Does the digital to analog converter box use the antenna?

Question

If the antenna on my rooftop does not catch signal, will that affect the digital converter box converting the signals? Do I have to fix the antenna first so that the converter could get the channels? Thanks.

Answer 1

Converter boxes have to be hooked up to an antenna just like analog TVs have to be hooked up to an antenna.

In the US, analog and digital broadcasts use the same antennas. If your current antenna can't pick up any analog channels it is highly unlikely that it will pick up any digital ones either.

So you might as well fix the antenna. It's easier to trouble shoot an antenna using an analog signal. Depending on your location, the best antenna for digital reception might not be the same as for analog.

A place to start is the TV Fool web site. If you enter your location, it will tell you things like the distance and bearing to your local TV transmitters and what frequencies they operate on. You need to know that kind of stuff to figure out what antenna is best at your location and what direction to point it in.

Answer 2

no if you use a roof top antenne you will need to get a DIGITAL roof top anntena the  one you have now is analog and wil not work with digital boxex next february

Answer 3

Here is what it says from the digital to analog conversion website about what type of antenna is needed.

After February 17, 2009 some television stations will be moving to a different channel in a different frequency band that may require a different antenna type from the one you may now have. For example, some channels in the “VHF band” (Channels 2-13) may be moving to the “UHF band” (Channels 14-51) and vice versa. Receiving VHF and UHF signals require different antenna types, although some antennas are designed to receive both VHF and UHF signals.

The good news is that there’s a Web site that can tell you what antenna you need in any part of the country – just by typing in your address and zip code. For help choosing an antenna in order to receive your free, local broadcast TV channels, visit www.antennaweb.org.