[opendtv] It's Not Just The Antenna
- From: dan.grimes@xxxxxxxx
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:23:08 -0800
"Set-top boxes are only part of the equation. "It's the antenna!" as
consumer groups, the FCC, NAB, and other alphabet-soup groups are
finally acknowledging. Stations have begun airing "Psst, bet you're
gonna need a new antenna too!" PSAs."
The antenna is not the miracle fix for ATSC reception. I installed a high
quality outdoor antenna (Winegard, Belden cable, and all high quality
components in between) and I'm in a part of the Las Vegas valley that is
quite clean of tall buildings (with the exception of the airport behind
me) and in direct view to the transmitting antenna. My analog reception
is near perfect and the meter on the Digital Stream box shows a solid
green, 92 to 96 percent, for almost all DTV stations. However, my Philips
3575H (no meter that I can find) locks up once in a while when changing
channels, I often get macroblocking, audio drops occasionally and
sometimes the color drops out. And one of the sub-channels (NBC 3.2,
Weather) doesn't display at all.
I have not put a spectrum analyzer or other equipment on it yet to see
what RF issues I might be experiencing.
So a perfect antenna and RF path doesn't solve all the problems.
Dan
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