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I don't have cable, don't really want it and haven't had it in years. I would like to watch the occasional HD program on my HDTV though. Anyone have any idea how I can do this? Right now my LCD TV gets your basic free local channels but they don't seem to be in HD. I don't think it's my TV, since it's pretty new and the picture is awesome when I watch Blu-Ray movies on it, but the regular channels, like NBC, ABC, etc don't look anywhere near as nice as what I see when I watch tv at friends' houses who do have cable. Any suggestions (other than to get cable or the like)? Thanks!
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this will tell you what over the air (OTA) channels are available: http://antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx this will tell you what channels you should be trying... if they're not working, your antenna may not be sufficient (or your TV doesn't decode a digital signal). you can check OTA HD listings on sites like this one: http://ww1.titantv.com/
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Thanks! And forgive my ignorance, but a lot of these are listed as 4.1 or 2.1 or 4.4. How do I get channel 4.4? I don't recall seeing a decimal button on my remote.
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Asssuming that your TV has a built in digital tuner, which it probably does if it is and HD TV, all you need to get HD is your antenna. I have no cable connection and I receive HD broadcasts just fine. Have you had your TV scan for available signals recently? If your reception is solid, it should automatically pick up the HD sub-channels like 4.4, 5.2, etc... Blu Ray discs will generally look better than over the air because they are a less compressed signal, and are more likely to be 1080p, the maximum HD resolution. Over the air signals are commonly 720p, or are simply upconverted SD, either at the camera end or at the final point of dissemination. Happy viewing! ~your friendly local TV professional
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http://www.google.com/search?aq=1&oq=coat+hanger+hdtv+ante&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=coat+hanger+hdtv+antenna+plansEverything you believe to be true, is a lie.
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Just to clarify, are you plugging a coax cable into your TV or just having the TV tune into OTA that it can reach? It may be that your TV doesn't have a very good tuner, I found my OTA reception increased greatly when I bought an external tuner to plug into my antenna. I picked mine up on ebay for $40 or so. Most of them are the same box with different brands slapped on the front. Some of the names are: Centronics ZAT 502 HD, RTC DTA1100HD, and Digiwave DTV5000 HD. The other nice thing about that tuner is that it is also a ClearQAM tuner (ClearQAM is the way cable companies encode the local channels in HD), so if you do have a random coax line coming into your house (even if you don't have cable/cable internet) see if you get channels. Not legal, but, well it's there. They're supposed to put a filter on cable lines, but they tend not to bother.
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