wal-mart converter boxes
wal-mart converter boxes what is your experience with digital tv from an antenna? I stopped watching TV after I came to the USA in 1997 (because of ...
wal-mart converter boxes
what is your experience with digital tv from an antenna?
I stopped watching TV after I came to the USA in 1997
(because of interruption by commercials and the price of movie channels — TV in the USA sucks — but I like USA soap operas).
But my wife wants some TV.
First I got satellite TV from AT&T.
But it only contained channels with advertisement.
I don’t see any need to pay for something like this
– they need to pay me to watch this.
So I was looking for TV via antenna.
I still have my 1997 Sony TV — thus I need some converter box.
Anybody any experience with this?
Wal-Mart sells digital antennas?
Are they any good?
Where do I get the converter box? RadioShack?
Anybody here in South SF Bay Area any experience with this?
I live in the South Bay (West San Jose, near Cupertino). I have a UHF/VHF antenna (a Winegard 7696) in my attic and get all of the Bay Area stations very well. That said, the transmitters are 33 to 38 miles away (on Mt Sutro and Mt San Bruno), so you need a good antenna. A small set of rabbit ears won’t do. Also, the NBC station and the ABC station are on RF channels 12 and 7 respectively. This requires good VHF reception capability. So a UHF-only antenna like the Silver Sensor won’t do either.
You can get the converter boxes at many places, although they are starting to get scarce, since the the DTV transition was done in June. I recommend the Zenith units. They are much faster at tuning channels than many of the others. Best Buy sells the Zenith under their Insignia label. From what I’ve read, you should avoid the magnavox units.
As far as advertising goes, you can’t escape that with any TV channels except PBS. It’s how they pay for things, especially for antenna-only channels.
