House TV Antennas

[JHZR2]

Hi,

I grew up ~5 miles from Manhattan... We never had cable. Ill be moving to ~10 miles from Philadelphia (on the NJ side, of course). In my eternal cheapness, I refuse to buy cable TV. Comcast rates are ridiculous, and I hate the thought of paying to watch commercials.

Since 9/11, my parents' reception in the NYC market has been noticably worse than before. At my grandparents' home in NE Phila., their reception has never been all that perfect.

Now that I have my own home, I desire to get good reception. My parents have talked about getting one of these for a while now too... Ive seen people that have a large TV antenna on their chimney, or up in their attic.

Does anyone on here have one of those? How well does it work? Are these new 'amplified' antennas that you can buy that look like rabbit ears with a transformer and 45dB gain any good, or anywhere comprable?

As far as these large house antennas go, can they be used to get in more than one channel at a time, or can it only be used to hook up to one TV? Are there any reasons why we wouldnt want one of them?

Id probably not hook it up externally, but rather hide it behind one of the kneeling walls in my finished walkup attic. This way its doing its job but out of sight in a somewhat worthless space. My parents have a large house with a huge unfinished walk up attic so there are plenty of spots and nooks to put theirs.

Any suggestions or input?

Thanks,

JMH

[ May 10, 2006, 11:30 PM: Message edited by: JHZR2 ]

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

"As far as these large house antennas go, can they be used to get in more than one channel at a time, or can it only be used to hook up to one TV? Are there any reasons why we wouldnt want one of them?"
---------------------------------------------------------

I think a house antenna is the way to go. Many apartment buildings have one master antenna for the entire complex.

 

[Bob Woods]

I live 25-30 miles north of the broadcast towers and use a big antenna on a 20 foot mast, I split the signal to three TV's, four counting the RV when used. Since the signal is always there you can have the recievers on different channels.You can buy signal splitters with signal amplifers built in.

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx may be of some help to you in determining what antenna to buy.

 

[TheTanSedan]

http://www.teeveesupply.com/product_pages/antennas/antennacraft_antennas.htm

Radio Shack once had a decent selection.

Don't forget HD signals.

 

[eljefino]

I have two directional UHF antennas on my roof.

They work quite well. Despite not being tuned for VHF they get local VHF analog signals adequately.

All the stations in my area are/will be broadcasting UHF digital television. These antennae work well for them, too.

There are two major hills that broadcast at me, one to the north and one to the west. So one directional antenna wasn't cutting it as it would "ignore" the other direction by design.

I feed both antennae into an A/B switcher, which I installed backwards to make a combiner, so I can pick north or west. Simpler than having a rotor.

I have a digital television set top box with S-video out. (H)DTV looks awesome even downconverted to standard def. As of March 2007 all TVs of a certain size MUST receive DTV so consider its reception in your planning.

Amplifiers are junk b/c they amplify noise too. You need a good signal/noise ratio. Getting higher in the air is a great way to do that.

The attic may work okay as long as you don't have foil-backed insulation or, of course, a metal roof. If you're in row houses you'll want an outdoor roof mast so you can "see" over your neighbors.

 

[kanling]

Generally, I would use a traditional style outdoor TV antenna even if used in the attic. They are cheapest and perform best. The ones that are heavily marketed are always overpriced and usually aren't as good anyway.

But, you have to make sure you get the proper one for the job and place it in appropriate place and pointed in the right direction.

The consumer electronics assn has antennaweb for that purpose.

Amplifiers often help... especially if you have long cable runs or multiple outlets. But, an amplifier can also hurt if it gets overloaded by a closeby TV or FM station (you will have nothing but interference). Start without an amp and then put one in later if needed.

I'm with you on cable and satellite being way overpriced for the value you get out of it.

 

[Matt_S]

In my experience, antennas are much more useful if you have a rotor. You can easily fine-tune stations to get the best reception for the channel you're currently viewing.

 

[kkreit01]

If you have Comcast, check into their Limited Basic Service. We had an outdoor antenna for 7 years. It was a PITA! Some stations were never that clear. We get severe storms in KS -- it flew off our roof twice -- gets all bent up. If you only have 1 TV, you can try a powered indoor antenna. You can always return it if it doens't work. Antennas in general are one of those "iffy" things. It may work fine for your neighbor across the street, and it may not for you.

Last year, we finally did it. Comcast came out, and ran the cable to our house, and to 3 rooms (our house was never "cable-ready"). We are on their Limited Basic Plan -- which they will never advertise. We pay $18/month (including tax) for 25 CLEAR analog channels (Major Networks, PBS, Discovery Helth, etc.). Don't have to worry about wind storms. Don't have to worry about missing a recorded show due to reception. Don't have to have an extra box. It's almost the best $18/mnth we could spend. I fought with the darn antenna every year -- and I will never go back.

 

[Al]

Get Comcasts basic package. For 11 bucks you get 20+ stations including History Channel.. Excellent deal.

 

[JHZR2]

Ehhhh, I hope it doesnt come to that... I have better things to do with my $11-18, like spend it on gas!

Ill put up with ghosting or similar from my rabbit ears, and see how long I can take it!!! Maybe at some point there will be a better/cheaper option!

Thanks,

JMH

 

[eljefino]

For around $100 you can get into Free to Air satellite.

Lots of nerdy foreign stuff on IA-5.

Lots of network affiliate stuff on Galaxy 10R. (Note: Only yellow stuff is unencrypted, KU band starts at 11700 Mhz so ignore the 4000 stuff.)

Get a ebay free to air receiver and old 1-meter Primestar KU band dish.

Intercept studio-to-transmitter signals of faraway network affiliates... like in Wyoming. Only bummer is most of these channels are on the west coast so one needs to stay up REALLY late.

It's 100% legal as the signals are not encrypted. They're just not advertised either.

Makes a great complement to directv and dish that think they can charge an extra $5 for local channels.

Old C-band dishes are cool too. You can still get "top 40" programming for $130 a year if you prepay.

 

[TheTanSedan]

http://theoildrop.server101.com/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=006871

 

[drm7]

What are you going to do for internet access? I've been on dial-up for 5 years and I want to jump off a cliff!

I'm building a new house and doing everything I can to convince Charter to service me. I'm only planning to use them for internet. I plan to go with Dish for TV. If they won't service me then I'm probably going to pop for satellite internet as much as I hate to spend that much. I just can't sit and wait for page loads anymore.

 

[eljefino]

DRM7, just get their whole package then downgrade to internet after a month.

Once the wire goes to your house, they'll have to send someone out to put the video filter in.

I would just order basic internet and if they give you any grief, call your congressman and demand "a la carte" cable as well as other reforms. There are several debates raging right now down in Washington.

 

[JHZR2]

quote:

---

Originally posted by drm7:
What are you going to do for internet access? I've been on dial-up for 5 years and I want to jump off a cliff!

---

We're using the cheap (768k?) DSL, as we decided that we do want a basic landline... even if we use te cellphone for long distance. $17.99/mo is something Im willing to pay for, as I get a LOT more value out of internet than TV. Plus, comcast wants $19.99/mo starting out, then $42.95/mo for normal cable inet service!

JMH

 

[labman]

Even with my cable connection, I often wait while a page loads. No matter how good your connection, you are limited by the server, and the processor in your computer. Also, some sites won't work right with anything except Macrocrap.

 

[drm7]

Ah, DSL. Forgot about that since I can't get it either. If I could I'd probably do like you and go with the $15 768k package. IMO the $40+ cable companies charge is too much for internet but I believe broadband is as much a requirement as phone service. These kids in the county are going to be left behind because they can't use the web. I remember in 95/96 when people were trying to design web pages for 28k, then 56k because that's all you had. Now, the web has so much content its really geared towards broadband. I also want to see the upload speeds get faster. 1mb would be good IMO. There are now many 2-way things you can do with internet that fast uploads would be nice. This is why I was anxious to see if I could get the Wifi service. Being a radio its the same speed bi-directional.

 

[oilyriser]

Antenna cable quality and impedance matching also affect reception.

this site looks informative
www.starkelectronic.com/cmig7.htm

 

[keith]

I have a big antenna in the attic. It's a ChannelMaster 3020 if I recall:

3020

I also have a Dish satellite system with their 811 receiver which has built in ATSC digital and analog tuners for OTA. I get the majors (CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox) in digital and a few others in digital, plus a bunch of analog junk. The primetime high definition shows are usually top quality - the picture at least, the show itself is usually garbage.

Larger antennas typically have a narrow beam pattern, meaning that most of your transmitters need to be at roughly the same compass location. A smaller antenna usually has a wider beam pattern, but less gain. Less gain means that the signal will have more noise into the tuner. If you get a strong signal, shouldn't be a problem going smaller. See what antennaweb recommends for an antenna at your address:

Antennaweb

Their antenna ratings assume the antenna is unobstructed i.e. on your roof. If you choose an attic location, the signal strength will drop a little and you might need to upsize the antenna. That's why I went with the huge ChannelMaster 3020 in my attic. It's out of sight, so who cares how big it is as long as it will physically fit in the attic space.

Good luck, I sure do understand not wanting to pay for cable or satellite. It's a money pit. My wife watches a few shows she must have that are not on OTA, otherwise I'd drop the Dish entirely and go with only OTA. As it is, we have a basic Dish package with no premiums (HBO etc.).

 

[Cogito]

Your best signal will come off a roof-top antenna. If you put it inside, like in your attic, you likely will get some channels with lots of ghosting or poor signals. You should be able to get a good idea of what you can expect to receive well and what kind of antenna to get after checking the antennaweb analysis for your address.