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Rabbit Ears To Stage a Comeback Thanks To DTV
Jeffrey Breen writes "Like Monty Python's Killer Rabbit, cheap indoor antennas seem harmless to satellite and cable providers. But with the digital TV transition in the US, rabbit ears can suddenly provide digital-perfect pictures, many more channels, and even on-screen program guides. Already feeling pressure as suddenly budget-conscious consumers shed premium channels, providers must now get creative to protect their low-end as well."
Rabbit ears don't pick up UHF signals; they are for VHF which is going away. It's the "loop" part of current antennas which will receive UHF.
I feel sorry for people that don't drink, because when they get up in the morning, that's as good as they're gonna feel
Using rabbit ears, I picked up several new stations (other cities). But with such weak signal, they cut in and out too much. "Coathanger" antenna to the rescue!
I do this now--no cable TV at all, just DTV + Bunny ears. For me it sucks because I get a poor signal due to surrounding structures, thus the video pixelates and the sound stutters a lot. If I could get a decent signal, it would be a great alternative because the picture is crisp and clear.
I don't think that rabbit ears are going to be a threat anytime soon. That PayPerView things is pretty compelling. Admittedly, in tough financial times switching to just a few local channels for free would be an option - until you look at unbundling your catv from internet and phone etc. I'm pretty certain that cable providers have a grip on how to bill this so changing really doesn't save you anything worth getting excited over.
Now, if bundling of services with savings was not allowed, and catv ISPs were forced to act like common carriers things might be different. That doesn't look likely to happen any decade soon.
As cynical as I am I expect that soon I'll be paying a penalty for using Vonage instead of the catv ISP version of VoIP; which is a sucky service BTW. None of the available VoIP services can compete with Vonage for features or price or price per feature in my area. No soft phone, no taking your phone modem on vacation, and North America Plan means only US and protectorates - no Canada or Mexico etc.
My mom has DTV and during a storm it sucks. Yes, with indoor antenna it still sucked. Pixilation was devastating to viewing pleasure. It had nothing I'd switch from catv for.
This is an interesting thought, but nothing we'll see in reality.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Digital broadcasts will be on VHF in some markets.
The house I went to was tech savvy enough to realize our over the air HD picture was far less blocky and pixelated than the one provided by his HD cable package. If you can get locals with antenna, I would suggest it for any major sporting event. The difference is really amazing.
We have a small set in the kitchen with rabbit ears, after putting on the converter box I can only pick up two channels. With analog tuning I can get six. I tried the box in another room that has a jack for the outdoor antenna and it picked up everything plus new some new stations I didn't know we could get, so I decided to do a coax drop into the kitchen.
I live about 25mi from the transmitters. Such is the life in rural America I guess.
Gone!
Here in the Bay Area I get about 42 digital channels over the air, many of which are HD. Between that and all the streamable content on sites like Hulu, and Netflix on demand, the case for paying a monthly cable or satellite fee really does seem pretty weak these days. (At least for those in major metropolitan areas.)
Currently, I use a DB2 bowtie antenna since rabbit ears don't work back in end of 2005. Even with a bowtie (30 miles), sometimes I get dropouts and weak signal strengths like on KABC7's digital 53 (channel 7 for analog), KNBC4's digital 36 (horrible since Super Bowl day almost two weeks ago), etc. I am only under 20 miles to most of these stations (NW direction at 323-324 degrees heading on a compass).
Two weeks, KABC did its digital test on 7 instead of 53 and shutting down its analog channel 7 for 15 minutes after 2:00 AM PST. I woke up for this (yep, I am that crazy) and my two HDTV tuner PCI cards could NOT pick up digital channel 7 at all. with the bowtie antenna. I was told rabbit ears would work. I recalled rabbit ears were too weak for all TV stations when I tried in end of 2005. :(
I will have to buy a new antenna (that supports both UHF and VHF) or add to the bowtie on 6/12/2009 (can't test now since there are no digital channels like 7 [lowest from what I saw for the changeover]. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
ok, call me a complete idiot, but WTF *are* 'rabbit ears' ?
Even in the NYC metro area there are a number of issues that are preventing my taking advantage of this theory. The channels that have switched to DTV seem to be harder to receive, and few are broadcasting in HD even though they have HD on the cable feeds.
I'd have to be pretty hard up to to turn off my cable subscription.
In any case, I suspect that while basic cable service is important to cover costs, not much profit it made.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
The Olympics last year were what motivated me to attempt to do the TV thing . . . so I found a very small set and got some rabbit ears. It was pleasantly surprising to discover the dual nature of the channel settings available . . . the old analog signal is still full of snow and noise while the digital airwaves really are better than cable. Channels are a little bit longer (e.g. KQED is 09-003, needs to be manually entered with the dash and all. Best of all, no monthly cable bill!
It's likely that the cable / satellite television industry is going to take a hard hit once people figure out that the can get clarity without paying for ridiculous "service contracts" and "package deals" and "bundles".
My brother hooked up an antennae at his place in LA, and now gets somewhere around 60 channels. All in perfect clarity.
Considering how much I HATE paying a cable company for ads(what happened to Ad-supported?), this is looking very much like something I am going to try out. Fuck Comcast.
But how will cable companies respond when broadcast stations start taking back business?
My guess, they will start BUYING them.
Measuring perfection should include the ability to degrade gracefully, and digital TV is absolute shit at that -- far worse than analog TV signals. Perhaps the worst part is that audio dropout happens much more easily than with analog signals; not only will you have tons of stations with pictures that lock up - as my parents digital cable did so often while visiting over the holidays - but you won't even be able to keep up on the story via the audio (not to mention emergency broadcast usage).
Seems like the cable-cos are going to start trying to play the part of the Bug Bunny Roadrunner Hour.... They just LOVE to keep racing over the edge of the cliff... hehhehe...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
If rabbit ears ever come back, don't be surprised if it's delayed forever. Any plan which allows individuals to bypass cable providers is a conflict with the broadband tax credit, which explicitely requires you to pay a subscription plan for 5 megabit internet access to a major corporation, mainly Time Warner & Comcast.
Why give money to Time Warner if you're just going to let individuals suck it away with rabbit ear TV?
Yes.
Rabbit ears can provide a nice picture , but The signal must be :
1) Much stronger , Limiting the range much more than old analog TV's with rabbit ears
and
2) free of local reflections
Otherwise Now instead of snow you get nothing or an annoying blinking in and out worse than a snowy picture , also the range will be more limited .
So rabbit ears where useful in the past for many will be useless for many and great for fewer
Why don't you guys just install a proper rooftop / loft aerial and get a decent signal without all the fiddling? In the UK all most buildings where people live have an aerial and tv points in the rooms, in the same way each room has power sockets.
Rabbit Ears
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
"Rabbit ears", i.e., set-top indooor antennas only work well if you're in the city where most of your channels are being broadcast from. More than 20 miles or so out, and you'll be lucky to get half a dozen stations, even with a signal booster.
(Hrm...I need to change my sig; I'm using Win7 now...)
Sig? What's that? Oh, 'signature'...and it's supposed to be witty? Right...
Why would a cable company buy an expensive broadcast facility, then not broadcast?
Seems to me, what you are getting at is that they want the programming... so they would have to buy the "network", then start dropping affiliates... but that has the same issue as buying stations and not using them, since the value of the network, is the audience of the combined affiliates.
There are lots of shows I watch that aren't broadcast anyhow (Discovery Channel, History, etc.) So, I am stuck with cable.
Cable sucks, but broadcast isn't so hot either, unless you like the "big" sports.
How much do you suppose the NFL would charge to give a cable company exclusive rights, with no broadcast affiliate's? Do you really think cable networks are going to outbid broadcast networks for everything?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I get NBC, CBS, and PBS and all the crap spanish language channels just fine.
ABC and FOX aren't broadcasting at full power yet.
NBC is 1000kW right now and FOX is 35kW.
Even outside of city proper, you will be able to use rabbit ears once they make the switch and start broadcasting at full power.
They're using their grammar skills there.
I get all the local Baltimore HD channels fine with a single telescoping radio antenna located in my basement. Does need a bit of tweaking when you switch channels, but it's awfully easy to tweak.
to fine tune your rabbit ears with tinfoil...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Reduced the number of channels you get on basic cable. This is how they protect their bottom line, screw the customer.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
We live in Atlanta and have been using an indoor antenna for well over two years now. We get approximately 20 channels in our area. My girlfriend watches T.V. that way sometimes. I seldom do. But then, I don't watch T.V. much anyway. We also have a Mac-mini hooked as our digital entertainment hub. We buy some content from iTunes. We watch streaming episodes and movies from NetFlix (the quality suffers a bit). We, of course, receive movies and T.V. series via DVD and Blueray from NetFlix. All-in-all, we generally have plenty of content available.
I use "rabbit ears" because I'm a cheapass, and because if I had a wide variety of things to passively watch on TV, I'd slowly waste my life away... but I still enjoy PBS because it's got a good mix of very interesting shows and very bad British comedy which I have no interest in watching.
However, the DTV transmissions are terrible, absolutely horrible, and pretty close to unwatchable. The picture is crystal clear, but has a very bad habit of breaking apart. I'll tell you, I'm excited that the opening of spectrum will enable great tech advances, the purchase by private industry has led to some badly needed revenues by our government, and there are now three PBS channels instead of one, but I wish they'd have done a little more planning around how much extra power it would take to get the same quality of service out to all current viewers.
Now, get off my lawn!
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
IPTV is another route providers can turn to. As an example see the package offered by Free.fr (in French). For example a company such as Bell in Canada which currently offers DSL and satellite TV could provider IPTV to their customers. This is an important alternative they should be turning to, especially when you consider the number of apartment blocks that do not allow the installation of satellite dishes.
When you consider the amount of junk on TV and the amount of adverts, I am not really sure I want to be paying for a service that charges me $30+Tax+Charges for a service that matches what I can get for free, and then charges me extra for channels with ad breaks every 5-10 minutes. If TV companies want to know why people turn to torrents, then they should consider that their ad schedule somehow turns a 1 hour film into a 3 hour film, with bundled grief.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
It used to be that cable channels were for public access, religious stations and poorly scrambled movie channels (that teenage boys would still watch late at night... *cough*) More and more, cable content is proving to be equal to or even superior to what broadcast television offers. The Closer, Burn Notice, Monk, etc. are all pulling in strong ratings. Yes... Idol pulled in a 14.8 rating last week and The Closer pulled in a 3.6. But... there are three broadcast channels and a ton of cable channels. The NFL moving Monday Night Football to ESPN and playing certain games only on the NFL network was one of the final signs. The broadcast networks have managed to keep this in their court for years... b/c it's a cash cow. They can't anymore... b/c of declining viewership. Death by a thousand paper cuts. Broadcast TV won't go away... but their programming is going to focus more and more on local news and cheap "pop" programming (like Idol).
With a bit of cleverness one could manage pay-per-view on broadcast tv. For example sacrifice a few channels for a rotating set of movies all requiring a decrypt (sent via the telephone).
add a tivo to this and everyone could have dozens of movies stored, ready to play as long as they subscribed to the decrypt code.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
It's more due to trying to save as much money in this economy as possible, but I don't think I'm the only one that's ditching cable in favor of antenna. My cable rates went up to $38 bucks a month, and when my wife and I sat down and looked at it we realized that we only really watch about 4 hours of TV a week, and half of that was channels we could get over antenna. It just didn't make sense to pay that much for the crap that they have on.
In my area most people will be able to receive fewer stations after the switch. From what I have read, even big cities like LA will have reduced availability of channels. How is this going to kill cable?
If you want to do DTV over the air right, you need to build yourself a Gray Hoverman Antenna. There are lots of plans for it on the net, including the hackaday sight. Takes most people a couple of hours to build and works very well. You can stick it in your attic, or just behind the telly.
Frankly, in this day and age, anyone who pays for cable should be ashamed of themselves--they need to get out and experience the world not in front of a TV! And I say this as someone who does watch a great deal of TV, but still could never justify the ridiculous cost of cable television (in the US, at least). I don't need to repeat people's arguments here about how great internet TV is--it's true, and certainly the way of the future. Miro, Hulu, Netflix, etc. replace any need I would ever have for cable. I just hate all the international restrictions that prevent me from watching the shows I want as I travel around the world, forcing me to resort to bittorrent and other questionably-legal means.
I certainly hope this forces cable companies to change, lower their prices and innovate.
Cable (both TV and internet) is so much less expensive here in the UK, where there is actual competition amongst cable operators! This is what we are so lacking here in the US, champion of the so-called "free market." I wouldn't mind paying for quality content, as long as I can access it from anywhere and it's not encumbered with DRM. I want to cut out the cable companies making money and pay directly to the television and film creators. I also don't want to pay the ridiculous fees charged by e.g. iTunes. $1 for a single episode is still too expensive. I'd agree to a 1-year "subscription" for a particular show, if it was closer to 50p/episode.
But even an omnidirectional antenna gets every major network beautifully. Cable is an insanely weak value proposition. A good cable package in digital is like $75+ where I am. For $900 a year, I can buy every series I watch in HD, and have a lot left over. (In my case, a heck of a lot, since I only watch one show) And I have the antenna for backup.
It's official. You can literally post any garbage on Slashdot now.
First, I will say I use antenna only for TV. My signal does break up from time to time because I have a crappy attenna and haven't bothered to correct. With the same setup, the analog channels go really bad before digital starts to break up. I will the point where digital starts breaking up it does so rapidly. It's a misnomer to say digital doesn't accomodate degraded signals at all, it's actually fairly resilient due to the error correction available in the stream. Added bonus of no DRM-like crap in the stream. Cable and Satellite vendors like to encrypt the traffic such that end-users can not use them as they see fit.
I will also say I use MythTV for DVR function. It's great, though I pay a small fee for TV listings, it's much cheaper by comparison and gets me most of the shows of interest. Even without listings, while playing most televisions can get some info out of the stream to tell you text about what is playing.
However, the general experience is still degraded for most. DVRs are by and large tied into Cable and Satellite providers (broadcast market considered too cheapass to deal with the headache of no obvious integrated listings mechanism). Some channels are not on broadcast and probably would never be. Particularly with the lack of any sort of DRM even attempted, many networks are off-put (despite the futility of the measures taken so far).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
"It's really not that tough to make. You could make one yourself just as easily in an hour or two. Construction is as follows:
Make eight Vs from 16" lengths of coat hanger, with stripped insulation at the point(EDIT: Guess he means the plastic coated coathangers). The mouths should open about 3.25".
On a 33" or longer stick, about 2" wide and ½" thick, measure off 8" increments on both sides of the ruler. At each of these marks use a wood screw and washer to hold down a V. It should look like four cats stacked head on head when the stick is upright. These V's, now lying flat, should be pulled forward about 20-35. Just pull on one wire at a time to reduce strain on the screw.
Next the Vs need connected with two more coat hangers. Each of these hangers is bowed, connecting to the two center Vs on one side, and the two end Vs of the opposite side. Insulation needs removed at all eight woodscrew junctions, but must be intact where the wires cross over each other between the end and center bows.
Finally, at the center of these two bows (which should be the width of a ruler apart), also strip insulation, insert two additional screws, and attach a UHF-VHF transformer. This is $2 radio shack item which allows one to hook a 300 ohm spade-lug antenna to 75ohm threaded-tube coax cable. The ideal one should be small tube with male threads at one end, and the two spades at the other end which you will screw to the antenna.
Installation. Hook a 75ohm coax cable between the antenna and the 75ohm air-antenna connector of your tuner. A brass hook in one end of the stick, and another in the ceiling is a convenient method of installation. Mounting it to a pole on the roof would provide even better reception, but then would be difficult to aim if not all your TV stations come from the same direction. Here they all come from Mount Wilson which is 41 East of North from me. Directions of your stations from your zip code and signal strengths can be found at tvfool.com. The cat faces aim at the stations. I pick up all stations with a signal strength of 41 Db or more (the ones shaded in green)."
I guess he used a cool piece of driftwood for structure.
Hope this helps.
First off I have been using rabbit ears and other antennas for at least a couple of year. Some places the rabbit ears work, other places the "fancy" new HD TV antenna's work. The rabbit ears part does make a difference, might just be interference. But where it is positioned effects reception. That, and AppleTV, and Netflix replaces the need for cable for me.
Think Deeply.
This forum has a lot of information on the subject: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=32846
Whilst this is specifically about Australian DTV channels, I would expect the concepts would be the same for the US implementation.
The main things to note are that you need to have your Rabbit ears HORIZONTAL (or VERTICAL), but NOT in a V shape, and typically very short.
The PDF linked from this posting shows you how to set your rabbit ears up: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=70193
Where I live we are in "Band 5", and the total length of the antenna should be 215mm. I can't get my rabbit ears that short. They are about double that at their minimum. They do work, but when the 'loose it', the entire picture goes and it starts squeaking.
Ever stop to think
Bunch of guys up in Canada came up with a home brew GHA that achives better results than most commercial versions available: http://www.digitalhome.ca/ota/superantenna/index.htm
Drop Kick the Cable Box:
http://7r4n5.com/blog/?p=10
:T:R:A:N:S:
One thing I don't hear much about with the chatter around digital conversion is VCRs. If my parents are going out for the evening and they don't want to miss programs, my dad will 'program the VCR'to record channel 8 from 8pm to 9pm, then channel 11 from 9pm to 10pm. They're on analog cable, so nothing impacts them (plus we're in Canada to boot), but I assume those people with analog antennas hooked up to the VCRs are losing the ability to timeshift, unless I'm missing something?
One *in* for the Cable Companies might be to offer a cheap basic PVR along with basic analog cable. That might lure away the mom and pops who can no longer timeshift.
Grab a 6ft patch of coax.....strip half the casing off. Then jack into HDTV/Digital tuner. Hang straight up wall or best you can. Have tuner scan for new stations.....pulling in about 12 stations in the Buffalo area.... HDTV PBS is spectacular !!! NFL in HD was really sweet too.....and all free.....mwa haha ha ha
I put a $20 antenna on a $15 chimney mount and get ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, ION, IONLife, PBS, Qubo, MyTV, Fox, CW, and a couple "unaffiliated" locals. Crystal clear - no tweaking nuthin', and most channels multicast.
What I can't get OTA, my mac mini with wireless kb/mouse makes a lovely addition to my TV. I'll never pay for TV again.
If local dtv were serious about channel usage they could provide up to 5 tv signals per channel on their bandwidth oddly enough only pbs(3 signals) and religious stations(5 signals) do this. Most regular broadcasters only send out 1 signal and that being a weather channel.
What is this TV you speak of? Is that a program that runs on a computer?
but the point is made.
For all the people who say they never watch TV anyway broadcast HD is much like an upgrade to basic cable. More of what they already value little.
It all depends on whether you have DSL from the phone company in the U.S., though, doesn't it? You have cable for your broadband, then you have cable.
I've heard good things about RCA flat indoor antennas and they pass the Wife Acceptance test.
Will we see a return of Pay Tv ota? Some people may want a local sports only pay system other may want a HBO, SHOW time and others like channel as well.
The only television service that offers full ATSC bitrates (around 15 Mbps) is Verizon FiOS because they have so much raw capacity down that fiber. Everyone else is between 8 to 12 Mbps.
Just put an antenna on your roof and install wall jacks like we have in Aus. We dont even get digital channels till 2010 at the earliest
Laughter is the best medicine, except if you have a broken rib.
Has anyone tried out this design?
Plans for a homemade Sierpinski triangle antenna.
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
HDTV antenna on the cheap. Coaxial cable adapter, coat hanger, screws & a board.
The coat hanger antenna out-performed a $40.00 'HDTV' antenna from Philips and another from Radio Shack.
Here is one made with a coffee can...
I've got all three, and I watch the HD feeds off of the antenna whenever possible. The picture quality beats both other systems by a long shot.
-ted
Cable companies, you want to protect the bottom line?
Stop sending me six-page glossy advertisements first class mail every week. How much does that cost you in printing and postage? Quit begging me to upgrade to services I already have. Stop bombarding me with ads that insult my intelligence. Stop offering me "this price for six months!!!1!!" deals that will rip me off in half a year and hope in vain that I'm too stupid to notice. Stop cutting all of the channels I actually watch and moving them to premium packages. Quit reordering my channel numbers every two weeks. Stop lying about how many "HD" channels you have. Stop trying to screw me by playing billing games - my bank tells me when you cashed my check, so don't try to rip me off with fake late fees. Hire operators who are neither surly nor clueless...
Is this so difficult?
I have set up three households with over-the-air DTV now. The first was with amplified 'rabbit-ears', and was marginally successful. The next two were with the RCA 'smart' antenna that auto-tunes to the target channel when used with a compatible converter box (I used Tivax units). They both work wonderfully. All three were indoor installations in suburban Tampa, FL. Bye, bye, Brighthouse!
- Michael
Most of the good shows are on the networks that you can get over the air. The only exceptions are Showtime and HBO. Otherwise, DTV is so great, there is no reason to get it.
How do rabbit ears stand up to impulse noise interference?
I would have thought that bringing the antenna inside, closer to power switches would increase the impulse noise problems.
DTV could have been made alot more robust if they had gone with ESVB or OFDM (Which Wifi uses) as a modulation. It seems that with 8SVB they picked the very worst modulation possible.
I have switched off cable at my house. We don't watch much TV anyhow, but I did notice that my Data Only costs from my cable company have gone up twice in the last 12 months.
There is still no competition there, and I am guessing they (the cable companies) don't really care as long as they can charge you for a wire.
and would be much greater if there where any TV stations in my area. Living on the edge of the world, where we are to primitive to HAVE broadcast television SUCKS. and i'm not paying 100$+ to the local jerks to have there 800 channels with nothing good on. thank god for the internet and hulu and youtube...
I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
Huh? I'm in Australia and have been watching ~only~ digital free-to-air stations for over 18 months? What do you mean we don't get digital until 2010?
What you probably meant was "in the particular locality where I live, we don't get digital till 2010". Which isn't all of Australia :)
But yeah, rooftop antennae + wall jacks FTW :) Even if rabbit ears work well with digital (which they do), they are ugly as sin.
(Although I must confess I'm currently using a pair of digital rabbit ears, cause I'm living in a multi-story townhouse and can't shove stuff up on the roof!)
...when people find out their signals are unwatchable with constant dropouts and so on, whereas on analog, it was passable. It's the herky-jerky sound that drives me insane.
Trying out some of these homebrewed antennae, though...maybe that will work.
P.