First of all, I apologize if this is the wrong forum, wasn't really sure where it would work best. Mods, please move if there is a better subforum for this subject.

Secondly, before I get into my involved question, I checked DTV.gov to find answers, but i'm still confused.

Back in August, the owner of my townhouse rebuilt two townhomes that had been destroyed by fire, he also re-roofed the entire place. In the process, the rooftop antenna came down. Well we lost basically all signal to our home TV's needless to say, but he never put up a new antenna either. So we've been without TV channels (without the help of rabbit ears) since that time.

So here comes the question. Does he need to even put one up, considering that the nation will be switching to DTV in Feb '09, was he just thinking ahead?

If this is the case, I was curious if I do need a converter box although I have an HDTV and such, because I would really like to watch the news or The Office sometime again.

Thanks in advance for any insightful advice.

Your hdtv may have a built in tuner aleady depending on the model and how old it is.

You need the following to get ota digital broadcasts, a digitial tuner/antenna, cable tv or satellite tv.

You can check to see if your tv can tune in anything right now. If not then you most likely will need an antenna.

If you want more/better content then cable or satellite is the way to go.

The model is two years old or thats when I got it at least.. but I'm honestly not sure of the number off the top of my head. It was the 32" Westinghouse BB had two years ago for black friday. Prior to this I was always getting the multicasting with my stations, so the public tv had 5 offshoots (17.0, 17.1, etc). But since the antenna on the roof came down, its been nothing.

Cable is something we're thinking of doing, but none of us feel that we'd really get our money's worth out of it. We're just looking to get the news and maybe a few of the prime time TV shows.

If you were getting channel numbers like 17.1, your tv is digital ready. If it weren't, you would need a converter box.

You need an antenna to get OTA television. An indoor antenna (rabbit ears, Silver Sensor™, etc) may suffice if you are close enough. If you are further away from tv towers, or have too much multipath, you'll probably need an outdoor antenna.

Keep in mind that all the major stations are already broadcasting in digital. What happens in February is that they will QUIT broadcasting analog. I haven't watched any analog in about 2 years. Digital is here, now.

I understand that, I just wasn't sure if analog = OTA. But obviously he needs to replace the rooftop antenna, and hopefully before it snows or it's never going to get done

And it can be ANY kind of standard rabbit-ears (like I use for HDTV broadcast reception) or a roof-mounted one. Don't fall for the "digital ready" ploy. Any antenna can receive digital content.

The reception is the reception. If you're not getting something now, you never will until you get a new antenna.

Fair enough, all of my questions have been answered. Thank all of you!

True as long as it covers the right band. The digital channel identifies itself as the same channel as the analog transmission, but it really isn't, it is on another frequeny. For example, here, analog channel 4 is really on channel 4, but digital channel 4 is on channel 45, which is UHF, not VHF-lo. Antennaweb.org is a good place to search for this kind of info, distance to towers.

All our digital channels are UHF here, and I use a Silver Sensor indoor antenna. Out to 10-15 miles, indoor antennas usually work well. After that, YMMV.

OTA = Over The Air, whether digital or analog. If you are not getting the digital now and you used to, you need an antenna.

See what RF channel you digital stations are on. If they are UHF, a simple loop may be enough if you are close to towers. It doesn't necessarily HAVE to be an outdoor antenna, it depends on distance.

I would just get a UHF/VHF antenna. By 2/09, ABC and I think the WB is going back to VHF in NYC.