Digital B&W TV
Last Friday afternoon, after hearing more than I ever wanted to about why the DTV transition should be delayed, converter boxes and coupons, I was packing up to enjoy my first week after returning from International CES and looked again at the box collecting dust in my office.
Tony Monteleone, one of TWICE’s top-flight advertising account execs, dropped off to my office a box from Antennas Direct with a C1-Clearstream antenna in it last fall when were in the middle of CES planning and all the news of the fourth quarter.
I put the box under my arm, and walking downtown I paid around $60 and change in cash for a Zenith DTV converter box at P.C. Richard & Son on East 14th Street in Manhattan before taking the subway home to Brooklyn. (Last Monday executive editor Greg Tarr reprimanded me for not using the $40 U.S. coupon. Due to people like me, the stats about how many households are DTV ready are not accurate. Oh well.)
That night I dug out of a closet a 5-year-old analog TV. It hasn’t been working properly, and when I brought it in for service Saturday morning I was told it was really too expensive to fix.
So I went home and decided to put up the antenna anyway and connect the DTV converter box to the HD LCD I have in the den. Since the roof of the house was icy, I attached the antenna to a pole on our second floor patio. The patio faces Manhattan, and while I can’t directly see the Empire State Building from there, it is around 3 or 4 miles away, so figured the signal would be strong enough to reach me.
Since I have enough coax cable and connectors from old CE equipment and press conferences over the years at home to stretch from Brooklyn to Cleveland, cable length wasn’t going to be a problem.
After a first connection and test that didn’t work (because I thought I didn’t need to read directions) the Zenith converter box powered up, the Antennas Direct antenna got the signal, and I saw my first over-the-air DTV programming in my home.
I saw some multicasts that day, foreign-language broadcasts I didn’t know existed, as well as some full HD programs, which looked great.
Then I remembered we had one more analog TV at home: an Optimus 5-inch black-and-white TV that I bought for the kitchen and backyard, which was made in January 1999 if the tag on the back was correct.
I always thought that it would be a museum piece by Feb. 17 (or whenever the new deadline is) because all it had on the back was A/V plug connections and a pinhole that said “ext. ant.” on the back.
I looked through all my cable connectors for an adapter. No luck. So I took the Optimus back to its old home at Radio Shack and I found what the chain called an “F to 1.8 adapter.” It was the last one they had and fit perfectly.
I’m sure that technicians and designers at Zenith, other members of the “Grand Alliance” and all the engineers involved in developing HDTV and digital TV never thought anyone would get excited about watching DTV via a decade-old 5-inch black-and-white TV (controlled by the converter box’s remote no less) but this consumer was.
The only problem with either set is that I couldn’t get our local PBS station, channel 13. I guess that’s this weekend’s project.
ScotsmansKilt commented:
ScotsmansKilt commented:
You're not alone in being unable to receive an OTA signal from New
York City's PBS flagship WNET Thirteen. After installing a roof
antenna and rotator, I could pull in stations from 3 different
states, but no Channel 13. Only then did I discover this
explanation on the station's website: "This is due to the
reduced-power transmitter Thirteen has been using since the
destruction of the World Trade Center." Come February 17th, the
station's site promises, "Thirteen will switch to a high-power DTV
transmitter that will reach everyone in the viewing area."
ScotsmansKilt commented:
You're not alone in being unable to receive an OTA signal from New
York City's PBS flagship WNET Thirteen. After installing a roof
antenna and rotator, I could pull in stations from 3 different
states, but no Channel 13. Only then did I discover this
explanation on the station's website: "This is due to the
reduced-power transmitter Thirteen has been using since the
destruction of the World Trade Center." Come February 17th, the
station's site promises, "Thirteen will switch to a high-power DTV
transmitter that will reach everyone in the viewing area."
Steve Smith commented:
Cameraman55401: I did try a couple of years ago with an indoor
antenna and another converter box and it didn't work. (Could have
been me or the equipment.) I could have attached that converter box
to my old rooftop antenna but... it was still pointed towards where
the World Trade Center used to be. It still is. I just didn't want
to go there.
Steve Smith commented:
Cameraman55401: I did try a couple of years ago with an indoor
antenna and another converter box and it didn't work. (Could have
been me or the equipment.) I could have attached that converter box
to my old rooftop antenna but... it was still pointed towards where
the World Trade Center used to be. It still is. I just didn't want
to go there.
Steve Smith commented:
Cameraman55401 commented:
So, you write for a consumer electronics publication, live in NY
(where they've been broadcasting DTV for about 10 years) and you've
never tried picking up OTA DTV?
Cameraman55401 commented:
So, you write for a consumer electronics publication, live in NY
(where they've been broadcasting DTV for about 10 years) and you've
never tried picking up OTA DTV?
Cameraman55401 commented:
reader commented:
We have been watching OTA digital HD broadcast from our home via
rabbit ears through our Sharp Aquos for 2 years and loved the
picture, etc.
reader commented:
reader commented:
We have been watching OTA digital HD broadcast from our home via
rabbit ears through our Sharp Aquos for 2 years and loved the
picture, etc.
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