I'm looking into dumping comcast completely and switching to digial TV because supposedly the digital reception is better than the analog one (I know why this is possible, I'm an EE) but I'm wondering from people who actually are using it:

- I'm interested in NBC/FOX/CBS/ABC and PBS channels; how is the reception in the west san jose area?
- How big are the digital antennas? I have an old school un-used analog one on my roof and would like to mount the new antenna to the antenna rod
- what kind of cabling does the antenna use? (coax?)
- what format does the converter box produce? composite on RCA or coax?
- do the converter boxes work like a cable box and have their own internal tuners and then output to "channel 3" or does it convert all channels so the old school analog tv tuners can change channels?
- things to note?

 

I'm no expert, but before I got my Tivo HD, I was using a plain old "bunny ears" antenna and was able to get most of the local channels, including PBS.

I'd check antennaweb.org for channels in your area, and which direction it's located and which band it comes in on. I believe certain channels are on the VHF band and some others are on the UHF band.

Check your current roof antenna to see if it supports both VHF and UHF. If not, I'd just swap out a single antenna that supported both bands.

And then if you have a digital tv that already has an included ATSC coax tuner, then you may already be good to go. Or else you'd need to buy a cheap digital converter box. The ones I've seen are cheap old RCA, which makes the picture crappy. No HD.

 

there is no such thing as a "digital" antenna.

what the good thing the FCC and everyone involved in the transition from analog to digital is that they decided to use the same frequency.

granted a majority of the digital stations have moved on the UHF band (analog channels from 13 to 63). only a couple stations in the bay area are using the VFH band (2-12).

kntv from the start have stayed around channel 11. last year or so, kgo decided to move from 24 back to it's original slot of 7.

so, your old roof top antenna will work if it's not rusted out or broken.

on a side note, i transitioned to HDTV almost a decade now. i first bought my set and connected it to our roof top antenna. back then, very few programs were being sent out as HD programs.

it just happened to be memorial day weekend so ABC re-ran SAVING PRIVATE RYAN in full glorious HD.

HOLY CARP. i mean as soon as i switched over, it was like night and day. unfortunately, our roof top antenna was in bad shape (after like 20 years sitting up there).

FF a couple or so years ago.

i bought a new computer specifically with vista and windows media center. it came with a happauge digital tv card inside. i connected a 5 y/o rabbit ears and pie plate indoor UHF/VHF antenna.

man... windows media rocks. it can run up to 2 ATSC tuners (max of 4). i bought another USB ATSC tuner. so my setup rocks 2 ATSC tuners, just like my comcast HD DVR.


so ,as for the OP's questions:

1. depends on what is blocking your view from MT SUTRO in san francisco where all of the transmitters originate from.

2. again, i laugh whenever see antennas marked as "HDTV"... ANY antenna rated for UHF or VHF will work as long as it is in good condition. i'm in fremont so the rabbit ears with pie plate indoor one works for me.

3. get the best coax these days. RG-8, IIRC.

4. those converter boxes ARE NOT capable of HDTV, unless it is made for it. remember HDTV is a subset of DIGITAL TV (ATSC). these $50 or boxes that frys and other places were selling last year or so, are just digital tuners...

5. what these converter boxes did was receive ATSC signals and downgrades them to NTSC so your old TV can then show them. some connected to your old tv via RCA or through the coax line where you would tune to channel 3.


confused more?

 

QFT!

Only reason I subscribe to Comcast is because I need my ESPN in HD fix. That's pretty much all I watch that is on "cable". I just torrent my other TV shows that are on premium channels like Dexter.

 

That's what I thought... but the sellers sure don't want to make that obvious.

So I'm going to try and use the existing antenna, but I have no idea if it works.

I have a HDTV, so I believe that it should have a digital tuner on it. Sadly though, my DVR doesn't and that's a pain when recording. (and I don't have Tivo)

The other thing is we have a small TV in the bedroom so I would have to do rabbit ears to converter box to tv.

 

I'm in south/east san jose.

using indoor antenna, from cheap to moderate priced ones, SUCKS!!!!!

Never got FOX, only got a few stations.

I said F-that, we got a nice roof top one, now we get every single channel, i think there were over 40+ digital channels.

 

yeah... we in the san fran bay area are spoiled.

we were the first area with all stations that converted to digital before the FCC mandated cutoff date.

granted, i only watch/dvr the big 5... i guess watching channel 32/38 or the 3-4 spanish stations aint my thing... lol...

everything and anything DTV related in the SF bay area:

http://www.choisser.com/broadcst.html

guy who maintains it used to be an engineer with KGO so he has a few contacts in the biz still...

 

When we got our dtv box, my dad thought we got cable. He was pissed.

good info
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=45

last time I checked, which was a while ago, this was the best box -
Channel Master CM7000 - hhttp://www.channelmaster.com/produc...ID=21&catID=45

Antenna headings and distances
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

 

While antennaweb is a good place to start, if you want real world info onyour antenna setup come join the yahoo group "HDTV-in-SFBayarea"

the place is been around around for almost a decade now and that's where I learned all my info. Besides the retired KGO engineer there is also the "retired" head of engineering from KNTV and a couple more from the local PBS stations.

Trust me if you can't find answers there, your question doesn't exist...

 

This little guy gets me everything except for channel 11...



Sharpe for scale...

It's all about the tuner, not SO much the antenna. If the tuner is not that great, then you will need a better antenna.

Here it is working on my netbook:






This is in Mt View, at work.

 

whats a good PCMCIA cardBUS to use

i have a hp laptop and wouldnt mind using it to watch tv when i go camping haha

 

TV and camping in the same sentence.... shame shame

Check out Avermedia

 

Antenna craft HD VIEW 360 R Mini-State R Antenna System RF Remote/ Direction Memory is the latest best TV Antenna brand known to me so far.. It has programmable RF Remote and Channel Direction Memory .. I have purchased many antennas over the years, none of which have worked very well. While this one is expensive, it works. I have it hanging upside down in my attic, mainly because it's ugly, and I wasn't sure how it would handle Michigan weather over time.

 

5 yr bump!

OARN, I use a Mohu Sky HD in East Contra Costa, get the big 4 plus a lot of stuff I don't need.

 

a very odd bump.............

searched specifically for antennas, registered, made a first post with a link to a website....which doesn't even load

tvantennahq.com has been registered on 12/25/2014.

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