HDTV Antennas

[superklye]

For those that have OTA HDTV, what antenna do you use?

[Stoneyguy]

Philips indoor antenna.

[evilghost]

$9.00 set of rabbit ears from Radioshack with a UHF loop; any "special" HD antennas are a waste and a rip-off. OTA HD is either UHF or VHF, no reason for a special antenna unless you're going for an amplified antenna or a directional antenna. Get a pair of rabbit ears and a UHF loop for $9.00 and see how many stations you can get OTA.

I'm rural so I can only get ABC about 20 miles away. The other stations are about 60+ miles away with low-watt transmitters so I'd need an external mast antenna with a directional motor.

Check http://www.antennaweb.org for information on antenna type, tower locations, frequency, and azimuth. You only need to put in your zip-code so don't worry about the other information fields.

[derdeutscha]

weingard supershot 2 or something like that is what i have it works wonderful up to 60 miles but its directional..I'm not in the city so thats what i need.

Its small and we keep it inside

For those that have OTA HDTV, what antenna do you use?

[superklye]

$9.00 set of rabbit ears from Radioshack with a UHF loop; any "special" HD antennas are a waste and a rip-off. OTA HD is either UHF or VHF, no reason for a special antenna unless you're going for an amplified antenna or a directional antenna. Get a pair of rabbit ears and a UHF loop for $9.00 and see how many stations you can get OTA.

I'm rural so I can only get ABC about 20 miles away. The other stations are about 60+ miles away with low-watt transmitters so I'd need an external mast antenna with a directional motor.

Check http://www.antennaweb.org for information on antenna type, tower locations, frequency, and azimuth. You only need to put in your zip-code so don't worry about the other information fields.
Effing AWESOME dude...I had no idea a regular old antenna would/could work. I'm right on the edge of downtown Milwaukee (about 10 blocks away) on the third floor of a 3-story apt. building so I should have absolutely no problems with getting signal. :D

[evilghost]

Effing AWESOME dude...I had no idea a regular old antenna would/could work. I'm right on the edge of downtown Milwaukee (about 10 blocks away) on the third floor of a 3-story apt. building so I should have absolutely no problems with getting signal. :D

Np. Use Antennaweb.org and see what the stations around you are broadcasting in, UHF or VHF. If all the HD's are VHF only then a standard set of rabbit ears will work. If they're UHF then you just need a UHF loop, you don't have to extend the rabbit ears. If they're both, you'll be good with either.

This is what I use, I lied @ $9.00, the price has dropped to $4.00:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062079&cp=&pg=2&sr=1&origkw=antenna&kw=antenna&parentPage=search

[superklye]

That site is pretty awesome…lots of fantastic and detailed information.

On digital cable, the HD channels are all the 500 counterpart of their SD channel (for the most part).

I.e.
SD
4 – NBC
5 – CBS
6 – Fox
12 – ABC
41 - Discovery

HD
504 – NBC
505 – CBS
506 – Fox
512 – ABC
541 – Discovery

This site has both digital and analog channels listed and the digital channels are the same as what I have listed as SD above (a few of the OTA channels have different numbers due to cable…CBS is actually 58 OTA but Time Warner has it as 5).

So is Channel 4 WTMJ-DT the HD version of Channel 4 also? Actually, you know what? I don’t think it is. All of the SD channels seem to be their actual channel and are VHF while the digital versions are UHF and are .1 higher. WTMJ is 4 while WTMJ-DT is 4.1. Sweet. :)

[superklye]

Np. Use Antennaweb.org and see what the stations around you are broadcasting in, UHF or VHF. If all the HD's are VHF only then a standard set of rabbit ears will work. If they're UHF then you just need a UHF loop, you don't have to extend the rabbit ears. If they're both, you'll be good with either.

This is what I use, I lied @ $9.00, the price has dropped to $4.00:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062079&cp=&pg=2&sr=1&origkw=antenna&kw=antenna&parentPage=search
That's AWESOME! There was a Radioshack literally 3 blocks from my apt on campus, but I think they went out of business. :( Either way, I believe there's another near my office at the mall downtown so I could stop on my way home from work...

I read the description of that antenna but couldn't see anything about it acting as a coaxial input. Does it have inputs for cable TV as well or do I need to get a splitter of some sort?

[evilghost]

That's AWESOME! There was a Radioshack literally 3 blocks from my apt on campus, but I think they went out of business. :( Either way, I believe there's another near my office at the mall downtown so I could stop on my way home from work...

I read the description of that antenna but couldn't see anything about it acting as a coaxial input. Does it have inputs for cable TV as well or do I need to get a splitter of some sort?

It's got a single COAX input, that antenna should be all you need...

[superklye]

Fantastic! I just hope they have it in stock today. Thanks again...you potentially saved me $55. :D

[OWA]

I've tried a bunch of different ones even paying quite a bit for various indoor amplified ones (that didn't work very well at all) but the type that works the best for me is the type that came with the ATI HDTV Wonder. I use that one for my main TV (it's a non-amplified version) and bought an amplified version of it for my computer.

This is the amplified version. The both look the same except the base on the non-amplified one is a little smaller and doesn't include rabbit ears. I don't use the rabbit ears.

http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/84f3fe01ae.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7322587&st=HDTV+Antenna&type=product&id=1118844608800

I like it b/c it's nice and small (and of course, b/c it works well :)).

[evilghost]

I've tried a bunch of different ones even paying quite a bit for various indoor amplified ones (that didn't work very well at all) but the type that works the best for me is the type that came with the ATI HDTV Wonder. I use that one for my main TV (it's a non-amplified version) and bought an amplified version of it for my computer.

This is the amplified version. The both look the same except the base on the non-amplified one is a little smaller and doesn't include rabbit ears. I don't use the rabbit ears.

http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/84f3fe01ae.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7322587&st=HDTV+Antenna&type=product&id=1118844608800

I like it b/c it's nice and small (and of course, b/c it works well :)).

That guy is UHF only :)

EDIT: I'm an idiot, I see the rabit ears.

[Ancient]

I agree with EG. Special HD antennas are a rip off. My brother brought over his Terk 55, which is an amplified HD antenna and which is supposed to be one of the better ones. I tried it in place of a cheap Jensen powered antenna that is not even intended for HD and there's no noticeable difference in signal strength. I even moved the Terk 55 upstairs and tried to aim it optimally, since it's supposedly directional. No difference.

[superklye]

This is so fantastic. I want to iterate again HOW GLAD I AM that I didn't buy one of the HDTV antennas at Best Buy when I bought the TV. They even had a few open box items that were like $43 and I was considering...

[evilghost]

Glad to help. Remember, there is no such thing as an HDTV antenna outside of marketing ploys. There are UHF/VHF antennas that are amplified, directional, unamplified, etc.

A $5 pair of VHF rabbit ears and a UHF loop should be all anyone needs unless they're looking for an amplified or directional antenna.

[OWA]

That guy is UHF only :)

EDIT: I'm an idiot, I see the rabit ears.
Yeah, I'm just interested in the HD channels and they're all UHF so I don't use the rabbit ears.

[vandalous]

Since I'm 50 miles away from the towers I've got a big ol' Channel Master 7xxx-something or other mounted to my roof. I had to put a preamp on the line to boost the signal.

I wanted to get a Yagi but they were out of stock at Fry's and I needed something for the Super Bowl last year when I installed this one.

OTA HD FTW! (if you're within range) :D

[betterdan]

I am about 15 miles or so from the stations towers and I have a $15 Radioshack uhf antenna on the roof of my 2 story house and it picks up everything. I do get some dropouts on the local digital CBS channel, I believe I am getting too powerful of a signal and it is overloading it.
DO NOT buy one of those gimmicky HD antennas.

[superklye]

Bastard Radioshack...the cheapest antenna in-store was $11 and it had no coaxial in, just out. So I had to buy a splitter for $8 (cheapest one) and then a 2 ft coaxial extension to go from the splitter to the TV.

Grand total with tax: $26. :(

[superklye]

wtf...I hooked up the antenna via the splitter/joiner and apparently I can only get the channels from one source through coaxial at a time...and when I scanned the antenna, I only picked up a single HD channel.

Sigh.

[evilghost]

WTF? I've never heard of a coax in for an antenna and why are you having to split off OTA? Your receiver should have a OTA in.

[superklye]

WTF? I've never heard of a coax in for an antenna and why are you having to split off OTA? Your receiver should have a OTA in.
You said this morning the antenna you have has a coaxial in.

What receiver are you talking about? My TV has one coaxial in...either cable or antenna. I guess I don't understand how I'm supposed to be able to get OTA and cable at the same time. I don't have a cable box in my room, I just have it split from the wall with a coaxial line coming in my room and the other end is going into the HD box in the living room.

[evilghost]

The cable going to the HD TV in the living room, doesn't it have some type of set-top box or are you using a built-in tuner in the TV? Best I can tell this applies to you:

http://www.hdtvoice.com/voice/archive/index.php/t-3711.html

I made some assumptions earlier that evidently I shouldn't have so sorry about that. I've got DirecTV and I have a set top box, I've got an ANT input on the receiver for OTA and another input for Satellite. The receiver connects to my 42" Plasma monitor over component YPbPr.

[superklye]

Gotcha. Yeah...we have two lines coming into the apartment: one for Roadrunner, the other for cable TV. We have the Explorer HD 8300 cable box in the living room for my roommate's TV.

We also have a split coming off that line and right into my room. I have no box, so it's just the raw basic cable coming straight into my TV.

EDIT: Yeah, it looks like that's the exact situation I'm in. It's not a huge deal by any means...I was only able to pick up a single HD channel and it was whatever used to be the WB. :rolleyes2