# Digital Television In Ob



## Justman (Jul 22, 2006)

Howdy all!

With the DTV conversion, I figure I'm good as long as I use cable. But then I got to thinking....what about the OB? Did some poking around and thought I'd share.

It appears we'll still be able to use the UHF/VHF antennas standard to the RV industry. We'll just need to purchase one of the conversion boxes. I applied for two of the convertor box coupons today and immediately got notification I was approved and that they'd be mailed to me. Why two you ask??? Well, one for the camper, and another just in case the cable in my area goes out. Never know what the weather man will bring your way in Louisiana!


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## mmblantz (Jul 1, 2007)

I got two as well. Sams has them for $44 so after the coupon they're only about $4. --Mike


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## TitanFlyer (Feb 5, 2009)

mmblantz said:


> I got two as well. Sams has them for $44 so after the coupon they're only about $4. --Mike


This a confusing subject for a lot of folks. Its easy for those who have digital television boxes at home already through cable... nothing needed, but situations like the OB certainly are more of a question. My 2009 has 2 LCD digital televisions in it, and I am told this is all I will need if I want to get either cable or signal from the air. Hope i am right, but I am going to order at least one box coupon anyway.


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## BoaterDan (Jul 1, 2005)

I got two coupons a while back, but they expired before I used them. My understanding is that puts me on the bottom of the list for getting new ones.

I'm going to try under my wife's name or something, but if that doesn't work there may be a market for the 2nd one some of you are getting.


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## HargraveKL (Jul 10, 2008)

I wanted to get better Digital reception in my 25RSS. I got the wingman addition for the Winnegard antenna. It went on in seconds. Looks good. Works good. Ran into a problem the parasite antenna that attaches to the existing antenna hits the AC when you try to lower it. Does anyone have any solutions or thoughts on this.


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## Rob_G (Feb 16, 2006)

KLH said:


> I wanted to get better Digital reception in my 25RSS. I got the wingman addition for the Winnegard antenna. It went on in seconds. Looks good. Works good. Ran into a problem the parasite antenna that attaches to the existing antenna hits the AC when you try to lower it. Does anyone have any solutions or thoughts on this.


Thx for the info KLH as I was going to be getting this addon shortly. I'm going to check clearance first.


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## amyk (Feb 13, 2009)

KLH said:


> I wanted to get better Digital reception in my 25RSS. I got the wingman addition for the Winnegard antenna. It went on in seconds. Looks good. Works good. Ran into a problem the parasite antenna that attaches to the existing antenna hits the AC when you try to lower it. Does anyone have any solutions or thoughts on this.


what OB do you have? Does this occur on every one? We added the Wingman as well, but since I'm vertically challenged (and have no ladder--had to borrow one for my daughter to crawl up there to mount it) I can't see up there to know if it's hitting the A/C, but now I'm concerned....


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## hazmat456 (Jul 26, 2007)

be careful if you buy a new tv, we bought a vizio and while it dose pick up digital signals the software doesn't allow you to add more channels after you preform a channel scan. so if you need to adjust your antenna to get another channel you will have to scan again which will lose the first channel,frustrating! The vizio cost less than $200 so I an using the converter box still which allows me to "add scan" and has a strength meter to help adjust the antenna as well.


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## russlg (Jul 21, 2008)

hazmat456 said:


> be careful if you buy a new tv, we bought a vizio and while it dose pick up digital signals the software doesn't allow you to add more channels after you preform a channel scan. so if you need to adjust your antenna to get another channel you will have to scan again which will lose the first channel,frustrating! The vizio cost less than $200 so I an using the converter box still which allows me to "add scan" and has a strength meter to help adjust the antenna as well.


My wife just ordered us a Vizio 19" from Dell. We have a Vizio for Home that we bought three years ago and have been very happy with it. Why would you do a channel scan, isn't that usually just for cable? shouldn't you be able to tune in each by the channel number with the built in digital tuner? Once mine is up and running, I will let you know what I find out. I hope it is not as you say, having to rescan after each channel tuning attempt seems to be a step backwards to me.


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## TurkeyBranch (Mar 12, 2009)

I put a LCD TV in our OB, the antenna will work for analog, digital and HD, you just have to have a TV capable of it. Most TV's made in the last 8-10 years are fine. The antenna just picks up whatever is out there, it's the TV that deciphers it.

I sit and watch HD in the campgrounds all via the standard antenna.

Basically, if your TV is 5 years old or under you need no conversion box or special antenna


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## hazmat456 (Jul 26, 2007)

russlg said:


> be careful if you buy a new tv, we bought a vizio and while it dose pick up digital signals the software doesn't allow you to add more channels after you preform a channel scan. so if you need to adjust your antenna to get another channel you will have to scan again which will lose the first channel,frustrating! The vizio cost less than $200 so I an using the converter box still which allows me to "add scan" and has a strength meter to help adjust the antenna as well.


My wife just ordered us a Vizio 19" from Dell. We have a Vizio for Home that we bought three years ago and have been very happy with it. Why would you do a channel scan, isn't that usually just for cable? shouldn't you be able to tune in each by the channel number with the built in digital tuner? Once mine is up and running, I will let you know what I find out. I hope it is not as you say, having to rescan after each channel tuning attempt seems to be a step backwards to me.
[/quote]
yes, please let me know how it goes, if you don't have the same issue then I will return mine for another. However from talking to customer service, it is just the way it was built. I hope you have better luck than I did. Ours is a model VA19L, it has a great picture and ok sound but I run that through the campers speakers.


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## fourwalls (Sep 21, 2007)

We added the conversion box to our tv system in our fiver. I have been fighting with it for weeks at home we only get 1 channel. At the campground last weekend we were able to get 8 channels. I was excited to finally figure it out. Well I honestly cant say that I figured it out but did finally get it to work.







So do not give up. keep experimenting with it.


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## Camping Fan (Dec 18, 2005)

russlg said:


> be careful if you buy a new tv, we bought a vizio and while it dose pick up digital signals the software doesn't allow you to add more channels after you preform a channel scan. so if you need to adjust your antenna to get another channel you will have to scan again which will lose the first channel,frustrating! The vizio cost less than $200 so I an using the converter box still which allows me to "add scan" and has a strength meter to help adjust the antenna as well.


My wife just ordered us a Vizio 19" from Dell. We have a Vizio for Home that we bought three years ago and have been very happy with it. Why would you do a channel scan, isn't that usually just for cable? shouldn't you be able to tune in each by the channel number with the built in digital tuner? Once mine is up and running, I will let you know what I find out. I hope it is not as you say, having to rescan after each channel tuning attempt seems to be a step backwards to me.
[/quote]

When you first set up your digital TV (or analog conversion box) to pull in the digitial signal, you have to do a scan to see what channels your antenna can pick up, then those channels are put into "memory" for your digital TV or conversion box and you don't have to scan again in the future, unless you do have to.







The problem hazmat456 describes comes up if you are trying to pick up channels that are in different directions and require rotating the antenna to pick up the best signal for each. Channel A may have been picked up on the original scan, but Channel B wasn't because it's in the opposite direction. So you move the antenna in the right direction to pick up Channel B, but you'll have to scan again to find it, and if your TV/box doesn't have an "add channel" function it doesn't keep the previous scan in memory, it starts all over with a new scan and keeps only the new channels found in its memory. The best advice I can give to try to work around this is to try setting the antenna in a position somewhere between the ideal locations for Channel A and Channel B, then do a scan and hope you can pick up both channels. If so, you'll be good to go and won't have to rescan every time you move the antenna for the best signal.


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## openoadrver (Aug 25, 2008)

Or, do what we did. Cancel your cable system at the house, subscribe to Dish or Direct TV, wire your rig for satellite, purchase a remote tri-pod dish, take a receiver with you, and presto. Sat reception where ever you go!


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## russlg (Jul 21, 2008)

Dick&Kathy said:


> Or, do what we did. Cancel your cable system at the house, subscribe to Dish or Direct TV, wire your rig for satellite, purchase a remote tri-pod dish, take a receiver with you, and presto. Sat reception where ever you go!


I live in the sticks, surrounde by mountains and trees. Been there tried that. neither Directv nor Dish could "see" their dish from my house. Even from the roof.... So I still have Comcast...


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## hazmat456 (Jul 26, 2007)

russlg said:


> Or, do what we did. Cancel your cable system at the house, subscribe to Dish or Direct TV, wire your rig for satellite, purchase a remote tri-pod dish, take a receiver with you, and presto. Sat reception where ever you go!


I live in the sticks, surrounde by mountains and trees. Been there tried that. neither Directv nor Dish could "see" their dish from my house. Even from the roof.... So I still have Comcast...
[/quote]
when I ordered dish I got two receivers, both two room. so when it can be used, which is seldom, I run another line to my parents camper and give them the second remote. But most places we camp have too much tree cover to get a satellite signal.


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## MattS (Oct 15, 2006)

KLH said:


> I wanted to get better Digital reception in my 25RSS. I got the wingman addition for the Winnegard antenna. It went on in seconds. Looks good. Works good. Ran into a problem the parasite antenna that attaches to the existing antenna hits the AC when you try to lower it. Does anyone have any solutions or thoughts on this.


Did you have any luck with this? I noticed today when I climbed up there that it wasn't going to fit. Does the head flip around to the other side?


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## dakotadog (Apr 14, 2009)

If you're going to buy a new TV for our OB be sure it has two things so you won't need a digital converter box. An ATSC tuner and preferably a QAM tuner. The ATSC tuner will allow you to pick-up the digital off-airs without a digital converter box. The QAM tuner when connected to a cable feed will allow you to pick-up all the digital and analog channels plus in most cases the HD off air channels. Up until February most cable companies had to broadcast the HD off-airs on their cable plant for free as they did not pay to receive them therefore could not charge you for them. A QAM tuner allows you to pick these up. Happy camping.


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## wicampingfamily (Apr 6, 2009)

i have to admit... camping is purely make your own conditions. Therfore: I take my DirecTV Satalite with me ever where i go. i dont have to worry about the digital issues.

love the chalenge of aligning my Satalite dish


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