tommiwan Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Thought I would see what help I can get on this subject. I have an HDTV monitor, and I recieve HDTV through my cable company who provides me with the HD reciever. My Father in law has a Sony TV similar to mine, but his has a built in HD reciever. they do not get cable so he is trying to get HD programming OTA (over the air). The thing is, I know what HD looks like, and he is definitely not getting HD. I don't have any experience with TV's that have built in HD recievers, but I have looked through the menu and do not see any special settings, so my question is, what else has to be done for a tv to recieve HDTV OTA? Am I missing any equipment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCOOTERDOG Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Make sure his TV is not HD Ready. This something manufactures do and many people think this means its HD. If it does have an HD Tuner he would need to have a HD antenna (UHF) to recieve the OTA HD. Most decent UHF Antennas will work fine and you can get away a lot cheaper then buying the so called HD Antenna. Good Luck! Scooter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Tom, From my understanding, TV stations are only offering HD to cable subsribers. The Law which forces the networks to offer HD signals to everyone doesn't go into effect until Feb 2007. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill H. Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Tom, this article will help some........ good luck. http://www.hdtvpub.com/reception/programming.cfm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ygmn Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 I get HD OTA using my DirecTV hughes receiver....it finds them....lets me decide which I want to include in menu... and then tells me what is going to be on....in the guide... Not all programming is HD even on a OTA Hd channel.... so they will not fill the screen but are a basic broadcast... for example...local news is not HD...but is aired over HD Signal... Try DirecTV as it has HD channels with subscriptions..and will receive OTA HD channels in your area.. also check out this website to see what channels are in your area of the USA.. http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Welcome.aspx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommiwan Posted December 9, 2005 Author Share Posted December 9, 2005 The particular tv that he has is not just HD ready, but has the HD reciever built in. Thanks for the suggestion Scooter My understanding of it is that he can recieve certain channels over the air, and channels like NBC broadcast HD over the air, so his tv should be able to recieve it without help from the local cable company. The only thing that I can think of is, maybe he needs an antenna to. From looking at this antennaweb website it looks like that may be what he needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Tom, ...TV stations are only offering HD to cable subsribers... B.S. I've been getting HD OTA for years. So has most of the rest of the U.S.A. Any regular programming the big 6 networks feed to the cable providers in HD is available OTA in HD. It is possible that some local broadcasters chose not to broadcast some or all HD programs in HD. But this is fairly rare. However, in some cases, local DTV programming, SD or HD, is not available to the cable providers. FWIW not all DTV programs are in HD. Many primetime and sports programs are. The local PBS affiliate runs 4 SD subchannels during the day and switches to 1 HD and 1 SD subchannel in the evening. The only reason I can think of that you may not be seeing HD when you display OTA HD signals is you have your gear set up to down convert. If you are getting a picture and sound with no dropouts, freezing or pixilation, you have an adequate signal. It is also possible that the TV doesn't make the best use of the available data. Apparently, many of the HDTVs out there basically throw away half of the resolution. There is a thread on this over at the AVS Forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommiwan Posted December 9, 2005 Author Share Posted December 9, 2005 Thanks for the replies. I agree that I should be able to get HDTV withOUT a cable provider (thus the reason it is called OTA). I will triple check the tv settings, but I didn't see anythat applied to HD signal. If anyone has any other info let me know, it may help out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickB Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 If you have a built in HD tuner in your TV, all you need is an antenna to get OTA HD, provided that the stations you get are in HD. In my area I get 2 ABC ch. in HD, 2 NBC ch. in HD, 3 CBS ch. 2 are in HD and 1 is in digital but not HD, 2 FOX ch. 1 in HD, and 1 analog only, and 1 WB ,1 UPN, and 2 PBS ch. all in HD. When you first set up your TV you will probably need to do some kind of channel search for your digital channels. But remember even on the channels that can broadcast in HD, every program isn't in HD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddvj Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 Tom, From my understanding, TV stations are only offering HD to cable subsribers. The Law which forces the networks to offer HD signals to everyone doesn't go into effect until Feb 2007. Wrong! What cave have you been living in? Way to spread misinformation. [:@] Anyway, check to see if there is more than one Antenna Input. Mitsubishi TVs used to have a seperate HDTV Antenna In. You had to actually switch inputs to watch the HD stations. I doubt the Sony is like that, but it's worth it to check. A Big Thing you need to know is that the digital channels are carried on a different channel than the analog. For example in Minneapolis/St. Paul, where I live, channel 4, CBS, is carried on Channel 32-1, Channel 5, ABC, is on 50-1, Channel 11, NBC, is on 35-1, etc. Do a channel search, and scan through all the channels that the Tuner picked up. The digital channels will have a sub-channel # (like the -1's above.) Usually the TV station will broadcast along with the signal, some information, which will "re-map" the channels to the appropriate location. In other words, in my examples above my channels come up as 4-1, 5-1, and 11-1. The only thing is that you will maybe have to tune them in manually the first time. After that, the TV should tune them automatically. So, when channel-surfing, you will go to channel 4, then 4-1, then 5, then 5-1... If you have stations available in your area, you will definitely find something, even with a weak antenna. Then you can start Tweaking to try and get a better signal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audio Flynn Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 Tom, From my understanding, TV stations are only offering HD to cable subsribers. The Law which forces the networks to offer HD signals to everyone doesn't go into effect until Feb 2007. Wrong! What cave have you been living in? Way to spread misinformation. [:@] Anyway, check to see if there is more than one Antenna Input. Mitsubishi TVs used to have a seperate HDTV Antenna In. You had to actually switch inputs to watch the HD stations. I doubt the Sony is like that, but it's worth it to check. A Big Thing you need to know is that the digital channels are carried on a different channel than the analog. For example in Minneapolis/St. Paul, where I live, channel 4, CBS, is carried on Channel 32-1, Channel 5, ABC, is on 50-1, Channel 11, NBC, is on 35-1, etc. Do a channel search, and scan through all the channels that the Tuner picked up. The digital channels will have a sub-channel # (like the -1's above.) Usually the TV station will broadcast along with the signal, some information, which will "re-map" the channels to the appropriate location. In other words, in my examples above my channels come up as 4-1, 5-1, and 11-1. The only thing is that you will maybe have to tune them in manually the first time. After that, the TV should tune them automatically. So, when channel-surfing, you will go to channel 4, then 4-1, then 5, then 5-1... If you have stations available in your area, you will definitely find something, even with a weak antenna. Then you can start Tweaking to try and get a better signal. Pretty much this is what I do with my DISH Network terrestrial HD tuner. I have the Sony HD tuner but the DISH one works so well I have not tried it. Antena placement in some areas needs to be tweaked in a bit. I use a Terk outdoor. Detroit Pistons home games are broadcast in HD locally this year, very nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.