Hi, My dad is 77 years old. He is just going to keep his analog 32" tv and he has added the digital converter box. He has an old yagi style roof top antenna. The thing is he lives in an old neighborhood, and all these big, old maple trees are around him. It does not bother his analog signals but, even though his digital signal strengh shows around 90 the stations blink on and off somtimes.(it happens enough to disrupt the shows) He also has the old style flat 300 ohm lead wire on his antenna. What do you think the problem is? He went back to analog for now.
Thanks, Randy

He'll need a different style antenna for digital. I've used a Zenith Silver Sensor ($25 or so) with my HDV in the den and had good success even though we've got plenty of big oak trees. The site antennaweb.org can help with antenna aiming and with different antenna options.

We tried the Zenith antenna with bad results. In fact we counldnt pick up any stations inside or outside. They just popped on and off. Tried aiming alot but no good. Is it possible our locals are still in a tryout state? The guy next door has a 60 foot tower antenna and even he has some trouble. We went to antenna.org and got the info we needed but its not helping. We are only 12 miles from the station towers, with analog he receives stations 50 miles away. By the way he will never pay for cable or sat.

Where are you? In our area, all the locals have gone to full power on digital broadcasts, but there was a transitional time when some weren't broadcasting and others were running at low power while getting the kinks worked out.

Hi Gonk, sorry it takes me so long to answer but I cant get to a computer all the time. He lives just outside Dayton ohio. Every thing bothers these stations, Last night we had a storm and he had no tv for 30 min. Later it stayed cloudy and only a few stations came in then. Today in bright sun all is good. I dont think its the stations though, It has to be his set-up. He has a splitter on the wire to go to another tv in the bedroom. Is it possible the digital signal is a higher frequency than the old splitter. even people walking around the room bothers the signal.
Thanks again, Randy

Well, one thing to keep in mind - digital signals behave differently than analog signals. Where an analog signal that is being split up or otherwise experiencing a weakened signal will simply get "static-y" or otherwise crummy, a digital signal that loses too much will simply go away. I'd get rid of splitters or anything else that might be hindering the signal.

Well I'm going to wrap up this pitiful saga by gettig my dad Directv. I dont really know what the deal is with our local digital signals but, reception is awful. The picture blinks on and off at the slightest weather changes or wind ,clouds people moving around the room even. While it is clear all the disruptions are to much. Plus Ive had a chance to see local tv and the programming is pitifull. I had these visions of multipul channels. Instead they mostly run infomercials on all but PBS. Our friends in town our disapointed with there converter too. Signal loss and digitizing all the time. I think this big rollout is a bust. The antenna guy was out at my dad's and said he is finding aim of the antenna to be critical. A 2 degree swing can knock a picture out he said. He thinks aim is as important as a satellite dish. All I can say is so far digital has been crappy.

I'm wondering about the converter boxes themselves, as I am hearing similar issues from the secretary here at work. I might have to do a little shoot-out between the built-in HD tuner in my Zenith and a couple of these converter boxes this fall. I've got a Zenith Silver Sensor antenna (one of the better small indoor antennas as of four years ago) - I'd be curious to see what the signal strength and reliability looks like. I believe that the little LCD in our bedroom has a built-in tuner, too, although I've never hooked an antenna up to it...

I had to check my Directv account and I can't believe that I have had my hdtv receiver for almost 4 years. My receiver came with a free, installed outdoor off-air hd antenna that is clamped to the same bracket as the dish and it is barely noticeable. At first I didn't think much of it, but it was free, so I didn't turn it down.

I just counted 20 off-air digital channels that I can pick up in the Washington DC area with this antenna. Granted that some of those are dedicated to stuff like Doppler weather maps (each network has a second digital channel just for weather, traffic, etc.). My point is that a good antenna is a must.

I did try one of those indoor amplified antennas for my other TV and I was only able to pickup a couple of channels.

Unfortunately, I don't see that Directv offers that antenna anymore. But, if you want to get one, I found out that it is a Winegard GS series "batwing" like the one shown here .

Before you spend the money on DirecTV I've got a couple of suggestions. Go to www.antennaweb.org and get a listing of all of the available channels, their locations, and distances from your father's house. Find out what size antenna you will need to get the signals, also in the station table.

I have an ChannelMaster UHF antenna in my attic in Washington, DC, and it does very well, except when traffic at National Airport is high and the flight path for landing is from the North. That is because the planes pass between me and most of the transmitters.

Most of the DTV signals are on UHF and you should concentrate on getting a UHF antenna. Using the table from antennaweb, try to point the antenna so that the bulk of the available signals are within 45 degrees of center. If you have signals all around the compass you may need a rotor or 2 antennas pointed in different directions. But the website gives you lots of good information about how to do this and what to look for in an antenna.