allah.ollah

HTNut

I've yet to find any fixes for people asking about building a antenna to stand up to high winds. I can see some of the flat type antennas like the Antennas Direct DB8 being a huge pain in the rear for wind resistance.

DTVuser2009

Those who live in areas exceeding the mileage of DTV i have this idea. if you have to point an antenna but cannot get a good enough signal, this trick which works to get up to a few miles range of a Wi-Fi internet signal may work to help boost the signal of a directional antenna. it's called a 'parabolic' antenna, a lot like a satellite dish, but instead of pointing to a satellite in the sky, you point in direction of the transmitter (see TVFool) and it focuses the signal towards it and can gain tons more mileage from the antenna setup, thus increasing DTV reception. you can either use an old discarded satellite dish, sans LNBFs, and use your antenna where the LNBFs used to mount. that way the dish focuses the antenna's reception a great distance more than a normal antenna itself. it got me a 1 mile range from a Wi-Fi hotspot in the past when i would have less than 30 feet range before. i just used a potpan lid for the wi-fi but i don't see why the same trick can't help boost DTV reception too.

staticMHZ

if i'm not mistaken somebody on instructables made a tutorial of an off air antenna using an old satellite dish

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divxhacker

Just like the transition from black&white to color, there's bound to be several bumps in the road. Compare current analog color TVs now to the analog TVs back then. There's been tremendous amount of changes.

Sure the quality of the current DTV picture will never make anything worth archiving (only 25 frames a second maximum compared with 60 frames on a VHS VCR, action shots sometimes show pixellations, artifacts, some station's stream converters are too conservative on bandwidth.) Through the years, the quality could improve, the framerate could be improved (currently the signal rate is at 30fps, as opposed to 60fps for NTSC) and interlacing would be dropped to give a sharper full-frame display. That is why I never record anything beyond EP (8-hour playback per DVD) With the interlacing, the video is not worth keeping after all.

I'm anxiously awaiting the next phase in DTV changes.

Orrymain

Yeah, I agree. Technology improves daily, and I imagine that DTV will evolve beyond what it is today, and who knows what the possibilities are for tomorrow. By the way, this forum has been a really valuable resource. My sister happened to come over today and by chance mentioned getting converter boxes. I was able to share with her much of what has been discussed here, so thanks for all the input that is helping newbies like my family to make better decisions about this transition.

HTNut

10,800p resolution in 5 years

So true. Would like to see us advance past 2-D TV. I want a hologram TV in the next 10 years something like Star Trek.

DTVuser2009

I think Star Trek is meant to stay Science Fiction . i don't want to see it become real. i see enough new cars that i cannot figure out how to even start to say that i don't want Star Trek to really exist. too much complications and too many issues. i prefer the simple life of being close to nature and allowing only a modest portion of tech in one's life. i was one of those Techno Geeks a few years back i had a PDA, SmartPhone, two laptops and broadband on the fringe. i wasn't happy. i'd spend more time fixing the gadgets than using them. it wasn't saving me any time, only added more frustration to my life. then i got out and explored nature, animals, and moved to it. my tech now only consists of a small inexpensive netbook and a cheap cell phone only used in emergencies and a couple TVs with converters that i am lucky to watch for a few hours a week. i find that life more relaxing and much more natural to live.