'Rabbit Ears' Find New Life in HDTV Age

Weird that this is "news," but it's totally sweet. My favorite part is that I can use the nice UI on my TV, rather than the unspeakable horror that Comcast would have me use. I just send about half as much as I'd spend for cable to Netflix, and I'm never wanting for something to watch.

AP writer Joe Milicia implies that all DTV transmissions are HD. That's false, and there is no mandate to broadcast in HD, which consumes essentially all of a typical 6 MHz TV channel these days. DTV is the mandate, and it has 18 primary formats, most of which aren't even HD--of course, all are digital, though. Sure, I like HD as much as the next guy, but obviously the writer and the public both remain pretty unaware that multiple programs per channel and other variations allow a wide range of content ranging from Standard Def to HD to be available to consumers . . . again, free and over our airwaves. New tweaks on the ATSC broadcasts system also are showing that mobile/portable DTV reception at speeds of 80 m.p.h. is possible--try that with cable and see how far you get.

I've shown my antenna setup to 3 people, all of them blown away I can get HD over the air. And with mythtv I can now record OTA HD, very nice.

Unfortunately, all of the antennae in the world won't improve the abysmal quality of contemporary TV programming.

Boo yeah, I use an antenna that I got for $14 to watch Lost every week in HD. Man does it look good! And yeah, everyone I tell about it can't believe that it's that easy. But oh...it is. :-)