Let me preface this by saying that I don't watch that much TV. We don't have cable or satellite. I can't see paying as much as $100/mo. for something we don't use much. But when I want to watch PBS or the news, HD is great. Other than that, we do watch movies on DVD and the 16x9 format is much more conducive for that.
I spent over 30 years in broadcast TV and still work producing video. (Which may be why I don't find watching TV as entertaining as most people.) So, when someone wants their new converter box hooked up, guess who they call? The following are some opinions gleaned from fairly recent experience.
Not all converter boxes are created equal.After setting up different brands I have come to the conclusion that your success with over-the-air reception depends on the quality of the converter box you have, even more so than antenna type and placement. There is scant information out there in the form of reviews found via the Google. Many reviews give you their take on sound and picture quality and the kind of hook-ups a box has, but I have yet to see one on how good the box does in actually receiving the signal.
One box I set up looked OK initially. But after watching for awhile, every few minutes the signal would glitch causing a drop out in the picture and sound. Usually this started with the picture tearing with those digital boxes and then a freeze up of the video and audio drop out. Then everything would return to normal without messing with the antenna. Very annoying.
The box that worked best, ironically was the cheapest. The store I bought it from had it on sale for about $40 and with the government coupon it was almost free. This one was the Channel Master CM7000. It has a metal case, not plastic and is made in Eastern Europe, not China. That said, the first one I pulled out of the box didn't work at all and I had to return it to the store for an exchange. The second one worked as it was supposed to.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mZutwMuIFVc/SX9sixfLIoI/AAAAAAAAAY8/uG1VDVzZ7pw/s320/Channel+Master+CM7000.jpgThe other boxes I have purchased were the Apex and AirLink, both of which seem to have weak tuner reception.
For several years, I also have had a Humax box which is a DTV receiver with an HD output (not a down converter) I used on for an older HDTV as it didn't have an internal digital tuner, only analog. It also had dicey off-air reception capabilities. Changing channels meant changing the antenna position, sometimes to a different part of the room. Again, annoying.
I don't know of any good way of determining what box is best other than trial and error. Asking friends how theirs work or electronic store employees could be helpful if they're somewhat savvy about these things.
An antenna is an antenna is an antenna.Basically, any antenna should work fine with the DTV converter boxes. Powered antennas might be a little better, but I have gotten good reception from non-powered rabbit ears. As with standard definition (SD) analog broadcast signals, your proximity to the towers and obstacles such as buildings or mountains will affect reception. Attic or outside antennas will improve reception over downstairs inside antennas. Also, the "more antenna" you have (like a bigger one) the better chance for uninterrupted reception. Don't be fooled by advertising hype that says that you'll need to buy a special HD or DTV antenna. It's just not so.
Digital is on-off-on-off so you either have the signal or you don't -- for the most part. There are no ghosts or snow like with analog. Marginal digital signals will give you an in and out pixeling and freezing and cause you to keep adjusting the antenna.
Here's an interesting little blog about making a large DIY antenna for the attic:
http://uhfhdtvantenna.blogspot.com/Unfortunately, the best results I get for receiving DTV is from the internal tuner on a new TV.I now have two HDTVs with internal tuners. A Sharp and a Samsung. With rabbit ears I get great reception. It seems the tuners in the TVs themselves are "stronger" than the converter boxes. On the newest one, I get all the local stations here with rabbit ears that I set once and haven't had to readjust as I change to a different channel. My guess is that TV manufacturers are probably putting in better electronics than what's being produced in the external converter boxes.
The big advantage, of course, is that your new TV will be giving you an HD picture instead of SD.
Of course, the big disadvantage is you have to go out and fork out money for something new when your old TV seems to be working just fine. The prices are coming down and will continue to, but it still is a significant hit to the bank account for most of us in these uncertain econominc times.
One last thing. All the digital tuners (external and internal) I have come in contact with require that you plug it all in, set up an antenna, and then scan the spectrum before it will receive
anything. If one or two stations aren't recognized because the antenna isn't in the right place, they won't be recognized and you have to keep re-scanning after changing the antenna around by trail and error. If say, channel 4 didn't get recognized on the scan, you can't just add channel 4 via the menu without re-scanning. If you finally get channel 4, you may find channel 11 didn't get recognized. This is a real PIA.
These are just some opinions I came to from working with this stuff, your experience may be different, but I hope it may help some before they shut off the analog next month for good.
-L
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