Extremely lost and confus

[Maalvi]

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada, zipcode 89129. I have a Sony Bravia KDL-32L4000, which has a built-in ATSC™/NTSC tuner with QAM that "delivers over-the-air digital TV and unencrypted HDTV broadcast signals, as well as traditional analog TV broadcasts."

So.. I've never had tv since I was a kid at home, not cable, not sattelite, not antenna--nothing. I have a DVD player running into component-in 1 and my (now dead) pc running into component-in 2. I've had an online tv service that I used to play just through the tv, which I had set to my second monitor for my pc. Well, my pc is out of commission for the foreseeable future, and I can't afford a new one, and my laptop is not that fancy, so I'm now trying to get a few channels on antenna.

I live in a downstairs apartment in the middle of the north side of the building. Above me there is a second floor, and there are mature pine trees and some other wispy leafy trees outside. To the west there are two-story houses, to the north is another two-story apartment building, to the south another two-story apartment building, and to the east it's pretty clear--the driveway and covered parking are to the east, but beyond that just an empty field and then the interstate, so there is nothing tall in the way.

However, because it's a downstairs apartment, I have no way to put up an outdoor antenna. So, I'll find an indoor antenna. But I don't understand any of this. Based on what I've found to read online, it sounds like not all antennas can pick up all channels, which seems unlike antennas behaved from wayyyy back when I was 8. And it also seems that only the outdoor ones are labeled with the types of channels they can pick up, or I'm just missing something. I would of course like to have as many of the channels available in my area as possible. (I think there are 16, but the site I found them on didn't show their color-coding anyways.)

Also, I don't understand what a 'converter box' does but EVERYBODY and their dog IMMEDIATELY tells me I need a converter box to use antenna tv.

Also, if I have this special tuner built-in, doesn't that mean I should already get some channels without having to do anything? (I assume the answer to this is no, since I have no channels, but I don't understand why or what it means or what it does for me)

Thanks,

Nikki

[tigerbangs]

No, you don't need a converter! Your TV set has everything in it to receive digital HDTV signals. As for an antenna, indoor antennas are very unreliable, and I can't promise that you'd be able to do very well with one, since there are so many variables when dealing with indoor installations. My best suggestion to you would be to invest in an indoor antenna, connect it to the antenna terminal on your TV set, scan for channels (read the instruction book to tell you how to do that) and see what comes in. As I recall, Las Vegas has mostly VHF digital channels, which are a bit harder to get with an indoor antenna than UHF channels are, but you may get lucky. If an indoor antenna is all you can use, I have had SOME success with the TERK HDTVa, but, whatever antenna you buy, be sure to get return privileges from the vendor in case it isn't satisfactory.

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc ... nna-(HDTVA)&c=TV%20Antennas%20-%20Indoor%20Only&sku=