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What’s up with digital tv? We don’t have satellite or cable but man do we get a bad reception in windy weather. When it’s windy out, the picture seems to skip about and you get the giant pixle look on it and lose the sound. I know it has in internal tuner (maybe they all do) and we had to buy an antenae. If digital is going to be like this, they can keep it. I’ll take my analog any day. Does anybody else have this problem?
When it was windy or storming, our analog and digital stations would drop out. I think this was mostly due to the signal reflection off of high power transmission lines to the west of our house. We changed to a digital antenna (its a 3×3 ft square), and got the correct positioning from antennaweb and the reception has been awesome. That is the good news, the bad news is I have a 6ft V antenna now collecting dust.
I don’t have satellite or cable either and have also experienced this, but I hear from others that even with digital they occasionally have this problem. Other than splurging for a top of the line antenna and adjusting it periodically, I don’t have any answers. I had to beg a techno-savvy friend to hook my DVD/VCR up to it today. I had managed the converter box connection but was lost to AV hookups. That’s partly why I read the Tech Talk forum–to absorb fellow geocachers tech knowledge. If no one has a solution for you other than a better antenna, I would suggest talking with a store clerk where they sell the TVs and accessories. I have been to three and all the staff were very helpful.
@sammyclaws wrote:
the bad news is I have a 6ft V antenna now collecting dust.
Not completely, they make pretty good antenna’s for stereo’s, have used a standard TV antenna on mine for years.
Get into ham radio, you’ll be hacking that thing to bits to try and get more out of it.
My wife would shoot me if I came home with another hobby.
The antenna I bought is called Clearstream. At the time it was $70- extra range and $35 for the medium range. I checked Amazon’s price and they have gone up, apparently due to the increased demand. But they do work. I even hung mine from the rafters in my attic and all the stations still register as strong.
Thanks for the input. Just once, it would be nice if the government could just leave well enough alone. In case you can’t tell, I’m not crazy about change. Seems like everytime I’m told that change is good and I will be better off, it ends up costing me a fortune and gives me nothing but headaches and confusion.
Your exactly correct the government can not leave well enough alone. the problem with the HDTV is that the government auctioned off the Radio Spectrum to third parties, and there have been six extensions already, the last three have been for a year each. Now the Third parties are coming down on the government because they want to use the radio spectrum that they have paid for already years ago… But the HDTV is a headache, because they cannon push the signal as far as a standard analog signal, hence people that live further out from the Transmitter Towers will not Receive the Digital stuff.. The Government wants you to beleive that the Digital will give you a better Picture further away.. NOT TRUE…..
So we will all get this rammed down our throats, and end up with worse signal, and quality then we did 20 years ago…
Government mandated advancement at it’s finest….
There we go again. Come home from work and put the news on only to have the feed and sound stop for a few seconds here and there because we have something more than a light breeze blowing.
We get audio and visual hiccups, too, and we have cable. But we’re 80 miles or so from the nearest TV station, so the cable company could be receiving the “hiccups” over the distance.
And we’re not really getting DTV because we don’t have upgraded lines in our area, so the cable company steps everything down to analog so that no one needs a converter box. Did a rescan yesterday just in case, but still got the same old 38 analog stations and 0 digital ones.
In a nutshell …
ANALOG TV is like having a Dimmer Switch on your living room lights … when you have it bright in the room you can see real well, if you dim it somewhat you can still see just not as good. So, maybe your signal is not very strong, but you can still see/hear the TV, but maybe with a bit of static.
Unfortunatly DIGITAL TV is more like an On/Off Switch … it’s either all On and everything is fine, or if you don’t have enough signal reaching you it’s all the way Off. When you see blocks of garbage on your screen, your seeing the switch turn off for a brief period of time. To make matters worse, the digital signal (as others have stated) does not travel as far as analog.
… I’ve over simplified this, but for the non-technical, just think of it this way.
I like “over simplified”. I am very non-technical. You can ask anybody in my family.
“Are you almost done on line, I need to make a phone call? Just use my cell. Here is the number. Thanks. Now how do I turn this thing off?”
How far does a good or strong signal supposed to go? I live about 8-10 miles from all of the transmiter towers in Milwaukee. Are these only for analog? I hope things will get better.
I just saw on the news this morning that all Milwaukee area stations have been broadcasting digital and analog simultaneously since 2004. I’m guessing the analog and digital broadcasts come from different antennas but on the same towers.
Time to hook up that converter box and see what it looks like.
I’ve been receiving digital OTA signals in Milwaukee since 2002. Back then it was exciting when a station fired up their digital transmitter and you tried to receive the signal. I was actually receiving more digital channels from Chicago, then Milwaukee at that time. I replaced that hobby with something else. 🙄
Here’s a website that was instrumental in assisting me. These guys know their stuff and are very helpful. http://milwaukeehdtv.org/
I used to work for a tower company & put up these antennas and yes they are on the same towers.
If you live that close to the transmitters and are having signal problems its time you invest in a new antenna, but before you do you might want to try replacing the coax you have first and eliminate any unneeded splitters you are using.
you would be surprised how one old cheap splitter or worn out coax could cause allot of signal loss. Another thing to consider would be buying a good amp to put on the line.From New Glarus I am pulling in all the Madison stations great even though I’m down in a hole so to speak. I even get channel 57, which is located just off County Road A almost to Janesville. I’m using my old crappy roof antenna. My brother who lives in Monroe just got a new antenna with a rotor, He pulls in Madison, Rockford, Milwaukee, and Dubuque.
I’ve never bought anything from this website, but it has a great variety of antennas and info about choosing the right one for you.
http://www.antennasdirect.com/hdtv_antenna_selector.html@furfool wrote:
How far does a good or strong signal supposed to go? I live about 8-10 miles from all of the transmiter towers in Milwaukee. Are these only for analog? I hope things will get better.
I would also bet they are the digital towers too. According to what I heard on NPR(one of the few times in my life I listened to it) the other night, in 8-10 miles you should have no problem as long as your antenna is aimed right.
These are some antenna’s I had suggested to me:
Ok supposedly 40 mile range but don’t quote me:
http://www.winegarddirect.com/viewitem.asp?p=HD-4400Better supposedly 80 mile range, these two parts together, again don’t quote me :
Amp: http://www.winegarddirect.com/viewitem.asp?p=AP8800
Antenna: http://www.winegarddirect.com/viewitem.asp?p=HD-8800Best bet – call the pro’s…
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