Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions ATSC (HD) and Antennas

Well I just got a ATSC HD tuner card for my MCE box (HTPC) and installed it tonite. Using this $30 indoor ANT I get ABC and FOX just fine but CBS and NBC are basically worthless.

I assume everyone round here has just used cable for HD? I'm wondering if I should bother going thru the trouble of getting an outdoor ANT or spending more money on a better indoor one.

There is a website that will tell you what type of antenna you need for each HDTV station to your specific location. You key in your address and it tells you the azimuth/ distance to your local stations. If I can find it, I will post the link.

It very well could be that for the other stations, you need an outside antenna with more gain. Or, maybe you can't get them at all because of mountains/ hills.

I'm not sure if this is the website ratpack was referring to, but it is an incredibly helpful site. I used an indoor antenna (and "standard" cable) for a year before finally getting digital/HD cable. I used the Zenith silver sensor, and it worked quite well. But my house is located within line of site of an "antenna farm" for almost all of TV stations offering HD in my area.

Antennaweb.org

Good luck!
Rich

I'll second the Zenith Silver Sensor.I use cable and ota the Zenith works very well for me in a lower level room with 4ft concrete walls and bad reception on everything.

I will definitely look into that Antenna. The one I got is an amplified one from RatShack that my friend had gotten with the same HD Tuner and it worked for him.

I have used Antennaweb, it was the reason I decided to give this a shot.

OK the weird part of this is:

CBS and NBC just don't come in very well at all. ABC seems to work great. Those three stations have their towers RIGHT next to each other (all in a row) about 10-12 miles from me. So obviously the direction of my antenna shouldn't need to be adjusted for those.

Looking at this site I wonder... if I got that Zeith antenna I'd probably want to invest in an amplifier to go with it. Or again, I wonder if I need an ext antenna to pickup those last two stations.

Yes, I think that is the website that I was referencing.

Skip the amp.My experience has been that all they do is mess up the signal.People with more knowhow than me all say never go with amplified antennas.Past experience pretty much confirms this,strong stations work great while borderline stations just become a jumbled mess.I am 15 to 20 miles away in a basement and I Now get all local ota hd stations great plus about 10-12 digital stations I never knew existed btw I got the Silver Sensor just for those rare occasions the cable goes out

I just purchased the Silver Sensor, I'll let you know how mine works in a few days when I get it.

Good thread.

My next purchase for my new HTPC will be an ATSC tuner. Here in the Des Moines area we get FOX, CBS, NBC, PBS, and ABC all in HD. I have a TERK TV55 outside ABS antenna on the side of the house for my upstairs TV. I'm not a big fan of this Terk antenna, I lose colors all the time and have to power off/on the receiver to get them back.

Anyway, I'm about 20-30 miles from some of the signals, so hope to find an inside one that will work in my downstairs HT room.

Inane, which tuner card did you buy?

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I just purchased the Silver Sensor, I'll let you know how mine works in a few days when I get it.

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Excelent!

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Inane, which tuner card did you buy?

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Well it's INANE, not Inane (heh actually its Ben )

I got the KWORLD ATSC-110 from Microcenter for 100 bux and there is a 30 dollar rebate on it. But my friend showed me this yesterday which bummed me out a bit, Directron has the same card for $51 after rebate.

Everything I've read on the web about this card is mixed, but it worked for my friend and it seems to work for me (I'd think my issues are more antenna related).