6 million may lose digital TV reception

[Eli Polonsky]

My mom bought a new DTV last summer. I think it was a
Philips/Magnavox. She didn't even know that it was a
DTV, or anything about it. She just thought she was
replacing her old set. It was on sale for a low price
of under $300 for a 19" model, and I'm guessing that
may be because it has a much more rectangular (closer
to square) screen than any other newer DTV's I've seen
which all have much wider screens. This must have been
an early model that didn't conform to new dimensions.

With the widescreen broadcasts on DTV, this set has
two choices for resolution. The picture can fill the 
screen with at least an inch cut off on either side,
or the entire picture can be seen with black spaces
on the top and bottom. My mom chooses the former. 

Anyway, she asked my brother to set it up, and he knew
nothing about DTV either. He called me up, exclaiming
"This thing has a perfect picture on any channel that
it gets, and it gets two of most of the channels, with 
different programming. It even gets four Channel 44's!" 
I said, "It sounds like our mom bought a digital TV!"

Anyway, on the subject of over the air DTV reception
with rabbit ears, all the stations at 128 come in with
no problem. My mom is in between Newtonville and Newton
Corner, just about four miles from the 128 towers. The
top tower lights can be seen just above the local tree
line outside her window. However, it also gets the DTV
signals from 27 in W. Boylston and 66 in Hudson(?) on
the rabbit ears with minimal tweaking. She's on a second
floor, but not a particularly high ground elevation.

EP