DTV on standard NTSC TVs

[vintagecollect]

Very good thread w/ info. That channel Master converter looks top notch. HDMI, RCA, analog outputs--can it feed an old tv and New HDMI set at same time too?! That's an old brand w/ good history, looks better. I really wish had need for one, can't receive more than a few channels.

Wanna save 1 to 2 K$ a year? Get one of these and watch free tv if you live in right metro area. My ATSC HD portable TV has awesome picture! Can only receive lots of free DTV signals near my work, NOT home. Several coworkers complimented me on amazing portable tv picture. Use it for breaks.

Watch free tv and save $120 to $200/ month, I WISH I COULD. I would just rent movies instead of paying sheisty movie channels. People just don't realize how expensive cable is, no real competition, a real monopoly like the old ma Bell.

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by vintagecollect

Very good thread w/ info. That channel Master converter looks top notch. HDMI, RCA, analog outputs--.

Which Channel Master converter has HDMI output?

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by vintagecollect

Wanna save 1 to 2 K$ a year? Get one of these and watch free tv if you live in right metro area.

Yes indeed! I keep a running total of the money saved since I cancelled satellite TV in late 2005; it is up to about US$5,900.00 so far.

[Fritze-AR]

It is true that DTV is "less forgiving" of marginal signals than the old analog. Still, I would not go back to daily TV viewing OTA with analog. I lived for a time in Little Rock AR and had to deal with severe multipath in an apartment. Gave up the analog OTA and went with a "limited basic" package from the cableco.

I had moved back to rural Southeast Arkansas some years ago and knew the writing was on the wall for analog TV (I'm also a dx'er), so I built a decent OTA antenna system that would work great for DXing DTV but also provide solid "local" reception. Even when I subbed to Dish Network, I used the sat box's built-in DTV tuner for OTA locals. Last August, I cut the cord and once again became OTA only+Netflix streaming/Bluray/DVD.

The key to "fringe" DTV reception is three things: feedline/preamp, antenna, and antenna height. I don't have a tower so am limited in the height department but I do use decent RG6 feedline and a decent consumer-grade preamp (CM-7777) and separate UHF and VHF-hi antennas. It may sound like overkill, but in the long run it will pay for itself quickly (vs a $60-100+per month Sat bill).

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

Yes indeed! I keep a running total of the money saved since I cancelled satellite TV in late 2005; it is up to about US$5,900.00 so far.

How are you getting TV reception today if you cancelled your satellite service? (Just curious.) My best guess would be that you either went to cable or to AT&T U-Verse, or even to an OTA antenna.

In response to Vintagecollect's remarks regarding being in the "right" area for good OTA DTV reception: Yes, that is still a major problem with DTV, and is the reason most people today have either cable, satellite, or (if available) AT&T U-Verse service -- OTA reception of digital television signals in most areas is just too iffy. Even if you are within line-of-sight range of your area's TV transmitters, the problem would not be signal strength but reflections, causing dead spots and hot spots in different areas of your house; this can even cause problems with the proper aiming of outdoor TV antennas. As a somewhat extreme example of what I am referring to: I live in a semi-fringe area for Cleveland television, the transmitters for the seven stations serving northeast Ohio being just under 40 miles from my apartment. I was getting fair to poor reception of most stations using rabbit ears (and no reception whatsoever from NBC channel 3 in Cleveland) -- no outdoor TV antennas permitted here -- before the DTV transition. I have not tried antenna reception of the Cleveland stations since the DTV switch, however, so I don't know what my DTV reception would be like. Since NTSC analog reception here was fair to poor, I wouldn't expect much better results with digital; the one channel I was missing in analog probably doesn't reach here in ATSC DTV either, and the reception of all other Cleveland stations would very likely be hit-or-miss as well. Channel 5, the ABC affiliate in Cleveland, was talking about increasing its antenna height and/or increasing transmitter power shortly after the transition, but I don't know if they ever went through with it. Channel 19 is the CBS affiliate for this area; they did increase transmitter power several months ago, in response to complaints that their DTV signal was not reaching the west side of Cleveland and the suburbs of the city located there.

Whether this problem was corrected when the station increased power output, however, I don't know. I think they would have had better results if they would have increased their antenna height, rather than the transmitter output power. I am an amateur radio operator and learned that lesson very early on; the higher your transmitting antenna, the further your transmitted signal will go, even if you are transmitting with just a few watts of power.