HD antenna + Sat Hi def

[menelfloss]

I will be changing to a single HD tv soon. Currently I have Dish Network and an Antenna for back up in the attic which delivers perfect local channel signal.
I have seen good reviews for the Radio Shack 15-2187 indoor/outdoor antenna. I plan to use it for better reception than Dish for local channels.

My Questions:
1. Can the HD antennas deliver non HD signal to my non HD TV's?

2. If not, must I wire the HD antenna directly and not have it go through the Coax runs in the house that the current analog antenna now uses?

3. Since I live in a city (Minneapolis) with current good OTA reception will the Radio Shack 15-2187 do the trick?

Thanks in advance for any insight and diagrams ideas to integrate the new antenna and HD Dish.

Mike

 

[Peter Parker]

There is no such thing as an HD antenna. What you want is an antenna that can receive signals on the frequencies used in your area. Go to antennaweb.org and follow the instructions.

I know nothing about the antenna you are using now but if it can recive UHF and VHF it is likely to be better than that RS antenna. In fact that si UHF only and you would miss out on any existing anlaog VHF stations.

 

[menelfloss]

Huh,
Thanks for the reply Geronimo
Perhaps I just leave my old antenna alone, and hook it up to see what happens when I get the HD set.
Currently I am running coax from the antenna to the basement and distributed through the house from there. The Coax was bought about 10 years ago. Is that gonna give me pretty good quality if I use my current antenna or a new one?

 

[mastermesh]

In theory, your antenna should be fine. Basically, if you get good over the air reception now, you should have perfect digital reception. The only difference is the picture will be super clear instead of snowy once you go digital... right about dvd quality... or if you do free-to-air stuff, more or less the same quality you get out of fta.

I just bought a digital tv with some Christmas money + a little bit extra and am amazed by the quality. One thing I really like is the ABC channel here used to be super fuzz since it is a little further away than NBC and CBS and PBS towers... Now that it's all digital it's crystal clear, just like the other digital channels. Something also that's very nice is they can fit subchannels in, so now I can get the local Fox Channel since it's a subchannel of ABC and get MyTV since it's a subchannel of the NBC affiliate. I used to never be able to get either of those. Fox is analog too, but it's channel 36, so is darn near impossible to pick up way out in the sticks...

... and on top of that both ABC and NBC have subchannels dedicated to weather 24/7... very nice, very nice indeed.

Now I just have to figure out how the hell to get coax to spit to feed decent analog signal upstairs... at the moment, I've got rabbit ears up there since splitting coax via y branches is losing lots of signal since there's another 100 foot of coax involved, roughly...

but, I think once I get one of those snazzy digital to analog converters for up there, in theory it should all be crystal clear too since there is signal there, just not very strong signal... so in theory, if it's just enough signal that it can be converted to digital, it'll come out all good.

I don't really want to buy a new vcr or stick with having vcr stuck on one channel at a time, so am trying to get my hands on an digital hd pci card to handle the vcr dirty work for me. I bid on an ebay one, but it's got about a week left on it, so will wait and see what happens.