HDTV tuners

French | Spanish | Portuguese | Italian | German | Japanese | Chinese | Korean | Russian | Arabic

The biggest problem with HDTV tuners (whether they’re in your TV, or external) has traditionally been an economic one. They are (or at least were) darned expensive. Even a year or two ago, it was common to see HDTV tuners that cost $1,000 or more (this effectively explains why so many HDTVs were sold as HDTV-ready: Not everyone with an HDTV uses the OTA tuner, so why drive the cost of an already-expensive HDTV through the roof?). The good news is that prices have come down. Way down. As we write (summer of 2004), you can buy a name brand (Samsung, in this case) HDTV tuner for about $350. That’s less than six months’ worth of double espressos at Pat’s favorite café! And the prices are going nowhere but down. When you’re choosing an HDTV tuner, here are just a few things to consider:

-  Digital outputs: If it’s at all possible, you should use a digital cable connection between your tuner and your HDTV either DVI-D or HDMI (see Article 3) is by far the most common (1394/FireWire used to be common, but it’s rare these days). Make sure that the outputs of your tuner match the inputs of your HDTV. The newer HDMI system is backward-compatible with DVI-D with the use of a simple adapter. So you can mix and match DVI-D and HDMI freely. If your HDTV tuner’s DVI-D or HDMI output uses the HDCP copy-protection scheme, make sure the DVI-D or HDMI input on your HDTV does, too. Otherwise the system may down-res the signal, giving you a non-HDTV picture.

-  Analog outputs: While you’ll want to use your digital outputs, if possible, it’s handy to have a full set of analog outputs on the HDTV tuner, for making connections to other devices (such as a DVR).

-  Output resolution: Most HDTV tuners can be adjusted to match the best resolution for your HDTV. Some HDTVs require a specific signal resolution (such as 1080i); if yours does, make sure your tuner can give you output at that resolution.

-  Satellite capability: Some OTA HDTV tuners also include satellite- TV receivers (for services like DirecTV or DISH Network, see Article 10). Well, the satellite companies would flip it around and say their receivers include OTA tuners. Either way, this can be handy if you’re using a satellite service for premium HDTV channels (like ESPN-HD and HBO) and using an antenna to pick up local HDTV channels. The FCC is requiring TV manufacturers to begin including built-in ATSC tuners in their TVs, as part of the overall industry transition to digital TV. By the middle of 2005, all TVs larger than 36 inches will require an on-board ATSC tuner over time, this requirement will filter down to smaller TVs, and even to devices like VCRs (which have their own NTSC tuners these days). Antennas A to Z The other half of the OTA HDTV equation is the antenna. Yep (just as we said at the beginning of the article), the rabbit ears are back. Well, you probably won’t want to bring back some of those unwieldy old antennas of years past, because the TV antenna has gotten in shape for the new millennium. Choosing the right antenna You probably could use those old rabbit ears there’s nothing that incredibly unique about picking up HDTV broadcasts but tuning them in (which is what the HDTV tuner does) is a complex process. Luckily, there are a lot of great new antennas on the market that work particularly well with HDTV broadcasts. Understanding antenna features There are a few features of an antenna to consider:

-  Location: Inside the house or outside? Well . . . • Outdoor antennas work better, but they also require work, space, and access outside your home. • Indoor antennas may work well enough for you if you’re close enough to the transmission towers.

-  Direction: Where to point the thing? Look here . . . • Directional antennas can be aimed toward a specific point (or within in a certain angular vector). Directional antennas usually are better at picking up distant signals, and can reduce multipath distortion (what happens when the signal bounces off buildings and other structures you receive the signal multiple times). • Multidirectional antennas pick up signals coming from you guessed it multiple directions. Multidirectional antennas can be mounted just about anywhere, and pick up signals from widely dispersed transmission towers.

-  Amplification: Some antennas have a built-in amplifier that increases the strength of weak broadcast signals before they get to your tuner. Amplification is generally a good thing, unless you are close to the broadcast antenna you don’t want to overamplify a signal. Making the right choice It’s really difficult for even a technically savvy person to determine which antenna is right for a particular home there’s just a swarm of variables to figure out. That’s why we’re so happy that the CEA and Decisionmark (the folks we mentioned back in the first part of this article) have come up with the AntennaWeb.org system (that is also the URL: http://antennaweb.org). AntennaWeb.org is a Web-based database that “knows” your HDTV situation from your address, the location of HDTV broadcast antennas near you, and some sophisticated software that models HDTV signal propagation in your area (by looking at various geographical and demographic data such as the terrain and the presence of high-rise buildings). Just go to the Web site, enter your address, answer a few questions about your surroundings and click the Submit button. The AntennaWeb.org system uses a graphical representation (a pie chart/color-code system) called the antenna mark to identify seven different antenna types with unique different colors and coverage “zones.”

The pie chart is sort of like a Trivial Pursuit game piece the more slices of the pie you have, the better. The coverage zones represent the footprint of the antenna based on its designs and use. All the HDTV broadcasts in your area that you can at least theoretically pick up will be shown (as well as the analog stations), and each will be color-coded. To find the right antenna for you, simply note the color code for the stations you want to pick up, and go shopping for an antenna that matches that color. Please note how they fill in the antenna-mark pie chart clockwise, starting with the yellow around to the pink. Most antennas work for all the “lesser” color codes. It’s common to find highpower directional antennas that also work fine as short-to-mediumrange multidirectional antennas. So if your listed signal sources require antennae coded yellow and green (the second color after yellow in the scheme), you can buy a green-code antenna it will also pick up the yellow-coded broadcast signals. Installing your HDTV antenna When you’ve picked out your HDTV antenna, there’s the simple matter of installing it. If you’ve selected an outdoor antenna (our recommendation for most users), you need to mount it. First of all, follow the directions included with the antenna particularly any safety directions regarding such installation procedures as grounding and wiring. We want you to be safe, and not to burn your house to the ground for the sake of HDTV (not even we are that fanatical about HDTV). If you’ve chosen a directional antenna, part of the mounting process will be aiming the antenna. The AntennaWeb.org results page actually includes a compass bearing from your house to the antenna towers.

So you can pull out your handy-dandy Boy or Girl Scout compass and do some aiming. You can also use a signal-strength meter many HDTVs or HDTV tuners have one built in to determine how small adjustments in the antenna’s position or direction affect your channels. Here’s where it’s handy to have a set of FRS (Family Radio Service) walkietalkies, so you can communicate with the person in the living room who’s viewing the meter while you’re on the roof! Tuning into HDTV stations is a truly digital experience either it works or it doesn’t. For the most part, there’s none of the fuzzy, half-visible pictures that you might remember from the old antenna days of analog TV. With the proper antenna, properly aimed, you might pick up all your local channels right away. Or you might not HDTV broadcasts are still a work-in-progress in many parts of the country. Sometimes it can be a hit-or-miss proposition stations that should work don’t, or only work part of the time. This situation is getting better every day, as broadcasters fine-tune their systems, and as HDTV tuners become more sophisticated and adept at tuning in stations. As HDTV becomes more popular, many broadcasters are also turning up the power on their transmitters (so far they’ve been keeping the broadcast power down to save money!).