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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
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.
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Two possibilities:
- The things mounted on the head of a rabbit to increase its ability to hear
- The antennas you put on your television to recieve analog(digital possible?) television signals.
In some countries this was widespread, others had antennas put up on top of the roofs.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
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
In the US the major network affiliates generally broadcast on VHF frequencies, for which these rabbit ears are sufficient. In the UK we use UHF, which doesn't perform as well without a dedicated external or loft aerial.
The UK used to use VHF for television, back in the days of the 405-line black & white service. BBC1 was broadcast on VHF Band I, whilst ITV was on VHF Band III. You can still see some of these aerials on the tops of some buildings; they were needed as the UK transmitters were often many miles away, although it was possible to pick up some services on an indoor aerial. These transmitters were eventually switched off in 1985.
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.
It's because they're only broadcasting at like third power or something.
When analog is shut off, and the DTV stations increase their power, we should see things a lot clearer.
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.
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 actually misquoted him in my first post....here is an accurate description of his results.
Decide for yourself which measurements get results.
"Wow, I just spent two hours making a UHF antenna from driftwood and coat hangers, in hopes of picking up some digital TV reception. It turns out it matters which antenna input is used for DTV. Anyhow, end result is that I've gone from 15 mostly fuzzy stations, like just half the local VHF networks, to 90 crystal clear stations, including several variants of each local network and PBS station, including many in 1080i in wide-screen with Dolby Sound. ..on an indoor coat-hanger and driftwood antenna."
He is basically getting as many stations as I do with Comcast cable. But he is also dead-center Los Angeles County.
Mounting in my case is by tower. The antenna comes with mounting hardware required to attach it to a standard antenna pole; the tower/pole and mounting for it is for you to provide.
My antenna is very directional, yes. All of my stations are effectively in the same direction, so I'm mounted statically. My grandfather has a motor as he's located between a number of different cities, so he'll turn the antenna depending on what he wants to watch; a lot of duplication today though compared to when I was a kid.
Running the wire, well, I only have 1 TV that I really use, but it'd be easy enough to add a splitter in the attic. I might need to add a amp if I did that. The wire goes down the wall to a box with the post.
And yes, it needs to be grounded. Mine is grounded through my tower, and the tower has a nice long copper post.
I did it myself, however it was mostly just replacing the old antenna.
I don't read AC A human right
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
Yes, indeed. You can even run it under Linux.
Grab a $50 USB adapter and the aforementioned rabbit ears, hey presto this 'digital TV' appears on your PC.