DTV on standard NTSC TVs

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

Nope just from Cedar Hill TX about 30 miles south of me. That includes all the digital multi channels. Some have up to 5 standard def channels.


My not so deep fringe antenna, in the attic of the garage, an old AntennaCraft brand.



A neighbor was throwing it away so I salvaged it, cut the back end off about a foot with the longest elements (damaged) no longer needed since there's nothing on the old channels 2 through 6 low VHF.

Your antenna looks almost exactly like one on a house I pass on my way to the supermarket here every week or so. That antenna also has lost most of its VHF elements, and could be used for DTV in this area if not for the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, WOIO-TV. That station operates on virtual channel 19 (the station number shown on digital TV sets and converter boxes) but its DTV signal is on channel 10, the only VHF DTV station I am aware of in this area (the rest of the DTV stations in Cleveland are on UHF channels). I suppose if all the damaged VHF elements were taken off that antenna, leaving only the five or so undamaged ones, it could be used as a dedicated channel 10 antenna, with the UHF section (which is undamaged) being used to receive the other Cleveland DTVs. However, since there is a potential interference problem between DTV 10 in this area and a Canadian station (CFPL-TV in London, Ontario) on the same channel, there is a chance that one or the other may be forced, eventually, to move to a UHF channel. However, because of the higher frequencies, lower power and therefore limited range of digital television signals transmitted over UHF channels, there may not be that much of an issue as far as interference is concerned; only time will tell what may or may not shake out in that situation.

You said that many of the stations you can receive have as many as five (!) digital HD and/or SD subchannels; that's amazing. How many standard TV stations did you receive in your area before DTV? The PBS station in Cleveland has three subchannels (PBS World, PBS Ohio, and PBS Create);the NBC station has one (weather radar), the ABC station has one (the LiveWell Network), the CBS station has one (MeTV), the Fox station has one (Antenna TV) and the CW Network affiliate has an HD subchannel, but no other alternate programming. There is a PBS station about sixty miles southwest of here that has three DTV subchannels as well. All told, on the cable system here I can get twelve channels, counting the broadcast channels' DTV subchannels, in addition to the standard "must carry" cable channels; the complete total number of channels I can get on Time Warner Cable -- broadcast, DTV subchannels, and must-carry channels -- comes close to the number of OTA stations you are receiving with your converted antenna.

You are also saving a bundle by receiving your TV over the air, as cable systems raise their already high rates every year. I'd like to put up an OTA antenna here, but there are at least two problems: one, I live in an apartment building, so cannot erect an outside TV antenna, and two, I am in a semi-fringe area for Cleveland television, the transmitters being located just under 40 miles southwest of here. One VHF network station did not reach here in analog, and the others, except for channel 19, were fair to poor, using rabbit ears. I doubt I'd have much better luck with DTV -- in fact, I think my reception of all Cleveland stations would be the same or perhaps worse than it was in NTSC analog.