amn tv box

[FarmboyBill]

Do they make them tv boxes in better quality than others> If so, who sels the best. I COULD get the public tv station here, now I cant, BUT, when I turn my tv on, before I fire the box up, I can faintly hear OETA running through the static. Thinking about taken the tv off the box. Id be willing to buy a better box if they made one. I got mine at Radio Shack. Where before the box, I could get a 1/2 doz channels real good, and another 1/2 doz depending on the wind, turning the antennia, ect. Now, I get only around 4 channels period, and another 1/2 doz that have no signal, and a couple that break up regularly

[sammyd]

Doesn't have anything to do with the box itself.
Even with the higher strength signals most stations are putting out since the original change date getting decent reception from the digital signal is iffy at best.
Bigger better antenae is probably the answer. I noticed the local Menards was all sold out this weekend.......

[WayneR]

Check the antenna posting by Granny64 thread 296123

[o&itw]

If it is a "Zenith" it is one of the better boxes.

There is no longer any "VHF" television. All the channel 2-13 stations, when they change to HD, are switching to uhf channels between 13-35 or so... Your converter box will say 7.1, or 7.2, but it is really a uhf channel. Most larger TV antennas are VHF ( some may have a uhf antenna on top) While a VHF antenna will pick up UHF somewhat (so will a couple of wires) it does not match the frequency of the signals and does a poor job. UHF signals do not travel as far, so you will not get the same strength of signal you got when it was on VHF. If you have a stacked VHF/UHF antenna, you can pitch the VHF part (larger yagi), and hook stright to the UHF part. If you do not have a UHF antenna, and are any great distance away, you will need to get one.

A good UHF antenna will either look like a skinny VHF antenna with a "corner" on the end or it will look like an oven rack with some "bowties" mounted on it...

Do not fall for the crazy, high priced, space age looking things they are pushing for HDTV.... most of them are overpriced and underperformming to the point of being scam's. The link below will give you some pictures of what to look for: (1st, 4th, 8th, and 10th pictures)

http://images.google.com/images?hl=e...+antenna&gbv=2

This site has some good explanations on set-up, signal loss, amplifiers, etc.:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3D2%26hl%3Den


.

[idahodave]

NO NO NO all stations will not be on UHF when the digital conversion is done. Channels 2-51 can be used for digital.

Some of the reception problems are caused by digital stations using a less than full coverage UHF digital transmission system while waiting for the analog shutoff so they can move digital to their current VHF channel. In some areas VHF digital stations are waiting for their channel to be cleared when a nearby analog VHF shuts off.

Not a huge difference between boxes, newer ones are a bit better that the first ones. If you have analog pass through, it's a newer box. Antennas are very important

Go to tvfool.com and get a listing of stations at your location, and then pick an antenna type (U or U+V) based on the channels you expect to see. The NM column should be a plus number if you expect to see the station. Lower numbers (0 to +20) will need larger and higher antennas with preamplifiers.

[rambler]

Originally Posted by o&itw

There is no longer any "VHF" television. All the channel 2-13 stations, when they change to HD, are switching to uhf channels between 13-35 or so... .

Nearly all stations 2-6 need to move to UHF.

Nearly all stations 7-13 have temporarily moved up to a UHF station, but will return to their VHF location after 'the change' whenever that happens.

We are in an odd, temporary time right now, when stations are changing their locations. Even tho your TV will say they are on channel 'x', most are on a different actual channel, and will again move to their home actual channel when they change. This will weave across the VHF and UHF channels, making it very hard to fine tune anything at all right now - it all will change again in July or whenever.

But, for sure there will be stations using VHF channels 7-13 in the future, and those may be the stronger signals. So you do not want to throw away your VHF antennea! It will still be a valid TV broadcast frequency.

For the original message: You probably need a stronger antennea (bigger), located higher (outside on the roof or a pole up high) and you need to aim it much better at the station tower now with digital. Pulling in stations over 50 miles away is more difficult with DTV, because line of sight becomes more critical. Trees, weather, airplane traffic, etc will cause more problems.

--->Paul

[Windy in Kansas]

Many of the stations are also temporarily jumping around and one must rescan for signal almost weekly. I wouldn't be surprised if you simply don't need to rescan to get the signal back.

This chart shows a comparison of features for the various brands and models of coupon eligible converter boxes.

I have been using a Zenith DTT900 and yesterday I used my last coupon to purchase a Dish Network DTV Pal Plus. After just one evening of use I believe the DTV Pal Plus box to be the better of the two. I love the program guide which shows many hours at a time and will eventually show several days at a time whereas the Zenith only showed about 1 hour of guide at a time.

The DTV Pal Plus also has timers so that recording can easily be done with the unit. I understand that it will even change channels in order to record programs from different channels at different times.

The microtuner of the DTV Pal Plus may produce a slightly better picture but I can't yet say for certain. I haven't had any pixelation as of yet but did have some of it with the Zenith box.

Though the DTV Pal Plus did cost extra I believe it will be well worth the extra. $60 at Sears less $40 coupon.

[arabian knight]

Are all digital stations on UHF channels, and do I need a UHF-only antenna to receive them? What are the VHF and UHF bands anyway, and what do VHF and UHF stand for?
The Very High Frequency (VHF) band is the segment of the television broadcast band covering channels 2 through 13. The Ultra High Frequency (UHF) band is the segment of the television broadcast band covering channels 14 through 83. Currently, the vast majority of TV stations broadcasting in digital are using UHF (14 and up) channels to do so. This is not due to any technical requirement of digital broadcasting, however. It is mostly because the UHF channels were more likely to be available in most markets. Eventually, after the digital transition is complete and TV stations no longer need to broadcast in analog, they may switch and use their current analog VHF channels for digital instead. Antennas that receive UHF stations only and ones that receive both VHF and UHF are available. If you are fairly certain you won't want to get any lower channels in the VHF 2-13 range, you could purchase one that is UHF only.

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/info.as...Q#_Ref28770295
So this pretty much sums it up You SHOULD get an ALL channel antenna. One for VHF and UHF combined.
The one I have is just that 2-83 and is one of the largest that Radio Shack sold some 15 years ago and is working Just Great I now get WAY more channels with it then before the switch over. i also have a rotor and a signal booster on the down lead side of the coax, with all NEW COAX and connectors put on last summer before all this switch over took place.~!

[o&itw]

Originally Posted by rambler

Nearly all stations 2-6 need to move to UHF.

Nearly all stations 7-13 have temporarily moved up to a UHF station, but will return to their VHF location after 'the change' whenever that happens.

We are in an odd, temporary time right now, when stations are changing their locations. Even tho your TV will say they are on channel 'x', most are on a different actual channel, and will again move to their home actual channel when they change. This will weave across the VHF and UHF channels, making it very hard to fine tune anything at all right now - it all will change again in July or whenever.

But, for sure there will be stations using VHF channels 7-13 in the future, and those may be the stronger signals. So you do not want to throw away your VHF antennea! It will still be a valid TV broadcast frequency.

For the original message: You probably need a stronger antennea (bigger), located higher (outside on the roof or a pole up high) and you need to aim it much better at the station tower now with digital. Pulling in stations over 50 miles away is more difficult with DTV, because line of sight becomes more critical. Trees, weather, airplane traffic, etc will cause more problems.

--->Paul

He is correct.

This is a more accurate assesment than I gave earlier. While all HDTV channels may be on UHF now, some have the choice to go back to their original channels later.

[ET1 SS]

What is a "amn tv box" ?

[Shygal]

I think its an amn tv box without the "d" in front of the amn

[katydidagain]

Originally Posted by Shygal

I think its an amn tv box without the "d" in front of the amn

At my urging, Bill built one of those nutty looking "scrap material" antennas you can find directions for on youtube. Coat hangers, modified greatly, really do work! Here in the DC area where the air is thick with "signals" (gossip and innuendo, too) I have excellent reception on cheapie GE boxes; they don't work as well in Brrrrhio but reception there isn't so good on plain old analog.