Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Help with HDTV antenna choice

I am looking to get a OTA antenna but I want to get your opinion first. I went to antennaweb.org with the lat/long and the approx height of where the antenna would go and I got the following report:



I really only care about the ones in yellow. And it shows my map as:



I was thinking that I would need a monster antenna like a Channel Master 4228, but maybe not?

The trick is that I would like to mount the antenna in my attic. I know that the house itself will have some effect on the signal though. If I mounted it in the attic, I could run the cable down inside the house and right next to my home theater. I would, however, have to couple it in with an existing RG6 line run from the utility room next to the theater, to my equipment rack. We have a two story house, but this attic area is above the garage, so it is like being at the height of the 2nd floor roof, maybe a hair taller.

My other install option is at a height about level with the floor on the 2nd story, but it would be outside. The cable run would be a bit more of a hassle as there are no good ways to get the cable from outside the house to the inside. I really don't feel comfortable mounting the antenna any higher because of some very steep roof lines. I don't want to pay for someone to install it because, hey, I'm trying to get HD "on the cheap" so to speak.

Any ideas or experiences would be helpful.

PS. I will be using an old Voom satellite receiver with the OTA HD option (satellite portion is useless, obviously) to get me started. Once I have my wife convinced to keep HD in the theater, I can start pushing for a nice HTPC as well that would replace the Voom box.

One step at a time....

Did you get the Voom OK?

I still vote for 4228. It's not that big, it's very possible that you could fit it inside your attic. It can handle long cable runs, mine is about 150' or so. My signal strength on most channels is 85+. I only added an inline amp because my Fox OTA is low, but that's irrelevant now, because Comcast has Fox.

It should show up tomorrow.

The price is good on the CM 4228, but I just want to get what will work, and not overkill, unless people think that the 4228 isn't overkill for stations less than 18 miles away???

I should also add that I would prefer to not have an in-line amp if at all possible (to keep the cost down)...

I can offer no real advice.

I will chime in to say that a good friend just made the plunge into HDTV as well. Much to his surprise, he found that he could get all 4 major networks (ABC,CBS,NBC,FOX) in great quality HD via just a regular indoor terk antenna. He lives in a city where that site only had two of those channels listed as HD, and the other two supposedly required a more significant antenna than he was using. My point is that before you invest in a large outdoor antenna, you might want to at least try it with a cheaper one to see what happens.

PeterChenoweth has made an excellent point. I would try small first. My son uses one of the small on-tv models and gets good reception.

My Home theater is in my basement, so I don't think that I can go with anything down there, but you bring up an interesting point. Run to Walmart, grab a good antenna from there that can go inside, put it somewhere in the house, and use the existing RG6 runs that go all through my house to get its signal to my home theater... Hmmm...

Nick, in case you haven't seen the antenna test results that I linked last year when Randy was looking, here they be.

Yeah, I've seen that. Great info. I think that at this point I am going to try to pick something up at Walmart or RatShack and try it out, and if need be, I'll return it and get something like the big Channel Master or Winegard PR-8800.

So I picked up a Philips MANT940 antenna tonight from Walmart. It is an indoor/outdoor antenna. I hooked it up to the Voom receiver I got from oldskoolboarder. It was in pretty good shape, a bit dirty, but most importantly it was going to get me HDTV!!!

Anyway, I thought that I would test it out on a regular TV on the main floor of our house. Within minutes, I was pulling in 9 stations (not all HD mind you). Some were a bit weak at a signal strength of 72, but several were at 93. I knew that I had a shot. I put some ends on one of my coax runs that went to my equipment rack (hadn't had a need until now to finish it), and then decided to pu the antenna indoors, but upstairs this time. I put the antenna in my oldest daughter's room as a test. Propped it up in the general direction it needed to be in with some small decorative pillows she had, and then ran down to the basement to hook up the receiver. I

Plugged it all in, and within minutes, I was pulling in 11 stations, and the weakest was 92, the strongest was giving me a 99 on signal strength. Hmmm. I can't leave it in my daugter's room for ever, but man, it is working!

Anyway, I was watching various shows, had my wife check it out for a few minutes, and then was glued to the, hate to say it, PBS station. They were running some Discovery Channel like show, that really wasn't very interesting, but fun to watch. I sat there for a good 30 minutes watching something that I don't really care about.

Then I remembered that it was garbage night, and I had stuff laying all over the house (packing peanuts that were in the box that the Voom receiver came in, various A/V cables all around, etc, etc). I decided to head up stairs and get my work done. That was 10 minutes ago. Now I am typing here.

Well, I gotta run. I am going to see what Letterman and Leno look like in HD at 104"!!!

Woohoo!!!!

Nick
Good to hear it's working out for ya. Sorry about the dust. It's been sitting in the garage for months in that Dish box. I had UPS repack it so it'd get there in one piece.

Not bad reception for an indoor. I would admit that PBS has some good HD programs, similar to National Geographic. Much of the prime time shows are done very well in HD. Best one IMHO is Lost. Other good ones are CSI (Miami has the best PQ), 24, American Idol, House, Desperate Housewives, and Bones. Don't know which games are HD but I'm sure a bunch of March Madness games will be HD. THAT will look great.

In my area, there's also an HDNet rebroadcast on a local station, though it's older shows. Maybe you have something similar in your area.