HDTV Antennas
 

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

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

Philips indoor antenna.

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

$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.

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

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

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

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

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

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/in...entPage=search

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

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. :)

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

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?

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

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

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

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

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

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.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1118844608800

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

Re: HDTV Antennas
 

That guy is UHF only :)

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