Digital TV and aerials

[Jeff Bayley]

Everyone probably already knows that as of June 12, full-power television stations nationwide have been broadcasting exclusively in a digital format. If you’re still using an analog TV set, you have to connect it to a digital-to-analog converter box to watch digital programming.

We upgraded our TV in the bedroom and it's digital ready but I have to remove it and put the cable from the aerial into the digital input instead of the analog input it's in now.

My question is have any of you upgraded your aerial ? I'm pretty sure that changing the aerial is not neccessary but since my bus is a 1997, there may be a better antenna out there and maybe more so one that is better "tuned" in for the digital signal. I guess the answer is to try mine first and see how the picture looks.

Here's the aerial I have now.

[ajducote]

Jeff,

I replaced mine with this:
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=06&p=5MS9000&d=Antennacraft-5MS9000-MiniState-Directional-HDTVVHFUHF-TV-Antenna-(5MS9000)&c=TV%20Antennas%20for%20RVs&sku=716079001847

BUT is has been discontinued

On the same page there is now
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=06&p=HDMS9100RV&d=Antennacraft-MiniState-Directional-HDTVVHFUHF-TV-Antenna-for-RV-or-Boat-(HDMS9100RV)&c=TV%20Antennas%20for%20RVs&sku=716079002042

I just replaced the round head unit on the roof and amplifier. I reused the cables that were already there. Seems to work fine.

[Jeff Bayley]

Andre- Thank you. Looks similar. Did you replace yours because the one you had was failing or corroded or some reason ? If it was not for that reason, was the aerial you had working good and what I'm driving at lastly is: When you replaced it, did you notice a difference on the digital signal ? thanks.

[dale farley]

Jeff,

There are many of the small antennas that are advertised as digital antennas, but if you read the technical specifications, you will find that there is no difference in them. I go to one camp site that has no cable hookup and trees prevent satellite reception, I just use my old rabbit ears or the batwing antenna on top of the bus and get excellent local reception. I tried several new antennas to improve the reception, and there was virtually no difference. It is true that a new antenna might give you better reception if you have corroded contacts, etc., but there is really no difference in a regular antenna and a digital antenna for receiving local stations. I don't think you would see any difference in your local reception by changing the round antenna on top of your bus, unless you have a problem with corrosion or the coax.

My batwing had never worked right, and I bought a new digital rabbit ear antenna. After reading that there is really no difference in a digital and standard antenna, I connected a $5 rabbit ear that I've had for about 20 years, and it worked just as good as the new one. I started checking my batwing to see if there was a real problem with it. Finally isolated it down to the coax connector on the antenna itself. There was no signal coming from it, because the contact inside the coax connector had been punched out someway. I called the company and they gave me an RGA # to return the top part for repair. They just sent me a complete new mast at no charge.

If I were you, I would borrow/buy an antenna and connect it to the connection on top of the bus and see if you see any difference. If so, that would tell me you have a corrosion, connector or coax problem. I doubt that you are going to see any difference. I'm not saying all to to make Andre look bad. He may have had a real problem and needed a new antenna.

[ajducote]

Andre- Thank you. Looks similar. Did you replace yours because the one you had was failing or corroded or some reason ? If it was not for that reason, was the aerial you had working good and what I'm driving at lastly is: When you replaced it, did you notice a difference on the digital signal ? thanks.

Jeff,

I replaced it because it just was not working. It would not rotate anymore and I could not get more then 1 or 2 close by stations on it. With the new one I noticed a BIG difference in the number of stations I could get and the quality of the signal. I also replaced the amp and that may have been the problem. Dale does have a good point, justing cleaning or replacing cable ends may be enough to make it work.

[Ray Davis]

Jeff, I keyed upon your comment that you moved the antenna feed from the analog to the digital input? You've got me confused with that. As far as I know (someone please correct me), antenna input still goes to the same RF input connector. It's just the format of what comes in over the antenna connector has changed.

TV's have long since had "other" inputs, like composite videos (older recorders, dvd's etc), and component inputs (for HD). But I would not expect that you need to move your antenna input at all.

Ray

[dale farley]

Ray, I certainly agree with your statement. Dale

[Jeff Bayley]

Ray- There's nothing I would love more than to prevent from having to remove my TV and change the input because it's going to be a bit of a job. I have lost the owners manual to this HP Pavilion TV but I'm pretty sure because if it didn't require the antenna to be in the dedicated Digital Input then I would be getting stations now and I get zilch. In the menu of the TV when you have it auto scan for channels and put them in memory, it gives the option of scanning for analog and another option for digital. I tried scanning for digital, Zilch. Plus I sort of remember when I put it in that there was a separate input.

But good to know I don't need to waste time or money on fiddling with the antenna. The antenna I have up there was working fine with the analog channels before they switched over.

Also, has anyone upgraded their satellite yet to HD. TV only HD I mean. Not internet. But those of you that have a Datastorm get HD TV already (I think). My satellite has been down for well over a year. Haven't cared about fixing it because we haven't been traveling. But now we in the bus for going on two months. I started to buy a whole new HD Motosat dish and controller for around $2,000. I had already bought a Nomad II controller to try and fix my satellite and when that didn't fix it, I was advised by the dealer that I trust and know in Florida that it must be the dish (or the connectors associated with the dish up top). But instead, I found a 22" or 23" dish only on EBay for $300 and bought that. Waiting for it to show up any day now. Some people see a huge difference in the HD and maybe there is but I guess I want to get some monies worth of use out of the Nomad II that has been useless so far. I also don't mind the dish that needs to retract because I think it get's a better signal and I never watch TV while driving anyway.

[Ray Davis]

Jeff, what type of digital connector are you referring to? Do you have one that looks like a regular antenna connector, that specifically says it's for the digital channels? That's pretty rare. What model TV do you have. I can try to find an online manual and verify this. There's no way to plug an antenna into either composite or component video inputs, but maybe, just maybe you have a separate antenna input designed for just digital channels?

[Ray Davis]

Jeff, is your model like this?

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00599533.pdf

Check page 9. Does this look like yours. If so, it does appear that the antenna input will not scan for digital channels. You will need to move it to the input marked "cable" (not digital, cable can carry analog signals too)

Ray

[Ray Davis]

Hmm, actually I take that back (IF this is the right TV). The antenna connect does support ATSC digital channels. You might need to tell it to scan "cable" channels to make this work. Scan EVERYTHING!

Ray

[Jeff Bayley]

Ray- You da' Pixal man. Thanks for helping me on this and having me make sure. I'm about to turn the TV on now and give some other combinations on the Scan a try as you said. But that link is not to my TV. That TV is a DLP and is way too deep. I found my LCD here after all. I have not looked at the inputs portion that would reveal answer yet and am just posting it as quick as I found it. http://www.hdtvsolutions.com/pdf/lcd-hp.pdf

[charlesebrownjr]

Hey Jeff, it appears that the TV you have is not digital ready. If it will not scan any digital channels with your cable plugged into the cable port on the back, you will have to get one of those digital to analog converter boxes from Best Buy, Radio Shack etc.
Then you can plug your cable into the antenna port ( not the one marked cable) or you can plug it into one of the video ports. But with this set up, you have to change channels with the new digital box you install. Mine came from Best Buy and came with a remote controll. Hope this helps.

[Ray Davis]

Sounds like Charles nailed it for you. I'm still waiting for the manual to download, but many TV's from a year or further ago do not have a digital tuner, although they would display HD via the component or HDMI inputs.

You want to make sure your TV has an ATSC tuner (that's the new digital tuners).

Ray