Antenna Help! (1 Viewer)

[PatrickMiller]

I tried using a $20 UHF/VHF antenna from Radio Shack on my moms Sony Bravia LCD RPTV and did not get any HD! I can unhook the cable box input and route it straight to the tv and it works! What gives? BTW this is the first time Ive tried an antenna, guess Im doing it wrong!?Thanks!

 

[Phil A]

Where are you located in relation to the broadcast towers? Have you looked at AntennaWeb What model antenna is it? What type of signal, if any, are you getting from the antenna?

 

[Allan Jayne]

Have you made the selection in the TV for over the air channels as opposed to cable channels? All "cable ready" TV sets have this manual selection. When you select "over the air", the cable TV wire screwed directly in back will not deliver channels above 13.

Does the TV have an ATSC tuner (digital tuner) built in? You'll need this or an external set top box HD tuner to get HD via an antenna.

Most HDTV is broadcast on UHF channels so you need the UHF part of the antenna hooked up. The rabbit ears themselves are not used for UHF but they might work when telescoped in as short as possible, five inches being roughly the optimum length.

Video hints: Digital TV Shows On Your Old TV Set

 

[CoolCatbro]

I searched for antenna help. I built the homemade one for fun, it didn't work at all.

After reading this thread, I checked out antennaweb and it showed 46miles to my antenna for HD....weak I assume, at least for a homemade antenna with clothes hangers.

but I have basic cable, and as was mentioned,

I unplugged my little "shit cable box"...and went straight to the HDTV (with tuner)...with the cable from the wall....and did a Auto Channel Search..

damn, it found like 118 HD channels! (including radio)...and the regular 1-26 analog. All this HD was actually FREE with the basic cable!!!

frkn great!!! I'm taking in my cable-shit box receiver tomorrow. And will reduce my cable to bare basics, $16 month.

I don't like TV much anyway and prefer DVD's...but just wanted to pass this along to anyone else dealing with the HDTV antenna stuff.....Do an Auto Channel search using just your cable TV line (remove the box).