[Shop-talk] HDTV antenna

[David Scheidt]

On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 7:17 PM,  <Don55CM at aol.com> wrote:
> In a message dated 12/14/2008 6:20:27 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> doug at dougbraun.com writes:
>
> An  antenna that is good for traditional analog broadcasting will be good for
>  digital (HD or regular).
>
> So if you have a usable antenna today, just  try tuning in the digital
> version of your favorite stations to see if you are  happy with the results.
>
> Doug
>
>
>
> Any good UHF antenna will be good for HD / digital TV.   A directional
> antenna mounted up high will work a lot better than the  little wire loop that came
> with the TV.  A VHF antenna (like  the rabbit ears) that only pulls in the old
> channels 2-13 (no  decimal point) won't work after next February.  The new
> digital  channels (2.1, 2.2, etc.) are actually located up in the UHF  band.
>

No.  The VHF band is solidly part of the digital TV world.  What's
happened is that digital TV decouples the "display channel" (what your
receiver tells you you're watching, 16-1, for instance.) from the
actual frequency at which the station is broadcast.  Many, probably
most, of the existing VHF stations are, currently, broadcasting on a
different UHF channel.  Most will switch back after the analog
transmitter shuts down.



-- 
David Scheidt
dmscheidt at gmail.com