Digital Antennas (1998)

[JosephHolloway1998]

although HDTV wasn't in public until Nov. 1998, and most stations around the country began HDTV transmission tests. which of the Digital Antennas were available around that time?, since the quality picture was always better in contrast to what you'd see on cable TV and analog OTA antennas (whose signal could be interfered by a large tree) It even rivaled satellite TV in quality picture.

 

[primestar31]

There's NO such thing as a "digital antenna". A 50+ year old antenna will pick up so called "digital signals".

It's all marketing hype to sell them at much higher prices, and sometimes to push garbage antennas that aren't any good. Even a paperclip stuck in the antenna port of a tv set can act as a "digital" antenna.

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

Well most people were still using analog back then.

 

[primestar31]

Well most people were still using analog back then.

That fact makes NO difference to your original post, and changes nothing about my post facts.

 

[c-spand]

Hi primestar. Mr Holloway is referring to the Channel Master Antenna which i have in my attic. It was promoted as digital.

Channel Master Digital Advantage CM-2020 Antenna
$74.15 from 10+ stores
109 product reviews
The CM-2020 digital HDTV antenna receives both digital TV and HDTV programming. This HD television antenna picks up the UHF ...
March 2012 · Channel Master · Television · Radio · Indoor / Outdoor · FM · VHF · UHF · Building · 10 dBi gain

 

[Brct203]

HDTV started in... 1949. That's when French TV adopted a 819 -line standard, in black and white, in replacement of the early 441-line standard. That was still in use when I was a kid but was progressively dropped in the 70-early 80's in favor of the 625-line standard that used SECAM color. We were happy to settle for lower resolution but in color . The last 819 transmitters were shutdown in 1983.

As far as I know the 819-line standard was used by the first national French channel (currently named TF1), by the French-language Belgian TV, by Télé Luxembourg and by Tele Monte-Carlo.

The next HDTV broadcast that I can think of was the MUSE standard in Japan in the late 80's, followed by some experimental HDMAC transmission for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France and the Barcelona summer games. That standard was abandoned in 1993 in favor of DVB. I had the opportunity to see a public demo of HDMAC during the winter games. it was impressive but maybe not as much as I expected.

I remember talks of a 1050 standard for North America but i'm not sure if that was ever used.

about the antennas, Mike is absolutely correct, it's all marketing BS. There are good antennas, there are bad antennas, but they don't care much about the modulation being used...

 

[NYDutch]

Hi primestar. Mr Holloway is referring to the Channel Master Antenna which i have in my attic. It was promoted as digital.

Channel Master Digital Advantage CM-2020 Antenna
$74.15 from 10+ stores
109 product reviews
The CM-2020 digital HDTV antenna receives both digital TV and HDTV programming. This HD television antenna picks up the UHF ...
March 2012 · Channel Master · Television · Radio · Indoor / Outdoor · FM · VHF · UHF · Building · 10 dBi gain

A lot of OTA antennas are promoted as "digital", but the fact remains that's purely a marketing term that has no basis in reality. RF is RF... Period...

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

Yes, but couldn't it also pick up long-range antenna signals? (outside of your broadcast market area)

 

[NYDutch]

Yes, but couldn't it also pick up long-range antenna signals? (outside of your broadcast market area)

Yes, depending on your location and terrain. But that still has nothing to do with "digital", only with RF propagation.

 

[c-spand]

Again The Channel master claimed that not me. The old analog antennas work the same. If i had one of the older ones i would have used it. But bought the CM.

 

[c-spand]

And i do pick up channels from Salinas/ Monterrey 106 miles away.

 

[NYDutch]

And i do pick up channels from Salinas/ Monterrey 106 miles away.

I installed a similar antenna when we lived on a mountain top in upstate NY. We picked up stations from four markets in three states.

 

[c-spand]

Awesome. If i could turn mine east of here i could get Sacramento market too.

 

[c-spand]

Still i get 90 plus channels in HD. Which is nice.

 

[harshness]

A couple of important points:

1. A TV antenna is a TV antenna. The frequencies used today are a subset of the frequencies originally used and the polarities are the same as well. That DTV doesn't seem to perform well in the VHF low band is a flaw in DTV.

2. HD or digital antennas are more than a marketing ploy applied to existing designs. These antennas are typically targeted at the UHF frequencies that became popular with DTV.

The TV band is in the midst of the third repack (RF70-RF83 were turned over to cellular and LMRS in 1982). As part of the DTV transition, the TV band was cut back to RF51 (many popular antennas were tuned for RF43-RF48 as their center frequency) and after the repack, UHF will be capped at RF36 (RF37 is reserved for radio astronomy). In the final analysis, a non-HD/digital antenna will actually be desirable as it will hopefully be tuned to frequencies that will be in use after the repack.

RCA claims 4K with some of their newer antennas but I'm betting that their center frequency is still much higher than it will need to be going forward.

In a post-repack environment, bay antennas and mudflaps will likely fall from favor as they're not tuned to the frequencies that are being used. This is why we're seeing some of the bay antennas and enclosed antennas shipping with a dipole element cobbled on.

Center frequency is the frequency (or frequencies for a hybrid antenna) at which the antenna has the highest gain(s). Having the highest gain at RF45 in a world where the band ends at RF36 is non-optimal.

 

[Titanium]

During the DTV transition the CM-2020 and all other Channel Master antennas were rebranded and the digital language was added to the product description. Same antennas, different model numbers and descriptive text in the listings.

 

[JosephHolloway1998]

but will you still need rabbit ears to receive the low-band VHF signals on the digital antennas? (as you would with a regular analog OTA antenna) I'm just curious.

 

[SatPhreak]

but will you still need rabbit ears to receive the low-band VHF signals on the digital antennas? (as you would with a regular analog OTA antenna) I'm just curious.

Yes, I live in an isolated city that only has 3 tv channels (0 sub channels), all are were cut live to digital on the Canadian digitital transmission date at noon. I watched on my analog tv when they switched. All I got was snow after the flash cut.
Now that I have a new tv and still use my rabbit eats to get my locals at 2, 4, and 9. All real frequencies.

Sent from my LG-M153 using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[SatPhreak]

A pic of my rabbit rars attatched the the ceiling of my 3rd story apt.

Sent from my LG-M153 using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[NYDutch]

but will you still need rabbit ears to receive the low-band VHF signals on the digital antennas? (as you would with a regular analog OTA antenna) I'm just curious.

Not if the antenna is properly designed to cover the entire TV spectrum as it should be. After the repack, about 25% of the remaining stations will be on VHF channels with about 60 of those stations on low-VHF channels.