Need Advice on New TV (1 Viewer)

[powerlord]

I just went last night and bought a brand new Samsung 42 in. DLP HDTV.I have cable but don't have a cable box.How do I watch channels that are in HD without the box?I know about OTA but I can't access my HDMI inputs in setup,is this because I'm not recieving a signal or do I need a DT set top box?Or do I use rabbit ears and select air to get the HD?Thanks for any info.

 

[Bill Cowmeadow]

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Or do I use rabbit ears and select air to get the HD?Thanks for any info
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Yes, that is what you need to do. The OTH channels will be HD if available.

You will only use the HDMI for HD Cable/Sat/HDDVD Etc.

Bill

 

[powerlord]

Thanks Bill

 

[SethH]

FYI - rabbit ears are usually VHF. OTA HD signals are almost all UHF. One of the best UHF antennas on the market is the Zenith Silver Sensor (and clones of it). I got an amplified clone for about $45 and it works really, really well.

Even better would be an antenna in your attic or on the roof, but the silver sensor is great for on top of the entertainment center or tv.

 

[powerlord]

I know one thing,the picture on regular tv sucks,I can hardly stand watching it.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Oops! Double posted.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Depending on your specific situation, an indoor, directional UHF antenna like the Silver Sensor may or may not work at all. Unless you go for a good roof-top antenna rig w/ a clear line-of-sight in the direction of the source tower, you'll most likely need to do some trial-and-error.

The Silver Sensor would probably work if you have a reasonably clear view of the source tower from where you put it, so it probably needs to sit near a window facing the desired direction -- well, any indoor antenna should probably be set up that way. If you cannot possibly get good line-of-sight, then you'll probably need to go for an omni-directional unit and do plenty of trial-and-error. One of the better Radio Shack models will probably work best for this, and avoid/ignore the sleek marketing of Terk for the most part (and don't buy into any "HD" designation in general) as they're better at overcharging you for that than actually delivering the best performance. If you need an omni, you may or may not need it amplified and/or remotely rotateable.

And oh, do check out the following site for more help on this:

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Welcome.aspx

Hope that helps...

_Man_

 

[powerlord]

I'm getting kind of sour on the idea of normal tv looking this way,we watch 70% regular tv and the rest is movies or games.But I was having problems with standard tubes and my towers.Is this just something that people have to deal with having a larger screen? DVD playback is pretty good with component.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Hmmm... Does your DLP TV even come w/ built-in OTA HD tuner? It wasn't clear to me.

Anyway, yeah, regular TV, particularly regular cable, will look rather poor and maybe even unwatchable on a big screen though a 42" widescreen shouldn't be *that* bad as the 4x3 image would only be slightly larger than what it'd be on a 32" 4x3 TV. Try to go for OTA broadcasts, whether regular or digital/HD, for better results w/ regular TV programs, or spring for HD programming w/ your cable company -- most of them seem to only charge a small premium over digital cable though the number of HD channels are still very limited.

We've had a 53" CRT-based HD RPTV for 4 years now, and we stick w/ OTA HD channels (though not all programming is actually HD) and plenty of DVDs plus some games on the X-Box. We gave Time Warner cable w/ HD a try for almost a year at first, but decided it wasn't really worth it to us.

_Man_

 

[powerlord]

I have the Samsung HL-S4266W HDTV so yeah it has a built in tuner,I'll live with it!