Please excuse me if this is either a question long since answered or an otherwise simple one, but I did search first before asking it.

Today I was explaining to some employee's that there will be some people who have DTV tuners and HDTV sets who will lose or have a degraded digital OTA signal after the DTV transition because of some TV stations decision (at least in our market) to re-populate the VHF-High Band and vacate their current UHF DTV frequency (particularly those people using UHF only antenna's or have otherwise inferior VHF reception already). In the middle of this discussion I got to thinking, if the original intent was to use the UHF spectrum for all DTV broadcasts (which may or may not have been the case, I don't know), are there DTV Tuners and HDTV's with built-in tuners, particularly older ones, that because of short-sighted thinking weren't designed to scan the VHF spectrum for Digital stations?

I don't think it was ever the intention to use only UHF for digital TV, and I've never heard of a DTV tuner that could not scan VHF channels.

The OFFICIAL DTV channels are from channel 2- 51 inclusive

The tuners have been designed from 2 to ,at least, 51 (most go to 69). The problem is with the antenna manufacturers who sold UHF only antennas as 'Digital' antennas. The people who bought them are likely to not get the digital stations that move back to VHF.

Please excuse me if this is either a question long since answered or an otherwise simple one, but I did search first before asking it.

Today I was explaining to some employee's that there will be some people who have DTV tuners and HDTV sets who will lose or have a degraded digital OTA signal after the DTV transition because of some TV stations decision (at least in our market) to re-populate the VHF-High Band and vacate their current UHF DTV frequency (particularly those people using UHF only antenna's or have otherwise inferior VHF reception already). In the middle of this discussion I got to thinking, if the original intent was to use the UHF spectrum for all DTV broadcasts (which may or may not have been the case, I don't know), are there DTV Tuners and HDTV's with built-in tuners, particularly older ones, that because of short-sighted thinking weren't designed to scan the VHF spectrum for Digital stations?DTV is, and has always been, on both VHF and UHF. All DTV tuners will receive VHF & UHF digital channels.

The OFFICIAL DTV channels are from channel 2- 51 inclusive
Way back, there was a proposal to use channels 7-59 for DTV broadcasting. Which would have resulted in more space for TV stations as few stations will be using low VHF. But there were stations back then that wanted to stick to low VHF, so they went with 2-51. However, low power and translator stations will be allowed to use channels 52 - 59 if there are no suitable in-band channels available and they are not interfering with whoever brought the channel frequency space. So there will be a few LPs and TXs outside of the 2-51 in-core set.

To get back to the original post, ALL ATSC tuners will scan for VHF channels. Part of the spec from when it was set. Upper VHF is considered a sweet spot to be on. Lower broadcast power requirements than UHF, hence cheaper to operate, better propagation over hills than UHF, and should not nearly be as affected by interference as low VHF. On that part, we shall find out.

Yes, those who brought UHF only antennas may be in for an unpleasant discovery if one or more local stations flash cuts to upper VHF. OTOH, a lot of UHF antennas have some gain for upper VHF. So some may not even notice after they do a re-scan.

Thank you guys for the responses, its good to hear this isn't a problem.

I remember reading about a TV about a year and a half ago that wouldn't scan the VHF channels, if it just scanned for digital stations. However, that problem was rectified when a scan was performed for ALL channels (analog and digital).

I think this had more to do with a TV that was not properly re-made for the US market, even though it obviously had an ATSC tuner.

I recall that one of the original plans was to just use 14-69 for TV, but I don't think that got anywhere. However, this perception seems to have stuck in some circles.