

Tip: Your old cable box may be padding out your electric billĪ group of major cable and satellite operators pledged in December to upgrade the efficiency of the receiver and digital-video-recorder boxes they provide to subscribers. Playing around with different antennas can help improve your reception - newer models are flat and light enough to stick on a wall - but if geography isn't cooperating, there may not be much you can do. You may find that you can get high-def local TV for free, but you might also find that the stations you remember coming in with just a bit of snow over analog break up over digital. Digital reception, as my own experience and reader reports have endlessly reminded me, doesn't match analog. The last bit of advice I'd give: If you can, first borrow somebody else's digital TV or DTV tuner to see whether you get acceptable reception at home.
