new tv and antenna for my elderly folks...

[diitto]

Hi... My folks have two tv's in their house that are on cable... No issue there... But they have a third tv (old analog type with local rabbit ears) that can't easily be hooked up to cable and must soon be replaced when digital broadcast takes over next month... My folks are elderly and don't want to do a lot of work, like having cable extended to this location...

I intend to buy them a new TV for this location... It will be a small, flat panel, likely a 19" LCD... And it will likely be HD capable whether it ever see's any HD signals or not.. My question is I about a local antenna for this tv... What should I purchase??? The simplest of what I would call a "rabbit ear" antenna??? Do any TV's still come with an included local "rabbit ear" type antenna??? As likely you can tell, I am not knowledgeable of OTA antennas... What they really want is just the ability to view local channels in their area (Kansas City)... Being able to gather any other OTA channels would be a plus... Bottom line is what antenna should I buy to go along with some new tv and should I make sure that any tv has an RF input??? For an antenna to connect to on the tv??

thanks for any help.... bob...

 

[Digital Dude]

One of our sponsors, Sadoun, has some decent amplified indoor antennas on clearance.
I don't know of any TV's that come with an antenna anymore, margins have plumeted and it's a cost the manufacturers don't want to bear.

 

[8bitbytes]

If they are 30 miles or closer to the broadcast towers with no big terrain problems, look for an antenna called the Silver Sensor. It's an indoor model that works quite well.

 

[toto]

If you get them a tv with a half way decent tuner any UHF antenna will work fine. Might try a cheap rabbit ears and don't forget to hook up the little round antenna (UHF). All of KCs digital stations will be UHF on the changeover and outside of Topeka (11 & 13) and 2 in StJo there probably not going to be any VHF around. Silver sensor is a good UHF rabbit ears.

 

[Kevinw]

Have you thought about getting a digital tuner to convert to analog for them?

 

[toto]

If they're elderly, there may be some issue on image size if they ad a converter. If the station is showing HD it would be letterboxed on their set, making the image smaller.

 

[Kevinw]

If they're elderly, there may be some issue on image size if they ad a converter. If the station is showing HD it would be letterboxed on their set, making the image smaller.

Can't get much smaller than the one he is thinking of getting

It will be a small, flat panel, likely a 19" LCD

Even if it is a 20 inch 4:3 they have now WS programming drops tp about 18 inches
Compute TV dimensions
Even my computer monitor is 22 inches WS

 

[toto]

Your elderly folks will lose over 25% of their vertical image if they view HD programing on a 4:3 set. When I got a set for my 87 year old mom I got a 32" It works fine for her, but after two cataract operations she sees pretty well. My dad, in the last stages of macular degeneration 4 years ago could see my 52" and froze in front of the tv for almost two hours. He passed 3 years ago.