Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler How does OTA work with my HDTV?

Ok, I just bought this house and the previous owners left the Direct TV dish installed as well as the OTA antenae and it has coax cable coming out of the wall. Since my tv is HD ready only and no turner built in, would I need to buy a turner or just plug it into the back of my tv to watch local HD channels free? Or would I simply have to call Direct TV and get their service with HD receiver to use OTA?

To get OTA you don't need to subscribe to anything (thus the reason for OTA). You will need a HDTV tuner of some sort. A HTPC with a tuner is a high end option. A less expensive option that I am going to try is to get an old VOOM satellite receiver with the OTA HDTV tuner built in. VOOM has gone belly up, but their receivers stil sell on eBay for pretty cheap, and you are just going to use it for OTA, so who cares that there is no satellite signal for the box. All you need to do is make sure that it comes with an activated card (it will be advertised this way) otherwise it is just a boat anchor.
Like I said, I am going to try this route first. I need to get an antenna yet once I get the VOOM box.

OTA signals require a receiver or tuner. If your tv is just HD ready, then yes you will need something to pull in the signals, in addition to the antenna.

The other night I was at Walmart, and noticed they had some off brand name HD tuner for like $150 bucks or so. I think I paid $250ish for my Samsung OTA reciever.

Some services like Direct TV and Dish, etc. offer to give you the local stuff in HD also, but not sure if that costs extra or not on top of the regular service.

I just signed up with Dish for HD service. They charge $150 for the receiver/dvr and $20 more a month for the hd channels.

Exactly why I watch OTA HD signals, FREE. We get ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and FOX.

What antenna are you using at your place Sirquack? Where is it mounted (roof, attic, etc)? Thanks!

I currently have a piece of crap TERK TV55 antenna like below mounted on the north side of my house. It does an ok job, but I lose the signal sometimes based on my distance and its design and reception pattern.



I'm thinking about getting one of these from Winegard, it has very good ratings and upto 40 miles reception. All the towers are exactly due north of my home up in Ankeny (about 25 miles). This antenna is more directional than the Terk. Midstated Distributing here in Des Moines carries them for under $100.

I've heard good things about the Channel Master 4228, but it is a bit big...

Winegard is located here in Iowa, fyi.

I use OTA with my HTPC and an indoor antenna with decent results... some channels work great, others not so much.

If you already have an antenna then the previous owner may have looked into it, but AntennaWeb is the place to checkout to get an idea of what signal(s) you can get at your home.