Smart Antennas and Digital TV Reception

Despite the obvious advantages of digital TV its main disadvantage is its reception. Truly, analog TV reception was so much better. if the reception is bad the analog TV still made it possible to watch TV even if the images are grainy, but with the digital TV, there is simply no way to watch and the regular home viewer would not even know how to get the signal back up again.

Because of the reception issues the CEA or the Consumer Electronics Associated developed a standard which will allow the DVD tuner to control and position smart antennas. This is referred to as the EIA/CEA-909A.

A digital TV converter box which is EIA/CEA-909A compliant can control around 16 positions of the antenna. The control is made possible by the special port of the smart antennas found in the digital TV converter box. This is also made possible with the RF antenna connector.

But just like digital TV technology, smart antennas are also a new technology and there are not a lot of choices out there. It does not help that these are more expensive than the regular antennas. There are outdoor smart antennas as well as indoor smart antennas.

Because not much is really known about them, from the point of view of the consumer that is, it is very important to read the product reviews and to know about the product specifications. There are even some antennas marketed as “smart” when all they are is regular antennas so be very careful.

One tip to clue you in is the specification for smart antennas where the 3000A is not part of the antenna interface. The 3000A is for small outdoor multidirectional antennas. Truth is, there are some products out there where the “smart” is just part of the product name.

Be aware also of the term ‘omnidirectional’ which is useful for areas where there are off-air digital TV signals coming in from different directions. But this is not good to use in areas where there are ghosting problems.