Dottie in Greensboro writes:
I use rabbit ears on my TV’s and can get regular channels, but when i purchased two digital boxes with my coupons, I didn’t receive any signals at all. What’s going on?
I’m pretty sure the problem here is that your rabbit ear antenna is not able to pull in enough signal to display a digital picture. In Greensboro you’re a good ways from our transmitter in Baltimore, so I’m going to guess that with those rabbit ears you were able to see Baltimore stations before, but that the picture wasn’t always the best. The nature of digital TV is that viewers who used to receive a blurry or “static-y” picture may need to upgrade their antennas or they may not be able to see the new digital signals.
A few things to try first:
- Double-check that everything is wired correctly. Antenna into the DTV box’s antenna IN plug, and the box into the TV on the same plug where you used to plug the antenna. TV tuned to channel 3 (but try 4 too).
- Be sure you’ve auto-scanned to program your local channels. This is different on each company’s box, but a look through the on-screen menu should turn up an option like “auto-scan” or “auto-program.” This’ll take a few minutes as the box scans all available channels for signals.
If this doesn’t work, you should consider a larger antenna. The site antennaweb.org is a good place to determine what you’ll need.
So far, digital TV is not an improvement for people like me who live on “the fringe”. I live in a small valley in New Windsor and get good analog tv reception with a signal booster . However, after trying to use a converter box I didn’t receive any stations, at all….When February arrives I am going to be watching more DVDs and a lot less TV. All of my neighbors have satellite, but I just can’t bring myself to pay to watch TV that I am now getting for free. Sure, the digital is better visually, if you can get it. It’s a shame that many people like me will have no option but to pay for TV or just turn it off in a few months. I bet Comcast loves the digital transition. I wonder who else is making money from this while many ordinary people lose again? If anyone knows where to get a “coupon” for a new antenna or satellite please let me know..
I have a small rabbit ears connected to my 42 inch plasma. I ordinarily get two regular channels (25 miles away) and one channel a bit weaker (50 miles away). I hooked up my new converter box from WalMart (the one with the discount coupon from the government).
I now get all the above channels crystal clear, but also the digital sub channels for each,3 for each channel also crystal clear.
We live out in the woods, in the Florida Panhandle, so these new clearer pictures are both remarkable and welcome.