HDTV Antenna & Closed Captioning

[Motleys Fool]

Greetings:

Does anyone have experience using the free HDTV antenna with closed captioning?  I pay through the nose for Rogers cable but end up really only watching a half dozen or so channels.  There are a number of websites about free HDTV but none have anything about closed captioning and most are too technical for me.

Where is a good place to buy the antenna?

Thanks,
Denise

[jbkeh]

Closed captioning is part of the signal (if the broadcaster / program provides it); as long as your TV processes it, it doesn't matter if the signal is OTA (Over The Air) or via cable.

Go HERE to find out what channels are available in your area, but be mindful that any obstruction between you and the transmitter that is closer than a kilometer can be a problem as can nearby tree leaves (particularly for UHF). The carrier wave for TV, whether the signal is analogue or digital, is always analogue, so there is no such thing as a "digital" TV antenna. (Well, there is a theory that an antenna with a low VSWR has a lesser susceptibility to digital multipath, but I defy you to find an antenna that evens speaks of it.) The claims of most antenna suppliers are utterly bogus.

Are you rural or urban? If urban are you looking for local signals only (and can get by with an indoor antenna)?

[Bear Bear]

Are you looking for an antenna to take a signal to an HDTV or an antenna and converter for an SDTV?

If you have an HDTV it should have the SAP and Closed captioning functions on it. At least all the brands I've seen. it can be tricky to find in the settings. But give it a look.

Good luck

Bear

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[Goldielover]

Suggest you check out the forums over at www.digitalhome.ca. There's
a very active one on OTA television. (One of my other on-line
hangouts.) Agree about getting the tvfool report. Location is
everything when it comes to OTA. I am in Toronto, in a tenth floor
apartment facing west. I get 24 channels regularly in the winter, and
27 regularly in the summer. These are both Canadian and American
ones. Also during the summer, I can get many other "occasional"
channels depending on tropospheric conditions. My main antenna is an
indoor Terk HDTVi. I have a second antenna which I mainly use on the
balcony in decent weather. That one is an Antennas Direct C2V, and is
mounted on a stand so I can move it around as needed. That one is
really designed as an outdoor antenna, but is small enough to use
indoors too. As I enjoy some DXing in the summer, I also have a
Winegard pre-amplifier to help bring in more distant signals. My
antenna set up cost about $300.00, altogether, but it has saved me
well over $2000.00 in cable fees during the time I have been using
it. You can go much cheaper than that, of course, and probably should
at least until you see what you can get. I order my stuff on-line
from Save and Replay in Mississauga, or Tiger Direct. Saves lugging
it on the bus.

[Denise Minick]

Hello jbkeh:

Thank you for setting me straight.  I wondered what OTA meant.

I live in the west end of Toronto.  It makes sense for me to buy an indoor antenna and then later, an outdoor model to pick up occasional signals.

TV Fool (love the name) tells me I will be getting every channel.  The only channel I will really miss is HBO but then my library probably holds most HBO series.  I am also moving my internet connection to teksavvy as well.  Does my loathing of Rogers show?

Thank you again.

Denise

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