questions on digital TV with antenna reception

[wnt2retire]

I have been a lurker for sometime. I got the coupons for the digital TV converter box for two old tv's and I also just bought a 26"(diagonal measure) LCD tv with tuner which I just hooked up to old rabbit ears. I must say I am disappointed. Yes, the picture is better, but I cannot get in half of the channels to stay. I tune them in and then an airplane comes over and I lose the signal and I have to get up and try to re-adjust the antenna or the channel will show up fine for several hours and then all the sudden the picture goes out or freexes and I get "low signal" message. I have never had problems with antenna tv in my home for over 20 years. I set up the antenna and got all 5-7 local networks fine. I live in a large metro area. I am not in any regular airplane traffic pattern or near an airport. Now I cannot turn the channnel or even watch for any length of time without having to get up and readjust the antennas. This is a real pain and not worth the picture quality improvement or the two extra weather channels. Is this what I have to look forward to next year? I will continue to use analogue channels as long as they are available. are there any good forums which have information on DTV? I cannot afford cable. I am so disappointed I spent the money on this new TV and the boxes.

Another thing my new "26" RCA LCD gives me a choice of picture (Wide, Normal, Cinema) Normal and Cinema give me usually a 19" square picture except on occational commercials, and on the analogue channels or watching a DVD. It does not even use the whole screen. If I go wide I get the top and bottom of the picture cut off. Why do they lie? I thought I would get a bigger picture than my old 19" analoque TV - not true. so very annoyed... thx for listening

Jean

[Sweetberries]

try to set your box to a different time zone :) see if that helps some
or check out Dtvanswers.com I think that's what is it not sure