Got a rooftop antenna, not sure what brand, as it came with our rental house. It's a 4' or 5' UHF/VHF model mounted on a 25' mast. When analog tuning, almost all channels come in crystal clear, VHF and UHF. All my TVs are analog only, but one is HD-ready, and I have a media-center computer with a digital ATSC tuner. So I've been spending the last few days trying to get my computer hooked up to the antenna, so I can watch the superbowl in HD. The problem I'm having is that the computer won't pick up any digital VHF signals. NBC is what I'm specifically interested in, they broadcast analog on 12 and digital on 13, but I'm not getting ABC in digital either (broadcast on 10), but the analog seems to be a perfect signal. The antenna seems to be pointed in the right direction... all our stations are located between 262 and 267 degrees compass heading and between 7 and 9 miles away according to antennaweb.org. I get all the UHF channels just fine, but no VHF digital.... what am I doing wrong? I'd like to figure it out before the game starts.

Hello Loafkin,

Welcome to the forums! I also have a computer video capture card (Hauppauge hvr 1600). It will pick up both uhf and vhf channels. Yours should as well. I suspect that your capture card requires a higher signal level than your tv tuner and that your vhf channels have lower signal strengths than your uhf channels. You can provide the data by going to tvfool.com, entering your address, and posting the results here. Look at the NM and power levels for the vhf stations. Where do they rank relative to the uhf stations?

What I suggest doing at this time is remove all the splitters that you can and run your antenna cable directly to the computer. A simple 2-way splitter reduces signal level by 50% or 3.5 dB. Removing one splitter could do the trick and enable your capture card to tune the vhf channels.

HTH,

Rick

Another factor I found here at my house. My wife had one of these acoustic misting lamps. It was POURING off interference. Didn't bother UHF but killed VHF digital dead in the water. That said the longer I am in this new DTV game, the less I like VHF digital.

I predict looking back in say 10 years, the UHF's we gave up will be totally under utilized and will wish we had at least 52-59 for TV.

loafkin,
What OS are you running and what program are you using to try and watch digital programs?
If using MC to try and tune in the digital channels you may want to use the appliication software that came with the tuner card instead.

Most OTA hd digital in my area is in the uhf band and they are reassigned in the hd receiver for example as 11-1, 11-2, etc.. The uhf band it is in has nothing to do with the actually channel designation. Does your digital tuner have a auto tune feature that automatically reassigns the channels appropiately?

It sounds like you're in the Jacksonville area, based on your digitals on 10 and 13 and analog on 12.

Where are you located? That might help more than anything else. Plug your location into TVFool.com so we can see what you're dealing with.

- Trip

It sounds like you're in the Jacksonville area, based on your digitals on 10 and 13 and analog on 12.

Where are you located? That might help more than anything else. Plug your location into TVFool.com so we can see what you're dealing with.

- Trip

If so those are weak VHF. Trip, look on a google map for Interlachen, FL. My mother in law there has a 60 ft tower and decent VHF/UHF 2-69 and not even a beep of 10 or 13, but her Jax analog is nearly snow free. Talk to someone that doesn't like the change, and well I don't blame her.