Thursday, June 11, 2009

Digital TV reception can vary widely in one house

First off, let me reiterate that antennaweb.org is a completely useless website. You're much better off heeding the advice in DTV Made Easy, a free pamphlet from ConsumersUnion that is available at the Detroit Public Library and presumably other public libraries around the nation. The pamphlet advises one to try small indoor antennas and consult with neighbors before shelling out $100 or more for an outdoor antenna.

To that advice I would add that digital TV reception can vary greatly from one room to the next in one house. In the living room, a Craig converter box is attached to an old analog Philips Magnavox TV. A couple of months ago I attached an RCA flat antenna that kind of looks like a bat. It pulled in every digital channel there is and needed only a small adjustment to get Channel 50-1. Now it needs greater adjustments for Channels 4-1 and 7-1, but it still gets all the channels. That "bat" antenna is perfectly useless in my room, where I have a Dynex digital TV. With a broken Philips SCP020 antenna attached to that Dynex set, I get all the digital channels except 7-1, 7-2, 7-3 and 50-1. Sometimes I can get 7's channels. But I have never been able to get Channel 50-1 in my room.

Is it because the Internet router is in there? Or is it because I still haven't gotten rid of the old analog set I used to watch in my room? antennaweb.org says nothing on the matter, just brushing it off as "various factors" that can affect the reception of an indoor antenna and urging me to buy expensive outdoor antennas with color codes no antenna manufacturer uses.

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