[Cialug] [OT] Digital TV

[Matt Stanton]

When I bought the tuner card for my pc (at best buy... epic fail, since 
it's not at all supported by mythtv), I also spent a ton of money on an 
indoor antenna that is specifically for digital broadcast.  I think it 
cost me $89.99...  That hurt a lot, but on the basement floor of the 
house in urbandale I have no problem picking up every broadcast station 
in the area.  Thing looks like a yagi-style antenna (small fins at the 
front with larger fins as you go towards the back) with the standard 
extendable rabbit ears on each side (made by TERK).  It came with a 
little inline signal booster that the antenna is basically completely 
useless without.

Since then I have gotten a nice 42" plasma tv (which functions almost 
exclusively as a giant computer monitor), and the antenna works 
perfectly fine with it, also, so I guess minor differences in the tuners 
between the TV and the tuner card aren't enough to render the signal 
useless in either case.

Daniel A Ramaley wrote:
> Assuming the digital transition isn't pushed off yet again, broadcast stations will switch to digital soon. I have 2 TVs, one modern enough to have a built-in digital tuner, the other not. For the older TV i already have an ATSC (digital broadcast) tuner, but not a QAM (digital cable) tuner.
>
> Currently i use Mediacom's "broadcast basic" cable package, which includes the broadcast channels plus Discovery Channel. Today i received a letter saying that Mediacom is moving several of their channels to digital soon. This means i'll have to find a QAM tuner for the older TV. Any suggestions on how to find a good QAM tuner box?
>
> One other problem is that Mediacom's letter mentioned that Discovery Channel was being dropped from the broadcast basic package. It is the only channel i really watch, but i don't think it is worth the price of upgrading the cable package to keep it. So i'm thinking of switching to broadcast. I live in an apartment, so indoor antennas would be easiest. Any suggestions on how to choose an antenna? Would any old rabbit ears be OK as they were for the analog signals?
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug
>
>