The title is misleading, but I haven't seen US TV since mid-Feb of 2009, when the Plattsburgh and Burlington TV stations went to digital. It was kind of vague whether the DTV signals would make it to Montreal in a usable form or not, not much said and what was said in a form platable to the masses but vague in detail. So l didn't do anything about getting a DTV converter, more expensive in Canada than the US (where they really planned the changeover and even had a program that put free or cheap DTV converters into people's hands) and hoping/wondering if things might change closer to the Canadian changeover.
Two years ago, I thought of buying a new LCD tv set, use it as a computer monitor too, but the cheap ones that I didn't have DTV tuners built in (the US had laws requiring it after a certain date, Canada didn't).
So I put that off, then last year found an LCD monitor when the McGill students moved out.
But things have changed. The DTV changeover in Canada isn't two years away, it's four months away. I could live without US tv, but I'm not sure I could live without TV. So I actually bought a new TV set, the first time in my life. For over a decade I was using a Commodore monitor fed from a VCR as my "TV set").
The process started back in December, the prices having dropped, and in typical fashion, it took months for me to finally do the deed. But, I got a larger tv set, 22" instead of 19", and an LED backlight rather than CFL, and a full bore 1080 set rather than 720, and paid about 20 dollars more than the smaller set that tempted me in December. I paid about $120 more than if I'd bought a DTV converter, but I actually get a larger and more modern tv set than the Commodore monitor. The new set heats up less than my smaller LCD monitor (with CFL backlight).
I plugged it in with a loop antenna, and with barely any fussing, Channel 57, Mountain Lake PBS, was back, with three channels. That in itself was worth it I've lived with grainy tv all my life, except that period from about 1982 to 1997 when I had cable (I gave it up when I started paying for the internet),
and the neat thing about DTV is that it's all or nothing. 57 was always somewhat grainy at the best of times, that's gone. A bit more fussing, and CBS (a main channel and a weather channel) and NBC (the main channel and a second channel devoted to old movies) could be received, a great feat since the last time I saw either channel over the air was in the sixties, when I'd get up early in the morning and watch them before channels 6 and 2 came on. the local signals wiped out the adjacent channel US stations. I don't think I ever saw a full episode of Captain Kangaroo. Of course, back then tv stations went off the air overnight, and ran test paterns in the morning. Some more fussing and Channel 33, Vermont PBS, came in, four channels (though only three distinct channels), a real bounty.
The movie subchannel from WPTZ Plattsburgh is like a return to the days of Joe Van's Movie Matinee in the seventies (and the varaiants when he died), movies every weekday afternoon on CFCF. In fact, the schedlue for May had movies I hadn't seen since back then.
No sign of FOX, channel 44, or ABC, channel 22 (though apparently the latter is particularly hard to get).
It's not perfect, some dropoffs and about two weeks later I lost some of those channels, I'm assuming because the leaves on the trees came back. I'll have to fuss later, fiddle with the antenna, but I'm assuming come the fall, when I actually want to watch tv, I can expect decent reception of some US stations. And by then, the local stations will all be digital, so the VCR will no longer work as a tuner.
The stories I'd read suggested that if things had been grainy before, they might not be receivable now. That doesn't seem to be the defining point. FOX could decline very so often, but it was the strongest in the days of analog TV, yet it's the other stations that I got without much fussing.
Of course, there is disappointment to this, I was fantasizing about watching certain movies on the larger set, even had kept some aside for the day I brought home a better tv set, and then reality sets in. Played on an old DVD player, the DVDs do not fill the screen. I'll have to wait for a sale (or recycling bin reject) for an upconverting DVD player.
