Will I Need an HDTV Antenna For My HDTV?
With the growing interest in HDTV and digital TV, there are lots of merchants trying to tell people that they need to buy Processor new antenna when they buy a new TV. This is not necessarily true, because there is no such thing as an HDTV antenna or even a digital antenna. An antenna is essentially just a piece of wire, and it can't tell the difference between a digital and analog broadcast. What really matters is whether you have a digital or analog tuner between the antenna and the TV, or integrated into the TV itself.
But, you do need to have a certain kind of antenna to watch a digital broadcast, as things stand today. You are probably familiar with the difference between VHF (channels 2-13) and UHF (channels 14-83). Right now, the vast majority of TV stations broadcasting in digital are using the UHF range, so the solution to the digital/analog question is very simple: just get a UHF antenna, or a combination VHF/UHF antenna. Fortunately, almost Gourmet Food antenna available The Great Silence receive UHF signals, so this is really a non-issue.
It's pretty likely that TV stations will eventually start to use the VHF range for digital broadcasts, since there is no technical reason not to, but no one knows for sure yet. So, your best bet is to get a UHF antenna for all digital TV and HDTV broadcasts. If you want to watch local analog broadcasts between now and February 2009 (the date of the analog to digital switch), get one that also does VHF.
Even though antennas aren't fundamentally designed to receive digital or analog broadcasts, the whole world of TV broadcasting is going digital, so manufacturers are starting to design antennas to fit better into the digital world. Using an antenna from the digital age with your digital TV makes the whole experience a little more user-friendly. So, if you are buying a new HDTV, you sort of need to buy a new antenna, but not really. For more information on antennas and HDTV in general, check out a helpful flathdtv.net/HDTV info website.
About the Author
Tom Webster is a researcher and copywriter web hosting service comparison writes for flathdtv.netFlatHDTV.net, a guide to the HDTV revolution.
posted by sadrwtc @ 6:39 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Tom:
You are of course right that
"There is no such thing as an HDTV antenna or even a digital antenna."
It is true that if you live very close to the transition towers, a wire coat hanger can pick up some broadcast signals and higher is better, outdoor is the best. And viewers should certainly try their old antenna first. It’s also true that any of these older antennas will pick up some signals, maybe all the broadcast signals a viewer wants to receive, depending on their location. If they’re getting all the OTA channels they want and almost completely uncompressed DTV and HDTV, unlike cable or satellite, than they’re good to go.
But many of the TV antenna designs now in use and on the market today such as the Yagi and rabbit ears have technology roots going back 30 years or more.
The fact that most designs in use now were developed prior to the advent of much of the computer technology, software and algorithms in common use today left open numerous avenues to improve upon tried and true designs and develop new ones.
Additionally, recent regulations and standards opened new doors for antenna engineers to develop much smaller antennas with greatly improved performance and aesthetics. Welcome to the digital age.
If an antenna manufacturer or marketer just repackages a VHF or older UHF antenna and calls it a HDTV antenna, that is a “marketing ploy” and, you are right, it is unfortunately being done. That’s why Off-Air antenna buyers need to be informed correctly.
Here’s the dilemma antenna manufacturers and the Off-Air public face. Antenna manufacturers are now experiencing the full force of the lack of antenna knowledge, as OTA antennas sales begin to explode. Scores of complaints are coming in from irate people that request an "HDTV" antenna not a UHF antenna. Some customers insist that the channels the want to receive are VHF, when designated 5.1 or 2.1. Customers actually refuse delivery of a digital antenna designed, tuned and optimized to receive the digital bands (470 -700 MHz). Does the general population even know what that frequency represents? No. So antenna manufacturers have to walk a thin line here. If all customers were educated, all manufacturers would need to do is post the specs on the box and let the market and word of mouth do the rest.
After losing thousands of dollars, manufacturers finally got tired of arguing with people and changed the box on a “new” digital antenna to read HDTV antenna, but kept "UHF antenna" but in smaller type. Was that deceptive? I don't think so; the customer got a reliable antenna, return rates dropped drastically and both manufacturers and customers avoided confusion and aggravation.
Many of the station engineers are planning on keeping their current VHF channel identifiers (2.1, 4.1 5.1 etc...) after the 2009 shut off. This will create even more confusion in the marketplace when people (mistakenly) seek antennas which are suited for low VHF. Can you understand why manufacturers are keeping "HDTV" antenna on the boxes?
The efficiency of an antenna tells us how much of the power makes it to the cable. In all antennas, a portion of the energy is wasted. For most antennas, mismatch loss is the single largest factor in determining the efficiency of the antenna. Older antennas are less efficient.
While it’s correct that antennas can’t tell the difference between analog and digital signals, there are definitely certain models which have higher DTV batting averages than others. Not all antennas are equally suited for DTV. A percentage of viewers will require something a little more tailored for DTV reception, and that’s the purpose of digital antenna marketing efforts.
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