I never really knew what these were until today. Ill start off by saying I live in the middle of nowhere (cable doesnt reach my house) but I have a satelite dish for all my tv channels and such. My vizio VX37L has a built in tuner and I really dont know how to use it.
-Do you need an antenna for the little thingy in the back?
-Do you need to subscribe to dish networks hd service?
I was under the impression that you wont get nearly as many channels as an HD service would provide, but the tuners can still pick up a few good hd channels with the proper range for essentially…the cost of the tuner and/or tv with built in tuner. Maybe I misinterpreted some of the stuff I was reading. Anyway, some help on the subject, other than a link to wiki would be nice. Thanks
I dont know how many over the air HD channels you’d get out there. Maybe a handful, at best. I’ve never seen over the air HD broadcasts in person, but I’ve heard that even well within range they have some shortcomings in quality.
Personally, I’d just subscribe to one of the directv hd packages, once you get used to HD all the other channels are nearly unwatchable.
All there is to using the built-in tuner is connect a decent UHF antenna to it. Then do an auto-program on your TV searching for digital channels. That’s it.
Don’t spend extra money on an antenna that says “HD” because all the HD channels are being broadcast digitally on the UHF frequencies. Go with a roof antenna if you can.
I’ve got a small indoor antenna, and only get 5 HD channels right now (since Fox is one of them, I’ve already got 95% of the content I want, at no cost), but they do come in either 720P or 1080i, and they look great when true HD content is being broadcast (NFL football on Fox looks great, as does all the stuff they broadcast on PBS.)
Actually, I should go pick up some coax and move my antenna up to the attic and see if I can pick up the rest of the locals.
OP: You are ~10 miles from 3 of the DTV OTA stations (NBC, CBS, ABC). Rabbit ears will work, assuming that you have a $2 compass & are not surrounded by high rises . Seriously.
Im kind of new with the hd stuff so heres another quesion. When I change to tv mode, I get a couple hd channels. Mainly 2 and 4, but still nice for football playoffs. Why does the game come in full screen but the 11 oclock news and the commercials are all 4:3 and leave black on the left and right of the screen?
Because the commercials are either old or not shot in hi-def. The news is probably not shot in Hi-Def either. (Which is probably a good thing for Kathleen Leighton, as she’ll be out of a job if that happens. Fuck that craterfaced bitch.)
Keep in mind this is a transition period, and not all broadcasts have adopted the 16:9 aspect ratio yet.
No recommendations here, but if your TV has a signal strength meter, experiment with antenna placement and aiming (the Antennaweb link shows most of your stations in the same direction, most of them are in E. Aurora, Fox is on Grand Island.) You should be able to get the best possible signal that way. Keep in mind that since the signal is digital, you’ll either have a good picture, or it’ll go all blocky and drop out. If it is fuzzy at times, it is because the camera they are using at that particular moment is a non-HD camera. You see this alot in football games, and my father says its even worse with golf. (I don’t watch golf, so I’ll take his word for it).
The only time you should bother with a more expensive - or even an “amplified” UHF antenna is if you’re trying to pull down stations from 20+ miles away.
I have two Silver sensors in my attic (one towards G.I. & one towards S.Bflo), with some line of sight issues I get 89 - 95% signal strength.
I setup rabbit ears @ my folks house in Cheektovegas, no line of sight issues. They get 75%+ signal strength on all.
So long as you can get ~65% signal, you’ll have the picture. Digital is all or nothing, no fuzziness.
That is actually backwards. OTA has the least compression and the best quality. However, you have to be fairly close to the source. If you are “out there” and can’t even get cable, I would bet money that you won’t pick up anything OTA.
Also, network channels (ESPN, HBO, etc) don’t broadcast OTA, its typically only stuff like NBC, CBS, PBS
Not true, it all comes down to the antenna. Right now I have a DB4 mounted in my attic and pull in all the WNY HD OTA stuff. No aiming it for different channels, no signal drop in high winds, it just works.
If I wanted to throw up a big exterior antenna I could easily pull in CBC HD from Toronto. I know there are guys in Rochester who pull in some of the Buffalo OTA stuff with roof mount antennas.
