Important Note concerning choice #1 :

Please only choose #1 if you are fairly certian your receiver is finding all the stations which are receivable at your location, and with your particular antenna installation. For instance, If antennaweb or TVfool output for your location seems to indicate there are signals you should be getting but you aren't, or if you are fairly certian via any other means that certian signals should be receivable, but an autoscan isn't finding them, then you should chose another option, such as #5.

However, on the other hand, if you don't know with 100% certianty, but if you are fairly certian the signals involved which aren't found via autoscans truly aren't receivable with your particular antenna installation(but may for instance be receivable with an outdoor receive antenna), then please DO choose #1.


Important Note concerning users who own multiple OTA DTV/HD Receivers :

Please make your choice specific to only one of them. Preferably, Either the one with the most recent date of manufacture, or the receiver that provides the best performance regarding finding the most local stations via its autoscanning functions.


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Note/update : I hope the poll's options are understandable, as when I originally composed them I was very specific in describing each option, but I did not realize the poll options were limited to 100 characters each until after I created this post and had to quickly edit the options to be 100 characters or less ... edit : also sorry about the two "from's" in option #4, I'll try to find a way to edit that out, at present I don't know how(or if I can) edit the poll options ...

Here are the "full version" of the options as I originally intended to post them in the poll :

#1). My Receiver or TV's autoscanning functions find all receivable local digital stations. Note: This includes autoscans available on some receivers which allow for subsequent channel scans with antenna adjusted/aimed differently without wiping out the channel info scanned in from previous scans. The latter are sometimes called "EZ add" or "add digital channels".

#2). My receiver or TV's autoscanning functions DO NOT Find all receivable local digital stations. To scan in the virtual channel information for stations not found, I must know, and must input the physical Channel # (The channel the signal is actually broadcast on) involved for the channels not found via autoscan, and I must adjust antenna appropriately in order to scan in those stations.

#3) My receiver or TV's autoscanning functions DO NOT Find all receivable local digital stations but there isn't a way on my receiver to manually scan in individual stations, or there isn't a way to do it that I am aware of --- Because of reasons such as the info on the procedure involved is not provided in the user manual or because the info is not provided clearly, and/or because no signal meter is provided on the receiver to aid in adjusting antenna properly so I can "find" these signals, and/or because I don't know the physical channel #'s these stations are actually transmitting on.

#4). My receiver or TV's autoscanning functions DO NOT Find all receivable local digital stations, but I'm using a Sat+OTA receiver and the virtual channel information for all my local signals are provided via the EPG info received from satellite.

#5) I don't know whether or not my receiver or TV's autoscanning functions are finding all receivable local digital stations.

#6). None of the above applies (please post why)

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I set the poll to run for 90 days,

Thanks!

My stations are in three distinct directions, roughly northwest, northeast, and southeast. The NW stations range from 20-80 miles, and the NE and SE stations are each at about 70 miles. So I have to rotate my antenna to get them.

Oh crap, I see I should have chosen option #1 instead of #2, because my receivers have an "EZ Add" type autoscan which adds to the channel list instead of erasing the original list. So I can do a fresh scan in one direction, then an "EZ Add" in each of the other two directions, and that picks up most of my stations. I usually have to do a single-channel scan (entering the RF channel number) for a few stations because they're not all exactly in the same direction in each group. I could do an "EZ Add" for those too, but it's quicker to enter the RF channel number.

i have my radio shack vu-120 beamed to boston however some stations only come in at night.like WSBK 38,WFXT 25 and WMFP 62. Ion 68 forget it nothing at all.
I turn my antenna to the north i get the NH ones well
WMUR,WENH,WZMY,WTMU,

Oh crap, I see I should have chosen option #1 instead of #2, because my receivers have an "EZ Add" type autoscan which adds to the channel list instead of erasing the original list. So I can do a fresh scan in one direction, then an "EZ Add" in each of the other two directions, and that picks up most of my stations. I usually have to do a single-channel scan (entering the RF channel number) for a few stations because they're not all exactly in the same direction in each group. I could do an "EZ Add" for those too, but it's quicker to enter the RF channel number.

Yeah, no problem, but one of the things I thought might be interesting about this poll involves how many respondants need to know the actual channel number some stations broadcast on ...

For instance, if someone were using your receiver, but, say a indoor settop antenna, and were trying to "guess" at how to adjust/orient antenna so that an "ez-add" would find the stations not found by the original scan -- it probably wouldn't have a very good chance of working, but if they manually "scanned in" the physical channel #, with the aid of a signal meter to help them adjust antenna for best results, they'd have a better shot at scanning the stations not found in the original scan in, in which case, if they are successful at it, they would choose option #2 ....

But, I also suspect some will choose option #1 even though there may be more receivable stations an autoscan doesn't pick up which they are not aware of because of issues such as that they haven't happened across the "right" adjustment for say, their settop antenna.

So, hopefully such issues will "even out" in the end, and I wasn't thinking of getting extremely accurate results here, Just thought the results may be interesting for various reasons ....

And, to a certian extent, I wanted it to leave it up to each respondant how to consider such issues as "I'm using a directional antenna in a fixed position, but there are other stations in other directions that might be receivable if I reaimed antenna" -- Obviously, in that case even though those other stations might be receivable if antenna was reaimed, a weak signal coming in to the back side of antenna may not be found by an autoscan ... In such a case, where one can "aim" a directional antenna at the other stations, for instance, if the receiver has an "EZ-scan" option, If it were me, I would probably choose option #1 even if I hadn't actually tried it, but option #2 if I knew I would have had to use a individual channel add, or option 3 if I knew my receiver didn't allow for "ez-adds" or manual channel additions ...

I get channels from three markets, but the closest one (which I usually have my antenna pointed to) gets all of the channels all of the time, and I never have to add any manually. With the others I often do. So should I check #1 or #2?

I'd check #2 if you have to add any of the channels you can receive manually, regardless of what market, or what direction they are in .....

No OTA in my area, and I guess that doesn't bother me... I get it all over DirecTV and that works fine for me...

I'm lucky in that my locals (20 miles) are at 99^, and distant stations (75 miles) at 118^, I get both with the antenna pointed around 118^.

I didn't know what option best fit my situation, so I took "none."

Autoscan found the "big 5" - ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and FOX. There are two locals, a religious station and local programming, that it didn't find - but they're both about 160 degrees different than how I need my antenna to get the others. So, autoscan did find everything that it should have for my antenna position.

I'd check #2 if you have to add any of the channels you can receive manually, regardless of what market, or what direction they are in .....Well, I don't have to really add any in, because I get all I'd ever really want to watch anyways with a scan, and the ones that I do sometimes add in manually I can hardly receive anyway.

But I checked #2 anyway like you recommended. Too late to change now.

Well, I don't have to really add any in, because I get all I'd ever really want to watch anyways with a scan, and the ones that I do sometimes add in manually I can hardly receive anyway.

But I checked #2 anyway like you recommended. Too late to change now.

Then you made the correct choice.

As I mentioned before, some receivers allow for additional, subsequent autoscans which allow user to aim directional antenna in different direction and then scan in more channels without the channels originally scanned via the main autoscan function being wiped out. If you have/use such a receiver+outdoor directional antenna with rotor(or used manual means to rotate the antenna to aim in different directions), you usually would not have to input the channels manually to scan in stations from different directions. That was the context of the usage of the words have to in my post.

I did not intend the poll to be about what stations any given person/family wants to or doesn't want to watch. Instead I intended it, as much as possible to be about folks practical experience regarding how they have to scan in all the stations that can be received at their particular location, and with their particular antenna setup --- including involving adjustments (including reaiming of directional antenna or adjustments of not-so directional antennas, such as indoor settop antennas). Because, what stations any given person or family do or don't want to watch is a subjective thing, but how they must scan the stations in on their receiver isn't.