"Can't get any TV" related question

Didn't want to highjack the ongoing thread.

Does each individual analog TV inside a residence need it's own
converter?

I live about 45 miles from strong transmitting towers, and my house
has big UHF/VHF antenna outside on the roof which brings in analog
stations very well. I'll never subscribe to cable or any DTV
offering.

But, the antenna cable is split, outdoors, before it even comes into
the house. One line, closest to the antenna, goes straight through
into a lower level den (tri-level house). I'm pretty sure the 27"
Sony Trinitron analog TV there will need it's own converter.

Then it gets complicated. The other cable comes into the house from
the outside splitter, up the outside wall and into an upper level
bedroom. (I didn't wire this!) There used to be a TV there, but not
currently. However the inline amplifier that boosted the signal from
the long cable run from the antenna is still there. Then the cable
dives into the walls, trots across the attic heading south and ends up
as far as it could possibly go to a mid-level office, living room wall
terminating connector.

From that that terminating connector there lives yet another in-line
amplifier and another splitter (visualize a "Y" output) which feeds a
2 yr. old, small 15" Sharp LED EDTV in an office, and a larger old
analog TV in the living room. I don't think the Sharp EDTV has HD
tuner or capability.

Now to review: That's three TVs sucking the life out of one large
antenna, but it works with the amplifiers positioned as described!

Do I need three converters? Or could one converter be placed at the
lower level (Den, Sony 27" etc.) and a second placed BEFORE the second
distant "Y" split, thus feeding the final two TVs? I have two
coupons, but haven't purchased yet.

Sorry for the complex question, but I tried to describe what I'm
living with.


--
Barbara

Barbara wrote:
Didn't want to highjack the ongoing thread.

Does each individual analog TV inside a residence need it's own
converter?

I live about 45 miles from strong transmitting towers, and my house
has big UHF/VHF antenna outside on the roof which brings in analog
stations very well. I'll never subscribe to cable or any DTV
offering.

But, the antenna cable is split, outdoors, before it even comes into
the house. One line, closest to the antenna, goes straight through
into a lower level den (tri-level house). I'm pretty sure the 27"
Sony Trinitron analog TV there will need it's own converter.

Then it gets complicated. The other cable comes into the house from
the outside splitter, up the outside wall and into an upper level
bedroom. (I didn't wire this!) There used to be a TV there, but not
currently. However the inline amplifier that boosted the signal from
the long cable run from the antenna is still there. Then the cable
dives into the walls, trots across the attic heading south and ends up
as far as it could possibly go to a mid-level office, living room wall
terminating connector.

From that that terminating connector there lives yet another in-line
amplifier and another splitter (visualize a "Y" output) which feeds a
2 yr. old, small 15" Sharp LED EDTV in an office, and a larger old
analog TV in the living room. I don't think the Sharp EDTV has HD
tuner or capability.

Now to review: That's three TVs sucking the life out of one large
antenna, but it works with the amplifiers positioned as described!

Do I need three converters? Or could one converter be placed at the
lower level (Den, Sony 27" etc.) and a second placed BEFORE the second
distant "Y" split, thus feeding the final two TVs? I have two
coupons, but haven't purchased yet.

Sorry for the complex question, but I tried to describe what I'm
living with.




The short answer is yes, each TV will need it's own converter. Any
converter feeding more than one TV (via a "Y" splitter) will likely
still work, but changing the channels on the converter will change the
channel received on *both* TV's simultaneously.

--
jer
email reply - I am not a 'ten'

The converters process one channel at a time. If you locate your
converter upstairs, all televisions downstream of it will receive only
the one channel you have selected on it.

You will be able to change channels as often as you like, but you will
have to run upstairs to the converter each time you do.

On 15 Apr 2008 15:03:00 GMT Barbara wrote:

| Do I need three converters? Or could one converter be placed at the
| lower level (Den, Sony 27" etc.) and a second placed BEFORE the second
| distant "Y" split, thus feeding the final two TVs? I have two
| coupons, but haven't purchased yet.

The converter is a tuner.

Think about the scenario where you connect a VCR with a tuner in it, to your
TV set. You connect the antenna to the VCR, then connect the RF output of
the VCR to the antenna connection of the TV. The TV is "permanently" tuned
to a specific channel (usuaully 3 or 4 depending on what the VCR outputs).
When you tune channels on the VCR, you see what it tuned to on the TV.

If the TV is too old to have certain channels, but the VCR can tune those
channels, you need to tune them with the VCR. Some people have the issue
for cable TV. Cable TV added new channels not used over the air. Older
TVs only tune the over air channels. So they added the VCR that could tune
the new ones, to be able to do so. Or they use a box from the cable company.

Long ago, back in the 1960's, it was allowed to make TVs with VHF tuner only.
Very few, if any, TVs had a UHF tuner. You could use a box called a "UHF
converter". It had its own tuner dial for the UHF channels, and a switch
for VHF or UHF. When you wanted to tune a UHF channel, you tuned the TV to
channel 5 or 6 (those were the usual ones for UHF converters), and tuned
the box to the UHF channel desired. It usually did one channel at a time,
but two adjacent UHF channels could be tuned to come out on 5 and 6 together.
But back then almost no one had 2 adjacent UHF channels.

If you did subscribe to cable TV today, and subscribed to more services than
just the basic level, you probably would need to use the set top box that the
cable company provides (and these days charges extra for so they can make
more money from peple with more TVs while advertising what appears to be a
lower price). The new "DTV converter box" is similar in that role, but it
is for the new digital transmission methods. You would use it exactly as a
"set top box".

Some of these boxes will come with their own remote control to tune channels
with. Think about what the box is doing if it uses a remote control. Think
about where it needs to be.

You will be using the converter box to change channels with.

You need one for each TV, unless you have a special case where it is OK to
always have 2 TVs tuned to the same channel.

--
|WARNING: Due to extreme spam, I no longer see any articles originating from |
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On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:02:02 UTC, wrote:

You need one for each TV, unless you have a special case where it is OK to
always have 2 TVs tuned to the same channel.

I think I got it!

Thanks for your explanation, and to others who gave condensed versions
of the same answer. It was as I expected, but doesn't hurt to ask. I
may spring for a new flat panel HDTV for the living room at some point
since it's the oldest. But it still works great old Samsung, ...
whine, and has the only remaining, working, built-in "just in case",
VCR in the house. I have a DVD recorder hooked to the little Sharp.

Sometimes I wish the gov had just issued "recycle" coupons for old
analog units, since you have to pay to get rid of them. Eventually
we'll have the old TVs *and* the converters to recycle.


--
Barbara

On Apr 15, 2:03*pm, "Barbara" wrote:

Sometimes I wish the gov had just issued "recycle" coupons for old
analog units, since you have to pay to get rid of them. *Eventually
we'll have the old TVs *and* the converters to recycle. *

I'd check around. The County recycling facility in my area has free
drop-off recycling.

On 15 Apr 2008 18:03:14 GMT Barbara wrote:

| Sometimes I wish the gov had just issued "recycle" coupons for old
| analog units, since you have to pay to get rid of them. Eventually
| we'll have the old TVs *and* the converters to recycle.

That might be worth a letter and telephone call (both) to your 2 senators and
your district representative (all three). Inform them "after the transition,
they need to have a program to take all the old dead TVs for free".

--
|WARNING: Due to extreme spam, I no longer see any articles originating from |
| Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by more readers |
| you will need to find a different place to post on Usenet. |
| Phil Howard KA9WGN (email for humans: first name in lower case at ipal.net) |

Sometimes I wish the gov had just issued "recycle" coupons for old
analog units, since you have to pay to get rid of them. Eventually
we'll have the old TVs *and* the converters to recycle.

Barbara

In Albuquerque, the city will pick up our old TVs for free. We just have to
schedule a day (usually our regular trash pickup day).

--
Bearman

America: Land of the free because of the brave.

In article , says...


On 15 Apr 2008 18:03:14 GMT Barbara wrote:

| Sometimes I wish the gov had just issued "recycle" coupons for old
| analog units, since you have to pay to get rid of them. Eventually
| we'll have the old TVs *and* the converters to recycle.

That might be worth a letter and telephone call (both) to your 2 senators and
your district representative (all three). Inform them "after the transition,
they need to have a program to take all the old dead TVs for free".

This is a real difficult issue and a reason that cable should be made to keep a
basic analog tier for a longer time than 3 years. The sets can't go to
landfills because they contain toxic metals like lead.

Old TV disposal is an added cost to the consumer and the environement as a
result of the digital transition. The government gets the windfall of billions
auctioning off the vacated spectrum and the consumers get caught with the costs
of converters, new TVs and disposal of the old ones. Only the converters are
subsidized at this time.

whosbest54
--
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On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:40:42 -0500, whosbest54
wrote:

In article , says...


On 15 Apr 2008 18:03:14 GMT Barbara wrote:

| Sometimes I wish the gov had just issued "recycle" coupons for old
| analog units, since you have to pay to get rid of them. Eventually
| we'll have the old TVs *and* the converters to recycle.

That might be worth a letter and telephone call (both) to your 2 senators and
your district representative (all three). Inform them "after the transition,
they need to have a program to take all the old dead TVs for free".

This is a real difficult issue and a reason that cable should be made to keep a
basic analog tier for a longer time than 3 years. The sets can't go to
landfills because they contain toxic metals like lead.

Old TV disposal is an added cost to the consumer and the environement as a
result of the digital transition.

Why is that? Just get a converter.
Thumper



The government gets the windfall of billions
auctioning off the vacated spectrum and the consumers get caught with the costs
of converters, new TVs and disposal of the old ones. Only the converters are
subsidized at this time.

whosbest54