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  1. Carl B

    The White House wants your opinion on The DTV Delay ACT Bill

    Looks like all the major stations in metro-Denver have rolled-over for the Government and won't terminate analog broadcasts on 2/17/09, even though the new bill has yet to be signed by the President and is therefore not yet law.
  2. Carl B

    The White House wants your opinion on The DTV Delay ACT Bill

    More money for the coupon program is already in the Stimulus Bill (both versions). PBS doesn't need to worry about the additional operating costs of maintaining analog as funding for PBS for this activity is also in the Stimulus Bill (both versions). And you ask, what the heck do either of...
  3. Carl B

    The White House wants your opinion on The DTV Delay ACT Bill

    Wish they had asked for comments before the Obama transition team told Congress to enact a DTV Transition Delay bill. I can't imagine they will have second thoughts about this, after all Obama won and he says that means he gets to do what he wants to do. Anyway, I left my "don't sign the bill"...
  4. Carl B

    HD DVR for OTA?

    They are no longer for sale new and, at least according to the posters on a long running AVS Forum thread, most are problemmatic. On paper they seemed like an answer for those of us unwilling to shell out $700 to buy or $300 to lease a DBS DVR, and who primarily want to record HD from the major...
  5. Carl B

    ABC Denver good news

    KMGH-DT has been on the air since last Thursday from Republic Plaza. You are a little late w/ the news.
  6. Carl B

    Grounding on antenna, coaxial, or both?

    If you use a separate grounding rod for your antenna and/or coax grounding block, you then need to run a #8 wire from that rod to your house's main ground. Otherwise, you may create a voltage differential problem which could cause various problems w/ the electronics in your HT and negate any...
  7. Carl B

    What is the difference in antenna distance ratings?

    The range ratings on antennas are pretty worthless and seldom achievable in the typical home installation. The color code ratings are a bit more reliable when used in conjunction with the color code for a station to be received per antennaweb. As a general rule, totally ignore the range...
  8. Carl B

    Antenna In Attic

    I also use attic antennas. Many of the signals you receive in an attic are reflected signals. Leaving the garage door open is proably disturbing one of those reflections. Try moving your antenna around in the attic while the garage door is open.
  9. Carl B

    OK, Simple question, Best Antenna - Outside and Inside

    No, I'm not kidding. In areas w/o severe multi-path, those antennas work fine, especially for digital. For analog, they can have more ghost problems than a directional antenna. Take a look at the definitions for the color codes on antennaweb.org. You will see that omni-directional antennas...
  10. Carl B

    OK, Simple question, Best Antenna - Outside and Inside

    Not necessarily. In a small urban environment, with only a handful of channels, and all at full or near-full power for their DTV broadcasts, some of the multi-directional antennas can do quite well, especially for ATSC signals versus NTSC signals. For an outdoor antenna, the Winegard MS1000...
  11. Carl B

    Need help with OTA HDTV

    Recording HD on an HD/DVR is fine. Recording HD in SD on a DVDR is OK. I don't know much about the HD tape machines except that they seem to have compatibility problems and are not generally very popular. An HD/DVDR is years and dollars away.
  12. Carl B

    Need help with OTA HDTV

    You definitely need a rotor, but the pre-amp recommendation was based on you receiving Channel 33 from Ann Arbor, which isn't broadcasting yet. If you don't care about that channel, then a Winegard PR-9018 w/o a pre-amp should work fine for you. As to a receiver for OTA digital channels...
  13. Carl B

    OTA Issue

    Antennaweb says there are 4 digital channels that you can receive, but they are spread from 53 degrees to 309 degrees. The weakest is channel 13 (2.1) at 59 degrees and 45 miles distance. The strongest is channel 59 at 309 degrees and 35 miles distance. With that spread and those...
  14. Carl B

    OTA Antenna Issue??

    Which model CM pre-amp are you using? If it is a CM 7775, it only passes UHF. Thus, when it is in the system, it passes and amplifies your weak UHF. When it is out of the system, your VHF signals are picked up, but your weak UHF signals are not.
  15. Carl B

    Ota Hdtv

    Yes, but the exercise is fraught w/ the unknown. Such a setup can have terrible results or hard to track down problems. There are some basic rules to follow in doing it, but even they are not a guarantee of success.
  16. Carl B

    new to HDTV could use some help

    The DB-4 is a medium version of Antennas Direct's DB-8. Your Rat Shack link didn't work, so I don't know what you are going to try. if it is the 40" Yagi, that is a small directioal antenna.
  17. Carl B

    OTA reciever help

    By FCC rule, the broadcasters of DTV channels must transmit a minimum amount of program guide information. Usually just the title of the show and the start and finish time plus the V-chip rating. It typically only covers a few hours to a day. It might get better in the future. The question...
  18. Carl B

    new to HDTV could use some help

    So you have already been to antennaweb. Blue is a medium directional antenna w/ a pre-amp. If you are mounting it in an attic, you probably need to up that to a large directional w/ a pre-amp. You didn't say what the frequency assignment is of the stations you want to receive. If they are...
  19. Carl B

    Distant OTA

    If you want to stay w/ the same antenna size and you aren't currently using a pre-amp, get a CM 7777 pre-amp and see what happens. There is a chance that those 49% signals will lock. What does antennaweb say you need for an antenna for the channels you can lock, but want to? Stacking a pair...
  20. Carl B

    Radioshack high def outdoor antenna

    An R/S 2160 is only a medium directional antenna. Somewhat similar, though inferior, to a Winegard PR-9018, the little brother of the PR-9032. The antennas I noted in my earlier post are all large directional antennas, as are needed to deal with UHF channels listed as VIOLET for a given...
  21. Carl B

    Radioshack high def outdoor antenna

    If you want the VIOLET channels, you will most likely need a Large, Directional Antenna w/ a low noise, high gain pre-amp (CM 7775 or 7777) mounted at a good height out-of-doors. If those VIOLET channels are in the UHF spectrum, then a CM 4228 or a CM 4248 or a Winegard PR-9032 or a Antennas...
  22. Carl B

    811 Receiver & OTA Scan Problem

    You are making the mistake I was referring to. That is, you are trying to lock DTV channels w/ their analog channel numbers. You get 8.01 because the installer setup the "real" DTV channel number in your 6-1-5 menu. Go to antennaweb.org and find out the "real" channel numbers of your DTV...
  23. Carl B

    USDTV: Another Option for DTV Service

    OTA DTV will remain free by Federal law. What USDTV does is guarantee that OTA HD will be at a minimum bit rate because the local stations can sell some of their FCC authorized bandwidth for a profit. Can you spell OTA HD-Lite?
  24. Carl B

    Source for LG LST4200a

    ebay Sorry, but I've seen this quest on various web forums and threads. It appears that any stock of new ITB LST4200As is gone as of about a month ago. Good luck.
  25. Carl B

    811 Receiver & OTA Scan Problem

    When you go to 6-1-5, do you go to "Add DTV", then enter the "real channel" number of the station you want to receive? The virtual numbers you see in the EPG won't work in the HDTV locals setup. You need the actual channel numbers.