wny_pat
Western NYS
Senior Member
Joined: 08/11/2007
View Profile
 Online
|
Gruffy wrote:By the way... rabbit ears receive HDTV just fine. Not where I live! Stuck with Dish or Direct. Out snowy far fringe signal will disappear come Feb 1st. Will continue to use Dish to receive those Buffalo Stations!
|
SCVJeff
Santa Clarita, CA.
Senior Member
Joined: 07/28/2006
View Profile
 Offline
|
Gruffy wrote:I tried to dumb it down for ya.... guess I should have known....
The plan is to eventually abandon VHF in favor of UHF but not right now so if you want to spend the $$$ and have a big antenna on the roof feel free. Would you mind sharing for all of us exactly where you are getting information to form such a solid statement? I am the Dir. of Engineering of a television group that owns in excess of 35 full power transmitters so I'm pretty sure that memo would have come my way. So unless you can beat that, I call BS.
Jeff - WA6EQU
'06 Itasca Meridian 34H, CAT C7/350
|
samuraitowd
Washoe Valley, NV, USA
Senior Member
Joined: 03/05/2004
View Profile
|
It is our experience so far that dtv signals are not "rv friendly". Whereas with analog tv you could receive a signal from good to bad and see some kind of picture to get by with through the snow, with a dtv signal, you either get a good picture or you get nothing. This means if you are not within a metro area or close to the transmitter you are out of luck. So rural reception will be less than it is now.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rick n Andy n SandyPaws
Rexhall American Clipper 29': 2005
Suzuki Samurai; 1994
|
SCVJeff
Santa Clarita, CA.
Senior Member
Joined: 07/28/2006
View Profile
Offline
|
It definitely puts a little sport into the game. If you are dealing strictly with a weak, non multi-path signal, you're probably right. BUT, if the reason for the noisy analog you have now is mountainous multipath you very well may be in for a big surprise. Where I have the RV stored north of Los Angeles there is basically no watchable TV at all due to multipath. I can swing around the batwing at several elevations and have no watchable picture. Of the roughly 23 channels serving LA from Mt. Wilson, nothing works. With the converter in-line, I can see at least 15 channels with zero drop-out with the antenna either extended or flat on the roof; no difference!
Also, after the Feb cutover many of stations will be tweaking their patterns either by upping power levels and/or replacing antennas or changing positions on the tower. This whole thing will most likely take several years to recoup lost coverage.
|
TheAmRheins
Elizabethtown IN USA
Senior Member
Joined: 02/17/2004
View Profile
Offline
|
I don't know anything about the hows or whys but we put the converter on the television in our TT and the picture is great and more channels are viewable - for now at least, maybe that will change in Feb?
Ken & Kathy
Stella(the dog who now belongs to our neighbor  )& Ruben(the cat)& Tiadora (nother cat)
2003 Chev 3500 D/A Dually
2002 Jayco Eagle 300fss TT
|
|
|
Bumpyroad
Virginia
Senior Member
Joined: 12/01/2005
View Profile
Offline
|
"""On the TV set side.... old obsolete TV used a NTSC tuner.... HD uses a ATSC tuner. Newer sets have both but watch out for guys .... especially in Canada who try to peddle off a NTSC TV at a great price.
By the way... rabbit ears receive HDTV just fine.
As far as a converter you will receive a high def signal and put it on a low def display. It may be ghost free but still low def. Sort of like buying an LP and playing it on the gramaphone ..... why bother when the HD sets are on for $299.00 at CTC."""
I thought the switch was to Digital, not necessarily to High Definition?
and why bother, cause I have a whole lot of perfectly working TVs now and don't want to put them on the trash pile. yes, when I replace them they will be digital, but I see no need to rush it.
bumpy
|
webslave
Clearville, PA
Full Member
Joined: 04/14/2008
View Profile
Offline
|
The story on the rabbit ears and why they don't work, should be qualified...that rumor has been going around quite a while. The rabbit ears that won't work are the kind that store down in the television cabinet (they slide in and out of the cabinet). That style has the antenna conductor inside the cabinet and there is no way to disconnect the antenna in order to splice the converter in place between the antenna and the television.
The rabbit ear antennas will work, they receive the signal just fine, the problem comes from being able to insert the digital to analog convertor in between the antenna and the television... As long as you can disconnect what ever type of antenna you are currently using, you can use the converter box to receive the new digital format (not necessarily HDTV) signal.
The reason some people appear to have fewer stations, and actually they do, is that the signal is digital. 0's and 1's, and you need enough 0's and 1's to make a picture. With the analog signal, the receiver sees static as a signal and would therefore show you a grainy image with static. It didn't know the difference any part of a sine wave was considered part of the picture. The new digital signal is all or nothing. It either has enough 0's and 1's to meet a threshold image or it gives you a blue screen.
But as has been said, if you can seperate the antenna from the television, the antenna will work with older sets (no ATSC tuner) with the addition of the converter box  You need to be a little careful what adapter box you buy though...not all of them will "pass through" the old analog signal, so, if you live in an area that has a mix of both and you want to receive both, make sure you get one that has "analog pass through" to maximize the number of stations that you get until the changeover is complete.
Before I would do anything, though, haul out your televison's manual and check to see what type(s) of tuners it already has. Many sets made in the last year or so come with both NTSC and ATSC tuners built in...
Don
DW
3 Cats 
2008 FunFinder X 210WBS
2008 Jeep Hemi Commander Limited
|
Dennis Bham
Alabama
Full Member
Joined: 03/13/2008
View Profile
Offline
|
SCVJeff wrote:Gruffy wrote:I tried to dumb it down for ya.... guess I should have known....
The plan is to eventually abandon VHF in favor of UHF but not right now so if you want to spend the $$$ and have a big antenna on the roof feel free. Would you mind sharing for all of us exactly where you are getting information to form such a solid statement? I am the Dir. of Engineering of a television group that owns in excess of 35 full power transmitters so I'm pretty sure that memo would have come my way. So unless you can beat that, I call BS.
I Agree with you Jeff,
One of the stations in my market is moving their current digital from UHF back to their old analog VHF High allocation after the analog transmitter is abandoned. They had the option to stay digital on their UHF allocation, but instead are spending $$$ for a new digital VHF HI transmitter ... I spoke with the chief engineer of that local station about this just a few weeks ago ... and there also is one currently digital VHF station in my market that is going to abandon their current analog UHF allocation when it goes quiet.
I would not plan for digital OTA TV to all be on UHF ...
Dennis
'08 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 4x4, Crew Cab, Std Bed e/w 18K Superglide
'08 Cougar 292RKS, e/w 16" Sendel wheels & BFG Commercial TA tires
PressurePro TPMS
|
Vulcaneer
Northern New England
Senior Member
Joined: 10/17/2007
View Profile
Online
|
samuraitowd wrote:It is our experience so far that dtv signals are not "rv friendly". Whereas with analog tv you could receive a signal from good to bad and see some kind of picture to get by with through the snow, with a dtv signal, you either get a good picture or you get nothing. This means if you are not within a metro area or close to the transmitter you are out of luck. So rural reception will be less than it is now.
Not my experience. I do have digital tv's in my RV. We're 60 miles (as the crow flies) from nearest broadcast city. And in mountains too. My RV batwing antenna pulls in digital stations very well. Picture clarity is much better than the same analog stations. Not Hi-def, but very good indeed. Digital does seem sensitive to antenna direction (lose picture) as is Analog (snowy picture). But digital works same with antenna sitting on roof. Analog the antenna needs fully extended. But when we are Fifteen miles to the North, nothing. No Analog or digital.
Never knew these DTV channels existed, because our house is on cable.
2006 F350 V10 4X4 SC SB SRW 4.30 22,500 GCWR
Keystone Sprinter 33'9" 12,500 GVWR
Pullrite Super Glide 18K
Super Duty, Super Cab, SuperGlide
|
Gruffy
monominto mb ca
Senior Member
Joined: 10/02/2003
View Profile
|
I have no idea why everyone gets so uptight about this stuff. If the converter box receives an HD signal... why would you care if it passes analog?? So you can watch the same program that's on the HD with noise and ghosts like the old days??
If your in a fringe area you may need more gain on the antenna.... that means a bigger better antenna and a pre-amp. When you make the switch to HD you will be effected by "cliff effect" a known phenomena.
If you really want to get into this stuff you have to look a bit yourself.... the files are too big to post.
"If I Already Have an Antenna, Do I Need a New One to View the Digital Signals?
A special antenna generally is not needed to receive digital signals. You may have antenna issues, however, if your current antenna does not receive UHF signals (channels 14 and above) well, because most DTV stations are on UHF channels. In such a case, you may need a new antenna or to add a UHF section to your existing antenna system. This equipment should be available at most bricks-and-mortar and Internet consumer electronics retailers. "
This sort of wisdom can be found at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts
It's here it's done... sit back tweak up the rabbit ears (ear... my HDTV USB module is a monopole) and enjoy the show.
|
|
|
