Digital TV Antenna

[gczenis]

Has anyone had any experience with digital TV antennas? My boat is located in Forked River NJ and is approximately 55 miles from the nearest TV tower. I was able to get marginal reception with a Hinkley loop antenna prior to the digital conversion. What I having been reading if reception was marginal with the analog signal, you can pretty much forget about receiving viewable digital.
Thanks for any input.

 

[Rich Stidger]

I have an amplified antenna and I had some good and also some marginal analog stations in Narragansett Bay. Now with the digital signals, I receive more stations and more of them have a good signal. Some are still marginal and with digital they are either there, not there, or heavily pixelated.

Just borrow a converter and give it a try.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

I assume you know there is no such thing as a "digital" antenna. Any antenna designed for VHF/UHF is all you need but would benefit from one which has a preamplifier in fringe areas. So-called digital antenna is marketing lingo for expensive VHF/UHF antenna

 

[Bill]

Me to

I to have a Hinkley hoop and gort marginal resecption. The TV is LCD 6 years old and says"HD monitor". I figured that a 6year old TV that could show HD given a box would be able to get digital. Well since the switch the only channels I get are the one showing how to install a converter box in different languages. I have rescanned several times. That means either the TV can't handle digital or the Hinckley hoop can't handle digital. I thought I read somewhere the hoop can handle digital and we are only 15 miles from Baltimore, so I am guessing its the TV. Great, how much is a 12v converter box going to cost, most likely more that a new TV. Can I vote we turn the analog back on.

 

[Mike H.]

The TV on our boat just has rabbit ears, (more like bat wings) inside the salon. We got a few local fuzzy stations. They made the switch to digital and we got nothing. We installed the converter box and we get like 60 stations now in high quality! Put in the converter box and see what happens. With the rebate, the box is only like $ 10.

 

[Chuckbear]

I to have a Hinkley hoop and gort marginal resecption. The TV is LCD 6 years old and says"HD monitor". I figured that a 6year old TV that could show HD given a box would be able to get digital. Well since the switch the only channels I get are the one showing how to install a converter box in different languages. I have rescanned several times. That means either the TV can't handle digital or the Hinckley hoop can't handle digital. I thought I read somewhere the hoop can handle digital and we are only 15 miles from Baltimore, so I am guessing its the TV. Great, how much is a 12v converter box going to cost, most likely more that a new TV. Can I vote we turn the analog back on.

A monitor is for use with a computer and may or may not have a TV tuner. At 6 years old it is highly unlikely that it is digital if it even has a tuner built in. A converter is about 40 to 60 dollars. Chuck

 

[larryw]

Sprung for a 22 in. Toshiba HDTV with built-in DVD player, got the digital antenna, but haven't installed it yet. Will do so on Saturday.

 

[philwsailz]

I recently installed a Glomex omni-directional UHF antennna at the top of my stick, with its amplifier down below, near the TV. I am 50 - 60 miles from the closest TV transmitters, and I have 22 channels digital. I was skeptical, but it works...