In this year of the mass conversion from analog
broadcasts to digital, cheap little DTV converter boxes, government coupons,
and so on there seems to be an understanding that if you have an
over-the-air antenna you are “low tech” or even obsolete. Why is it that
often the cheapest route is by default the lowest tech way to do anything?
In this article, we explore truths about antennas and what has changed since
most people last thought upgrading their home antenna.
Digital Television Intro
Satellite was the first to introduce digital television
service to us back in the early 90s. The initial claims where superior
quality, large number of programming choices, and a nationwide serving area.
Satellite was so successful that within about six years the two leading
digital satellite companies each had more subscribers than most large cable
companies. Satellite’s huge success with digital television cajoled cable
companies to deploy it as well in the late 90s (just to keep from
hemorrhaging premium video customers). Digital television allows for a
multitude of DVD quality video to be received by residential televisions.
While great in theory, the technology can also be abused to the point where
“quantity” rather than “quality” has prevailed. Today, most satellite and
cable digital television services are only marginally better than advanced
analog services provided by cable. These sacrifices were made to allow
digital video service providers to continue to add programming while at the
same time raising rates. Consumers pay around $70/month for digital cable and
around $40/month for digital satellite services.
About the same time as cable companies began seriously
deploying digital video services across their footprint, the FCC set the
conversion date for the switch from analog broadcast to digital broadcasts
on Feb 17, 2008. This was followed by many of the leading television markets
powering up new digital transmitters which simulcast their analog
transmissions over these new digital broadcasts. By 2000, most major markets
had three or more stations broadcasting in digital services. Interestingly,
most of these initial digital broadcasts where much higher quality then
their digital satellite or cable counterparts and included additional
channels. For example, PBS would broadcast PBS Kids, PBS World, along with
its normal channel. Even today, broadcast digital content holds a
significant quality that you can see (and hear) difference from that of the
equivalent channel re-broadcast by cable or satellite. In the case of HDTV,
the quality difference is even more significant!
Antenna Technology Has Come a Long Way
Over the last 5-10 years, a lot of innovation has gone
into antennas to make them increasingly smaller, powerful, and intelligent.
The latest innovation is called Smart Antenna which is just starting to get
integrated into a growing number of new products from DTV receivers to
digital televisions. There are two types of smart antennas: switched beam
and adaptive array. Switched beam type smart antennas monitor available
fixed beams and then select the optimum beam (direction) based on signal
requirements (which station is being tuned). Adaptive array type smart
antennas operate in a similar way, however rather than selecting among fixed
beams, the adaptive array technology is able to steer the direction of the
antenna to any direction while simultaneously rejecting interfering signals.
The following is a listing of currently available smart antennas and where
you can purchase them:
| Manufacturer: |
Product: |
Range: |
Available From: |
| DX Antenna |
DTA-5000 |
20-30 miles |
SummitSource ($89.95)
SolidSignal |
| RCA |
ANT2000 |
25-35 miles |
Amazon ($72.85) |
Available
Smart Antenna Products and Where to Purchase Them
The FCC digital migration has also redefined the
spectrum that channels will be broadcast: from channels 2-69 to 7-69. While
this may seem like a small change, its impact on reducing the length of
elements required on a traditional rooftop antenna is significant.
Eliminating channels 2-6 removes the longest elements on traditional
antennas and thus reduces the impact of strong winds, ice, and the like from
traditional antennas. As a result much shorter antenna elements are needed
to receive channels 7-69. So, instead of a rooftop antenna having a 110 inch
width, you have an antenna with 53.5 inch width. These shorter elements (26
inch long elements versus 55 inch long elements) are much more durable and
can more easily withstand strong winds and ice storms. The following
represent quality choices in traditional rooftop antennas:
Available
Channel 7-69 Antennas Products and Where to Purchase Them
None of the traditional rooftop antennas offer the
innovative smart antenna feature. However, what they give up in bleeding edge
technology, they make up in intelligently designed surface area that is
optimized to receive as much signal as possible, at greater distances, and
all the while rejecting
interference. These antennas also offer the only reception options available to residents who
live 60 or more miles away from the broadcasting antenna (the also work
extremely well for those much closer to the broadcast antenna). Also, since
digital television doesn’t have the ghosting problem inherent with analog
television, the problem of reception merely becomes a matter of obtaining as
much signal as you can – and letting the ATSC tuner on the television figure out
the rest.
Amplification and Splitting
Similar to the cable company, if you want to use a
single antenna to supply signal to run multiple televisions within your
home, your only option is amplification. Typically, a single good antenna
should adequately supply enough signal to run two devices. Beyond that, you
need to look into distribution amplifiers to ensure that you are not robbing
much needed signal from your living room just to supply signal to your
bedroom. There are three types of amplification:
- Pre-Amplification – Installed near your antenna to
amplify signals at their strongest point – this method introduces the
least amount of interference while permitting a single antenna to drive
2-4 televisions without further amplification (in-line or distribution).
- In-Line Amplification – A single input and single
output amplifier installed prior to your splitters to boost the signal
enough such that significant splitting can be installed.
- Distribution Amplification – A single input and
multiple output amplifier that reduces splitter loss by amplifying
across the split such that signal strength on each of the outputs is nearly the same on
the amplifier’s input.
The following is a listing of currently available amplifiers and where
you can purchase them:
Available
Amplifier Products and Where to Purchase Them
Cost – Benefit Analysis of Over-the-air Antenna
Upgrading an antenna system is not a cheap endeavor and
will probably run you between $200 and $300 for the antenna and the
professional installation. Do-it-yourselfers could buy top of the line
equipment and do it for about half that. Similarly, starting digital cable or digital
satellite, you are going to be looking at spending around $100 to get things
started and depending on how busy installation crews are it could take
between 2-6 weeks before an installation slot is available.
Scheduling a rooftop antenna install could be at least
as challenging given the fact that the number of people who know how to do
this anymore is growing scarce. However, this is the single greatest
challenge in antenna installation. Beyond that, using your new rooftop
antenna involves no commitment, no monthly fee, no equipment rental fees, no taxes or federal charges,
and if something goes wrong, you can call any repair shop for help – you are
not reliant on any one organization to get you back up and running. Best
of all, this price (free) never changes.
What you give up in going all-free is access to
specialty programming. Surely there are a lot of choices out there, and
while they are great – they don’t come free. We offset our 14 free over the air
digital channels we receive from our rooftop antenna with a subscription to
Netflix for high quality Blu-ray movies through the mail and 12,000 titles of video on demand over
our little Roku streaming box. In our minds, all we are really giving up is
watching all those advertisements that have inundated cable and satellite
programming.
Check out these other Birds-Eye.Net papers/products
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