Hating Digital Television

[disney1990]

Well, we now have converted to Digital television. How's everybody liking it? We have 2 televisions that have Digital Converter boxes attached to them and Digital antennas. And, we get 2 channels on those televisions -- FOX and NBC. Everything else is MIA.

I hate not being able to receive ABC and CBS. Anybody else?

 

[hoosll]

Have you run set up on your converter boxes again? Or are you living in a hollow with no sight lines. We have cable but my brother in Phillie uses converter boxes and they are getting scads more channels. some in Spanish, etc.

 

[teacherforhi]

I live in the middle of nowhere and not only do I get the regular stations, I get about 10 I never knew existed...including three different PBS stations. Who knew there was so much on PBS?

 

[disney1990]

The area shouldn't be a problem. We live about 10 miles outside of Washington, DC.

Yes, we have rescanned the televisions and it hasn't helped.

 

[golfgal]

When the conversion first went through we had one tv that didn't work at all-our brand new HDTV We kept resetting the cable box, etc. then DS17 remembered he unplugged something in the back, plugged it in and it was fine.

I LOVE the clarity on the HDTV!!

 

[edandcolleen1995]

Love the HDTV! This was our first time with it (just moved to our first house) and just amazing.

Not one complaint! Seems like everyone else agrees per the poll.

 

[hoosll]

Where do you have the antennas, I have heard some people say that they have to put them outside or at least in front of a window ... You may be pointing them towards one tower (2 stations) and totally missing other towers in your area ....

 

[FireDancer]

I love it. I get all my television either through the satellite dish or the web anyway, not antenna TV's for me. I am more excited about the freed up spectrum than about the digital delivery per se but it is about time we started pushing people into the new millennium.

 

[StregaNona]

We live near two major areas and have Verizon FIOS. We get both cities NBC, ABC, CBS & FOX affiliates.

 

[Papa Deuce]

I love it. I get all my television either through the satellite dish or the web anyway, not antenna TV's for me. I am more excited about the freed up spectrum than about the digital delivery per se but it is about time we started pushing people into the new millennium.

Curious why this matters to you. I know why the govt. likes it / wants it, but generally speaking, this doesn't mean much to those who don't need that space for "professional" reasons.

 

[bicker]

I hate not being able to receive ABC and CBS. Anybody else?

There is a forum that essentially is devoted to helping folks improve their own digital television reception:

http://www.dtvusaforum.com

Lots of folks there ready to help you make sense of what you need to do to make things better for yourself.

The first step that they'll have you do is to go to http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29 and run a query on the TV Signal Locator database there, and post the result via a URL that the website will provide for you. That will help everyone better understand the reception challenges you face. If you want, you can post it here, and I'll help you from here. (If you want that, though, please also post the model numbers of your digital tuner box and your antenna.)

I am more excited about the freed up spectrum than about the digital delivery per se but it is about time we started pushing people into the new millennium.

Curious why this matters to you. I know why the govt. likes it / wants it, but generally speaking, this doesn't mean much to those who don't need that space for "professional" reasons.

Well, surely, better support for inter-agency communications in a security crisis benefits everyone, not just some abstract concept of "the government". Also, the commercial uses of some of the bandwidth are pretty exciting. It is remarkable how many people are watching television on remote devices these days, iPods, laptops, the new Zune HD, etc. However, getting live digital television to work when you're, for example, riding to work in a moving train or bus, or perhaps traveling the country in an RV, that requires a different kind of signal. One of the big uses for the freed-up bandwidth is MediaFLO applications, "for the delivery of ... premium, TV-quality entertainment and information services to mobile devices".

 

[johnnymo99]

Went from 12 channels to only 1 channel in the switch. Have done the rescan and have a power boost indoor antenna. Also have checked the fcc website for the correct channel direction pointing but still only have one channel. If all the people who think this digital conversion is so great want to take up a collection to pay the hundreds of dollars I'd have to spend to put up an outdoor antenna - I'll take the money. One good thing is that I'm spending much less time watching television(I'm sure the advertisers will like to hear that).

 

[bicker]

The FCC website is pretty much useless for getting the kind of help you need. Check out the links I provided, instead, and you may not need "hundreds of dollars".

 

[johnnymo99]

Bicker, I've been to the websites you've listed and not been satisfied. The amount of work that this requires is ridiculous. I would have to get a large outdoor antenna, would have to place it at a certain height, have to have an antenna that can be rotated to a channel to pick up the signal and spend a bunch of money. This conversion really has sucked for my neighbors and local community. I dont think I should have to place some huge, expensive and ugly antenna monstrosity on my house when what we had before worked very well and most were happy with it.

 

[bicker]

You must be in that 2% of the country that actually is getting less television reception than before the transition. That's a shame. While you perhaps were happier with how things were before, that isn't the case for the other 98% of the folks. Nothing is ever really perfect.

One thing you may want to check into is your local cable company. They are required by law to subsidize a very basic cable service that includes (only) local over-the-air television stations, for a very low monthly rate... here it is $8.50. That might be the best approach for those in that 2% of the country that drew the short stick.

 

[johnnymo99]

Bicker, again I say I'll take donations. Why should I have to pay for getting the shaft.

 

[xoprincessmomxo]

Bicker, again I say I'll take donations. Why should I have to pay for getting the shaft.

I get where you're coming from there. I live on a farm. Before the conversion, we were getting all the channels and then some of their digital stations. Great picture, great reception....

And then the converstion happened. We are now down to Fox, CW, and one weird one that we don't watch. We're not big tv watchers, but I do want my Grey's and DWTS! We bought a huge new antenna to replace the old one in our attic. Big chunk of change there. My DH went to plug it in, and realized we need all new wiring to run through our walls. Got the new wiring. More $$$.

The old wire it nailed in behind our wall so now we have to hire an electrician to install it. More $$$$.

 

[MIGrandma]

We have a convertor box for the camper and we only get 2 channels clearly. The other 2 we get often "scramble" and go in and out even though the picture looks great one minute, but not the next. Kind of frustrating.

I think DH likes it okay for the bedroom at home, that TV has a convertor box too, and it gets most of the channels.

Still have a TV on the kitchen counter than needs a convertor box, but we're thinking of just putting the TV in storage as we rarely watch it. It is a big, bulky 19" so it would be nice to have the counter space back, actually.

 

[Pigeon]

Bicker, I've been to the websites you've listed and not been satisfied. The amount of work that this requires is ridiculous. I would have to get a large outdoor antenna, would have to place it at a certain height, have to have an antenna that can be rotated to a channel to pick up the signal and spend a bunch of money. This conversion really has sucked for my neighbors and local community. I dont think I should have to place some huge, expensive and ugly antenna monstrosity on my house when what we had before worked very well and most were happy with it.

ITA. It's been a disaster for us.

 

[jen0610]

It is so weird that since the conversion to digital, if you watch live sports on CBS or ABC, they can't keep the picture in focus. Watching football last couple of weekends it has been really bad. And it isn't just on our TV. We have DirecTV, my parents have Fios, and DH's parents just have the converter box - we have watched a part of a football game the last two weekends on one of these TV's and it didn't matter who was providing the signal, it kept going outta focus.

At our house and my parents house, we'd switch over to a game being shown by ESPN or the Big Ten Networks and never once had an outta focus issue. We haven't watched any sports on Fox or NBC to know if they are going to have the same issue or not.

Sure hope they figure it out or it is going to be a long season of watching college and pro sports.