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Off the Air
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Last night I got a wild hair up my bum and decided to install the antenna for receiving local channel high definition broadcasts since you can't get them through Dish yet. I had previously tried a small indoor antenna, but it only received two channels. No bueno.
I went to radioshack (which has improved their reputation - and I'm not just trying to justify a purchase from the shack... honestly) and talked with a guy there who seemed pretty knowledgeable about HD. He was familiar with my problem of not being able to get local HD channels off the Dish (although I should be able too as soon as the FCC or whoever allows it) so I felt confident that he could help me with selecting an antenna. He adamently suggested a strange looking antenna. This things looks like a UFO with wings, rather than the wire monstronsities of yesteryear. They sold the big wire monsters too, but apparently this one was especially good at receiving HD signals. I was pleased to see that it came with an inline amplifier as well. I bought the antenna, the boom, 100 feet of cable and mounting hardware for $148. I set it up without much trouble - about 90 minutes with miminal cussing.
The results were a bit unexpected. Although I can now receive all of the local channels in high definition, I was disappointed to see that much of the content is HD upscaling of standard broadcasts. In other words, the shows are filmed with regular cameras, not HD ones. The result is still better than broadcast, but no where near as good as true HD content generated with a HD camera. OPB (PBS) did have true HD content that looked amazing though.
The whole point of this operation is to ensure that I can watch Smallville in glorious high definition (it's supposed to be true HD, not upscaled). The premier of season 4 is next wednesday and I am now ready!
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