Will my rooftop antenna be necessary (or even work) after the switch to HDTV?

Question

I'm doing some home remodeling and have this huge rooftop antenna in my attic for TV reception. I'd love to get rid of it as we currently use cable service, but don't want to chuck it if it will still be useful after the switch to HD in 2009... anyone done any research on this???

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

(This answer assumes you are located in the US)

If you need an attic antenna to receive the current analog broadcasts, then you can expect to need a attic antenna to receive digital broadcasts.

You don't need to buy a HDTV to check your digital reception, by March 2008 you should be able to buy a converter box for about $20* that will receive any of the digital broadcasts, including "HD" ones. Just connect it between your antenna and a analog TV.

Digital TV reception uses the same antennas as the analog ones. However, depending on your location you might be able to replace the current one with one that is considerably smaller. In many areas all the digital broadcasts will be in the UHF band, what is now analog channels 14-69. UHF only antennas are considerably smaller than VHF/UHF ones.

The key is to find out how far away the digital TV transmitters are and what channels they broadcast on now and what they will be after Feb 2009. Some digital stations will increase their signal strength after the analog stations shut down on 2/17/09.

Finding their locations is easy, just enter your location at the first web site below.

Knowing whether all the broadcasts are/will be on UHF channels is a bit trickier. Unlike analog stations, digital channel numbers have nothing to do with the actual frequencies they are broadcast on.

In your chart there will be a (virt) column which is just the old analog station with a "dot number" (called a "sub-channel"). This is the number that shows up on your digital tuner. There is also a " real" column which is the equivalent to the old analog frequencies. If all of "real" channels are above 14, then they are all UHF.

But, after 2/17/09 a lot of stations will change their "real" frequency/channel! There is a list of these "real" channels at the second link below. ("NTSC chan" is the current analog channel, "chan" is the "real" channel after 2/2009)

So if all the "real" channels are above 14, a smaller UHF only antenna should work.

Source(s):

http://www.tvfool.com

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/at…

* Info on ~$20 converter boxes and $40 off coupons
http://www.dtv2009.gov

http://dtvfacts.com

"All About HD Antennas"
http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/index.php

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

thanks! that answered it

Answer 2

You'll still need the antenna. You need to get a converter box which you connect to the antenna and the television.

Source(s):

https://www.dtv2009.gov/

Answer 3

Yes, and a convertor box will be necessary. Goto http://dtvanswers.com for more info.