Readers give me an earful on digi-TV issuesYour Tech Weblog

Hoo-boy. When I asked local antenna-TV users how they were coping with the digital-television transition, I got an earful.

These are all people with whom I’ve corresponded in the past about antennas, digital-converter boxes for old analog TVs, and the like.

The question I posed: Are you getting all your channels via over-the-air DTV since the June 12 transition occurred?

Many said they were having no problems. Many others said they were having issues.

Here’s a Pioneer Press article that quotes some viewers, but I had more material than I could use for the story. Here’s some of those extra e-mails:

Penny: No I'm not and I'm really annoyed. I live in Cathedral Hill if that makes a difference. I bought a new TV, I bought a new antenna that needs to be plugged in. I followed your sage instructions to add a longer cable. Yet when I get the "No Signal" display for a station that I could get perfectly the night before, I'm doing the antenna dance around my condo to find stations. Reception seems to correlate to the weather conditions (really bad with rain).  As you mentioned, it's not unusual to be watching a show and the pixelation comes out of nowhere and then it's time to wave the antenna around searching (hoping) for a signal. My neighbor across the hall has the same complaints.

Tom: No, it is very strange, one day cannot get channel 5, the next day channel 5 comes in but I have lost channel 9 and 11.  We are about 70 miles from the metro area. Have not gotten all channels yet, will be hooking up an amplifier to see if that helps.

Jim: We have Direct TV at home, but I like the option of having over the air in case of storms or other instances. I just have a rabbit ear antenna on the TV but it still "pixelates" most of the time. I am going to have to invest in an outdoor antenna to get better reception.

Sharon: My husband and I both read your great article this morning and found it very interesting due to the DTV situation we are presently encountering. We own a resort in Wisconsin and have been virtually "tv free" since June 13th.  Hard to try and explain to our guests why they have very limited reception if any.  Some cabins can get a channel or two and some can't. Our home can get channels 9 and 11 but do lose signal more often than we want. Before June 12 switch over we were able to get channels 2, 4, 5, 9, and 11 without any problems in our cabins and main house whether they have a VHF antenna or VHF/UHF antenna. On our home we have a 30 foot antenna with a rotor on it and have never had problems with reception prior to the 13th. The morning of June 13 we installed 6 converter boxes in the 6 cabins and the best we could do is getting channels 9 and 11 in some cabins and also get the "NO SIGNAL" black screen.  Our house we get channels 9 and 11 and also get the "NO SIGNAL". We have contacted the FCC twice and they tell us our area has either no signal or a weak signal.  Why could we get the signal before on analog and now we can't in digital form??? Tom is in agreement with the gal you related to in your article that said their is a conspiracy with the cable companies. They had to have known before they changed over that there would be areas that would get no signal; they should have been more prepared for this.

Harry: We live in rural Hastings, just northwest of town in Dakota County. I have a large UHF/VHF antenna located inside our attic. All the DTVs and Digital Stream converters work perfectly and receive all 16 digital channels available in our area. The only glitches we have are momentary (1 or 2 second) interruptions of sound (not picture) at random times, usually during news broadcasts from Channel 5.1 and it happens with all our TVs.

John: I am in the Aitkin area. My analog TV is about 7 years old. Prior to June 12, I was using rabbit ears for reception, and could pick up WCCO, KSTP, KMSP and one PBS station. I purchased a DTV conversion box in late May, hooked it to my TV, and took it for a test drive. With the rabbit ears, the only reception I could pick up prior to June 12, was 6 PBS stations. No problem, because it wasn't June 12 yet. June 12, and continuing through June 21....I lost WCCO, KSTP, KMSP, but retained the 6 PBS stations. I purchased one of the square "superior" RCA DTV Antenna's, tried different heights, different directions, etc. etc. Still could only get reception form PBS (Barney and Kermit do look real good).

Tom: I have trouble with channel 5 and have taken to rescanning the channels about twice a day. We get some stations better during the day (including channel 5) and some not at all at night (including Channel 5). I did reposition the antenna, but am not doing some research on how to "aim" the antenna for the best reception at our location. It does seem that we are not able to get some of the stations we used to get. For example, we were able to get some of the Duluth stations on occasion. Not anymore. However the stations we do get are much more clear. It is interesting!

Dave: Ch 2.3 is a pain in the ass; continually have to adjust the Terk antenna.
I don't get any ION channels but that should change when they move to Shoreview. I don't get any low power digital channels but those are all religious so don't care.

Sally: I'll tell you what I say to anyone else who asks how we like digital TV. It's great...when we receive it. We live in the country near Barron, Wisconsin, about 80 miles from the Twin Cities. We "receive" channels 2, 4, 5, 9, 11, 15, 23, 45 and various subchannels from Mpls./St. Paul and 13, 18, 28, 48 and various sub channels from Wisconsin stations. I wrote receive in quotes as reception is intermittent on most of them, often receiving signals versus not receiving; but still not at all a sure thing. We have 2 converters, a Digital Stream and a Zenith DTT901, and a digital TV. The digital quality is about the same for all three. We also have Direct TV for our main analog TV.  For each converter we paid $20 over the converter box coupons and $400 for an antenna/installation. Luckily we already had an antenna tower and a rotor. We have to use the rotor often to try to zero in on the digital signal. Since we've spent $440 to try to receive digital transmissions, I would not call it "Free DTV." So all in all as a rural customer, I am not a huge fan of digital TV.

Pete: I get all the channels, pretty much all the time. But I never know when they are going to drop out (usually some weather condition). Right now 2 & 4 are giving me the most problems (were some of the best analog channels). One day channel 4 was not coming in at all. This DTV stuff is pretty pitiful. I just asked my family if they noticed any other channels dropping out and they said 5 & 9 do it also. The above is using a Magnavox TV below.  We also have a Zenith DTT901 converter box which has a better tuner but pretty much just use that for recording with our DVR. I also am using a different amplifier, a Pico Macom TA-25, that seems to be a bit better than the one mentioned below. So to sum it up I am disappointed at best.

Lois: The TV which is not hooked into cable and which has a converter box and antenna now in place does receive more channels than previously. Four flavors of hmm...TPT I think it is, for example. However, the thing needs to be retuned nearly every time a different channel is selected -- thus reports its user, my adult daughter. She has tried aiming the antenna toward Shoreview, which is where we understand most of the signals are originating. Things are both quite good and fairly abysmal, simultaneously, depending on the channel, within a single viewing session. Rescanning has been done, repeatedly.

George: I'm still having a problem picking up all Channels. Channel 9 I couldn't get at all then I kept scanning the channels then 9 came in. Channels 45 & 2-3 come & go,  they have the square boxes & bad sound. Other times they come right in.

Bill: It's very erratic: I still have only rabbit ears, and the dropouts are so severe that some channels are unusable. I'll put up an outdoor antenna this summer, but even with a rooftop antenna, I don't think DTV will be as reliable as the old analog system. DTV is clearly made for cable or satellite, NOT over-the-air transmission.

Cindy: Some things have changed since I first emailed you. I work in White Bear Lake and right after the switch talked to people in town who also could not get channel 9 even Monday morning. However by Monday evening we are getting excellent channel 9, it also give a high meter reading. My mother in law who also could not get it is also getting it very well- did they tweek it somehow?  I also checked channel 11 that evening and was getting a good signal. However since then channel 11 has gone way downhill. On the converter meter now it only registers around 20, and breaks up.  I went to rescan my brother in law's converter tonight, he is getting all the channels well (including 9) but cannot get anything at all on 11 , meter shows under 20 reading also.  He also got 11 fine before last week, he lives just northeast of Somerset. The problem out here seems to be with 11 now.