Can I use analogue Antenna 2 receive digital TV signals ?

[fynnashba@yahoo.com]

Please I need a clarification on this.
Can an analogue tv antenna be used to receive digital Tv
programs ? Will the digital TV transmit on the same frequencies as
the analogue counterpart ? ie those VHF and UHF frequencies.
Thanks.

 

[Andrew Rossmann]

[This followup was posted to sci.electronics.repair and a copy was sent
to the cited author.]

In article <fce5fd29-21a7-40f6-ad93-877bc7a50df2
@y9g2000yqg.googlegroups.com>, fynnashba@yahoo.com says...

Can an analogue tv antenna be used to receive digital Tv
programs ? Will the digital TV transmit on the same frequencies as
the analogue counterpart ? ie those VHF and UHF frequencies.

Yes. It's the same frequencies. The range used is smaller than before.
Most wlil be in the area that used to be channels 7-50. 50+ are being
sold off for other uses.

That said, strength and a clean signal are more important for digtal
than analog. If your signal is grainy or has ghosting on analog, you may
have problems with digital. With digital a poor signal will result in
heavy pixelation or no picture at all.

Check out:
http://www.antennaweb.org

--
If there is a no_junk in my address, please REMOVE it before replying!
All junk mail senders will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the
law!!
http://home.att.net/~andyross

 

[Arfa Daily]

<fynnashba@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:fce5fd29-21a7-40f6-ad93-877bc7a50df2@y9g2000yqg.googlegroups.com...

Please I need a clarification on this.
Can an analogue tv antenna be used to receive digital Tv
programs ? Will the digital TV transmit on the same frequencies as
the analogue counterpart ? ie those VHF and UHF frequencies.
Thanks.

In the UK, at least, it depends a lot on where in the band the multiplexes
you are receiving, lie with respect to one another. Where I live, for
instance, multiplexes are spread from one end of the UHF band to the other,
whereas previously, all of the analogue channels that I could receive, were
confined to the bottom of the UHF band, so I had a 'channelised' group A
antenna. In order to receive all of the digital programs, I had to replace
this antenna with a 'wideband' type, as the group A antenna was just not
responsive enough up at the group C/D frequencies. Overall, this wideband
antenna does not have as much gain as my group A did, but the gain curve
that it does have, is much flatter over the whole band. I guess this
situation will depend where in the world you are, and what channels /
frequencies the broadcasters have available to them, but if the digital
channels that you intend to use are in the same section of the band as your
analogue ones, your analogue antenna should work just fine.

Caveats. The digital signals tend to be broadcast at lower power levels than
the analogue ones, so if your analogue signal is at all marginal, digital
may not work at all well, with frequent freezing and pixellation of the
picture. Second, the signals are not quite as robust as they would have you
believe, and are actually quite badly affected in some instances by
multipath - 'ghosting', so if you have any of that with your existing
analogue, again it might cause you problems with digital. Note though that
all of my experience with this, is based on UK digital vs analogue
terrestrial services, and may not reflect the situation in other parts of
the world using different bands and encoding systems.

Arfa

 

[David]

US stations were assigned temporary UHF channels during
the conversion
process, some are staying on them, some are going back to
their old channels.
Any station that was on channel 2-6 will move as they are
dropping them,
the same with any station over channel 50.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com
N3OWJ/4X1GM

The post-transition broadcast frequencies are 2-6; 7-13;
14-51. The low VHF band is still available as well as UHF
51.
There are not many stations on 2-6, but some in rural areas
opted for low VHF because of greater signal range at lower
transmit powers.

David

 

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

Arfa Daily wrote:

Caveats. The digital signals tend to be broadcast at lower power levels than
the analogue ones, so if your analogue signal is at all marginal, digital
may not work at all well, with frequent freezing and pixellation of the
picture. Second, the signals are not quite as robust as they would have you
believe, and are actually quite badly affected in some instances by
multipath - 'ghosting', so if you have any of that with your existing
analogue, again it might cause you problems with digital. Note though that
all of my experience with this, is based on UK digital vs analogue
terrestrial services, and may not reflect the situation in other parts of
the world using different bands and encoding systems.

In less technical English, digital either works or it doesn't. If the signal is
received is clean enough and strong enough, your tv set will be able to decode
it. If it is not, you won't. If you are just at the spot where it is almost
strong enough, or there is almost too much noise or reflections, it will
drop out, pixelate (a form of dropping out), etc. but that's generally rare.

Analog TV has a long way to go from perfect to unwatchable, so you what you
see as minor ghosting or a little noise in the picture, may be too much for
the digital signal to work.

As far as transmitter location, in the US, TV stations are not moving their
transmitter sites, although many are (or already have) changed their antennas.
If you needed several antennas in different directions, you probably will
still need different ones in different directions.

US stations were assigned temporary UHF channels during the conversion
process, some are staying on them, some are going back to their old channels.
Any station that was on channel 2-6 will move as they are dropping them,
the same with any station over channel 50.

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm@mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM

 

[Arfa Daily]

"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm@mendelson.com> wrote in message
news:slrnh1j2f0.m89.gsm@cable.mendelson.com...

Arfa Daily wrote:

Caveats. The digital signals tend to be broadcast at lower power levels
than
the analogue ones, so if your analogue signal is at all marginal, digital
may not work at all well, with frequent freezing and pixellation of the
picture. Second, the signals are not quite as robust as they would have
you
believe, and are actually quite badly affected in some instances by
multipath - 'ghosting', so if you have any of that with your existing
analogue, again it might cause you problems with digital. Note though
that
all of my experience with this, is based on UK digital vs analogue
terrestrial services, and may not reflect the situation in other parts of
the world using different bands and encoding systems.

In less technical English, digital either works or it doesn't. If the
signal is
received is clean enough and strong enough, your tv set will be able to
decode
it. If it is not, you won't. If you are just at the spot where it is
almost
strong enough, or there is almost too much noise or reflections, it will
drop out, pixelate (a form of dropping out), etc. but that's generally
rare.


Analog TV has a long way to go from perfect to unwatchable, so you what
you
see as minor ghosting or a little noise in the picture, may be too much
for
the digital signal to work.

To be honest, I think that's pretty much what I said, only in rather better
English. As I said, my experience is based on the situation in the UK, where
DTV is confined specifically to the UHF band - at the moment all the way
from channel 21 to 68. Problems with reception here are not at all rare,
when people try to use their existing analogue antennas, which are pretty
much always 'grouped' types. In fact, it has been rather a bone of
contention that it was originally 'sold' to the poor ususpecting public, as
all that you needed to do was glue a STB or a 'Digital TV' on the end of
your existing antenna, to enjoy hundreds of TV and radio stations in
stunning digital clarity ...

Ha! say I ... A hundred and fifty quid later for your shiny new toast rack
on the roof ...

Arfa

 

[b]

On 25 mayo, 03:23, "Arfa Daily" <arfa.da...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
it was originally 'sold' to the poor ususpecting public, as

all that you needed to do was glue a STB or a 'Digital TV' on the end of
your existing antenna, to enjoy hundreds of TV and radio stations in
stunning digital clarity ...

Ha! say I ... A hundred and fifty quid later for your shiny new toast rack
on the roof ...

Arfa

Lots of sharks around. Whilst I don't agree with everything, I think
they make a few good points on here:

http://www.paras.org.uk/

-B

 

[GregS]

In article <eJdSl.24083$wz2.20498@newsfe30.ams2>, "Arfa Daily" <arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

fynnashba@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:fce5fd29-21a7-40f6-ad93-877bc7a50df2@y9g2000yqg.googlegroups.com...

Please I need a clarification on this.
Can an analogue tv antenna be used to receive digital Tv
programs ? Will the digital TV transmit on the same frequencies as
the analogue counterpart ? ie those VHF and UHF frequencies.
Thanks.

In the UK, at least, it depends a lot on where in the band the multiplexes
you are receiving, lie with respect to one another. Where I live, for
instance, multiplexes are spread from one end of the UHF band to the other,
whereas previously, all of the analogue channels that I could receive, were
confined to the bottom of the UHF band, so I had a 'channelised' group A
antenna. In order to receive all of the digital programs, I had to replace
this antenna with a 'wideband' type, as the group A antenna was just not
responsive enough up at the group C/D frequencies. Overall, this wideband
antenna does not have as much gain as my group A did, but the gain curve
that it does have, is much flatter over the whole band. I guess this
situation will depend where in the world you are, and what channels /
frequencies the broadcasters have available to them, but if the digital
channels that you intend to use are in the same section of the band as your
analogue ones, your analogue antenna should work just fine.

Caveats. The digital signals tend to be broadcast at lower power levels than
the analogue ones, so if your analogue signal is at all marginal, digital
may not work at all well, with frequent freezing and pixellation of the
picture. Second, the signals are not quite as robust as they would have you
believe, and are actually quite badly affected in some instances by
multipath - 'ghosting', so if you have any of that with your existing
analogue, again it might cause you problems with digital. Note though that
all of my experience with this, is based on UK digital vs analogue
terrestrial services, and may not reflect the situation in other parts of
the world using different bands and encoding systems.

Arfa

With small indoor antennas the digital channels are much better than the low
analog channels. I never saw the digital channels as being good, other than HDTV.
Good old time analog is much better than the new digital TV. There is probably
no old time analog being broadcast since all the video is digitally compressed
now anyway. I enjoy watching the HDTV all though its anoying to still
see some small screen formats and some of the local news feeds use
high compression with digital artifacts.

greg

 

[JB]

"GregS" <zekfrivo@zekfrivolous.com> wrote in message
news:gvjgqk$5a3$3@usenet01.srv.cis.pitt.edu...

In article <eJdSl.24083$wz2.20498@newsfe30.ams2>, "Arfa Daily"
arfa.daily@ntlworld.com> wrote:

fynnashba@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:fce5fd29-21a7-40f6-ad93-877bc7a50df2@y9g2000yqg.googlegroups.com...

Please I need a clarification on this.
Can an analogue tv antenna be used to receive digital Tv
programs ? Will the digital TV transmit on the same frequencies as
the analogue counterpart ? ie those VHF and UHF frequencies.
Thanks.

In the UK, at least, it depends a lot on where in the band the
multiplexes
you are receiving, lie with respect to one another. Where I live, for
instance, multiplexes are spread from one end of the UHF band to the
other,
whereas previously, all of the analogue channels that I could receive,
were
confined to the bottom of the UHF band, so I had a 'channelised' group A
antenna. In order to receive all of the digital programs, I had to
replace
this antenna with a 'wideband' type, as the group A antenna was just not
responsive enough up at the group C/D frequencies. Overall, this wideband
antenna does not have as much gain as my group A did, but the gain curve
that it does have, is much flatter over the whole band. I guess this
situation will depend where in the world you are, and what channels /
frequencies the broadcasters have available to them, but if the digital
channels that you intend to use are in the same section of the band as
your
analogue ones, your analogue antenna should work just fine.

Caveats. The digital signals tend to be broadcast at lower power levels
than
the analogue ones, so if your analogue signal is at all marginal, digital
may not work at all well, with frequent freezing and pixellation of the
picture. Second, the signals are not quite as robust as they would have
you
believe, and are actually quite badly affected in some instances by
multipath - 'ghosting', so if you have any of that with your existing
analogue, again it might cause you problems with digital. Note though
that
all of my experience with this, is based on UK digital vs analogue
terrestrial services, and may not reflect the situation in other parts of
the world using different bands and encoding systems.

Arfa

With small indoor antennas the digital channels are much better than the
low
analog channels. I never saw the digital channels as being good, other
than HDTV.
Good old time analog is much better than the new digital TV. There is
probably
no old time analog being broadcast since all the video is digitally
compressed
now anyway. I enjoy watching the HDTV all though its anoying to still
see some small screen formats and some of the local news feeds use
high compression with digital artifacts.

greg

This is my beef too. A few HD programs and a lot of 480 compressed or
converted material. I can just as well go to "Tubes" on-line. At least I
can skip through the spam.