Anybody in Florence/surrounding area using a DTV converter and antenna?

http://tvfool.com/

Type your address into the database and it will tell you what you can get. Bottom line, assuming you are in Florence you are going to need a rooftop antenna.

Although I still have Dish Network, I got the converter box and put up an old antenna I had. Get perfect reception (I already had an 8 bay antenna and an amplifier) and what I get is : channel 19 has 2 different broadcast, regular ch 19 and RTV on the other (really neet old 70s programming) , ch 31 has regular ch 31 stuff, 48 has 3 broad cast and 54 has 2 , as well as 36 has 4 .
If you like CNN or some cable stuff, you better keep whatever you already have, but if mostly what you watch is network stuff, it is really good.

I'm in the Greenhill/Killen area and I get the same as seeweed....I use Dish on the living room tv but have converter boxes for bedrooms and kitchen...they get perfect reception with my antenna. I can always locate something to watch on the bedroom tv sets (antenna).....the reception is JUST as clear as the dish is!

When I lived in eastern Lauderdale, all I got with great reception was 15, but I didn't have a great antenna. Some of my neighbors got everything from H'ville.

quote:

Originally posted by seeweed:
Although I still have Dish Network, I got the converter box and put up an old antenna I had. Get perfect reception (I already had an 8 bay antenna and an amplifier) and what I get is : channel 19 has 2 different broadcast, regular ch 19 and RTV on the other (really neet old 70s programming) , ch 31 has regular ch 31 stuff, 48 has 3 broad cast and 54 has 2 , as well as 36 has 4 .
If you like CNN or some cable stuff, you better keep whatever you already have, but if mostly what you watch is network stuff, it is really good.

I am on Direct TV. I have asked Direct and Whnt to add the other channel (19-2) to the programming. It is sent up on Satellite already so why won't they? Both says to me to contact the other. Nowhere is where i am. Whnt is not holding up to their commitement to the community. If you don't wish to watch Tennis, Basketball or Soccer that is tough. Wish we had another CBS affiliate.

quote:

Originally posted by pineywoodscat:

I am on Direct TV. I have asked Direct and Whnt to add the other channel (19-2) to the programming. It is sent up on Satellite already so why won't they? Both says to me to contact the other. Nowhere is where i am. Whnt is not holding up to their commitement to the community. If you don't wish to watch Tennis, Basketball or Soccer that is tough. Wish we had another CBS affiliate.

It's more than likely a matter of cost and is not a issue of a must-carry station.

It's up to the station to pay for the connection to the satellite companies headend. Since these are located in Colorado (dish) or California (DTV) this can be quite expensive.

The station also can give up must-carry rights and go for retransmission consent which is to request payment from the cable/sat provider for their services. I vaguely remember hearing about either WHNT or WAAY (if not both) requesting payment a few years ago which held up HD transmissions for a couple of months. The digital transition was expensive and to top it off the ad sales market got soft so a lot of television stations are starting to do this (the recent Fox vs. Time Warner Cable is a perfect example as it was more to do with local stations then content.)

reading up on RTV I can kind of see why WHNT may not want to go to the expense as the channels future is kind of shaky. Even if it wasn't it just may not be fiscally feasible right now.

I live very close to to the Red Bay area and for us to be able to pick up any of the Huntsville stations we'd need a big antenna or tower and an amplifier(booster). For now, we've decided to just stay wth Direct TV.

We do have one digital tuner tv in the bedroom with rabbit ears and all it picks up are the three PBS stations and they get old really fast.