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RF is RF....As long as you have an antenna appropriate for the frequency being used, it doesn't matter what is carried on it. Keep in mind the advertised channel numbers are virtual, you have to look at the RF channel number to determine what antenna is needed. In the 2009 conversion, many VHF broadcasters moved to UHF and some UHF went to VHF (most had to transmit two signals for awhile, so it had to do with what spectrum was available - most stations just kept their digital signal where it was when they turned off the analog transmitter) and some changed sites during the process, so your antenna system from 1955 might no longer be appropriate. We are also in the middle of a TV repack where many stations are moving RF channels again. Everything above channel 36 is being given to the telcos. Check out sites like rabbitears.info and antennaweb.org to see what is appropriate.

Channel 5 WOI-DT out of Des Moines still actually transmits on Channel 5, which can cause some issues for non VHF antennas. To help get around this they also have WOI-LD transmitting on channel 50 at a low power for the Des Moines Area. https://www.antennaweb.org/Sta...

Coax is a good way to distribute Over the air TV. I do that. Antennas do not need to be powered or expensive, unless the reception conditions are particularly bad, so if you already have an outside antenna try what you have first.
tablotv
No Cable
Your Free TV
FCC OTA site
antennaweb.org
Making your own antenna is also possible and simple
fractal can type
fractal panel type

D'oh. Yeah, if I wanted to go back to analog, I'd have to dive behind the TV and change the connections. Perhaps you don't see that having a remote control that allows changing channels is a convenience, but I do. The remote isn't much good if I have to not only go over to the TV to change channels, but rewire the connections.

Hey, here's a solution. Cable. Not only do I get all the networks (two versions of some) but the picture is good and I don't have to rewire anything when I change channels. And I get more things than just the local stations. But according to some, getting cable wasn't the answer. I guess having to swap cables around was better after all.

That's a long rant to ignore my suggestion that you just get an RF modulator to run the converter box through. And did you have a local analog channel on VHF 3 AND 4? Probably not.

And a signal amplifier won't help the digital signals when they suffer from multipath or are too weak to start with.

If you're suffering from multipath, then you're going to have bigger problems with analog (ghosting).

Not exactly synonyms. Codecs don't have to include compression.

No, which is why I was more specific. If you did 1080i without compression, you'd need 150MHz per channel - and that's without error correction. We wouldn't even have room for one channel between VHF and UHF combined.

So, you went from five networks to one (likely with 4 digital subchannels, each of which are a better picture than analog). But if you're living at the edge of the signal, nobody cared. The local advertisers on the network certainly don't care, because you're not going to drive far enough to buy their services.

http://www.antennaweb.org/

NOAA Weather Radio should be receivable anywhere in CONUS and there are decent radios to be had (that will activate automatically during severe weather events) for less than $50. Something worth considering.

As far as the asshats at TWC, have you considered going OTA-only or at least OTA for your local channels? If you're lucky you have a local station with a good weather operation that will go above and beyond the EAS reporting -- one of our local stations preempted NBC for the better part of an hour when we had a tornado earlier this year -- but even if they don't you'd still be assured of getting the EAS alerts.

Check out TV Fool and AntennaWeb as starting resources for determining if OTA reception is feasible from your location and what kind of antenna system you would need to make it happen. As an added bonus, you'll get a far better HD picture than anything Time Warner is sending down their pipe, they compress the hell out of their digital channels.

I have this http://www.antennasdirect.com/store/ClearStream-C2-VHF-Combo.html in my second story attic at 47 miles out from the transmitters, roughly 50 feet above sea level. Mounted it to an attic cross beam, aimed it with my iphone compass and was good to go. Works like a champ.

Go here http://www.antennaweb.org/Address.aspx to evaluate how your location in relation to your local transmitters.

I don't know if she has anyone around to help her, but if she does she might want to buy a big HDTV antenna and ditch the current VCR, maybe you can get her this one as a gift http://www.frys.com/product/5634671?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG ? This site also looks like it has some good resources for you to look through http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx .

I can now get, no thanks to the cable guys or ma bell, may they rot, but serious props to a local WISP with the best customer service I have ever had for any product, something better than dialup and cheaper, but that's it. It's not real broadband, it is "other". Youtube streaming is out, but I can download like a linux ISO overnight. Lemme see, I timed it, just upgraded to 10.4 Ungowah linux, took I think 16 hours. On dialup that would have been sixteen days or something.. It's better than dialup, but not "IPTV" level.

      My OTA TV though improved dramatically with the digital conversion, three channels to over a dozen any random day, and I still haven't really fixed my antenna all that well(needs full rewiring) or added a rotor(the secret to great reception at a distance, precise aiming and good/the correct elements). My only gripe with digital is it is y/N, there is no mid ground watch a fuzzy channel action like with analog TV.

I am not all that much complaining though, there is NO WAY I would trade my job or location just to watch internet TV living in town someplace. Ta heck with that. The tradeoff is lopsided towards my personal choice lifestyle out here not really in the sticks, but edge of 'burbia where the farms really start.

Anyway, you want better TV, *height*. Go higher on your tower, and get that rotor, you really need both if you got zilch or crappy signal. I spent many a weekend helping my dad slap in antennas/towers for people when I was growing up.

Lemme see... http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

You can input your x-y there and see what you can get theoretically with varying antenna heights. Every section higher, every ten feet, increases your odds of snagging good signal from *someplace*.

Now if you mean there is no local TV signal to get at all, because of that economic FCC gerrymandering..I got bupkis. If there is no station, there is no station.

Or you could start a station... ;) quarter million people seems a decent enough market..

I used to run Myth ~2 years ago, but got fed up with issues and linux in general (ok, so kill me slashdot). Then I switched to SageTV which was nice for a while.

IR control: At the time I used WinLirc to transmit IR to control my Dish network box and it worked pretty well. Needed a custom script to take SageTV's channel changing format and translate it to WinLirc's format, but worked after some tweaks. Not sure about motorola but don't see why it would be a problem with enough work - LIRC has a great resource for IR codes. [I was using a homebrew IR blaster... basically an IR diode and a resistor hanging off the DTR line of the serial port]

Built a new HTPC 2 months ago with Win XP for simplicity and netflix access. I tried both GB-PVR and MediaPortal. Mediaportal looks flashier, but the UI is much slower and lacks a few key features... which is why I went back to GB-PVR. I've been very happy. Very few crashes, but should probably setup a weekly reboot for insurance. Yeah it's not open source, but it's still free. There's a plugin for GBPVR which will let you launch Zinc for all your streaming content, including netflix. There's a FANTASTIC web interface, including the ability to stream any of your recordings (think Slingbox). There's a plugin to control uTorrent. And GBPVR can work directly with a media extender like Popcorn Hour, if you don't want to have another PC for another room. [Though you can build a whole mini PC for the other room for the same cost as a popcorn hour]

A friend of mine tried Windows 7's media center features and is very happy. His small daughters can run it, including playing back all of their DVD's that he has ripped to a server.

In the unlikely event that anyone is actually interested:

TUNER: I built the HTPC with a Hauppauge 1600 tuner card. Initially intending to get free ATSC over the air, I discovered I could get the same channels from my cable provider in clear QAM without needing the antenna. (Cable is for cable modem only). The digital side of the tuner can record more than 1 stream as long as it's on the same physical RF channel. Plus I can use the analog tuner simultaneously for standard-def recording. So I can record 2+ shows at once, from one card.

MOTHERBOARD: I put that in a mini itx case on an intel atom 330 mobo with s-video output and built in spdif audio (though I did have to make my own cable for the spdif). Svideo was useful until I got a better TV. Mobo only has VGA output, so that limited my HDTV selection slightly, but not bad. The whole thing (tuner, mobo, case, ram, HD) was http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121359
review, explaining video capability at 1080p: http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/atoms/default.asp?page=8

GUIDE DATA: setup was a pain (and a real learning curve about digital TV), but now that I got it all figured out I'm getting it for free using MC2XML.

Good DTV / QAM Channel references:

http://www.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/channels_us
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx
http://www.titantv.com/
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/

If it's like my area; those stations that are transmitting both analog and digital channels are transmitting the digital ones at about a tenth less strength. I suggest they(or you) visit antennaweb or TV Fool to find out the relative transmitting powers for their area.

Once they shut off the analog transmitters they're generally going to step up the power on their digital stations.

The delay is justified, for two reasons. First, the coupon program was bungled, and running out of coupons shows that consumers are NOT clueless, MORE have responded than expected, because they are doing their best to prepare.

Second, as nearly as I can tell, nothing is being done to prepare consumers for the channel reassignments that will occur along with the analog shutdown. A significant number of stations will be changing their assigned frequency for digital transmission, and quite a lot of them will be changing from UHF to VHF.

At the very least you'll need to do a channel rescan. If I were a station like WHDH, the big Channel 7 NBC affiliate in Boston, I'd long since have posted directions on my website telling people about this and, if possible, telling them how to do a manual channel rescan. But they haven't.

Now, if you have a honkin' big old UHF/VHF rooftop antenna left over from the eighties, and you buy a converter box, you'll be fine. But if you bought one of those nice, compact, inexpensive "HDTV antenna" they've been selling for several years now, that, my friends, is a UHF antenna and you'll lose any digital stations that move to VHF. Maybe not, if they're powerful enough. But I don't know how on earth you can find out before the actual moment arrives.

And if you don't have a big honkin' VHF antenna on your roof already, February 17th is not a great time to be up there installing one.

So, check antennaweb.org for those channel reassignments, because I suspect some of the smug digerati are not quite as prepared for the transition as they think they are.

You might want to check out:

http://www.antennaweb.org/ (you don't have to put in more than your zip code)

http://www.dtvanswers.com/dtv_antenna.html

At one point a year or two ago, sites similar to this were even giving sample mfgr and model numbers.

This stuff is all VERY well planned out.

Like most card carrying nerds, I get my TV from the ATSC broadcast OTA today on mostly the UHF band. If the switch happens what do *I* need to do?

The FCC is selling a big chunk of the 700MHz UHF spectrum, right? So will some of my channels move?

The only information that I can find about "THE SWITCH" assumes that I have an NTSC tuner (and that I'm really slow.)

AHA! Answering my own question...
Any channel mapped higher than 52 will go away:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_broadcast_television_frequencies#UHF_band
Which for me means there are a few channels that will move.
And they show which ones will move here:
http://www.antennaweb.org/
Interestingly - there are ATSC channels being moved even though they aren't in the sold spectrum!

Antenna Web is a good place to find out what stations have digital signals in your area, what direction they are in and what is your best bet for antennas to purchase. They also have ratings/reviews of antennas by users.

I was helping a relative with their new flat digital TV. As far as I could tell for that Digital TV, the only choice was autoscan, and it was a come back in an hour type operation. With the indoor amplified antenna it was only one station I think. It would be much faster to go to antennaweb.org, and put in the few physical channel available in their area. But now 9.1 isn't on the frequency assigned to channel 9 it's on 39, so I assume to reduce that confusion they didn't get them a choice and only allowed autoscan.

At home on Linux and the pcHDTV card autoscan didn't take all that long, but antennaweb.org said I was missing one station. After looking up the frequency, and telling it to tune to that, it locked. Autoscan is nice, but it assumes whoever did it got it completely right. It is also doesn't take additional information, like I know there is a channel here, tune to it, and I'll move the antenna around to see if I can pick anything up.

Tuning was one part of the problem. The other part was they thought their old TV had a better picture, they didn't realize they were still on analog, or how to switch it to digital or how to start an autoscan. Clearly there is a need for some more education. That or they just needed to read the manual.

First, go to TVfool and Antennaweb to find out where all the transmitters are and how far. Then, you need to see what type of antenna to get. Good places to discuss about DTV are at: news://alt.tv.tech.hdtv (newsgroup) and AVS Forum. I am not an expert and still learning, but these places are useful.

I couldn't use my old fashion rabbit ears since they were too weak and they were decent for analog feeds.

For those who can't decide which converter boxes to get with the coupons, then see Wikipedia and here. I still haven't ddecided what to get and I need to get them before May 27th, 2008 (should had waited to get better models). :(

yeah, you will still need the converter box. The antenna just picks up the signal, it is still digital and has to be decoded to analog to work with most TV's. Also, if you need help picking out an antenna, check out antennaweb.org

The AntennaWeb.org mapping program, provided by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), locates the proper outdoor* antenna to receive your local television broadcast channels.

Based on geographical maps and signal strengths, AntennaWeb locates the best antenna for you -- whether the antenna is for use with a home satellite system, high-definition television (HDTV) or a traditional analog set.

Not sure if this is the site you are referring to but I have used it to help me aim the antenna in the right direction.

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

there are differenct styles of antennas, indoor and outdoor, some little ones even made for being in cities where you get alot of reflected signals of buildings.

there are great:

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/info.aspx?page=FAQ

http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/index.php

tried cheap and moderate antennas...live in Pittsburgh proper, not the suburbs...ended up that the best result for me was the absolute cheapest:

ran a coax cable over to the side of the room with windows. Got a $2 adapter to put a "T" style FM Radio antenna onto the coax. The digital tuner in the Panasonic VCR/DVD burner is freaking fantastic. pictures that were grainy and suffered ghosting are sharp as could be.

Good luck, but be ready to experiment with the antenna's...possibly even get more than one and use a switch if necessary?

Go to the CEA antenna selector site to check reception information for your area, and verify that the antenna you have is suitable (and pointed in the right direction): http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

Take a look at outboard ATSC tuners listed here: http://tv.about.com/od/accesspries/tp/topATSCreceiver.htm, or check on EBay - I picked up a Samsung SIR-T150 years ago for $100, and it works fine.

Understand that OTA HD can look a LOT better than cable or direct-to-home satellite - local broadcasters typically transmit at much higher bitrates, even if they're squeezing more than one sub-channel into their slice of spectrum, whereas cable/sat providers often do terrible things to their signals so as to squeeze more channels in. Also understand that not everything on an HD channel will, in fact, be HD - a lot of content is still up-sampled SD.

Signal degradation is not quite as graceful as analog, but also not "all or nothing" - forward error correction means a degraded signal will first exhibit digital drop outs before going away entirely. A signal with good reception is flawless, it's like being in the TV station.

Federal law protects your right to put up an antenna. It explicitly over rules most HOA regulations. http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/info.aspx?page=FAQ#_R ef28770286 Ralph

Your problem is you have rabbit ears. You need to upgrade to a higher gain, permanently mounted antenna.

I installed one in my attic, and the difference in reception capabilities was dramatic. Thou shouldst go here for further antenna assistance.

Exactly. Cable is way overrated. Especially since OTA-HD looks so good. You have so much freedom with it. It works with Sony HD-DVRs, built-in tuners from HDTVs, HD-Tivos, USB TV tuners, network TV tuners like HDHomeRun, PCI card tv tuners, plenty of software to record to HDs. No broadcast flag. No mess no fuss. Just need to live in a place that is close enough to the towers to get HD broadcasts. http://www.antennaweb.org/ is your friend

Are all digital stations on UHF channels, and do I need a UHF-only antenna to receive them? What are the VHF and UHF bands anyway, and what do VHF and UHF stand for? The Very High Frequency (VHF) band is the segment of the television broadcast band covering channels 2 through 13. The Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band is the segment of the television broadcast band covering channels 14 through 83. Currently, the vast majority of TV stations broadcasting in digital are using UHF (14 and up) channels to do so. This is not due to any technical requirement of digital broadcasting, however. It is mostly because the UHF channels were more likely to be available in most markets. Eventually, after the digital transition is complete and TV stations no longer need to broadcast in analog, they may switch and use their current analog VHF channels for digital instead. Antennas that receive UHF stations only and ones that receive both VHF and UHF are available. If you are fairly certain you won't want to get any lower channels in the VHF 2-13 range, you could purchase one that is UHF only.

Perhaps not, but since most ATSC channels are UHF it is better to have a UHF optimized antenna. I recommend something like the Channel Master Model 4221 or 4228 UHF bowtie antenna for folk in the city. My 4221 really pulls in the channels and cuts down on a lot of signal reflections. It's very directional though which is fine if most of your TV stations are in roughly the same direction.

If you're gonna do terrestial ATSC DTV here in the States, check out http://www.antennaweb.org/ It can make a huge difference having the right antenna!

Be careful at the TV shops too. Most of the sales people don't know jack about what is the right antenna. I've tried a TERK TV55, which isn't a shabby antenna, but it couldn't hold a candle to my $25 Channel Master 4221.

The primary use for an amplified antenna is for when you are unable to put the unit next to the tuner. If you have a 100 foot run to the tv, you would probably want to invest in an in-line preamp of some sort to overcome loss in the coax. But, you are correct in that an amplified antenna won't magically bring in distant broadcasters - an appropriate one might, though. Don't knock it because it didn't work for you.

Tv reception is an amazingly complex affair, and it is difficult to judge any antenna by others' reviews. Take a look at http://antennaweb.org/ and AVS forum for more on this subject.

According to http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/hints.html, that isn't entirely true. The analog signal doesn't necessarily give you any indication as to how well you receive the digital signal.:

Picture quality

The image quality is not affected at all by a low to moderate level of noise in the signal. This is true for both satellite and OTA DTV. Yet some people can't resist wondering "could I improve the image by improving the signal strength?" The answer is NO!

When the signal becomes too weak, you will see "macro-block errors" (parts of the screen that are shifted or obviously wrong), sound dropouts lasting a few seconds, or image freezes lasting a few seconds. All of these errors are crude, unsubtle errors. If these are not present, your image is perfect.

If your image is perfect, there is still one reason you might want to improve the signal: It would make dropouts less likely in bad conditions, such as heavy rain. Rain can affect DBS and UHF reception, but not VHF. In some places, wind can affect UHF.

(If you get sound dropouts but not image dropouts, or visa versa, then the fault is not a reception problem. Usually the station is at fault, but occasionally it is the STB.)

If you would like to figure out what DT signals are available in your area, a good starting point is AntennaWeb. You can enter your street address and it will return a list of OTA signals you should be able to receive (analog and DT).

Cool! But there is no need for a "HD" antenna. Any old pair of bunny ears will work. A lot more depends on how many stations broadcast OTA HD in your area and how far they are from you. Check this out and see what you've got. http://www.antennaweb.org/

You're not looking hard enough. CNet lets you search for TVs based on a wide variety of criteria. Here's the page that shows you all HDTVs broken down by screen size. There are over 250 models that are between 25" and 40".

Satellite solves the problem of no local HD programming. And are you really sure that your rural area receives no HDTV over the air? Unless you're in the mountains, chances are that you can receive over-the-air signals. HDTV signals travel farther & with much less opportunity for signal degradation. Where I live the standard channels come in poorly or not at all, yet the HD version of each one is crystal clear. Check out AntennaWeb to see if you are within range, and what sort of antenna you'd need to receive them.

-BbT

Actually, almost all HDTV (digital ATSC) broadcasts are via UHF. See this AntennaWeb FAQ.

I do. My TV (Samsung TX-P3071WH) has a built-in ATSC tuner for tuning over the air (OTA) HD channels. I use a Zenith ZHDTV1 indoor antenna to receive my local ABC and CBS affiliates' broadcasts over the air. My cable provider (Time Warner) doesn't include the ABC HD channel in their HD package, so I picked up the antenna and my reception is great. Check out AntennaWeb for information on broadcasts in your area to see what you might be able to pick up.

Tragically, that would still make them money. With satellite service as of right now, you need an antenna to receive over-the-air HD channels. I did not know this; it turned out to be cheaper to cancel Dish Network's service than to purchase and install a large enough antenna.

For broadcast, many stations are already using HD. You can look up your locals at antennaweb although I notice some of my locals that I know broadcast HD are listed as analog only.

If you want to know what content is actually HD, one option is CheckHD.

Your housing association's rules regarding antennas and dishes must be compliance with Section 207 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996:

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/info.aspx?page=FAQ#_R ef28770286

That only solves part of your problem, but every little bit helps right...

So what kind of setup do you have? Were the digital receiver and HD-capable TV very expensive?

Price-wise, mine is a bad one to compare to, since I designed and built a full home theater:

http://tom.digitalelite.com/0704_blog.htm#28
http://tom.digitalelite.com/caudroplex/index.html

My cost was around $20k. ...But the real entry price for an HDTV set is FAR less. Spend around $80-100 on a good HDTV-optimized antenna, around $100-200 on an HDTV receiver, and buy a TV that can display 1080i and 720p without downgrading to a lower res (sometimes they downgrade, but still /claim/ to be "HDTV-Ready") and you are done. The TV can cost anywhere from $500 to $Shload.

In TV's, the best bang for your buch is in DLP rear projection systems. Trust me, you WILL be pleased. Avoid Plasma. It's cool and gimmicky, but in the end it costs way more for far less, not to mention the problems you'll have with burn-in and picture fading.

Before you spend one single penny, however, go find out what channels you can get at home:

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx

Enter your address there and it'll give you a good idea of which channels are available and where they are wrt your home. Always a good place to start.

There are a few things that you must consider that (I'm guessing) you don't know about.

First, Antena directions. Most likely your antena is directional. It needs to be pointing in the general direction of the DTV transmitter in order to recieve the signal. Try turning it to find the best signal. Not all of the DTV towers are in the same location as the analog towers. Try using http://antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx For getting your directions of your antennas

Second, Multipath interference. The built in ATSC tuners are generally crap. The only decent ones are seperate boxes. The 5th generation chipsets from TI handle multipath very well.

Third, transmitting power. Not all DTV transmitters are transmitting at full power. Most are still and have been transmitting at ~10% power and are only about now doing the buildout to 100% transmitting power. Once that occurs, you should recieve more.

"Can anyone point out some good sites that review/give options on which video cards to get? Was gonna jump on a HD-capable capture card earlier this year just because of the mess with the Broadcast flag, then it was okay again, then it was a mess again, etc."

I assume you mean tuner/encoder card right and not video card? And you're kidding about looking for a review/options site, as there were two listed in TFA!

It depends on what you want to do (SD vs HD) what platform/software you're thinking of using.

The Broadcast Flag right now shouldn't influence your decision too much at this point (although be active in voicing your displeasure about it to your local congresscritter), it's more of a matter of what HD content is available Over The Air (OTA) in your area (see Antenna web for a rough idea of what DTV stations are in your area ), what your budget is, what platform, etc...

*shrug* The author of TFA used the venerable HD-3000 which is a good choice for linux use... I think the air2pc card has both linux/windows drivers but I'm not sure about that off hand...

In windoze the ATI HDTV wonder had a bad rap, and rightfully so, for crap drivers at launch, but seems to have rectified that... I'm interested in trying the really cheap OEM Avermedia A80 which is MCE 2005 certified, but don't know anything about it first hand. The Dvico fusion III QAM seems pretty popular for those that want to try there luck at QAM 256 digital cable streams.

e.

or you could use antennaweb

" You think you're clever, witty, and sophisticated, but you're not. This is not a political issue. OK? This is a technical issue. Analog technologies are being phased out in favor of digital replacements because analog signal transmission is inferior.

Holy crapthrashing christ, not every slashdot story is an invitation for condescending political commentary."

Ah, but it is... why does the FCC/govt they want the analog signals to go dark? Because the FCC wants to reclaim some of that frequency spectrum to resell/re-allocate which has been very lucrative for the FCC. That seems like a pretty political reason for me.

Furthermore, the content providers are dying to close analog loopholes and drag everyone kicking and screaming to closed propietary "protected"/DRM'd/encyrcpted digital connections e.g. HDMI/HDCP

*shrug* when there's big money involved, I think it's safe to say there's some political motivation, and it's not a purely technical issue.

Besides (DTV) might be superior as far as PQ/clarity but it doesn't seem to range as far the analog signals. Pull up antennaweb and compare the number of digital broadcast signals you'll be able to get OTA vs old school broadcasts... (assuming you live in an area that most of the broadcast places are currently broadcasting both).

With that said, by all means cut over to digital only, but not before the cable companies are mandated to have bi-directional CableCARDS available with an open spec rolled out.

*Shrug*

e.

I've thought, boy, wouldn't it be great if I could just download some Sesame Street for the kids or NOVA episodes for myself? Well, there is an entire industry around selling DVDs and videocassette tapes. Even PBS is in on this racket . They sell Nova episodes for $20 a pop! You can watch some of them online for free, but they try really damned hard to control the content and prevent users from downloading the shows.

It is a racket, and people buy the stuff. Go to a library or a children's hospital. Look at how many videos they buy of shows that could be taped from the television. This stuff obviously sells. Why should these stations go through the effort to make their content available online for $1 an episode, only to have it traded on P2P networks? People are spending the big bucks on the prepacked stuff.

This is great because I can watch my shows an hour later in HD without needing the off air ant.

Since the HD DirecTV receivers also include over the air inputs, you really should look at getting an antenna. Try going to Antennaweb.org to see what antenna will work for your area. It can be a pretty small investment for a pretty big payoff.

AntennaWeb does a great job giving you HDTV reception information. Antennas Direct has a great selection of antennae (antennas?) to choose from and some useful information on which frequency ranges each antenna is useful for.

These guys at AntennaWeb will have to look into this

Size does matter to women when you have an 8 foot antenna on the roof.

Yeah, we get 8 here in Hampton Roads, VA too. To see what is available in your area look Here or better yet, Here for what is available in your area. I'm waiting for the ATI HD-tuner card to add to my system plus an antenna from the site linked to above. Fortunately, where I am at all 8 stations are within 5 degrees of each other and one stationary antenna will pull them all in.

Go type in your zip code over at I Want MY HDTV.com and see how many channels are available in your area.

Actually, after you get over the extended and intense withdrawl, it will be great.

If you want to wean yourself off slower, you can go to http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

And find out what you can get over-the-air in your area.

For the first few weeks, you will find yourself sitting down in front of where the tv used to be and reaching for the remote.. Over and over again.

Sort of like the way a dog salivates when it hears the ring of a bell, or the way a rat pushes the bar when the light goes on it its cage..

I really had a lot of good laughs at myself when I saw how strongly I had been conditioned to watch TV every night. I had assumed that I thought for myself, was not a sheep, blah blah...

But when I found my hand reaching for the (missing) remote of its own will, like the unthinking way you would scratch an itch on your ear..

It was funny, in a scary sort of way.

The other thing you will have to get used to is the intense, condescending *ANGER* that a few people will flame you with when you tell them you don't watch TV.

Speaking of which, I see you have been modded down from a 5 to a 2 just in the time I have been previewing and editing this post

Just the price you have to pay for resisting our TV overlords, I guess.

:^)

Site is slashdotted so I have no idea what it says about grandchildren. However, if you live in a major metropolitan area in the US, HDTV is available to you RIGHT NOW. Either over the air (stations were required to broadcast digitally and most decided to also broadcast HD signals also), via satellite (DirecTV et al.), and via cable. Go here to find out where your closest HD signal is.