OT: HD Antennas

[William]

Just curious if anyone is using an HD antenna to pick up local television broadcasts? How well do they work? Picture quality etc....






William

[rice rocket]

They're the same as the non-HD antennas.

The bandwidth each TV station licenses from the FCC is the same, whether analog or digital, thus the antenna should be the same. They wouldn't pay extra for extra broadcasting rights if they didn't have to.

http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/hdtv-antenna-hype.php

[rice rocket]

Also, www.antennaweb.org is a great site. It has everything you need to know about TV broadcasts in your area, everything down to what type of antenna you need, which direction to point it, etc., depending on your exact location.

[mandasol]

I can tell you the more expensive antennas are NOT any better than the cheaper ones. We don't watch tv so we don't have one at our home but my father and sister do and they've tried a lot of them and it really just boils down to if your house is in a place that gets good reception or not.

My father can pick up almost all the local channels with just about any antenna and without hardly any fiddling around at his house. My sister can't get squat with any amount of fiddling around or any cheap or fancy antenna at her home.

[jhat]

I live in an area where it is very difficult to pick up the broadcast signals. Well known where I live, there is some kind of hole in the signals and I live in the middle of it.

Radio Shack has a powered antenna that will rotate the antenna in small discrete increments which allows us to get the signal. The antenna placement needs to be rotated as each channel originates from a slightly different place. Sometimes atmospheric conditions necessitate a slightly different position as well.

Before this unit, I tried using a manually positioned antenna and it just would not stay in place well enough to work. Or I would get it positioned to receive the signal but when I walked back to the couch, the signal would be lost. My body placement can be an issue. Being able to rotate the antenna in discrete steps that is repeatable from your seat makes all the difference in the world for my application.

In the end, it works just fine and no cable bills.

[Chance]

We got together and bought our parents a new TV for Christmas which of course now includes a digital tuner (their previous TV didn’t have one, only analog which no longer worked for over-the-air). They have ATT U-Verse cable box but while installing it decided to connect their 20-year-old analog antenna in attic (hadn’t been used in many years) to the new TV just for the fun of it. They get something like 60 free channels total. Most are useless but the main networks all come in 720P or 1080i which is better than their standard U-Verse. Granted they could pay extra for HDTV on U-Verse but they won’t. Now that decision is even easier.

[bobswire]

You can do this > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQhlmJTMzw




And have one of these like mine. :beer:

http://i39.tinypic.com/10xtus2.jpg


Works great and is hidden behind my Flat screen. Will be watching the 49er's beat down the (S)aints in HD today. :banana:

[clweed]

Just curious if anyone is using an HD antenna to pick up local television broadcasts? How well do they work? Picture quality etc....






William

Take a large paper clip, unfold and put one end in the coax hole and bend it so the other contacts the threads on the outside.


No joke!

[William]

Rice, thanks for that link. From what I can tell our tv's don't have built-in tuners. We dumped cable a while back and have been using the iMac and a tv with Xbox to watch movies and Netflix. The problem? No football! :crap:

Hey, I'm handy with coat hangers and paper clips! ;)


So another question: A little searching around I'm seeing USB HDTV tuners that plug into the computer to get on-air tv. Anyone try these yet?




William

[maunahaole]

William, we have football on the big screen here. Should we put some extra grub on the fire for you and Mrs. William?

[PSC]

Got one of these for our boat. Works great in the Seattle area.

http://www.amazon.com/Winegard-MS-2002-Antenna-without-Cable/dp/tech-data/B001DFZ5HO/ref=de_a_smtd

[Andrewlcox]

I have this one (http://www.amazon.com/Antennas-Direct-ClearStream4-HDTV-Antenna/dp/B001BRXW74/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1326568968&sr=8-8) and the picture is great. someday I would like to put it up a tall pole and maybe add a directional rotator to see if it helps but for now I'm impressed at the clarity vs. cable so we cut the cable company out.

[Chance]

So another question: A little searching around I'm seeing USB HDTV tuners that plug into the computer to get on-air tv. Anyone try these yet?

Tried it years ago but didn't work out for me. It could do antenna or cable -- don't recall brand. My computer was probably too slow and or lacked memory to work properly. Returned it after a few days. Expect new ones along with fast computers are probably much better.

BTW, new TVs with digital tuners have become inexpensive. You may want to compare price of a stand-alone tuner to a new TV. Difference may not be that much.

[tuxbailey]

So another question: A little searching around I'm seeing USB HDTV tuners that plug into the computer to get on-air tv. Anyone try these yet?

William

I had one of those for my laptop and it worked quite well.

[Ahneida Ride]

got powered HD rabbit ears and

regular Rabbit ears ..

No difference between the two.

[William]

William, we have football on the big screen here. Should we put some extra grub on the fire for you and Mrs. William?

Just mounted the pontoons, extra long range fuel tank on the LC. We loaded the coolers full of food and will pull out shortly. We figure we should hit the beach right about Pre-game time for the Super Bowl!!! :banana:





William

[biker72]

I use rabbit ears for one TV and a 7 year old Radio Shack outside antenna for the other. We are about 35 miles from the TV transmitter complex in Cedar Hill TX.

[dziehr]

In my bleary-eyed, pre-coffee state, I read the thread title as "Hed Ardennes."

[William]

Well, since I like to tinker, I was going to build the updated version of the antenna that Bobswire posted but then I came across this one utilizing binder and paper clips.

Part 1 & 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDg5DR58dUQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNEe0poyivk&feature=related

Since I had all the items laying around I figured I would give it a try first. Amazingly enough the things works great! Now I'm getting a bunch of channels that are crystal clear. Youtube really is good for something. ;)






William