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Bro n law lives in the country, about 40 miles from Monroe, La. He's got DISH and a 42" Toshiba Flat screen LCD w/hdtv tuner. DISH doesn't offer "local" channels in his town. So for ever he's picked them up via a rotating, mast antenna, mounted on the roof. He's got a booster (unknown watts/price) between the antenna and his tv and the picture is delivered via Coax cable, not twin lead 300ohm wire.
Now that a couple of his stations have gone digital, he's lost their feed, completely. Pimple faced kid at Best Buy said he needed an "HDTV" antenna. I told him no, his existing UHF/VHF antenna should pick up the stations that have digitalis.
So, does he need a newer better booster/pre amp? Was the pimply faced kid right? Any thoughts welcome
Follow Ups:
Weak digital signal is unwatchable. He may need a higher gain antenna. He may need a booster. He will probably need to tweak the direction. Make sure the cabling and connections are good. If he already has a rotator and a booster and everything is working, it may be a lost cause. If his digital tv tuner has a signal strength indicator (I'm sure it does), he can find out whether these signals are dead or just marginal, and maybe can be brought back to life by tweaking.
Final thought: some digital channels are on different places than the analog channels were, like my digital channel 7 is actually on digital 53. So he may want to make sure he's looking for them in the right place.
These digital UHF transmissions don't seem to cover as broad an area as old-fashioned analog VHF did, and there's no promise you will be able to view all of your favorites in this manner.
Your Bro-in-law needs to find out how far away and exactly where the new channels are. ometimes the digital broadcast tower is not in the same place as the analog is/was. Find out how powerful they are too. Some of the digital channels are not all that strong.
There are several things he can try-get a stronger booster (amp), though that is iffy. if his booster is low level, then it should be very close to the TV. As Abe said, cabling does get old.
jack
Most OTA HDTV is broadcast on UHF so a new larger UHF antenna might do the trick. I would replace the feedline too as they degrade over time being in the weather. Use quality RG6.
What is the length of the feedline from the antenna to the TV? If it's not too long, I would try it first w/o a preamp ("booster"). Oh, and these are not rated in Watts but by dB gain and noise figure. A good one can be costly, and best mounted on the mast near the antenna. Which means power for the unit is "injected" through the coax through a special adapter that comes with the preamp. Sometimes the cheap ones do more harm than good. Try only the coax first and cut it to the needed length plus a couple extra feet or so, but don't coil up a huge excess. Short is better.
Some UHF antenna brands to consider might include Winegard, Channel Master, Antenna Craft, etc. I have a cheapie outdoor UHF antenna from Radio Shack but my broadcasters are only 20 miles away at most.
These are all directional Yagi style antennas. Longer with more elements makes them more directional with more forward gain which also means you need to be more precise in pointing them in the right direction.
Here's my smaller cheapie from RS:
He needs to go to some place like http://tvfool.com/ and find out where the channels he wants are, how far away, and in what direction.Digital reception is mostly go/no go, in that it is watchable or not, very little in between like with analog where you can put up with a bit fuzzy if necessary.
FWIW I have no problem getting many DTV stations up to 60 miles with a little antenna hidden behind my couch. It largely depends on the terrain between you and the station. Aiming the antenna is important. A good analog UHF TV antenna is still a good digital TV antenna. Similarly for VHF antennas, but more digital stations are in the UHF now. IOW, there's nothing "special" about a DTV antenna.
Edit: by "little antenna" I should say it is actually a "nice-looking" (as they go) fairly compact outdoor antenna. I could put it outdoors, but no need since I get all the networks, and all the stations I could possibly get without going into a very substantial installation. Indoors keeps the cable short, makes it easy to aim (there are only 3 necessary directions for me), and don't have to bother with weatherproofing. Your location determines how well this works. Outdoors and high is always better.
Edits: 02/22/09
40 miles distance is OK for analog, but it's "fringe" for digital. Plus, UHF (which is where most digital broadcasts are) is line-of-sight. He's probably going to need a bigger/higher-gain antenna, maybe raise it up higher than the current one.
Send him to antennaweb.org for more details specific to his location.
Those OTA HD channels aren't pumping out as much power as their analog predecessors, which may explain not being able to receive formerly clear channels. San Jose's KICU 36, which for 4 decades had a near-local signal quality in Sactown, is now MIA since its' digital conversion. Same same with Santa Rosa's KFTY 50, which also used to come in like proverbial local. All those Bay Area signals from Mount Sutro are rapidly fading away as well. Have noticed, via Samsung DTB-H260 converter, digital dx signals are a bit stronger, & more consistent, during summer time only. A Grass Valley Union photog said he gets fairly consistent digital signals from the Bay Area, but he also has 2,000 feet of foothill elevation opposed to a valley floor. Sadly, for Sactown Raider fans, those days of aiming antenna towards Cohassett Ridge to watch blacked-out home games from Chico are sadly in the past.
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