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View Full Version : hdtv over the air indoor antennae ****** *******s quick question...



Hatfield
8/7/2006, 09:11 AM
i live in the metropolitan area so what kind of ant. should i buy?

a regular one or an amplified one and what should i look to spend?

Mjcpr
8/7/2006, 09:12 AM
I would say carpenter ants in case you ever need any work done.

And #2, your hard-earned money.

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 09:20 AM
do they go on strike as much as the red ants?

OUDoc
8/7/2006, 09:26 AM
I use rabbit ears behind my HDTV. Works fine. My old house had an antenna in the attic from the previous owners. It worked great. I don't see the need for any special antenna, in my experience.

Mjcpr
8/7/2006, 09:35 AM
do they go on strike as much as the red ants?

Yes but they're not communists.

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 09:45 AM
I had planned on just getting an antenna, and an a/b switch box so i don't have to keep manually changing between the antenna and the cable.

silly idea or brainiac idea?

OUDoc
8/7/2006, 09:52 AM
I had planned on just getting an antenna, and an a/b switch box so i don't have to keep manually changing between the antenna and the cable.

silly idea or brainiac idea?
Mine has a separate input for the digital antenna, so that's how mine's hooked up. If you only have on input, I would guess your idea should work.

soonerboomer93
8/7/2006, 10:02 AM
http://www.antennaweb.org is where we refer people to with antenna questions. It should give you information based on where you live and what setups others have in that area

soonerboomer93
8/7/2006, 10:03 AM
oh, and you don't need a "hd antenna" that's just a marketing scam

Rusher
8/7/2006, 10:15 AM
U don't need an antenna if you already subscribed to cable. My HDTV has a built-in turner and it picks up on-air HD channels via cable for free.

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 10:22 AM
so i don't necessarily need an amplified antenna?

OUDoc
8/7/2006, 10:29 AM
so i don't necessarily need an amplified antenna?
No. Depends on your signal strength. Living in the city, you should be fine.

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 10:36 AM
sweet. thanks

GottaHavePride
8/7/2006, 12:09 PM
Wait, you're talking about an antenna to pick up the local stations' HD broadcasts? In Kansas they send those through the cable with everything else.

Norm In Norman
8/7/2006, 12:34 PM
Here's my antenna story:

I got a cheap regular outdoor antenna (about $30) from Radio Shack and hung it in my attic. I tried amplification and it screwed up some channels. I think the best thing to do is make sure you use quad shielded RG6 cable and have the least amount of breaks and use shortest amount of cable possible between your antenna and your TV. Redoing mine that way helped a lot more than using an amp. the amp made it where I couldn't pick up pbs at all. Now i pick all of the channels up between 85-95% signal strength.

Widescreen
8/7/2006, 12:47 PM
The antennaweb.org above is a good idear. I found out how far I was from the transmitters and determined the type of antenna I needed based on that. I bought a 90" Radio Shack antenna and have it laying across the joists in my attic. I'm 45 miles away from the towers and get excellent picture quality with only an occasional picture breakup.

By the way, RG5 may be somewhat difficult to find. Quad-shielded RG6 should work well and is available just about anywhere.

85Sooner
8/7/2006, 12:49 PM
http://www.antennaweb.org is where we refer people to with antenna questions. It should give you information based on where you live and what setups others have in that area


this is right on. I would recommend winegard antennas.


www.winegard.com

find the correct color although by living in the metro you will probably need the lowest range ant.

Hope it helps

Boarder
8/7/2006, 12:56 PM
Hatfield, do you have cable or satellite or neither?

JohnnyMack
8/7/2006, 12:57 PM
<85Sooner>:les:GET OUTTA MY STORE!!!!!!!!</85Sooner>

Boarder
8/7/2006, 12:58 PM
<85Sooner>:les:GET OUTTA MY STORE!!!!!!!!</85Sooner>
hehe

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 01:32 PM
Hatfield, do you have cable or satellite or neither?


i have cable. in the living room i have the hdtv/dvr box but in the bedroom the tv is just connected to via coax cable.

so i plan on just getting an a non amped antenna and a a/b switch box so i don't have to keep changing the cables and rock on or something.

Boarder
8/7/2006, 01:38 PM
OK, I have the cool solution for satellite, but not cable. Go with the ones they were saying.

Norm In Norman
8/7/2006, 02:00 PM
The antennaweb.org above is a good idear. I found out how far I was from the transmitters and determined the type of antenna I needed based on that. I bought a 90" Radio Shack antenna and have it laying across the joists in my attic. I'm 45 miles away from the towers and get excellent picture quality with only an occasional picture breakup.

By the way, RG5 may be somewhat difficult to find. Quad-shielded RG6 should work well and is available just about anywhere.
Oops, that's what I meant. I knew it was some number between 1 and 9.

85Sooner
8/7/2006, 03:05 PM
i have cable. in the living room i have the hdtv/dvr box but in the bedroom the tv is just connected to via coax cable.

so i plan on just getting an a non amped antenna and a a/b switch box so i don't have to keep changing the cables and rock on or something.


HEy Hat, what exactly are you trying to do??

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 03:43 PM
access to the most channels via the laziest route.

here is my plan.

get a/b switch box (remote controlled of course)
one input (a) being my cable from cox "i hate hd fox" communications
one input (b) being my antenna

then depending on what i want to watch switching between local hd from the ant. or cable channels from the cable.

am i crazy or will this not work?

p.s. I just got back with an RCA amplified (only 10db) ant. and it is amazing the difference it picks up on the local channels, but I can't seem to get the local abc hd it skips from 5 to 9 (i need 5.1) any suggestions on fixing that problem???

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 03:54 PM
the only drawback is that it appears i would need to reprogram my tv with every switch

85Sooner
8/7/2006, 04:05 PM
What TV?

JohnnyMack
8/7/2006, 04:07 PM
Wouldn't it be easier to just get another box from Cox?

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 04:09 PM
What TV?

toshiba 30 inch

and johnny you feel like sending me 10 bucks a month for said box? plus now i have fox in hd woot woot

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 04:11 PM
it is odd, i have 4.1, 9.1, 25.1 etc but no 5.1 (it stops at 5 and goes to 9) :mad:

how to fix this problem??

85Sooner
8/7/2006, 05:18 PM
I may be mistaken but check with KOCO. For some reason I remember that they were one of the network channels that did not follow the .1 format. Again I am probably wrong but please check.

JohnnyMack
8/7/2006, 05:19 PM
toshiba 30 inch

and johnny you feel like sending me 10 bucks a month for said box? plus now i have fox in hd woot woot

I thought it was 5 bucks a month if you already had service?

Norm In Norman
8/7/2006, 05:39 PM
KOCO is vhf, so if you bought a uhf antenna then you can't pick up KOCO. All the others are UHF.

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 06:03 PM
my ant is uhf and vhf so i don't know what the problem is

TedUjam
8/7/2006, 07:17 PM
If your HDTV has an internal tuner and you have cable, you should be able to receive any HD channels that are on cable. 95% of cable companies broadcast HD channels via QAM in the clear.

85Sooner
8/7/2006, 07:39 PM
If your HDTV has an internal tuner and you have cable, you should be able to receive any HD channels that are on cable. 95% of cable companies broadcast HD channels via QAM in the clear.


If you have basic cable , a television with an ATSC tuner (right now all 36" and up by law) will pick up all local channels in HDTV. If this is the case then an antenna is worthless.

To receive the espn, hbo etc.... You will either have to use the "cable card" (not available on some TV's, or obtain an HD cable box.

If you have an HDTV with an HDTV(ATSC) tuner on board. Plus you have an HDTV cable box in a different room hooked to another tv and want to be able to select either, the solution is

Split the cable and insert one RG6 into the TV's Cable intput and program the set. You will have to split cables coming out of the cable box ( 5 cables, Y, Pr Pb L and R) and use rg6 cable and make long runs to the extra room to be entered into the componant video inputs on the back of the TV.

All in all, iimo, its better to just rent another box. I know its a little more but what the hey , you can't take it with you.

TedUjam
8/7/2006, 09:16 PM
If you have basic cable , a television with an ATSC tuner (right now all 36" and up by law) will pick up all local channels in HDTV. If this is the case then an antenna is worthless.

To receive the espn, hbo etc.... You will either have to use the "cable card" (not available on some TV's, or obtain an HD cable box.

If you have an HDTV with an HDTV(ATSC) tuner on board. Plus you have an HDTV cable box in a different room hooked to another tv and want to be able to select either, the solution is

Split the cable and insert one RG6 into the TV's Cable intput and program the set. You will have to split cables coming out of the cable box ( 5 cables, Y, Pr Pb L and R) and use rg6 cable and make long runs to the extra room to be entered into the componant video inputs on the back of the TV.

All in all, iimo, its better to just rent another box. I know its a little more but what the hey , you can't take it with you.

Wrong. The ATSC tuner is for OTA signals. A QAM tuner is for embedded cable signals.

Hatfield, if you post the model of your HDTV, I can check and see if it has both tuners.

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 09:58 PM
it is a toshiba 30HF66

how does one find the local hd channels without the aid of an antenna (just from running the cable from the wall to the set? because when i set up the tv and it searches for channels on the cable function it doesn't find them.

TedUjam
8/7/2006, 10:04 PM
It does have a QAM tuner.

"Integrated NTSC, ATSC tuners; QAM tuner compatible with unscrambled HDTV cable reception"

TedUjam
8/7/2006, 10:24 PM
Toshiba does not have the manual for that model online, so I have no idea what section the setup is in. It should be pretty simple. There should be an option in the setup guide where you scan for channels. The option you want is cable/QAM broadcast.

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 10:30 PM
in the setup the only options are tv/cable doesn't mention anything about qam

and when you search for channels under cable it doesn't locate any hd channels just picks up the cable channels

then under tv it doesn't locate any either when attached to the cable.

when attached to the atenna a search under the tv option picks up all the hd channels except for the local abc (5.1) for some reason.

TedUjam
8/7/2006, 10:33 PM
Hatfield, you are better off using an antenna. I use the Silver Sensor, as do a lot of people on this Oklahoma City HD board.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=463735&page=1&pp=30&highlight=oklahoma+city

You would only pick up 3 channels with your QAM tuner, as opposed to 7 with an antenna.

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 10:35 PM
i bought a rca amp. indoor ant. and it picks up everything except the abc

how do i pick that one up?

SoonerInKCMO
8/7/2006, 10:37 PM
Wouldn't it have been easier to just get out of bed and walk into the living room?

:confused:

TedUjam
8/7/2006, 10:45 PM
i bought a rca amp. indoor ant. and it picks up everything except the abc

how do i pick that one up?

You can ask on that board, or you can try what this guy did.

http://www.hdtvok.com/one-vhf-dtv-reception-solution/

Hatfield
8/7/2006, 10:45 PM
me am lazy

Taxman71
8/7/2006, 11:39 PM
I got the Terk TV5 which has proven excellent. It is required in the OKC metro to pick up Fox HD if you are stuck with Cox Cable.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=3394455&type=product&id=1051384457031

TedUjam
8/8/2006, 12:16 AM
me am lazy

You should be able to get ABC with your QAM tuner, providing you can figure out how to lock on to that channel.

Norm In Norman
8/8/2006, 07:56 AM
There are some stations in OKC that don't broadcast in HD over Cox, namely KOKH (fox) and OETA (pbs). If I used cox, those 2 stations would be enough for me to use OTA also. Football on Fox is a thing of beauty.

Sooner_Bob
8/8/2006, 08:02 AM
When I eventually get a HD box from DishNetwork I won't need to worry about any of this will I?

:D

Norm In Norman
8/8/2006, 08:26 AM
Um, yes. Well, you will until they get HD locals in Oklahoma, which they are working on. Even then, they compress the signal so much that you probably want OTA anyway.

85Sooner
8/8/2006, 08:33 AM
Wrong. The ATSC tuner is for OTA signals. A QAM tuner is for embedded cable signals.

Hatfield, if you post the model of your HDTV, I can check and see if it has both tuners.


If it has an ATSC tuner then it also has a QAM.

Hatfield
8/8/2006, 09:15 AM
You should be able to get ABC with your QAM tuner, providing you can figure out how to lock on to that channel.

how in the bejesus do you "access" the qam??

i think my solution is going to work out...may not be the best but it will probably work

and jihad on the difficult abc local, but the hd fox makes me happy in my pants come sunday foosball.

TedUjam
8/8/2006, 05:12 PM
how in the bejesus do you "access" the qam??

i think my solution is going to work out...may not be the best but it will probably work

and jihad on the difficult abc local, but the hd fox makes me happy in my pants come sunday foosball.

Since I can't see your manual, I don't know. I bet a 5 minute call to Toshiba tech support should fix you up.

TedUjam
8/8/2006, 05:24 PM
If it has an ATSC tuner then it also has a QAM.

Again, wrong. They are 2 completely different types of tuners. Having one doesn't mean you have the other.

This one is ATSC only.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/tech-data/B0000DIACI/ref=de_a_smtd/102-5067604-2629720?ie=UTF8

This one has both.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/tech-data/B00064L1AI/ref=de_a_smtd/102-5067604-2629720?ie=UTF8

Hatfield
8/8/2006, 09:16 PM
regardless my video a/b switch works like a charm.

thanks for all the help everyone

Norm In Norman
8/9/2006, 07:23 AM
YOU DID IT WRONG!!!!!!

afs
8/16/2006, 10:00 PM
ttt