Recommendation for HDTV Antenna

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: tonycarguy
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Everyone has cable these days...


Is that so? There are 20-40MM households in the US who don't have cable TV, depending on who you believe.


That's all well and good, I've never paid a dime to a cable company and the only cable I've had is in a hotel room...

That said, I live in a relatively affluent area and everyone ive talked to has dish or comcast... They are happy throwing away $100/month to pay to watch commercials...

 

[kb01]

I bought a fairly cheap HDTV antenna off of Monoprice and am very happy with it. Though, I really only use it for watching football and election returns. Everything else is either streaming or DVDs from Netflix.

 

[bradepb]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: tonycarguy
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Everyone has cable these days...


Is that so? There are 20-40MM households in the US who don't have cable TV, depending on who you believe.


That's all well and good, I've never paid a dime to a cable company and the only cable I've had is in a hotel room...

That said, I live in a relatively affluent area and everyone ive talked to has dish or comcast... They are happy throwing away $100/month to pay to watch commercials...

I used to feel the exact same way but some of you guys dont seem to get it , for about ten bucks more a month get a DVR and no more comercials, my total bill for over 70 channels with dvr and high speed internet is 90.00 a month, cheep entertainment if you ask me.

 

[JHZR2]

$90 a month is cheap?

I have to pay an extra $10 to not watch commercials, when Im alread paying the cable company to pipe the tv into my house? They should be editing out the commercials for me for those prices!

$90 is not cheap, considering what you get... I could be getting FREE OTA TV and still watch commercials.

At that point it may make sense to pay $10/month for a device that lets me skip them... As it is a time versus how they make their money balance.

no cable for me.

 

[97tbird]

OTA hdtv, Netflix streaming and Netflix Regular account, Hulu streaming in high quality connected to an HDTV...THAT is cheap entertainment, IMO (with better pic quality than compressed cable)

 

[97tbird]

Originally Posted By: kb01
I bought a fairly cheap HDTV antenna off of Monoprice and am very happy with it. Though, I really only use it for watching football and election returns. Everything else is either streaming or DVDs from Netflix.


which Monoprice model did you get? Link? How many HDTV channels were you able to pull in?

Thanks.

 

[motorguy222]

There is really no such thing as an HD antenna,it is more of a scheme than anything to try and sell people something that they may not need.Any antenna will pick up HD signals that are in its range and wave length.

If an antenna is a UHF,it will pick up channels in the respected range of that antenna and so too with a VHF.A combination antenna will do the same whether the antenna is a year old or ten.The pushing of "HD" antennas is a way for stores and antenna makers to make more money.There is really no such thing as an "HD" antenna,any antenna will pick up HD signals.

We dont have cable and used a 4 bay UHF for some time and got signals fine from it.We did have to get a VHF/UHF antenna later because some stations went to VHF.

 

[97tbird]

well said - I also found it humorous to see regular antennas being called "HD" TV antennas, but they used it so much, you get used to calling them that.

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: 97tbird
well said - I also found it humorous to see regular antennas being called "HD" TV antennas, but they used it so much, you get used to calling them that.

It reminds me of the olden daze when color TV came out. Back then the tuners for VHF channels were a big rotary switch that usually had cheap contacts that needed frequent cleaning after a couple of years. They sold color TV tuner cleaner alongside the B&W tuner cleaner.

 

[JHZR2]

All true. HDTV is the naming convention of the day. All I really need is a good TV antenna for UHF and high VHF...

 

[Papa Bear]

I have an AntennaCraft HBU-22

 

[bigmike]

I've never had TV service. Probably never will either.

How many people do you hear talk about how bad off they are, yet they have cable or satellite service? I find that odd. I don't really care if someone wants to pay alot of money for services, but it irks me when people complain about doing so as though it is a priority.

My wife installed a RCA ANT751 in our attic. It took all of about 20 minutes and she'd never used a drill before.

We get 22 channels without any signal boost. It goes through the old cable TV cables that the last owner must have had installed. I split off of it in the attic and we have a coax jack in every room that I can hook up to.

I believe our signal is around 20-30dbs. I do have a booster, but chose not to put it in as I don't see any improvement using it.

 

[CivicFan]

Originally Posted By: 97tbird
OTA hdtv, Netflix streaming and Netflix Regular account, Hulu streaming in high quality connected to an HDTV...THAT is cheap entertainment, IMO (with better pic quality than compressed cable)


How do you like Hulu? I am still unable to get used to it - there really is not much content worth watching on Hulu.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: bigmike
How many people do you hear talk about how bad off they are, yet they have cable or satellite service? I find that odd. I don't really care if someone wants to pay alot of money for services, but it irks me when people complain about doing so as though it is a priority.


Absolutely agree.

 

[97tbird]

Originally Posted By: CivicFan
Originally Posted By: 97tbird
OTA hdtv, Netflix streaming and Netflix Regular account, Hulu streaming in high quality connected to an HDTV...THAT is cheap entertainment, IMO (with better pic quality than compressed cable)


How do you like Hulu? I am still unable to get used to it - there really is not much content worth watching on Hulu.


I agree about content - to be honest, we used Hulu mostly to catch up on "Lost" series, after Netflix streaming took off all "Lost" HD seasons except s-5 off their list. It has been a (+) experience with Hulu. in 480p, it's very decent on my LCD...worse than Netflix HD of course, but still very good. I may try to find some other stuff that we can't get on Netflix Instant streaming, but other than that, we have limited user experience with Hulu. It did well for what we needed it for. Now that we finished watching Season 4, we can revert to Netflix streaming again for Season 5...HD sure does make a difference.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: bigmike
I've never had TV service. Probably never will either.

How many people do you hear talk about how bad off they are, yet they have cable or satellite service? I find that odd. I don't really care if someone wants to pay alot of money for services, but it irks me when people complain about doing so as though it is a priority.

My wife installed a RCA ANT751 in our attic. It took all of about 20 minutes and she'd never used a drill before.



I've never had cable/sat either. Never bought an antenna. A friend gave me an old one with UHF/VHF sections about 25 yrs ago. Put it on a pole attached to the chimney, great picture. My neighbor with cable couldn't understand why his picture was so poor.

I don't have time for 8 channels, much less 200+. OTA is great & free!

 

[dwcopple]

Originally Posted By: sleddriver

I don't have time for 8 channels, much less 200+. OTA is great & free!
You people obviously aren't sports fans.

 

[97tbird]

That's exactly the point - some people just have enough with that # of channels, and some don't - those who don't, have (or have to have) cable.
I am a movie fan (not a sport fan), and I depend on Netflix rental and streaming accounts for movies, not TV - so, i don't need cable.

 

[FL-400S]

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...rue#Post2003969

I got the one bigmike suggested, and got it from amazon. I have it in my attic. I get every channel perfectly fine in the direction I have it pointed. however I don't use it much (see below).

What cable doesn't tell you is that they still pipe local channels thorough if you have a cable modem. So it's still as simple as plugging in an HDTV and getting "cable" but mostly the same channels as antenna.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I made my own Tiered bowtie antenna similar to the ones posted on U tube. I used 12 awg copper grounding wire instead of coat hangers though.

Instead of a 2x4 I used a piece of 1x2 red oak and sealed it.

This works great at pulling in stations front and rear.

In my location, every VHF high channel is being used, and I could not get the distant ones. I took an old pair of rabbit ears and mounted them at the top of the mast.

Voila, All the VHF high come in nicely except in Santa Ana weather conditions. I added another set of rabbit ears halfway down the antenna. They help increase signal strength.

IF you make your own, make sure the elements are exactly the same length, and mounted equidistant.

If you use an amplifier, put it as close to the antenna as possible.

Each splitter and coupler reduced the signal. Minimize them.

Older houses might use RG-59 coaxial cable. RG-6 has a thicker copper center wire that helps greatly.

Experiment with autoscans and antenna pointing. I can get more stations if I move my antenna 15 degrees north of TV fool's recommendation, and a couple stations are more like 45 degrees from the tower for maximum signal strength.