Quote:
It might be important to notice that there are no special "HD" antennas. An antenna is an antenna. Yes, that 60yr old antenna on the roof will get the new HD signals. It is the TV that decides whether or not it can be decoded.
Yeah, but the majority of HD signals in the USA are on the UHF band, and if your antenna has only elements tuned for VHF signals, you might get lousy reception.
The UHF elements are the shorter ones, fwiw.
Some examples of cheap, adequate UHF antennae:
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=uhf+antenna&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US
fficial&biw=1280&bih=662&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=15293263938029871280&ei=aKroTM-qLZbtnQe0zvidDQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CIUBEPMCMAU4FA#
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=uhf+antenna&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US
fficial&biw=1280&bih=662&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=7303340810626461523&ei=aKroTM-qLZbtnQe0zvidDQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CI4BEPMCMAc4FA#
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=uhf+antenna&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US
fficial&biw=1280&bih=662&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=2327228777292791152&ei=BqvoTNPAAoifnQfZydDFDQ&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CHAQ8wIwAThG#
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103088
The last one - the radioshack one - was $12 cheaper 5 years ago (I used to have one, gave it to my brother - it's currently nestled into the blown-in insulation in his attic crawlspace and working like a champ). But i listed it here as an example - if your existing "big contraption on the roof" has some elements that look like the last two here, you're good to go. If it doesn't, well, try it - if you're close to the transmitter you could be ok. If you're far away, the little indoor one could even work just fine.