HD antenna?

[Mark Bolton]

I am wondering what experiences any have had with this whole HD antenna thing (knowing its just an antenna). We are "cutting the cord" or whatever its called at the house. Work is so swamped we are never home and 80+ a month for a TV that we dont watch is ridiculous. Getting the OTA stations coupled with Netflix would more that suffice at home.

I have been reading but man its a gauntlet of information that is all covered by the "an antenna that works well in one location may not work well in another". We are at least 35 miles from the nearest station but we are on a 1500' ridgeline with a clear line of sight for, well, forever.

Just wondering if anyone had any words of wisdom before I just close my eyes, point to the screen, and order which ever one I am pointing at.

Thanks,
Mark

[Eric Franklin]

I've been using an antenna for a couple of years and I would have a really hard time pay for cable/satellite again. I would look at http://antennaweb.org/ (http://antennaweb.org) which will give you distances and headings for each of your local stations. My stations range from 11-35 miles from my house and all of them are SE expect for 2 stations which NW. I bought a Terk HDTVO (http://www.amazon.com/Terk-HDTVO-Amplified-HDTV-Antenna/dp/B0009W9WHQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1293407421&sr=8-1) which I point NE and can pickup all the stations. I gave the antenna a try because it was inexpensive and easy to mount.

Antenna reviews can't be trusted because it really varies per location if the antenna performs well. My recommendation is to try an inexpensive antenna if the stations you want are relatively close.

Another option for TV watching that is good to combine with Netflix and an antenna is to look at iTunes TV rentals/purchases or Amazon on-demand. If there are certain shows you want to watch, you can purchase/rent them from either place relatively inexpensively. If you need a set top box for watching Netflix streaming, look at an Apple TV (http://www.apple.com/appletv/) or Roku (http://www.roku.com/). Sony Playstation 3 also makes a great Netflix streaming device and Blu-Ray player.

Hopefully this helps.

[Mark Bolton]

Eric,
Thanks for the input its greatly appreciated. We have looked at most of the on-line options you mention however the streaming thing wont fly at the house as its pretty remote and no internet. Mentioned in another post that we had satellite internet but that is out for streaming as they limit data transfer and we have long since bailed out of its high monthly cost.

We both (wife and I) work a lot so we watch/listen to a lot of podcasts and many shows she likes she can watch online here at the shop. (just goes to show, Sunday 12/26 7:18PM and we are here at the shop working).

I like your advice of the inexpensive antenna. We have stations to the south, SE, SW and N so I had been thinking of a long range directional (one of these 150 mile deals). Under 100.00 isnt bad but a lot of them seem pretty cheap/chincy to where you may be buying one every so often.

Mark

[Jerry Bruette]

Mark

I'm using a antenna that's over 20 years old and I pick up most of the seven channels that are about sixty miles away. Some days are spotty but I'll get at least three of them all the time. Alot of what I've read says that if you had good reception with your antenna before you should still have good reception after the switch to digital...I know I'll catch heck for that statement. But it's been true for me YMMV

Jerry

[Rick Gooden]

It really is pretty simple. If your receiving antenna can "see" the xmit antenna and you can position the elements of your antenna 90 degrees from the direction of the signal, reception will be good with any HD antenna. When signals come from different directions is when it becomes more complicated. It sounds like you are in an ideal situation to just pick one out and point in the right direction. I live in a valley that would require at least a 60' mast so it wont work for me, darnit.

[Mark Bolton]

Mark

I'm using a antenna that's over 20 years old and I pick up most of the seven channels that are about sixty miles away. Some days are spotty but I'll get at least three of them all the time. Alot of what I've read says that if you had good reception with your antenna before you should still have good reception after the switch to digital...I know I'll catch heck for that statement. But it's been true for me YMMV

Jerry

Jerry,
Thanks for the info. The statement you make is why I said in my initial post (knowing its just an antenna). At least from what I have read what you say is dead on true. There is no such thing as an HD antenna it just becomes an issue of an antenna's ability to separate wide spread signals.

My only history in this location with an antenna has been with an indoor rabbit ears/loop setup before we fell trap to the 200 channel beast. We did get decent reception, perhaps great, as I recall so I too think, as Rick said, we are in a prime location. I do remember at times doing the old, spread the antenna-hold a leg in the air-tie a piece of foil to one ear and hook it to that door hinge-type thing, but it was very rare.

I guess I am just trying to come to the old decision of do I go with the basic unit that just sits there and gets what it gets or do I fall prey to another 200 channel beast (divided by 10) that touts to pickup every channel for 150 miles (whether it will or not). Of course these "super" antennae are directional, have rotors, and need to be pointed somewhat for a given set of tower locations.

There are a core set of stations (perhaps 7) in the nearest city (30 miles) but there are some 40 odd stations in a 100 mile radius of us. There would surely be a lot of redundancy, and we have a tree line to the north which may affect our ability to catch some of those.

Its the age old, can I get by with the 5" Dewalt ROS for 50 bucks or do I want to spring for the Festool? Only difference here is the price spread is like 65.00 up to 150.00 but neither one is guaranteed to work in the first place.

Mark

[Matt Meiser]

You might look around for a local antenna dealer (not a big box or Radio Shack.) They should be able to tell you what will and won't work.

[Mark Bolton]

You might look around for a local antenna dealer (not a big box or Radio Shack.) They should be able to tell you what will and won't work.

Matt,
I did try that, and as much as I love it here and wouldn't trade it for the world, a lot of WV is kinda the armpit of the universe with regards to availability to such things. I guess its one of the trade offs for the bonus'.

It's kinda that way here with everything, mainly chain food, chain stores, and so on. I am still looking though as I am always more willing to get my info from a local source, support the locals, as well as the likelihood of being able to swap out one that didn't work for one that does.

Still looking, and Thanks!
Mark

[Rod Sheridan]

Mark, I probably have no advice that's applicable to your location, however we went with off air TV last spring.

I receive 17 digital and 9 analogue channels which is great.

One of them is PBS Buffalo, where we receive the normal program as well as the ThinkBright program. ThinkBright is great, I receive 4 woodworking shows on Saturday.

We normally watch public broadcasters such as PBS, CBC, TVO etc, as I find the remainder of the programming designed to kill what few functioning brain cells I still have.

The suggestion to purchase an antenna and try it is good, you may need an antenna rotator depending upon where the stations are located.

Regards, Rod.

[Myk Rian]

Retailers have been pitching so called "HD antennas" with a higher price attached to them. There is NO difference between the rooftop antenna of years past, and the HD ones of today.
An antenna is an antenna. If it picks up TV stations, that is all you need.

[Mark Bolton]

We normally watch public broadcasters such as PBS, CBC, TVO etc, as I find the remainder of the programming designed to kill what few functioning brain cells I still have.

This is us as well. My wife does like some of the mind numbing stuff on occasion but I am much more the Nova, Frontline, etc. type. I will be making a decision today and we will see how it goes. Thanks for the input.

Mark

[Mark Bolton]

There is NO difference between the rooftop antenna of years past, and the HD ones of today.
An antenna is an antenna. If it picks up TV stations, that is all you need.

Myk,
Yeah, I have said that here in the thread. I am just trying to find one that works well but as has been gone over when your out a little ways it can be very location specific. I am also trying to balance a little bit as I dont really want one of the traditional looking antenna's on the roof if I can avoid it. Beggars cant be choosers as my mom use to say, but if I could find something a little more compact or that I could mount lower or on the side of the house (if I forgo the northern stations) it would look a little better.

Just as always, lots of criteria, and then trying to insure something works.

Mark

[Gerold Griffin]

Mark, I went through this a year ago and like you I couldn't find anyone who carried them that I felt knew what they were talking about. Found several antenna's that I thought were good but when I checked them against that antennaweb org site they were not listed for some reason. Then I contacted these folks. http://www.dennysantennaservice.com/ Its a family run business and those folks are great. In just one call they told all the stations that I could expect to recieve and gave me several options for a antenna. I ended up with a Winegaurd 8200U, the biggest and baddest IMO. They only carry one rotor and its a far cry from anything I can remember, I love it. Then I picked up a signal booster, also from dennys. In short I regularly recieve channels that the antenna web site says I cannot get, but dennys said I can. Since you don't have anyone in your area qualified for this my best advice is get with them.

[eric mah]

Don't laugh, but consumer reports actually recommends this one.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/maker_workshop_pdf_dtv_antenna.html

If you are hanging around here, this shouldn't be a problem.

Eric

[Derek Gilmer]

Don't laugh, but consumer reports actually recommends this one.

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/01/maker_workshop_pdf_dtv_antenna.html

If you are hanging around here, this shouldn't be a problem.

Eric

That is the one I built 2.5 years ago and it works perfectly. I get all the available stations as clear as my neighbor across the street with a fancy $100 antenna.

[Mark Bolton]

Well,
In the morning I am either going to be one of three things,

1. A total sucker (though I dont think the fellow creekers would doop me so I dont think this will be the case)

2. Pleasantly surprised

3. Let down and calling the antenna company

175296

I read a bit today and watched a handful of videos and thought, I have about 40lbs of brazing rod out in the shop, heat shrink tubing, and I think I may be able to scrounge up a board somewhere, oh and some screws, may have to run out for those. So there it is. I trip to Radio Shack when we leave the shop to pick up this transformer do hickie and the test will begin. We keep full reels of RG6 and plenty of ends here for the construction so I think I have it covered.

Wish me luck....
Mark

[Greg Scull]

Well,
In the morning I am either going to be one of three things,

1. A total sucker (though I dont think the fellow creekers would doop me so I dont think this will be the case)

2. Pleasantly surprised

3. Let down and calling the antenna company

175296

I read a bit today and watched a handful of videos and thought, I have about 40lbs of brazing rod out in the shop, heat shrink tubing, and I think I may be able to scrounge up a board somewhere, oh and some screws, may have to run out for those. So there it is. I trip to Radio Shack when we leave the shop to pick up this transformer do hickie and the test will begin. We keep full reels of RG6 and plenty of ends here for the construction so I think I have it covered.

Wish me luck....
Mark
You will be very happy with your new antenna. I have the same one ( made from coat hangers ) hanging in my attic. I found that I needed the "reflector" so I added two cookie drying racks behind it. I get all the major network and our PBS feed which keeps me well fed with Rough cut, The Woodwright's Shop, Woodturning Workshop and The WoodSmith shop. Thats all you need right??

I added a cheap PC running windows 7 and a HD Homerun to record multiple shows at once. Win7 for TV + Netflix I haven't looked back.

[Mark Bolton]

I added a cheap PC running windows 7 and a HD Homerun to record multiple shows at once. Win7 for TV + Netflix I haven't looked back.

So what? Does windows seven act as a Tivo of some sort? This was one of the things my wife liked about the DishNetwork was the DVR. This could be interesting.

Mark

[Greg Scull]

So what? Does windows seven act as a Tivo of some sort? This was one of the things my wife liked about the DishNetwork was the DVR. This could be interesting.

Mark
Yep, the hdhomerun is a small box that connects to two coax antenna signal
The win 7 box w/hdmi out connected to HDTV
Hdhomerun connected via home network(Ethernet)

Win 7 has windows media center, live tv guide, "TiVo" dvr like, also allows u to watch Netflix on the tv

I got a new pc in June (250$) + hdhomerun99$?

It's paid off now in the savings from dropping cable.

It has the added benefit of increased shop time when there isn't anything worth watching :)

Beware: this is dangerous as I have found myself buying hand tools to use when the kids are asleep and no good tv to watch !!!

[Mark Bolton]

Well, Got home late last night but moved the TV, connected the few bits and pieces, set the wood and wire caterpillar on the window sill and hit "scan", waiting, waiting, waiting, then one, two, three,... and finally 10 channels. Two of these were a bit choppy but man the picture quality on the others was outstanding. With our satellite internet many of our locals were being broadcast in HD and the Dish box for some reason would chop the sides of the picture off. Dish could never resolve this with the locals. Not now, full screen, nice.

That said, there are some 25 stations within reach of these bigger antenna (so they say). I am going to move this antenna up high on the outside wall and see if anything changes but I am pleasantly surprised that such a simple thing performed so well.

It gets my vote especially if you are in closer proximity to the towers than us. I would never spend a dime.

Mark

[Derek Gilmer]

Others with more knowledge can weigh in on this. But I believe you can make a reflector of either flat tin foil behind the antenna or a parabolic shape behind it to help with its reception. I know this works for wifi/cel phone signals. Not sure how it works on the wavelengths involved in tv broadasting.

[Matt Meiser]

Well, I think I'm going to have to build one of those and give it a try.

To show you the difference area can make, I'd actually tried the one recommeneded at the link Gerold posted and it didn't do squat for us. The local electronics shop told me that their experience is that you need a tower and bigger antenna with a rotor to get good locals despite being relatively close to broadcasting towers.

[Mark Bolton]

Well, I think I'm going to have to build one of those and give it a try.

To show you the difference area can make, I'd actually tried the one recommeneded at the link Gerold posted and it didn't do squat for us. The local electronics shop told me that their experience is that you need a tower and bigger antenna with a rotor to get good locals despite being relatively close to broadcasting towers.

Matt,
I have to say upon looking at this thing, and using what I would have thought of a common sense, I would have been far more inclined to believe the information you got as opposed to our results. I mean, I tried to do a nice job building this thing as simple as it was. I kept all my wires striaght and tidy, bent them with pliers at pretty accurate angles, other than the beech board I tried to make it look pretty accurate and clean. We cut our wires accurately.

I did buy the gold transformer thing at radio shack (8.00) as opposed to the cheaper one, no idea if that matters.

I am extremely surprised though I would have to think a bigger version, with the rotor, in our location may get more channels. Like I say, our closest is about 30 miles but there are close to thirty within 100 miles. I dont think I would even consider the mega antenna if we werent on a 1500' ridge which is about the highest for many miles. I have a clear view of a highway that is 27 miles away as the crow flies that I can see with binoculars clearly so It would seem our location is ideal. Only killer for us as I said is two of the groupings of towers are slightly in the treeline for us which man not be a problem in winter but dont know about summer.

Like I say, we used brazing rod (local welding supply) and it took 8 pieces. Peanuts,....

I am going to try the reflector on the back too, see what happens.

Mark

[Greg Portland]

I did buy the gold transformer thing at radio shack (8.00) as opposed to the cheaper one, no idea if that matters.Mark, unfortunately Radio Shack no longer sells decent splitters or antenna hardware (they sell fancy looking but under-performing parts and cell phones). I would strongly suggest that you visit your local electronics supply (or order online). Channel Master is one company that makes excellent products and is readily available. I replaced my gold RS splitter with a Channel Master and got significantly better performance. Also, given your distance to the towers (100mi) you may want to consider a good antenna amplifier (again, Channel Master is a good start).

Height makes a HUGE difference in reception quality. If you are able to roof mount your antenna or at least attic mount the antenna then you should have a significant improvement.

In addition to the antennaweb website listed above, you can check out this forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=25 . There are some good antenna and amplifier reviews that you can read through.

[Greg Portland]

Guys, it should be mentioned that some stations are still correcting technical problems with ATSC broadcasts. For example, channel 2 here in Portland, OR is still screwing things up.

Matt, have you measured your signal strength for the various stations? Most tuners show the strength; if you are getting enough -consistent- signal then you have one of the following problems:

- multipath reflections of the signal (the typical problem for most people, especially with indoor antennas)
- broadcast facility problems (station is sending out a broken signal that glitches every so often)
- hardware problems at home (tuner is acting flaky, mainly an issue with PC-based systems using incorrect drivers)

Often people think they need a physically large antenna but this is RARELY the case. Almost every time elevating the antenna (move from den to roof) will fix the problem. Run your address through antennaweb and it will tell you the size of antenna that you'll need (it takes geography and airports into account).

[Mark Bolton]

Mark, unfortunately Radio Shack no longer sells decent splitters or antenna hardware

Here is what my wife and I were wondering today. I am going to mount this thing likely on a mast at the house. This will get it up perhaps 30' or better. Eventually we are going to have a windmill tower and that would be super being 60' high but it will be some distance from the house so signal loss and cable cost may become an issue but thats way down the road.

Back to the mast, Where these things are so simple to build here is my question, I have three groups of towers, one to the SSE, one to the S, and one to the SSW but they are spread pretty wide, perhaps wider than those headings but I would say close to a 90 degree spread. Could I just make three antenna's putting them all on the same mast one pointing to each location then run the three antenna's into a 3 into 1 splitter and run a single line down the mast into the house? Would the signals somehow conflict/cancel each other out or would this work?

I dont know why but I really hate the idea of a-b switch type things and I would rather not have the rotor unless I had to. Unless there is some technical issue (which there usually is) that have no clue about (which I usually dont), I thought this may work.

Thanks,
Mark

[Rick Gibson]

I pulled the plug on cable when we moved here. We are roughly half way between London ON. and Detroit. An hour to London and an hour and a half to Detroit. I have one of those little circular antennas you see on trailers up about 30 ft. (Looks like a flying saucer) I get 35 stations. All the Detroit digital and a bunch of analog from Ontario. I just leave the antenna pointed toward Detroit. Unless all these stations stop broadcasting over the air you will never see me back on cable. A higher gain antenna may help me a bit because the Detroit stations occasionally drop out for a few seconds when the weather conditions are wrong, then again it may not help at all because when this happens the signals drop from full strength to nothing.