sick of paying for TV? try digital off-air - 3.16.04
Now Ready for Prime-Time: Digital Off-Air TV
UPDATE August 2004: for a pro's perspective on the same subject, read Digital Television 101 010101 by Henry Ruhwiedel, Chief Engineer of WYIN [on Technology360] - very instructive. Note however, that out here in the sticks, my experience is that it's necessary to point the antenna as precisely as possible.
Digital, off-air television is available right now in rural northwest Indiana. If you haven't experienced digital TV (D-TV) yet, you will soon. You'll be stunned by the improvement in picture clarity and audio quality, and impressed by the variety of program choices too. Best of all, digital television is available free, off the air. All you need to go digital is a working UHF antenna system and a digital television tuner.
You're probably wondering, "what's digital off-air television?" First, the 'off-air' part: that means you get your TV signal the old-fashioned way, through an antenna. The television station broadcasts from a tower and it's carried 'over the air' to your home. No cables or satellites are involved, hence the term 'off-air'.
Now, the 'digital' part: that means the broadcast consists of ones and zeros instead of analog waveforms. It's just like the difference between a CD (which is digital) and your old vinyl LPs (an analog waveform read by your phonograph's needle). Do you need to understand that? Not really, just understand this, D-TV is television for the computer age, and it's dramatically better.
You don't need to invest a ton of money to start enjoying D-TV. Personally, my goal was to drop cable and go digital for no more than the cost of a year's subscription to cable. In the end, I did it for about $500.00 total, including installing a beefy all-new UHF antenna system, purchasing a D-TV tuner and the cables to hook it all together.
The key component is the 'tuner', a device that decodes the digital television signal and sends it a video display (your TV) and your audio system which could be either the speakers in your TV or in more high-end systems, your home theater sound system. After some research, for my tuner I chose the Magnavox HDT-100. It's about the size of a typical VHS player.
I selected the Magnavox HDT-100 mainly because it's available online for less than $400.00, making it about the cheapest way to go digital. Be aware that if you buy a tuner like the HDT-100 you won't get true high-definition television (HD-TV) because you'll be viewing the signal on your existing set, which probably doesn't have a monitor capable of producing a true HD-TV image. But you'll get started with D-TV for a whole lot less money, and you can always upgrade by adding a true HD-TV monitor later when prices drop. A monitor is just the video display component; since you already have a tuner you won't need to buy another one. If you're ready to spend more and want to simplify things a bit, fully integrated HD-TV systems start at about $2,000.00.
You'll also need an antenna system. I'm located about 70 miles southeast of downtown Chicago and thereofore I want a system that can get both Chicago and South Bend stations consistently. In this regard every installation will be different; a good place to start designing your system is at antennaweb.org.
While every situation is different, if you're out in the country like I am it will mean (a) selecting the right antenna (big is good), (b) getting it up as high as possible, (c) pointing it accurately at the transmitters, and (d) wiring it up correctly with high quality cable. In Starke County where I'm at, 60-70 miles from the big transmitters on top of those Chicago skyscrapers, it's doable, but only if your system is designed and deployed correctly.
Many homes in rural northern Indiana are already equipped with television antenna systems. To get D-TV you're interested in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) band; that's any channel higher than 13. D-TV broadcasts are in the UHF band and that's good news because UHF antennas are relatively small and cheap. I selected a Channel Master 8-bay 'bow-tie type', available online for about $50.00. Most Starke County TV masts sport the smaller 4-bay bow-tie UHF antenna, but according to my calculations you should install an 8-bay if you want to consistently pick up the wealth of D-TV channels broadcasting from Chicago.
You'll also want to consider installing an antenna amplifier, a little device that boosts your signal and helps your antenna wire reject interference. This important component will cost about $70.00. If you want to be able to get both Chicago and South Bend stations you may wish to install an antenna rotor; it's tempting to Y together two UHF antennas, one pointed to Chicago and one to South Bend but alas this gets complicated: ask a physics teacher and they'll explain why.
I installed my system myself, but make no mistake about it, installing a television antenna system can be somewhat technically complicated and more importantly, it can be dangerous too. If you touched a power line with your antenna, its mast or any other metallic part, you'd probably be killed instantly. If you fail to ground the system correctly, your entire system will be instantly fried into oblivion by electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) from the first lightning strike anywhere nearby. Falling off the roof or the tower is another, if more obvious, risk. So, if you're not totally sure you can do it, hire somebody who can; it's way cheaper than a funeral.
Once you get your D-TV system up and running you'll probably find there are many stations you've never seen before. Most D-TV stations run multiple feeds, meaning they have two or more programs running simultaneously. Some programming is in HD-TV and some is simply D-TV. WYIN, the public station in Gary, just went on the air with digital and is testing four separate feeds, two of which will be devoted to educational materials, one will be an HD-TV station; WTTW's Chicago Tonight, hosted by Bob Sirott, offers sophisticated talk and arts programming five nights a week in a stimulating live format. D-TV channels include several offering Christian programming. Naturally, there's lots of mainstream entertainment. It's culturally enriching as well: Telemundo's Chicago station offers excellent quality Spanish language programming (and steamy Brazilian soaps too). I'm polishing my Spanish skill while watching local news and 'La NBA'. It's way more fun than Spanish class ever was. One Chicago based station even broadcasts programming in Polish, Chinese, Greek and Hindi, so you can even get a bit of Bollywood. If that's a bit more multi-culturalism than you're ready for, all of the South Bend stations have D-TV broadcasts.
Disadvantages? Yes, there are a couple major disadvantages of D-TV. When reception is bad on old-fashioned analog TV your picture gets snowy or maybe you get a few 'ghosts', a process sometimes called 'graceful degradation'. By contrast, when your reception goes bad on D-TV it goes away entirely, and there's nothing graceful about it.
Also, broadcasters in our area are still new to D-TV and some are still in test mode - that means you'll see some bad signals coming in at times. Sometimes the tuner will even crash, like a computer. After some crashes it may become necessary to unplug the tuner and reprogram the stations. For now, you'll probably want to patch your system so you can still watch the analog broadcasts too.
So, if you're not a fan of computer technology it may be just a bit early for you to adopt D-TV. But if you're comfortable using a computer, and if you're ready to kiss a fond farewell to your monthly cable bill, I'd recommend it. Free is good.
