sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information digital converter box

Hey Guys-
Hoping someone can help me out...my uncle does not have cable so he purchased a digital converter box. I went to hook it up last night with poor results.
His apartment building has its own roof antenna, and he has a set of rabbit ears. I tried both antennas and they could only pick up a few channels. Removing the box and connecting the TV directly to the building channel resulted in all of the usual channels coming in. He has tried unsuccessfully several times to get this to work. I'm not sure if the problem is with the box or the antenna or maybe even the TV. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I had the same problem in my house. I don't have cable or dish. I bought a new antenna and got very poor results with the converter box. So I went on-line and found these instructions to make your own antenna!:

https://www.mythpvr.com/mythtv/hdtv/antenna.html

It took me about 2 hours to make and voila! This antenna works very well and it's a very clear picture. The only issue is I don't get PBS (Ch 13).

I've already been through two defective cable boxes. And when they worked, I only got a few channels, but I do get all the analog channels on my old set without the box.

I think the converter boxes suck.

Sam

My neighbor built one of those from the video. It works superbly!

Jeff, save both yourself and your uncle a lot of aggravation and tell your uncle he needs to get basic cable. The days of free TV are over.

-Hal

Hal, I wish it were that easy. He is retired and lives on a fixed income, and with the way cable goes up every month, he can't afford it.

over here in LA I get 58 digital stations, all the locals are in HD, the other UHF channel are all coming in at 480
CBS 2-01
NBC has 3 channel, with 4-03 all off the wall sports
ABC has 3 channels
CW & Fox
Some of the PBS channel are in HD
AND these are all free OTa

SO NO there is plenty of free channels

SO YES there is FREE TV still

the only problem i had was with the converter box did not pass thru the HD, so i purchased 1 new 1080P TV

So what are you saying? Can I get those channels here? Can Jeff get them too? I have to laugh at the people who say what's the problem, I get lots of channels. Yeah, YOU might, but that doesn't mean squat to people living somewhere else who probably will only be able to get an NBC a PBS and a few in Spanish.

That's where the problem is, nobody will have off-air reception as reliable as what it was.

-Hal

Hal, I wish it were that easy. He is retired and lives on a fixed income, and with the way cable goes up every month, he can't afford it.

I know Jeff but there is always a way. Back when I was doing cable and antenna work I had a coop complex that was LOADED with your "uncles". Cable had been around for a long time yet I was still maintaining their MATV system, matter of fact they were my only customer for that work. All I ever heard was how they could never afford cable.

Well, at some point I dumped them because I really wasn't in that business any more and servicing them was more trouble than it was worth. I can tell you that there wasn't anybody else like me left either to take over. And guess what? I rode past there awhile after that and gee, my antennas were gone! What a surprise! All it took was their TVs going to snow for a few days and they magically all got cable.

Jeff, check with your cable company. Most have a limited "broadcast basic" package for people like this. Tell him he just might enjoy the additional channels that he never had too.

This is what Cablevision offers here for less than $18/mo.


-Hal