|
Many Off-Air viewers buying a converter box have problems receiving the same stations they did without it. Excluding the possibility of a defective converter box or incorrect installation, there are many more likely reasons why this happens:
1. They have an old antenna or connections that have corroded over the years.
2. They have the wrong antenna (VHF only) for UHF reception where most of the digital broadcast signals are located.
3. They may have received an acceptable analogue picture for years, but a) the broadcast station analog signal was not that powerful in the first place (signal power or distance) producing a little snow and/or b) the old antenna is not powerful enough to receive a strong digital signal to the digital tuner in the converter box. No strong signal, just a blue screen.
4. Many of the TV antenna designs now in use and on the market today have technology roots going back 50 years and may not work well with the digital chip sets in converter boxes.
5. Analog signals passed through trees, digital signals won¡¯t, especially pine trees and will not be decoded by the digital tuner.
6. Their antenna is aimed at the old analog tower location and the digital towers have been relocated or it was aimed wrong all these years, but received a marginal analogue picture.
7. The digital stations may still be broadcasting in low power.
8. If you live less than 5 miles from the station, you might need an attenuator to reduce the signal strength to prevent overloading the tuner, more than 35 miles, you may have to consider an antenna amplifier.
9. They may be dealing with multi-path in urban locations. Multi-path (bounced signals) is caused by buildings, hills and any other hard object in the line-of-sight to the broadcast towers. They cause signals to reach the antenna out of phase. Try re-aiming your antenna.
10. They may have not performed the correct search procedure on their TV to find the digital stations. Many stations have changed channels, mostly to UHF (14-69)
|
