the USA 'DTV' transition

[tfcmasta97]

I currently live in Waterloo Ontario... pretty close to the border. I dont have cable right now because me and my roommates are cheap/poor, so would a converter get us a bunch of free channels and football games? We currently dont have an antenna....

 

[akshatp]

Do you even have an HDTV capable of receiving a digital signal?

 

[mugs]

After the change, you should be able to get whatever you could get now through an antenna (if you get the digital tuner)...

 

[PottedMeat]

You still need an antenna - rabbit ears or whatever. The digital converter box will let you get digital stations and view them on standard def ( old TVs ). It will look a lot sharper than the old analog stations.

Edit: I live ~50-80 miles from all the major stations and get nearly all of them (~30 channels ) with a converter box.

 

[ed21x]

a powered antenna works best.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: tfcmasta97
I currently live in Waterloo Ontario... pretty close to the border. I dont have cable right now because me and my roommates are cheap/poor, so would a converter get us a bunch of free channels and football games? We currently dont have an antenna....

If you steal our TV signal, there will not be enough for all of us!!!

(BTW, you will need an antenna to get anything. The converter box, um, converts the signal brought in by the antenna. It does not act as its own antenna.)

MotionMan

 

[tfcmasta97]

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: tfcmasta97
I currently live in Waterloo Ontario... pretty close to the border. I dont have cable right now because me and my roommates are cheap/poor, so would a converter get us a bunch of free channels and football games? We currently dont have an antenna....

If you steal our TV signal, there will not be enough for all of us!!!

(BTW, you will need an antenna to get anything. The converter box, um, converts the signal brought in by the antenna. It does not act as its own antenna.)

MotionMan

Im just wondering what kind of antenna would be required to get a decent amount of channels, like if I just had a crappy wire antenna would I be getting anything? Any recommendations on a powered antenna would be nice that get good reception for a lot of channels?

 

[PottedMeat]

Originally posted by: tfcmasta97

Originally posted by: MotionMan

Originally posted by: tfcmasta97
I currently live in Waterloo Ontario... pretty close to the border. I dont have cable right now because me and my roommates are cheap/poor, so would a converter get us a bunch of free channels and football games? We currently dont have an antenna....

If you steal our TV signal, there will not be enough for all of us!!!

(BTW, you will need an antenna to get anything. The converter box, um, converts the signal brought in by the antenna. It does not act as its own antenna.)

MotionMan

Im just wondering what kind of antenna would be required to get a decent amount of channels, like if I just had a crappy wire antenna would I be getting anything? Any recommendations on a powered antenna would be nice that get good reception for a lot of channels?

The rabbit ears that probably came with your tv will work better than a piece of wire. I would just try those first. It's pretty much an all or nothing deal with digital - you will get a good picture and good sound or you get no sound and a pixellated picture ( or no picture ).

 

[radioouman]

Get a UHF outdoor antenna and point it toward the stations. You'll get lots of digital stations.

 

[Indolent]

Originally posted by: akshatp
Do you even have an HDTV capable of receiving a digital signal?

this post makes no sense...

 

[0roo0roo]

well as long as you have a digital tuner.
i get a lot more channels with digital than analog already.
signal strength will increase when they finally dump analog totally, move digital to main antennas and stuff. rescan after the switch over date.

 

[ed21x]

i know some people connect a wire to a waterpipe and use that as an antenna.

 

[rudder]

My first house was 60 miles from the nearest TV station. I had to use a booster but picked up the signal crystal clear.

 

[Turin39789]

ran to best buy tonight and got my converter. the giant antenna on my house gets analog great, hooked up to the dtv box, 2 channels detected, both scrambled all to hell and unwatchable.

 

[Fayd]

Originally posted by: Turin39789
ran to best buy tonight and got my converter. the giant antenna on my house gets analog great, hooked up to the dtv box, 2 channels detected, both scrambled all to hell and unwatchable.

yay, who doesnt remember scrambled porn!

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Turin39789
ran to best buy tonight and got my converter. the giant antenna on my house gets analog great, hooked up to the dtv box, 2 channels detected, both scrambled all to hell and unwatchable.

DTV is UHF, so if your antenna is optimized for VHF (where the vast majority of national networks are on due to better analog propagation) it won't work very well for DTV.