Originally Posted by cycloneworld 
Ok, so I found out my TV has the HD tuner built in. I plug an indoor antenna into my TV just to see if things work and the locals are fuzzy (8 and 13...I don't even want to talk about 5).
From reading in the other HD thread, I thought it was an all or nothing? Or am I just picking up the "standard" channels?
I live in West Des Moines and I'm just using the atenna set Mediacom gave me for now. Maybe I need to buy something "better"?
Any advice or help?
Sounds like you're just getting the regular locals. When OTA HD channels get interference they don't come in or get "pixely" and the sounds skips.
Also, the HD channels are 5.1, 8.1, 13.1, 17.1, etc. If you're seeing just 5, 8 and so on - you're defintely just getting the regular channels.
I don't know if the stuff from Mediacom will work or not. I thought I read in the other thread about HD - someone said those would work to pickup HD channels - but I can't recall for sure.
ripvdub - I have the OTA antenna and that's the only way to get HD locals if you have DirecTV. The last word from them is the locals would not be available in HD for our area until the 4th quarter of this year. It's a
huge difference between the regular locals you get via the satellite and HD locals you get OTA. It's one simple cable and if you're HD box isn't too old from what I understand - you can run the antenna cable right into the box. This way, you can view the HD locals on your DirecTV guide, record them if you have a DVR, etc.
A few members here were kind enough to share some of this very helpful information with me. I really suggest you skim through that other thread.
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