Darkoshi

When getting a digital TV converter box, these are some good things to have:

- a remote which can be programmed for your TV, so you can use the same remote for the box and TV. Or perhaps another remote could be programmed to control both; I haven't tried that yet; not sure what program code the box would have.

- a remote with a dedicated button for switching between the picture modes, so you can switch between wide-screen and cropped modes with a single button press, as opposed to having to go into a menu. In wide-screen mode, some broadcasts display as a small rectangle on the screen - these can be switched to full-screen mode without losing any of the picture; but other broadcasts are wide-screen mode, which I don't want cropped.

- I'm not sure if any boxes have this functionality, but it would be nice to be able to save a certain order for the channels in memory, so that when using the channel up/down buttons, you would first get all the regular channels, and you could save all the other special channels (like the multiple weather channels) at the end.

- closed-captioning capability, if your TV doesn't already have this.


Qiao brought over an indoor antenna with a built-in powered amplifier, to try out. However, it did not work except with the amplifier turned off. I read that if you are close to the broadcasters, the amplifier may overwhelm things, so perhaps that is why it did not work. A passive antenna works best for me.

In regards to antennas, I've also noticed that the signal strength may change markedly not only depending on how the antenna is positioned, but also depending on where you or other people are located within the room. The signal strength may be good while your hand is hovering near the antenna, and worse when you take the hand away. Or the signal may be good while I'm sitting on the couch, but bad if I'm in the part of the room where I usually exercise.

With regards to the antenna "ears", the signal may be best with an ear extended to a certain length - not all the way in, nor extended all the way out.

It's foggy outside, and one of my digital TV channels is showing only about 13% signal strength... the video is pixelated, and reception drops completely much of the time. I use a passive indoor TV antenna which is fine for the analog channel - reception is not perfect and varies depending on how I orient the antenna, but it is quite watchable. The digital channel is nigh impossible to watch, even though I live in the city where the station broadcasts.

I was originally thinking it might be a problem with the converter box, as when the signal drops completely and I turn the box off and back on, it comes back. But now I've realized that it is only a problem with some channels, so I'm not sure. The signal strength on other channels is much higher - up to 80%.

I suppose I'll have some fun trying to figure out how to boost my signal strength.