I Can't Figure Out How to Pick Up OTA HD Shows.?

Question

I just bought my first HDTV along with an indoor HD antenna. I live in a condo so mounting an outdoor antenna isn't an option. I know that several of the local TV stations have seperate HD stations but I can't seem to pick them up. I noticed in my TV's on screen menu that it tells you what kind of digital signal is available but it's "greyed" out.

The reception for the channels that I do receive is really weird. Some of the channels are grainy but 2 totally off the wall channels are cristal clear.

I'm at a loss; I'd really like to figure this out with out having to call my manufacturer's tech support.

Answer 1

Start with the following:

Go to the tvfool web site and enter your location. Print out the charts that show the info on your local digital and analog transmitters.

Read your HDTV's manual and make sure you understand how to scan for digital over the air channels and (if your HDTV has this feature) how to manually add a digital channel. Also see if your HDTV has a signal quality meter for digital broadcasts.

Pick some analog stations that are in the same direction as the digital stations and adjust your antenna for the best reception on those analog stations. Once your antenna is adjusted, have the HDTV scan for digital over the air channels.

If you could not get good analog reception with your "HD" antenna, then you have an antenna problem. The conditions that cause "ghosts" on analog reception are particularly troublesome for digital reception.

Despite what you might have heard, analog and digital TV broadcasts in North America use the same antennas! There are a lot of factors in choosing the best antenna for a particular location. The one thing that has nothing to do with it is whether the antenna has "HD" stamped on it's box. All TV antennas are "HD" antennas, even 30 year old ones.

If you have an old TV antenna, just by chance it might work better than your new "HD" one.

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Manually adding digital channels.

When you tune in an analog TV channel like 16, every TV knows exactly what frequency to look for. But if you want to watch digital channel 16.1, the only thing you know is that it's not being broadcast on "real" channel 16. That's because there is only room for one analog or digital channel on any frequency.

That's why a HDTV has to scan for digital channels when it is set up. What scanning means is that the TV checks all possible TV frequencies and remembers where the digital channels are located. On some HDTVs you can manually add a digital channel by entering the real frequency for the station. If you look at the printout from the tvfool web site there a  column  labeled "real"; those are the real digital frequencies.

When you adjust your TV antenna for a digital channel, you use the signal strength/quality meter to find the highest reading.

Answer 2

You are scaning for signals every time you press setup. Make sure you can set up a longer coaxial cable by buying more cable and a tool to make the ends custom length.

You need to scan with the antenna standing steady and you also have to rescan pointing in different directions. I believe there is a website that will tell you where the television station is broadcasting and you have to point the antenna towards that direction.

For example in Los Angeles the signal is from Mount Wilson and I have to point the antenna towards that direction. You can point the antenna from the north part of the room towards that direction or from the south part of the room towards the same direction. Scanning and comparing which channels are received will give you the best idea where to keep the antenna pointed and where to leave it for a particular channel.

Answer 3

Make sure when doing your setup and channel scan that you are scanning "air + cable"  some TV's have two coaxial inputs, one for cable, and one for air.  Make sure you are hooked up to and scanning the appropriate one.

Your tuner in the TV is going to pick up both analog and digital channels.  The drawback of today's HDTV's is that many analog channels look terrible.  The flip side is that with digital signals will be crystal clear.  There is no grainy, in-between reception.  You either pick up the channel, or you don't.  Of course you won't have to worry about this after February 2009 when every over the air broadcast will be digital.

Answer 4

make sure you do your channel scan on the new tv . it should do both digital and analog. when i first did my first set up on my new tv

it did not come in very clear until i figured out i was watching

analog. my tv has 2 tuners. make sure you scroll thru all the channels to find the digital ones