Free HD TV?

This is another one of those "I'm really stupid because now I've had surgery and I'm on the *really* good drugs so I have to ask for help" questions.

On another forum, I was just told, "You know, you can get full HD programming, absolutely free, over the air, using the cheapest set of "rabbit ears", from any broadcaster who offers it. Granted, you won't get any "cable only" programming, but If you're like me, and refuse to pay for cable anyway, it's the way to go. If you can't afford the new TV, you can always get a converter box to hook up to the old tube model."

I don't get it. I do pay for cable, and in order to get HD programming I would have to pay an astronomical amount of money more per month. Right now I have a tube TV with a (free from the cable company) converter box so the digital signal turns into something it can actually play, but by no stretch of the imagination is that an HD signal. I think this guy is nuts, but as I said I'm on the good drugs now (Percocet every 2 hours, Tramadol every six), so maybe I'm just confused.

 

HD signals via antenna are not very common, but they do exist, at least for locals. What you pay for on cable are non-locals probably.

Also, i've found that the signal at times can become "jittery".

 

They sell HD TV antennas that claim to receive free digital and analog signals off air. If I'm reading it right then the description suggests you can get free HDTV signals. I've never seen one in action.

Newegg - Digital Indoor TV Antenna HDTV DTV HD VHF UHF Flat Design High Gain US Plug

 

Hope it got "fixed" OK.

Just be sure to put your best foot forward.

 

thanks

 

Thank you all! So basically it is technically possible, but it's not really how he made it sound. That makes sense.

Yeah, they supposedly fixed it. I'll find out for sure when I go for my follow-up appointment on the 3rd. For now, I float through life taking arbitrary naps, quite unable to pay attention to anything for longer than 10 minutes. And backspacing...a LOT...when I type anything. LOL

Thanks for what?

 

Almost all "picture tube" TV sets require a digital TV converter box to receive broadcast signals. This is because the FCC changed the frequencies and broadcast technology for over-the-air signals a few years ago. Newer flat screen sets have the digital tuners built in.

All of the network stations (CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, PBS) no longer broadcast old analog signals. There may be a few foreign language or low-power religious stations out there still using analog, but it's very rare.

If you want to get one, here's the top rated one on Amazon (about $40). You will also need an antenna to go with it.

http://www.amazon.com/HomeWorx-HW18...d=1388192674&sr=1-4&keywords=tv+converter+box

 

I have a converter box...got it free from the cable company. Doesn't require an antenna at all, it just sits in the cable line between outside and my TV. This guy was talking about an antenna that would give me free HD channels. Which I didn't get, because digital and HD are two completely different things. Even the local channels I could potentially pick up with an antenna aren't the HD channels, they're just the regular digital channels.

 

It's true. All broadcast TV is transmitted in a digital format and many stations include a HD channel in their line-up, especially network affiliates. If you have an HDTV, all you need is an antenna while analog TVs need the box. If your TV screen is incapable of displaying in HD resolution, you will not see a HD picture.

 

You just connected a few dots for me.

So the HD antenna I linked to above can work. The limitation is it has to be used with a HD capable TV.

 

While not a computer guy I do know HDTV. You do not need a special tv antenna. A regular old tv antenna will work just fine and I used one for many years back in the early 2000's before HDTV was available via cable.

 

That explains why the "HDTV antennas" only cost $9.22. It's just an antenna.

 

A cable TV converter box is not the same thing as an over-the-air converter box. If you hook the cable TV box up to an antenna it will not receive anything.

In order to see HD, your TV set must be able to show (at minimum) 720 lines of resolution. Older CRT TVs only show around 480 lines.

Even though a digital broadcast signal will not display at 720 or 1080 lines HD on an older TV, you'll still need the over-the-air (broadcast) digital TV converter box. Even the SD signals are broadcast digitally - the analog tuner built into your old TV will not receive or display them.

 

Ack, my brain hurts! I have a tube TV, and I have something labeled a digital converter box. Because the cable company sends digital signal, and my TV can't interpret it. However, that is not HD, because it's the same signal we have at the arena which is not HD...those are different channels, with HUGELY more clarity to the pictures on the same TV (the TVs at work are LCDs, and the HD channels are in the 300s while the regular channels are 2-98).

Which may well be what you just said, but I cannot emphasize enough how stupid these drugs are making me. :-o

 

The best picture I have ever seen outside of CES in Vegas was with an outside antenna on my HDTV. Far better than what was available via cable or sat. Back in the day dealers told people you had to use an HD antenna, such idiocy.

 

If you want more information about what is available in your area via OTA I would suggest you take a look at the AVS forum using this link.

http://www.avsforum.com/f/45/local-hdtv-info-and-reception

And for further info on receiving OTA signals this is a great link.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/611957/over-the-air-digital-television-reception-faq-new-to-ota-start-here