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| Many of you can watch the Super Bowl with U.S. commercials - legally! |
| Posted
on Thursday, February 03, 2005 - 09:53 PM |
Every year, Canadians like to complain about not being able to watch the American commercials during the Super Bowl. Yet there's one perfectly simple way many of us can pick up the U.S. feed, which doesn't require an illegal dish, costs only a few dollars, and is perfectly legal.
Okay, I admit some of you may already know what I'm about to tell you, but you'd be surprised how many people overlook the option of using just a simple UHF antenna. And in some cases, it may be a lot easier to pick up a cross-border American signal than you think. It's one of the quirks of living in Canada, a country where most of its citizens live a stone's throw away from the U.S. border. If you live in Toronto or Montreal, for example, then you happen to be right on the fringe of the signal from Buffalo or Burlington, Vt. respectively.
Try disconnecting your cable and hooking up a UHF antenna instead. If you don't have one, you may be able to find one at your neighbourhood Radio Shack. By the way, while you're there, you may also have to pick a small adapter for your UHF antenna. It seems that most sets these days only come readily equipped with cable and satellite connections. I guess there must be something wrong with those of us who want to watch plain regular over-the-air TV. In any case, the adapter should also only cost you a few dollars. Now once you got your antenna hooked up, you may also have to access the on-screen menu on your TV and change your setting from cable mode to over-the-air mode. Once you've done that, tune your TV set to Channel 29 in the Toronto area to pick up WUTV-TV. In Montreal, tune to Channel 44 to pick up WFFF-TV.
Now at this point, some of you may be thinking, “Wait a minute, I've watched the Super Bowl on those channels before. Don't they show Canadian commercials?” Well, only if you watch on cable or on Canadian satellite. If you can pick up a Fox signal over the air, then you can watch the same commercials that you would see if you were watching in the States.
Now there are a few drawbacks. First of all, it won't work for everybody. Picking up U.S. reception can often be hit or miss, unless you live in Windsor. Second of all, even if it does work, you may have to settle for a slightly snowy image, which may defeat the purpose of watching the game on a big screen TV. But if you're watching on your small portable TV, it may be worth a try. If you can't pick up a signal right away don't give up. Try moving the antenna around.
If that doesn't work you can even try moving the TV into a different room. In the Montreal neighbourhood where I live, ABC and Fox provide a better picture than some of the so-called local stations, but only if my TV is in the living room. And if I stand in the window and hold the UHF antenna in the top right-hand corner, I can pick up PAX TV from upstate New York as well as a few odd glances from the neighbours.
For more info on how to improve your UHF reception, here's a link to a web page on the Vermont Public Television web site with helpful tips, obviously intended to help PBS viewers, but the same rules apply to Fox. If you're interested on spending a bit more money in a more permanent solution, like a roof top antenna (you know, what people used to have in the '50s before we discovered cable), keep in mind that the Super Bowl will not be on the same network next year. The results will vary from one year to another and you will need a combination VHF/UHF antenna. Some networks, like CBS, tend to broadcast via VHF instead of UHF. ABC on the other hand will require a VHF antenna in Toronto but a UHF antenna in Montreal. (A simple rule of thumb, if the local channel number by which the station identifies itself is 14 or higher, then it's UHF)
But whatever you do, don't get too carried away. After all, it's only television.
Written by Steve Hatton
TV Hat
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