Go for the converter box. It's cheap which makes it low risk. Then
check out this page of antenna advice. The two Channel Masters
mentioned there (optimized for UHF) look like they might be a good bet
but I have no idea what they cost.
<http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/types.html>
If you're only after a particular station or the stations are all in the
same direction and don't have much angular separation from each other
maybe you can even build a specialized antenna.
The last year that I was in the Air Force (and very poor) I lived in San
Antonio, Texas which was 70-80 miles away from the then nearest public
broadcasting station in Austin, Texas. The Air Force had introduced me
to basic antenna theory so that and a trip to the library gave me all I
needed to know to build a simple yagi antenna optimized for (IIRC)
channel 12. I couldn't afford much so the antenna was built of strips
of cardboard and aluminum foil taped to the floor under the rug in front
of the TV. The twin lead contacts were even taped to the foil. No
solder involved. It worked great.
When we lived in Woodstock, New York I gave some serious thought to
building a rhombic antenna in my attic to pick up a particular station
in New York City. I never did build it though since the size I desired
would have required most of the length of the attic which wasn't
oriented quite close enough for good performance.
Good luck,
Chuck Norcutt
Mike Lazzari wrote:
> Maybe now it won't happen in February as planned. Anyway, it's bound to
> happen sooner rather than later. Too much money to be made at the
> expense of the taxpayer. Here is my problem, maybe someone has a
> solution. We live in a fringe reception area and get a few fuzzy
> channels plus CBC via an antenna on top of the house. Viewed on a
> Toshiba HD CRT 720p/1080i which I have no intention nor need of
> replacing anytime soon. Netflix play in HD just fine. It lacks a
> HD/digital tuner though so I signed up for the $40 coupon for the set
> top box. But if my understanding of the fine print is correct our fuzzy
> signal will register as a digital 0 rather than a 1 with the result that
> we won't be able to get _any_ signal at all with the possible exception
> of the CBC. Another problem is that I have heard that the digital
> transmission will be in the UHF range. We aren't able to pick up any UHF
> signals even though the antenna has the UHF component.
>
> So these are the options as I see it:
>
> -Forget about TV
> -Get a satellite dish. ~$600/yr +equip and install. Might not get
> local channels and don't want or care about any of the other crap nor
> the bill.
> -Get the set top box and hope for the best. Low probability of success.
> -Get the set top box and a new antenna to pick up the UHF signal better.
> Slightly better possibility of success.
> -internet TV.
>
> This last option might be the best choice. I'd like to find a way to
> send the signal to the TV either wirelessly (easy) or over a wire which
> I would have to pull. (harder but I did drop a conduit into the crawl
> space for just such an eventuality) So far all the devices I've been
> able to find are designed to send the signal from a TV/cable to the
> computer for viewing or recording. I would have to go from the computer
> to the AV receiver. The other bottleneck is the speed of connection. We
> use the wireless g protocol but I do have a new n router. Maybe still
> too slow? Also we are on DSL @ 256 theoretically with not much hope of
> doing better even if we pay for it. I don't have to view in real time
> and could simply add a hard drive for later viewing.
>
> Is this practical? Other ideas?
>
> Mike
>
>
>
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