Over the air HD broadcasting

[furrycute]

I am thinking about picking up one of those HD antennas to receiver over the air HD broadcasting.

I am in NYC. Can anyone tell me how many channels I can expect to receive with an HD antenna.

I am sick and tired of paying almost $100 a month for cable.

 

[Alex2507]

Try these guys:

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

They listed the OTA stations in my area, what direction they are in and what grade (color code) antena I would need to pick them up.

 

[Midcow2]

get a good antenna the number of stations you receive will depend on that

I am thinking about picking up one of those HD antennas to receiver over the air HD broadcasting.

I am in NYC. Can anyone tell me how many channels I can expect to receive with an HD antenna.

I am sick and tired of paying almost $100 a month for cable.

Do want to recieve AM or FM or both? I added a Terk AM Advantage 1000 passive antenna ans can recive AM broabcast clearly from 100 miles away.
Be careful though, I have had Terk antenans before that didn't work ; read reviews. An external FM antenna will significantly improve FM receptrion distance.

 

[furrycute]

Thanks guys for the replies. I'll check that site out.

Midcow2, thanks for the suggestion of the Terk Advantage AM antenna. I was actually going to order one for my new tuner. I already have a pretty good passive indoor FM antenna (live in an apartment, so outdoor antenna is out). Right now I am looking for an HD video antenna. Got any good recommendations?

 

[furrycute]

Alex2507, thanks for that link. Just looked over my area. Looks like I can receive about 8 or so digital channels.

Oh man, I wish the History Channel, Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel have over the air broadcasts. Those are about the only channels I watch nowadays anyways.

 

[Jack Hammer]

I'm in Chicago and I get ~36 channels OTA using just an old fm antenna, the kind with two pieces of wire you tack onto the wall. No premium or cable channels, but the basics and a few other interesting ones.

Jack

 

[Alex2507]

I'm in Chicago and I get ~36 channels OTA using just an old fm antenna, the kind with two pieces of wire you tack onto the wall. No premium or cable channels, but the basics and a few other interesting ones.

Jack

In Pawtucket, RI I get 2 channels using an amplified Radio Shack FM antena. My ultimate goal is OTA HD but I'm pretty sure that I'm stuck with cable. History, A&E and Discovery in HD ain't happenin' without cable.

And my girl certainly isn't gonna put up with any static durring Oprah and General Hospital.

 

[allargon]

In addition to antennaweb, check out TVFool.com. Antennaweb can be a little optimistic at times.

The TERK antennas are pretty good. I'm not sure about TV in NYC. My guess is that you don't need any amplification at all. A decent pair of rabbit ears should suit you fine. The Philips antennas (available at Wal-Mart, Lowes, Fry's and other big box stores found everywhere but NYC) tend to do pretty well. Check out the Philips silver sensor if all (or most) of your channels are UHF. Look at the TERK HDTVa/HDTVi if you also need VHF. I've found that traditional rabbit ears w/ a UHF loop don't cut it as well for remote stations. However, NYC is different. If you go to tvfool/antennaweb, please post the results here in this thread.

Here's a little more at AVS.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=381623
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=611957

The satellite sites (dbstalk, satelliteguys.us, etc.) also have a lot of people that know a good bit about antennas and reception (for obvious reasons). However, a lot of them have those big mass antennas. I have a feeling that you are just looking for rabbit ears or something similar.

 

[Phil Taylor]

I've had a Silver Sensor since it was made by Zenith - they're hard to beat for indoors if you are close enough to use an indoor antenna and Antennaweb will help you find out what you need.

 

[furrycute]

Thanks guys for the help!

I live in an apartment, so a nice indoor antenna is all that I can use. Will check those sites out.

 

[markw]

I'm right outside of NYC and, using an outdoor antenna pointed at the Empire State Building, I get about 35 digital stations, 7 of which are in glorious HD. All look great, even most of the SD stations. Some are duplicates and others are not of my interest, though.

But, my antenna faces E/NE and, depending on where your antenna is pointed, some of these stations may or may not materialize on your set. All these new sets have to use auto channel select up frontto find stations and I don't know how well that handles antenna redirection.

All the major networks (analog channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13) offer HD, although not all shows are IN high def. Some broadcast 720, others 1080.

 

[Pyrrho]

I am thinking about picking up one of those HD antennas to receiver over the air HD broadcasting.

I am in NYC. Can anyone tell me how many channels I can expect to receive with an HD antenna.

I am sick and tired of paying almost $100 a month for cable.

There is no way we can tell you what you will be able to pick up in your apartment. We would have to know exactly where you lived, and exactly where you would place your antenna. And we would have to know about all of the buildings and other such things in your area. Even an expert on antennas could not guarantee anything (and I am no expert on antennas). So, when you buy an antenna, you will not know what you will receive before you try it. This means, it is a good idea to buy locally from a store with a good return policy, so you can get your money back if you are not satisfied.

Also, your antenna does not need to be an "HD" antenna. That is placed on new antennas as a marketing gimmick (rather like "digital ready" speakers of the 1980's). If you have an old set of rabbit ears or other old antenna, you can try them before you go out and buy something else.

Also, if you don't mind ugly, you can buy a small outdoor antenna and use it indoors. You can get advice on what one to buy from the links already provided by others, and at:

http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/comparing.html

 

[Swerd]

Most of what others have said here is good advice. Virtually all digital TV is broadcast on UHF, channels 14-69. This includes HTDV. Any UHF antenna can work, even the bow tie shaped ones that clip onto rabbit ears.

UHF signals are directional in nature. They work more like a flashlight than a bare lightbulb. You may have to swivel your antenna to get the best reception.

In a city like NY, you won't have any problem with getting stations with enough signal strength, but with lots of tall buildings you may have problems with multipath reflections. That's where a signal comes from the broadcast tower in one direction, and another channel's reflection comes off a nearby building from another direction. Sometimes a reflected channel's signal can interfere with the signal from a weaker station that you want. Some antennas are designed to deal with multipath problems. Avoid using an amplified antenna if you are in NYC.

Look at these from Solidsignal.com. Most are outdoor antennas, but there several indoor ones. I would consider either the Winegard SS-1000 or the SS-3000. Both have a narrow angle of reception which is what you want if you have multipath problems.

I have the SS-1000 mounted in the attic of my house. That is not an option for you, but I include it because it is in a rather small plastic case, 16 x 16 x 4 inches. You can mount it anywhere and you can paint it. It handles multipath reflections very well.

Note that the $60 Winegard SS-3000 looks identical to the $77 Terk Low Profile HDTV on the second page. I doubt if they are any different.

 

[EscapeVelocity]

Right now I am looking for an HD video antenna. Got any good recommendations?

Check out my indoor antenna round up here. Hope you like it.

EV's Best Top Rated HDTV Indoor Antenna Review Test Round-Up Guide

at the AVSforum

edit: I cant post a link, but you can search for the title in google, takes you right to it.

 

[annunaki]

My brother uses the Terk TV55 and he pulls in stations from up to 90 miles away. It is easy to mount and hide. It would be my choice as well, but I use Dish Network.

 

[poutanen]

I'm going to revive this thread rather than start a new one...

After a year of paying $75 / month to Rogers cable, I'm saying no more. I've decided to get an outdoor UHF antenna and mount it in the attic of my new house. From what I've read, I should get anywhere from about 6-16 stations in the area I'm heading to. The good thing is I'll get the eastern US NFL games which means I'll get most of my patriots games!

There's a fair bit of info on this in other forums, but not so much on the audiophile end of things.

I haven't found a clear consensus of what the best (or preferred) ATSC tuner box is/are. Some of them don't even have optical outs. Is there a standard box that most people are using that has the quickest channel changes, good OSD, good guide, and good connectivity (no need for HDMI for me, RGB and SPDIF is my standard).

I'm looking forward to NOT having 300 channels to flip through, only to end up watching about 5-6 channels on a regular basis...

 

[Jack Hammer]

I just use the tuner built into my tv. Sorry, no experience with tv's without built in hd tuners.

Jack

 

[poutanen]

I just use the tuner built into my tv. Sorry, no experience with tv's without built in hd tuners.

Jack

Well I'm looking at a TV with a built in Tuner (67" Samsung DLP-RP) but I wasn't sure if it would output via optical, and I wasn't sure if a standalone tuner would have better reception, features, etc.

Thanks,

Aaron

 

[allargon]

Well I'm looking at a TV with a built in Tuner (67" Samsung DLP-RP) but I wasn't sure if it would output via optical, and I wasn't sure if a standalone tuner would have better reception, features, etc.

Thanks,

Aaron

Aaron, pretty much all modern HDTV televisions with tuners have SPDIF (not necessarily optical) out. Most STB ATSC tuners have spdif out (usually optical but sometimes coax) for OTA Dolby Digital. One of my displays has coax digital audio out. Another one (the smaller, cheaper display) has optical. What's the model # of that DLP? My Mits DLP outputs via old school coax/RCA rather than optical.

As far as recommended external STB's go, most people tend to speak (relatively) highly of the Samsung boxes.

Here's a (non-Samsung) available at the Audioholics store! (Have to give props to one of my favorite sites.) It doesn't appear to have SPDIF out!

http://store.audioholics.com/product/859/0/grandtec-tun-5000-airvision-atsc-dtv-hdtv-receiver-tuner

Here's two Samsungs with SPDIF out. (I removed the referrer tags.)

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-DTBH260F-HDTV-Terrestrial-Receiver/dp/B000JV6TQY/

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SIR-T351-ATSC-HD-Tuner/dp/B0000DIACI/

Check out my indoor antenna round up here. Hope you like it.

EV's Best Top Rated HDTV Indoor Antenna Review Test Round-Up Guide

at the AVSforum

edit: I cant post a link, but you can search for the title in google, takes you right to it.

EV, I didn't know you belonged to Audioholics. Welcome! Here's your link.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1037779

I'll also mention to our friends living in apartments that want decent indoor antennas to check out the Radio Shack starship/UFO/Enterprise 15-1892 antenna. (Thanks to EV for turning me on to this awesome antenna a few months ago!)

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2131034&cp=2032057.2032187.2032189.2032204&parentPage=family

 

[poutanen]

Aaron, pretty much all modern HDTV televisions with tuners have SPDIF (not necessarily optical) out. Most STB ATSC tuners have spdif out (usually optical but sometimes coax) for OTA Dolby Digital. One of my displays has coax digital audio out. Another one (the smaller, cheaper display) has optical. What's the model # of that DLP? My Mits DLP outputs via old school coax/RCA rather than optical.

As far as recommended external STB's go, most people tend to speak (relatively) highly of the Samsung boxes.

Here's a (non-Samsung) available at the Audioholics store! (Have to give props to one of my favorite sites.) It doesn't appear to have SPDIF out!

http://store.audioholics.com/product/859/0/grandtec-tun-5000-airvision-atsc-dtv-hdtv-receiver-tuner

Here's two Samsungs with SPDIF out. (I removed the referrer tags.)

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-DTBH260F-HDTV-Terrestrial-Receiver/dp/B000JV6TQY/

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SIR-T351-ATSC-HD-Tuner/dp/B0000DIACI/

Thanks! Yeah the TV I'm most interested in (at the moment) is the Samsung HL67A750 (DLP, LED light source, full 1080p)

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=televisions&type=televisions&subtype=dlptv&model_cd=HL67A750A1FXZA

Before anybody slams rear projection, I've been watching an InFocus IN72 (480p, DLP) on a 76" high contrast screen for about the last 2 years. Was going to go with the new InFocus X10 and a 92" screen, but my new living room is going to be tougher to control ambient light. The DLP-RP TV will be roughly the same cost if not cheaper than the X10 plus a screen. Plus I'm not interested in having a projector hanging in the middle of my living room, my old house had 12' ceilings so it was relatively out of the way, the new house has only 8-9' ceilings.

That said, I'm going to try one of the CM antennas up in my attic, aimed half way between Toronto and Buffalo, and run that directly into the TV and see what I get. I suppose using the tuner that comes with the TV saves another remote from hanging around the living room.