Indoor HDTV Reception

[Hanse18]

I'm finally redoing the basement. Incorporating a HTCP and have already installed an HDTV Tuner, but I'm completely against an outdoor antenna, for appearance reasons, and I'd like to avoid the hassle of mounting a large antenna in my attic.

Has anyone had any success using one of the smaller antennas available? I presume that with such a small antenna, an amplifier was used. Where is your antenna positioned, in the house, with regards to ground level and the general surrounding of your house.

Thanks,
Hanse18

 

[Leprkon]

I have alot of success with rabbit ears, getting all but one of the sixteen or so channels available in the OKC area, but I'm not down in a basement. The lowest I have is about 4 feet above ground level.

 

[bru87tr]

I use cable now but did use rabbit ears in my cellar and although I had to tune some stations the majority came in fine. I tried other so called good antennas but rabbit ears worked great. I think the towers were 20miles away.

 

[Hi Ho]

It depends on where you are in relation to the transmitters as well as the geography in your area. There are very discrete outdoor antennas that can slip under the eves of your roof. I don't know how well they work.

Until recently, I was using an outdoor antenna that was homebuilt from a RadioShack kit many years ago. The antenna is in a tree and is not visible from the road. I got all the local stations using an amplifier. The transmitters in Seattle are about 40 miles away. Without an amplifier I got nothing. Now, as a cable subscriber, I will never go back to the antenna.

Digital broadcasts are a different animal. In a location where you might get great analog reception, you could get nothing with digital or vice versa. The only way to really know is to try. You can go to AntennaWeb.org and see what it says about your exact location.

 

[Hanse18]

I already checked out the website you listed. I am about 15 miles outside of Minneapolis, where every channel broadcasts from. The site recommends a large outdoor antenna. There are certain people above me in the food chain who have already nixed the outdoor antenna option.

I agree with everyone who said that cable is the way to go. I currently am receiving HD cable, great stuff. You can't use a PVR for HD cable though, only the analog channels (like normal espn, tbs, history channel, etc.), so the only way to record HD, using a tuner card in a computer, is to record the OTA HD channels. Pain in the butt, why can't everyone just agree on certain standards in this industry!

 

[keithl1967]

I am getting my over the air from 23.5 miles away in Harrisburg, PA with an attic mounted antenna from radioshack. I disconnected the cable where it splits right after coming in from the outside (I have Directv for regular TV), so I ended up using the exisiting house cabling to carry the antenna signal to my HD set. Antenna web.org was a great site for establishing which way to pint the antenna...