Give Your HDTV Rabbit Ears

HDTV has a new accessory. The high tech, life like picture is now being topped with rabbit ears. You remember these, don’t you? They are the old fashioned antennas that you had to hold a certain way just to get a picture. They are back.

It may sound a little bit crazy, but HDTV and the antenna work together to get the already crisp picture even clearer. It also can increase the number of channels that are available to consumers.

Providers are eager to offer greater amounts of digital channels. Often the cable companies and satellite TV programming providers will sacrifice the picture quality by using data compression or other methods – the old quantity vs. quality debate.

There is hope.

Believe it or not, over-the-air reception (that’s what the rabbit ears are) ensures that viewers are able to get high-definition at its highest definition. To aid viewers in their antenna adventure, there is now a website devoted to its use – www.antennaweb.org. Here consumers can find what HD stations are available to them, the distance to the house – to the tenth of a mile, the compass orientation needed, and the type of antenna needed to tune into the station.

Not all HDTV sets can utilize the low-tech advantage. To be able to use an antenna, the sets must have a built in digital timer. An HDTV-ready set does not have one. A Set that has an ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) does have one.