I’m not so sure about that... The digital signal I receive is far superior to the analog I get. Even with the clouds and trees (Not much else to get in the way down here in Houston).
I just put the antenna in the attic.
But can you get Fox News?
The earlier poster is correct. You can receive an analog signal MUCH farther away than you can a digital signal. The Digital signal fidelity has to be MUCH higher for it to even decode a picture, while the analog signal will show up as “something” where the human eye does the decoding. You may see lots of hash, but you’ll be able to perceive the picture’s content.
Further, the frequencies being used by the HDTV signals are higher, so they don’t go through objects as well as the lower frequencies.
The difference is compensated for by using hugely more power for DTV transmissions at higher frequencies to cover the same areas.
In response to other posters - a directional antenna is always going to give better performance than an omni-directional antenna IF it is pointed in the correct direction. Essentially, a directional antenna is operating like one of these amplifiers you have heard about. Now - imagine what happens when you add an amplifier onto it! The only problem is you have to have rotor on it in some locations that have multiple broadcast sites. So add the rotor!
Finally, in case you folks didn’t know. If you own your property you are allowed to put up a TV antenna up to 12 feet above your roof line. This is true even if you have CC&Rs in the housing development that says “no antennas.” There is a Federal pre-emption of ALL existing CC&Rs and city ordinances allowing this issued by the FCC back in the 90’s to allow dish antennas. It also applies to over-the-air TV transmissions. For Town-houses, you can put the antenna on anything that isn’t a common wall (i.e. community property.)
When stations did trial runs on the digital broadcasts, some became unwatchable. Whereas some bad reception in analog can cause poorer picture, with digital, there were blockouts and freezes that disrupted actual content in a more meaningful way. For example, instead of some noise on the screen, there would be, “The White House is announcing that [. . . . .] would be an important development in [. . . . .] said.”