Quote:
Originally Posted by Old1625
I live in a rural deep fringe reception area, where television stations have to be picked up from all directions. I have to change antenna aim frequently when hopping from one station to the next. I need a digital tuner that is decent in performance, and has the feature where you can add more digital channels as you change antenna aim. Most of the tuners I've encountered--be they built into flat screens, DVRs or free standing--do not have that feature, and whenever the antenna is re-aimed you have to go through a scan procedure where only the channels you can now get with that particular antenna aim are programmed, and all the previously programmed channels are erased. I also find that dealers generally don't know whether or not their product will have the needed feature, and many are reluctant to open a carton to retrieve the user manual so such can be determined.
Any suggestions as to a really good tuner...?
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Why bother with an antenna? Get cable (if your rural area has it; it may not, if you're really out in the boondocks) and you won't have to worry about aiming your antenna or any of the other problems attendant to over-the-air DTV.
If you must use an outdoor antenna with a rotor to get any TV reception at all in your rural fringe area, and for any reason cable or satellite is not an option, I'd try to get one of the old CDE AR-22 (I think that's the brand and model) antenna rotors that can be programmed for up to five channels. The control box has five buttons mounted in the upper left corner, arranged like the pushbutton station selectors on old car radios, that can be programmed for individual stations; for example, suppose (for example) your area has channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9. You can program the buttons on the rotor control box to rotate the antenna to the correct direction for each station, so you won't have to fiddle with a control knob to point the antenna in exactly the right direction. Initial programming may take some time, but this is a one-time procedure so once the rotor control is set up for your local stations, you won't have to fiddle with precise aiming again.
I don't know if the CDE AR-22 is even available anywhere (even used) anymore, as people pretty much gave up on antennas (even in good local reception areas) years ago, going to cable or satellite. However, with DTV and its reception problems, even in what were good signal areas in the NTSC analog era, outdoor TV antennas and rotors, to say nothing of towers, are making a comeback since digital TV signals can be very difficult to receive in some areas.