digital sat receivers
 

Might be a dumb question but can i use a sat receiver for the new digital tv broadcasts. I one I got for free and was just wondering.

If it has an ATSC tuner built into it, it would work. A couple of years ago, I borrowed a DirecTV sat receiver from a friend that has a built-in ATSC tuner for OTA reception, but it was really lousy. Judging its age probably 10 years old, and an early generation ATSC tuner, it would only pick up 3 DTV stations out of over 30! I borrowed it to check my DTV reception and it really had me worried until I tried a recent generation tuner, which receives all 30+ stations no problem. There have been major improvements made in digital TV tuners.

Thanks for the reply but from the time I posted that untill now I found a place that has factory refurbs, so I got myself a 27" viewsonic LCD for 250.00 out the door.Of course the week after they had 32" sharp aquous for $500.00. Thanks again , I can allways count on AKers for the right answers.:D

I can work as mentioned, except I have read that some of these SAT STBs need to be in "active" mode. Many folks that had VOOM receivers (such as me at one time) were doing the same thing after VOOM disappeared, thus only the ATSC tuners in them was left for usage. However, some of these boxes apparently received a signal that shut them off, and these boxes now are not usable.