My DTV Reception and what is the future for digital television viewing?

[K Sherertz]

I have 2 LCD TV's & 2 old TV's that only provide analog programming. All are connected to the same roof antenna.

We frequently have trouble with the digital reception on our LCD,TV's & the old one for which I installed a digital converter box. The picture breaks up, shows weak, or no signal. If I switch to analog the recption is fine.

My question is: what happens when stations quit transmitting analog signals? Is there a plan to increase signal power for digital programming or will we still continue to loss the picture and be without the back up analog programming?

What is the future to bring with this [so called] better quality digital transmission? Is the intent to force everyone to pay for cable or satellite reception? Digital transmission is certainly not better than analog as it is today. Would appreciate any information you may have regarding what can be expected for future television viewing.

K.Sherertz

 

[Jason Fritz]

Hello K,
Thanks for your opinion! I'm hoping to receive more opinions here at the board just like yours, we get plenty of .gov visitors here and at http://www.tvconversionhelp.com, so make your voices heard!

Anyway,
You may want to try purchasing a signal booster for improving reception. I tried one on my set up, and it didn't help at all, but I think in your case, you have a better chance of success since your antenna is located on your roof. A signal booster goes inline, and it basically boosts the strength with a signal amplifier to your converter box. Pricing for a booster can run between $10-$50 depending on the amount of strength/boost you need.

Worst case scenario, you may want to have an antenna technician come out ($50/hour) to troubleshoot for you. In most instances, it shouldn't take more than an hour to modify your setup.



In regards to your comment:

Is the intent to force everyone to pay for cable or satellite reception?

If you get a chance, check out this story http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331040,00.html "Cable Companies Stand to Gain From Digital-TV Confusion" Unfortunately, I think you're absolutely correct.

 

[mjr643]

From friends who are in the business here is their reply:

Basically some TV stations are broadcasting from what they will be broadcasting on in 2009, others are broadcasting from temporary setups to please the FCC but will move to their original stations in 2009 (Digital tv stations show for instance they are broadcasting on channel 5 but in actuality are broadcasting on say channel 36 with a code to tell the tv to show they are on channel 5)

There is no real way to know until that date what we will be stuck with, but in fringe areas espcially.. without a outside antenna , DTV is government mandated problem which unless you buy cable or satelitte in restricted neighborhoods you will watch no tv

 

[Jason Fritz]

Great post mjr!

I wanted to also add that, signal boosters are not the definitive answer to receiving weak dtv signals. While they do indeed boost reception, they also boost "noise" and interference which may actually reduce the quaility of reception.

 

[cowboyup4christ]

SIgnal boosters are great to help on long runs but a good pre-amplifier works better because it helps to boost weak signals at the antenna. I would try this first if your antenna is a uhf/vhf get an amp that does both if your antenna is a UHF get an amp for UHF only example winguard 4800 for UHF 2870 for both or a channel Master 777 is good also.