in case you are not aware, the U.S. will soon be moving to digital broadcasts over the air. there has been a lot of money (mis)spent in informing people that they need digital tuners, and yet somehow i get the feeling things aren't going to switch very smoothly. apparently, president-elect obama (or some of his people?) is asking for more time? psshhh. gimme a break. the law that is making this change was passed in 1996. 1996!
stations have been simultaneously broadcasting digital and analogue for several years now in this area, but the switch to all digital is supposed to happen in February. bleh. anyway, i moved to digital earlier than "mandated", and then realized that while there are all sorts of commercials and ads and stuff telling people they will need a digital tuner, not much help is out there. so, here is a quick rundown of my setup and experience.
first off, i think people should realize they have options. the government is giving coupons for boxes such as this ge tuner
the third picture is a flat antenna advertised as "made for digital". personally i think that's a bunch of crap; i bought it because i liked the design of the antenna, and because it came with a removable signal booster. anyway, the tuner will allow you to watch digital channels in standard definition. while these get the job done, there are a few things not to like. first off, i think all of these remotes should have some sort of minimal universal remote function that allows you to change volume, channel, etc on the tv they are attached to. why? well, the remote that is next to the tuner is my old tv remote. it is now totally useless except for the power button. if the remote had some sort of universal function, then i could have just 1 remote for all the tv viewing needs. the tuner's remote DOES let you adjust the volume, but you are only controlling the volume coming from the tuner, not the one on your tv.
anyway, as you can see, standard definition digital television is not so bad (i moved the camera, but that's my fault). some people say it looks better than cable...and actually, i can see how they might say that. i think it looks clearer than the clearest analog signal. there are more channels now, too.
i would like to point out that the government coupons will only cover this sort of box. the converter is digital, but it is only capable of showing standard definition. all of the boxes i've seen have a cheap look and feel to them, and out of 3 converters, i think this is probably the most problematic. digital tv does not show static, but sometimes you do see pixelation, or strange artifacts, or even skips in the broadcasts. this box usually receives all the channels alright, but tends to give random strange problems that are usually solved with a reboot. i guess you get what you pay for...
SO, that is standard definition. i recently purchased this next box from Kworld at my favourite store Fry's electronics. it is a perfect match for my 2002 "hd ready" tv. many "older" hdtvs do not have built in digital tuners. i believe it was only in 2006 that they all started coming with these tuners built in, and even so they are not always high definition. originally i thought i could use this box to also hook up my pc to the tv in hd, but no. well, yes...but your pc has to be outputting the right kind of signal, and that is usually not very straightforward. at any route, this box is perfect for hd ready sets, or if you want to watch tv on a pc monitor even without the computer attached or on. it shares the same complaint as the cheapie converter in that the remote only controls the tuner. another gripe is that while this outputs in 1080i HD, the audio is only stereo. oh well. if you get this box, i recommend using a vga to component cable like i am using. it is less messy than if i were to use the component outputs on the side of the box.
the antenna you see here attached to the candle holder came included. this placement, along with a signal booster, is the only way i can receive a signal from pbs (public broadcast station). anyway, this type of antenna is perfect for all of the channels, so don't be fooled into getting more antenna than you need! antenna placement is pretty important. it doesn't need to be anything fancy or expensive, it just needs to be put in the right place. i love that the antenna that came with the kworld box has a magnetic base.
i have not mentioned it much, but that signal booster was probably more important than picking out an antenna. you see, i live in the outskirts of the city, and the stations are broadcasting from quite far away. in analogue, there were few channels that came in very clear. most came in with quite a bit of fuzz. this is important because once switched to digital, it tends to be more of a "you get signal or you don't" type deal. this isn't totally true. but in the case of one channel, the signal strength (which the box will show you) was at about 55% and this was too weak for it to ever display anything. so in my case, the signal was there but not strong enough to be recognized, resulting in a no signal message, even though i could see it detecting something. this booster was enough to push it over into the clean signal edge.
my third digital tuner is the hdtv wonder by ati. it is an internal tuner for desktop computers which i installed sometime around 2003, and it works fairly well. it lets me watch over the air channels on my pc, and since my video card outputs to the tv...well, it lets me watch on the tv too. i recently decided to move my pc away from the tv though. in fact, i plan on selling it.
i feel its important to mention it though, because i think many people imagine they HAVE to get one like the first one, because that is what the coupon will get. i just wanted to point out there are other options, and better options (although i admit you probably won't have cheaper options). also, just because out of the box a converter does not work perfectly, it might not be the converter's fault.
i would say that if you have an hdtv that did not come with a tuner, do not bother with the standard definition tuners. the hd tuners produce a much better picture, and as you may have noticed, the hd tuner will give you more image. (the sd broadcast does not show as much of the court as the hd broadcast). personally, i really only enjoy watching pbs hd, as well as the spurs in hd. other than that, i think i would probably be ok with my tv just showing static after the switch. now that i have switched, i get more channels...and yet it always seems like there is nothing on. but that's another blog post. if you are in the u.s. and watch a lot of over the air tv, i think you will mostly enjoy the switch.
cable and satellite are not affected by this change, well not directly. some cable companies are taking advantage of the confusion/change period to change their lineup. some channels are getting moved to be part of pricier packaging. jerks! this really has nothing to do with the switch to dtv, but it is happening, so i thought i'd mention it too.
anyway, if you have any questions about any of these converters or the switch, feel free to ask...
i am sorry if none of this was of any use to you.
happy watching!
p.s. - woohoo! at the time this blog was finished, the counter showed 1337. ;)
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