the bandwidth and discontinue this service, forcing you to rent a box from them. I plan on getting coupons for all my older tv's even though I am on cable and making sure the boxes I get have "QAM" tuners, in addition to ATSC. QAM is the standard that cable companies use to send their digital signals out. QAM doesn't decode scrambled, premium signals, but does allow you to get much of what you get without a box, now. This is not very convenient, though, as the channel numbers are really messed up. Those with new tv's on cable and no box can try a scan of the digital signals available to see what I mean. I get a bunch of blanks that may be used later and the channel number often has nothing to do with the number I am used to seeing.

How about Canada? We don't have zip codes.

> Hi! I bought 2 Magnavox TB100MW9 units from Wal-Mart. One I hooked up & experienced more break-up than picture this a.m.

Welcome to the digital (TV) world. In the old days we had ghosts and snowy pictures. Now we have pixelation and frozen pictures. There are a lot of potentional factors here causing your problem. The root cause sounds like you do not have a strong stable signal from your antenna to the box.

> I have been told I must get a "digital" antenna. Since there is no digital broadcast, at this time, that I know of, is it really necessary I go to another expense for this conversion?

Most of the 1600+ television stations in the USA have been broadcasting digitally for several years. It is the only means by which I have been watching TV since they went on the air here about 5 years ago. In other words, there is no need to wait until 2/18/2009 to watch signals digitally. Now is the time to get it working.

There is no such thing as a "digital antenna". Antennas do not know what type of signal they are plucking out of the air. However, antennas do care about the frequency of the signal, or channel. One common issue/problem right now is that many people do not know/understand the true channel/frequency of the TV station they are receiving. For example, I have a station here labeled "3.1". This would lead people to think that it is VHF and uses a large VHF antenna. But the fact is their digital signal is actually on channel 35 - a UHF FREQUENCY!!!! This means the correct antenna is a "loop" (not rabbit ears) or a small UHF outdoor antenna.

I suggest you go to one of the websites designed to help people with their TV signals (such as antennaweb.org). Enter your zip code and it will tell you the actual/physical channels being used for digital right now. Note: some stations will be "moving" their digital signals after 2/17/2009. Then make sure you have the correct antenna (VHF, UHF or combo) and that it is pointed correctly.

> Also, is distance from stations' broadcast something to factor in before buying another antenna?

YES!!!

> All the stations in Knoxville TN broadcast from the top of a mountain inside the city (less than 20 miles from me).

I would consider you to be "CLOSE" to the signals if they are only 20 miles away and should have no problems - unless there is something blocking your signal path and/or you are in a hole.

Good luck.

I live in Queensland, Australia, about 40 miles inland from the coastal cities as the crow flies, but there are hills in between that shield the TV transmitters, so that I need a 30 foot high mast and a 24 element UHF antenna and a 22 DBA (?) mast head amplifier. There is no signal if the amplifier power is off. Signals are UHF only and both analogue and digital signals are sent by all channels.
I bought a cheap set top box some two years ago. They are about $100, upward. (I receive High Definition signals but can't watch them unless I get a suitable TV). My reception previously varied from good on one channel, watchable on three and fair or nil on others.
Now, my digital reception is as good as stations in the cities and I can receive some extra digital only programs as well and there is now some choice of transmitting towers. The difference in quality on all channels is almost unbelievable. Analogue reception is as before. The extra content on the digital channels is particularly useful to me, personally.
I would expect to have to use an additional signal amplifier at the low level antenna connection point if I wanted to use more than one TV
At some times of the year (equinoxes?), sunrise and sunset can interfere with reception on one or two weaker channels for an hour or so. When that happens, the analogue signal is usually just watchable for the affected channel, the digital pixilates (it is all or nothing).
Withiel.

we hooked up our converter and were pleased it came in beautifully, but at present we aren't receiving two stations, one is ABC and the other is KCWI which I believe is Warner Bros. Also we get stations we've never gotten before, one being the weather station and now we get three IPTV stations and all are different. We had one tv on antenna and one on converter just to compare.

We currently have cable television on two sets, but don't use a cable television box. When the transition comes, will the cable company require use to rent/buy one of their boxes?

As for televisions connected to an antenna, rather than cable television, we have Zenith-LG DTT900 converter boxes and they work great - a better picture and more channels.

It's economically and environmentally wasteful to throw away perfectly good analog televisions.