[mythtv-users] Re: Broadcast flag thrown out

[Preston Crow]

On Sat, 2005-05-07 at 08:57, Boleslaw Ciesielski wrote:
> Brandon Beattie wrote:
> >>Hrm.  60-70 huh?  Is that with a roof-top antenna?
> > 
> > Roof top directional (Since ATSC is directional...)
> 
> Can you elaborate on this? AFAIK, ATSC is no more "directional" than 
> analog broadcast. The fact is that the farther you are from the 
> transmitter the higher gain antenna you need and high gain antennae are 
> by definition more directional. But that is true for both analog and 
> digital.
> 
> Regular roof-top antenna will work well for HDTV if it's properly setup. 
> It may have to be directional and pointed at the transmitter, but that 
> is also true for analog.

My understanding is that UHF is more directional than VHF, and in most
areas, the VHF channels are used up with NTSC, so all the ATSC is UHF. 
I don't know if that's also by design (so that the UHF band can be
recycled after the completion).  UHF and VHF antennas are different,
though often combined.  I bought a UHF-only antenna (but I still can't
get Weird Al's station).

Anyway, your antenna requirements are specific to your location.  If you
haven't gone to http://antennaweb.org/ to see what you can get, you need
to.  I was lucky in that all the Boston stations are within three
degrees, so a directional UHF antenna works great.  I was unlucky in
that I'm at the bottom of a hill, so I really needed a rooftop antenna,
unlike a friend who has a cheap antenna sitting on top of his TV in his
basement.

I found that the signal strength skyrocketed after moving the antenna
out of my attic and onto my roof.

--PC