HDTV and satellite HELP! (1 Viewer)

[Jeffrey Beal]

I live in the Northern foothills of California. I am going to get Dish Network installed this week and to my dismay they dont offer any HDTV broadcast's. I just purchased my first HDTV last week and I would like to get some programming in 1080i to come through on it. I do have a Antenna way up in a tree but its old and the cable on it is of poor quality. Does anyone have any experience with antenna brands and getting a booster on it to get a HDTV signal?

Thanks for any help!
Jeff,

 

[Brent Hutto]

Three things you'll need to see HDTV on your set (not counting the TV set itself):

You'll need an HDTV tuner for your TV (most don't come with these built-in but instead are intended for use with a so-called set-top box that costs about $500-$1,000). A few TV's do come with that tuner such as the RCA 38" widescreen and last year's expensive 34" XBR2 from Sony. As an alternative, some cable TV providers offer a "cable box" with component video outputs that can perform this function.

You'll need a broadcaster that is sending out 1080i programming. Many local broadcast stations are not yet broadcasting any digital signal at all. Even the ones that do broadcast in "digital" have relatively little programming in 1080i. The majority of the "HDTV" programming is really plain old-fashioned programs that have been "upconverted" to 1080i. They look better than plain old TV but not nearly as good as actual HDTV.

You'll need an antenna up high enough to get a clean signal from whatever station(s) are broadcasting HDTV. "High enough" means clear of tall pine trees, hills or buildings that might block the signal or cause multipath interference (the kind of interference that causes "ghosting" on analog TV). In a lot of areas (my own home included) signal strength isn't the problem it's signal clarity due to obstructions. A booster can't help this, unfortunately.

 

[Jim FC]

Jeffrey,
Do some more research into Dish Network. They do in fact offer HBO, Showtime, Discovery Channel, and CBS in high-def, along with a demo channel. You need to get their model 6000 receiver and and a 2nd dish, but it is available.