On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 03:18:40 -0500, wrote:

I heard that in another year or so we will all be forced to either buy
a HDTV or buy a converter. Having all standard tv sets, and I am
neither able to afford a HDTV, nor am I impressed by their picture, I
am not at all happy about this. I live in the country where the only
means to get tv channels is to either spend half my paycheck on
satellite, or use an antenna on the roof. I chose the antenna, and
most of the time I get fairly good reception on a few local channels.

I suppose I will have no choice but to buy a convertor, but I surely
will make a big fuss about it with whatever governmental agency is
behind this conspiracy to promote the sales of HDTVs and the crappy
broken up and spotty pictures they produce. I sure hope that the
convertor will produce a better picture on a standard tv than that on
the actual hdtvs.

Anyhow, my question is whether I will also have to buy a new rooftop
antenna. My present antenna broke during a windstorm and I
temporarily fixed it with some tubing and ducttape. I was planning to
buy a new antenna when a friend told me that he thinks I will need a
HDTV antenna too, but was not sure if an old antenna would also work.
Does anyone know? Will I be able to use the same rotor or does that
need to be changed too?

If anyone knows what government agency to file a complaint about this
HDTV conspiracy, please let me know. Tv channels have been the same
since the beginning of television, and now we got these republican
morons forcing us to change just so the HDTV companies can rob people
charging them ten or more times the price of a regular tv and giving
them a lousy picture. Just the same story as always these days, pay
more, and get less..... I wonder how much money the republicans are
getting to shove this HDTV **** on us?

James

Nobody has related any real life experiences with watching DTV on a
regularTV so I will.

I live in a rural area where analog TV reception can at best be
classified as awful. Scratchy, staticy, ghosty, fluttery, you name it,
it was in the picture. But I put up with it. Until a few years ago
when I had had enough and I bought a converter box for my TV. Man!
let me tell you. It was like moving the studio into your living room.
It was a crystal clear perfect picture the likes of which I had never
seen before. Sure it had some problems with pixelation and an
occasion freeze, but it was a friggin perfect picture!

So stop complaining about your crappy picture and go out and buy a
converter box. Sure they'll be cheaper in a year when the government
starts handing out the rebates, but then you'll have missed out on
doing the one thing that can improve your picture the most for those
months you've waited.

Go to www.antennaweb.org and see if it says you can pick up any DTV
stations and then just go for it.

-dickm