anyone just using old ant and rotater?

[dumb as a stump]

I am just still using my old antenna and rotator and get all the same channels and the new digital ones. There is a lot of talk about the digital antennas, is there anyone else out there doing this? I think that the digital sucks.... the pic is nice and all but i used to leave my ant in 1 direction and could watch both north and south. Now if the reception is a little noisy it just cuts out I wish there was a way of comprimising , the old static didn't bother me at all. Ps its hard to channel surf through every commercial if you have to turn the antenna too, or is that the point? <GRIN>

[proline]

No, they made a big mistake in the power of the digital stations and hopefully they will eventually be increased in power. There is no difference in digital and analog antennas or rotators, though.

[Night Prowler]

No, they made a big mistake in the power of the digital stations and hopefully they will eventually be increased in power. There is no difference in digital and analog antennas or rotators, though.

They should have had FTA'ers doing the testing......:tehe:

[sneakers]

still have ant with router. get some channels but went to a sub not much better unless you spend lots of money for more channels

[Gold]

Going Digital benefited me. Before I could get 5 channels. 2 came in pretty good, and one wasn't really watchable.Now I get a steady 14; 7 out the 14 are HD. I am going to buy a bigger antenna next year. Hopefully that wont be a waist of money.

Poor locals was the main reason I put my BUD up in 1995, & about 97, we went with a subscription from Dick, We heard the DN had locals for $5. so we switched. I have been a DN subscriber ever since.

Now I am still wondering why I still pay for my sub, since I have an IKS box:nopity:

Anyway I guess I'm one of the few, but the switch to digital worked great for me,

[jvvh5897]

Most of my channels come from local translator assoc and with the change to digital they largely are worse even with the upgrades to antennas made at the recieve site. Besides very common dropouts, the change in equipment has hum on a couple of channels, some kind of interferance in the audio on another, over driven audio on another to the point of clipping and distortion.

I have a new TV with HD and decent audio capability that is largely a pointless purchase at this point.

If they had followed something more like the UK digital format with a single transmitter site for all broadcasters, then the translator station might be able to just retransmit the full digital signal to us, but as it is, no new stations.

[Ricka]

Yes, I still use my old outside antenna with a amp and it works great here I get about 30 stations and 18 HD

[Terryl]

No difference between an old analog TV antenna and an HDTV antenna, the only thing is the wording on the package.

And it's not the power levels as most UHF TV stations are running at the maximum legal limit of 5 megawatts ERP, most of the new HDTV stations went to UHF frequencies, UHF does not travel as far as the VHF frequencies, so if you are at 60 to 100 miles from the station and were watching channel 4 on VHF and it’s now at channel 50 on UHF it wont be reaching you that good.

So you need a higher gain antenna then what you had before.

[sober king]

I am just still using my old antenna and rotator and get all the same channels and the new digital ones. There is a lot of talk about the digital antennas, is there anyone else out there doing this? I think that the digital sucks.... the pic is nice and all but i used to leave my ant in 1 direction and could watch both north and south. Now if the reception is a little noisy it just cuts out I wish there was a way of comprimising , the old static didn't bother me at all. Ps its hard to channel surf through every commercial if you have to turn the antenna too, or is that the point? <GRIN>

I am using an old (atleast 40 years) separate VHF and UHF antennas on 40 foot high mast (came with the house) plus a rotor and a pre - amplifier. For HD and all ATSC (DTV) I have excellant reception by just leaving my rotor in one direction within 150 miles range. But all analogue (NTSC) Canadian (except 3 or 4) channels are distorted due to high gain required to pull in clear and stable HD (ATSC). I do not see the need to stack another narrower range antenna for NTSC channels.

Although the set up is 40 years old but some fifteen years ago I changed the rotor and added a pre=amp. My VHF antenna is an old Channel Master with 72 elements and my UHF antenna is a vertical mesh (also a Channel master) sitting on tope of the VHF.

I am very happy with the uncompressed HD (ATSC) and find that the OTA HD picture beats the Satelite TV HD which is compressed to save the band width.

[sneerboy]

Yes, I still use my old outside antenna with a amp and it works great here I get about 30 stations and 18 HD

You must be in or near the GTA.
:)

[dumb as a stump]

is your ant using rg 59, and how many sets and splitters im just curious ? I just changed the last of my rg59 to rg6 and my dtv channel 2-1 got much better (but mind you thats now a uhf transmission as I understand it.)

[Terryl]

One good thing is you can use an in-line amp on the TV signals from your old or new TV antenna, a pre-amp located at the antenna will help offset the loss in the coax, however good coax is a must, just as in satellite systems the coax will affect the signal strength of the TV stations, RG-6 should be used but RG-6 quad is better.

A good mast mounted UHF/VHF amplifier will help boost the signals anywhere from 12 to 17 dB or better, and a good TV antenna will help, now don’t get fooled on a HDTV antenna their all the same, the old analog one up on the roof now will work for the new ATSC HDTV signals, however the newer UHF channels may have signal problems as the range is not as good on UHF as it was on VHF frequencies.

If your going to try the amplifier you can mount it at eye level on the mast it doesn’t have to be at the antenna it's self, this will be an advantage as if there are problems you can access it a lot faster.

[gordonkearse]

Am very satisfied with my reception with the addition of an amp. The HD reception is really great. Standard definition fta receivers, DN and DTV receivers don't touch the reception.

So it is a very affordable HD alternative. HDTV's are getting cheaper. I'm still waiting for HD fta to get affordable.

Of course, I still use my SD fta receivers because I'm currently getting 20 c/ku band satellites and only about 10 network stations on my OTA antenna.

I'm paying for a cheap subscription to DN to satisfy my wife watching tv in the living room. She's addicted to satellite tv.

Go fta!!!!

[fifties]

The best antenna to use for UHF frequencies, which is where most of the digital/HD fare is, is a 4 bay Bow Tie antenna, which runs about 25-30 bucks USD.

If you get digital snow (pixellation), then add a low noise amplifier AT the antenna.

[cmeroth]

old thread but though I would pipe in as more and more people are going OTA now again. and why not.. good signals. and now in HIGH DEF too.

As stated already, no difference in any "High Def" attena and older ones.. None at all. zero, zilch.. no mater what they try to tell you.. They all Pull them in.

Now, some of the newer ones for close zones have had some tech added to them in design so that they get better reception then rabbit ears of the same size, good buy if your close...

However, if you live any distance at all from the towers, and esp now that some of them are digital, you will need a larger attena. bigger is better. hands down. sorry, but for distance it is.. but look for good gain, and warch the back scatter..

digital is brodcasted at a lower signal strength, as with cell phones. the old analog gets signal while digital loses it... dont believe, watch what your cells changes to when in Low signal area, analog..

Best for people that are low on funds, or just want to test cheaply... look around the neighbour hood. many people have old attenas that will be great for testing, and have towers too.. most will part with them gladly if you take down yourself...

I bought a new one myself... just happens to be exactly the same as when they came out 22 years ago, yep i checked.. just now it has HD TV stamped on the box but exact same design... so old is new just shinier...

One thing to invest in is a rotor... you can never go wrong with one... even if you point in one direction only.. as with wind storms even a stationary can turn just a bit.. with a rotor you can easily just tweek in the direction change again to fine tune that hockey game back in HD.

and yes.. HD with OTA is true HD. cannot wait for Cananada to follow as I would like to watch it all in HD.

anyhow, just my Opinion.. with some small amount of experance in it.