Indoor Antenna once TV goes Digital?

Salam-allakum Athar Sahib,
As I understand it you’ll need a digital converter box to get local channels (not the rest of cable channels). The range is roughly 70 miles, after that you’ll either get it or not. Good luck.

as far as the quality goes…instead of “fuzzy”, you get “pixelated”. It might cut in and out or only pieces or pixels of the picture will appear. It’s actually more annoying than the analog “fuzz”, but if you get a good signal, the picture is awesome. I use an indoor $2.99 set of rabbit ears with a digital converter box on one of my TVs and it works great.

Rabbit ears are history. If you get an antenna, make sure it is a digital antenna, not to be mistaken for the big dish you might have in the backyard. The digital antenna receives channels from a different spectrum.

[I work as tech support for a cable company.]

Or get cable or dish.

@squirbel: any recommendations? I see good things on about the Terk Amplified HDTV Indoor antenna.

None from me, I don’t use antennas >.<

[I get cable, internet, and phone au gratis.]

@atharkhan – just know that even if you get the digital antenna, you’ll still need to get the digital converter box.

@squirbel – rabbit ears are not history..the digital antennas are just more powerful than regular rabbit ears. sure, the digital antennas are a better, but they are certainly not necessary to obtain an HD signal over-the-air.

Geez, let me clarify the antenna thing.

First, there is excellent and there is ordinary antenna, but there is no special digital antenna, seriously. Do not get misled by advertisements like “Ideal for Digital TV and HDTV reception”. The fact that some thought that way only tells you how much confusion has been floating around. The DTV2009 government website even has a special page to address the antenna issue.

Second, Rabbit Ears are only good for VHF channels even with the UHF loop, but digital channels are mostly on UHF. If you have a good UHF antenna already, your antenna is basically digital ready.

Third, depending on your location, with your current antenna you might lose some channels you are getting now with you current antenna. So upgrading the antenna becomes necessary. If indoor antenna is not working out for you, try rooftop.

Many good antennas are out there, this one has rave reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Antennas-Direct-DB2-Directional-Antenna/dp/B000EHUE7I/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1234376158&sr=8-1

This page is also helpful: http://www.unctv.org/unctvdtv/dtv_antennas.html

And I forgot one important thing about the antenna I recommended, that is for UHF only, but as of now I know that there will be a small number of digital channels in the VHF spectrum, so this antenna will not be able to pick up those.

The Terk should be a good choice already.

Also, visit www.antennaweb.org

@boxing – I get about 20+ stations (mostly digital and some analog) with my $2 rabbit ears and digital tuner…after the switch, that number will go down to about 15..so are you telling me that there might be more channels if i pick up a better antenna?

@ccatron – not really what I meant. I had locations with compromised signal reception in mind.

Rabbit ears usually have a UHF loop to receive UHF channels, and if your location is really close and without much obstruction, you would already pick up all digital channels even your antenna is not of the best type.

To make sure you will be picking up all channels, visit antennaweb.org, and put in your address to see all the OTA channels in your area.

If you already get all those channels, nothing more you have to do.

So, I’ve tried three different Antennas now—the Terk, the DB2, and good old Rabbit Ears. I get decent enough signal but way too many shadows/reflections (not sure how else to describe multiple images). So, I might just have to go crawling back to Cable. We watch all our TV online but the ONE thing I can’t seem to find is Oprah (okay…stop laughing!) online. My wife likes it and I really want to watch something with her that she enjoys (she indulges me with House, Arrested Development, etc. so it’s only fair).

I am a TV Station manager. It is really not about the antenna. A “Digital Antenna” is nothing but marketing. As are plenty of other things you “need” for the transition.
Rabbit ears can work just as good as anything else. It is a matter of your proximity to the signal.
The Analog signal inherently travels further, digital is 1” and 0’s, you either have the necessary amount of data to reproduce the image or you don’t.
Plenty of people will not be able to get TV (DT) any more because the signal will not go as far and breaks down too quickly. FCC knows this, but they are keeping a low profile on it.
Too much money has already been spent. on their end and the consumers.
Also the big lie from the cable companies is if you have cable you are good to go. True, if you have a converter box for your analog TV or a digital tv.
If you have basic cable and an analog set. You will not always be able to watch TV in that way. They will be dropping the analog signal from the cable line to make room for more channels and or services..
In order for your TV to continue to work, you will have to upgrade to a cable box or buy a new TV. Or for $4 or $5 dollars rent a Digital to analogue converter from your cable company.
If you just want to watch the air signal. Which is not a bad idea, if you can pick them all up. Where my station is we can pick up 40 channels off the air. But, our TV antenna is 80 feet in the air.
My thoughts on this, I understand the technical good of all this. But, because not enough time was put into understanding the pitfalls of the “weak” signals. The only people that are benefiting in the long run are the cable and Satellite companies. This is just a covert way to push everyone onto the information super highway.
We will eventually not have a choice, information will not be free. The airwaves will be freed up for other technological advancements.