Digital Antennas - Getting away from Cable

[OnAFly]

Anyone use a digital antenna instead of Cable or Dish? Any recommendations or advice?

[titelines]

We dumped our Dish 4 years ago and don't miss it at all. My advice is to not skimp on the antenna. We spent about $100 on ours, but it has a long/strong range, the signal is great and there's no interference from airplanes or mild storms. Large snows or heavy wind will disturb it a bit, but it's no worse than what happened with Dish in those situations.

[LMITOUT]

Centerville is practically under the antenna farm at Shoreview, isn't it? A cheapo indoor VHF/UHF combo antenna would probably work.

[aanderud]

Centerville is practically under the antenna farm at Shoreview, isn't it? A cheapo indoor VHF/UHF combo antenna would probably work.

LMIT is right on - you don't need a lot if you're close by. You can go to antennaweb and put in your zip code or maybe even full address and they'll tell you what type of antenna you need (directional, omni), how far away you are, and what channels you can expect to receive. In your case I'm guessing a cheap omnidirectional antenna will work, just set it behind your TV.

I'm about 40 miles out from shoreview, and so I bought a reasonably capable directional outdoor antenna from radio shack for like 60 bucks. Antennaweb will even tell you what orientation to mount it (mine is 48 degrees) if you're not using an omnidirectional antenna. Many of the channels would have come in just fine for me without the directional, but a few of them must be broadcasting at lower power because antennaweb recommended a medium directional for a few (and even a pre-amp for one of them).

I have it in my attic and picks up all the channels just fine even in severe weather (I use it to track weather when my satellite dish isn't working due to the rain/clouds). For optimal reception at longer ranges you can certainly mount it outdoors on a mast on your roof, but in my case it wasn't necessary.

[Whoaru99]

Just be advised if/when mounting antennas outdoors that you follow the necessary grounding practices per NEC (or whatever code applies).

Oh, and yeah, "digital antenna" is just marketing fluff. THey're just plain old VHF or UHF or VHF/UHF combo antennas. The ancient one hiding in the garage rafters will work just fine if it's of the proper band.

[aanderud]

That's a great point Wharu99. UHF and VHF are still the same old electromagnetic frequencies that they have always been, it's just that the data being transmitted is different. If you had a functional antenna that could receive those bands before the digital era, it'll still work now. If you are buying one, be sure to get a UHF/VHF combo antenna, because there are some channels in each band.

[polarsusd81]

I am in Blaine and have a digital antenna mounted in the basement between a cmu wall and a wood access door that covers up my electrical panel. Have it wired into a splitter and feed my whole house off of it with great reception. Haven't had any issues with it yet. Got rid of 120 bucks a month we were paying for Comcast cable.

That along with Netflix and we are pretty well set.

[Scott K]

If I could get FSN over the air, I would dump cable right away. I am just to addicted to sports.

[OnAFly]

Thanks for the info. I checked out that antennaweb site and it looks like I'll get pretty much what I thought I would for channels with the antenna I was looking at on newegg for about $50. I love that site!

I'm looking forward to dropping that comcast bill from $135 to about $50. Now if there were a cheap alternative to cable internet, I'd be all over that too.

[bobbymalone]

I'm looking forward to dropping that comcast bill from $135 to about $50. Now if there were a cheap alternative to cable internet, I'd be all over that too.

Threaten to switch.

Do switch.

The concerns about DSL internet are largely inflated IMO. I run 12mbs dsl for $44 a month because comcast can KMA. And I stream netflix and hulu over it.

60 bucks a month total.

Plus a one time $80 for a roku box to stream it to the TV.

I miss FSN, but not that much.

[OnAFly]

That's the only thing I'll really miss. I love hockey, but it's looking more and more like that won't matter this year anyway

[Jim916]

We just dropped directv, and are using a home theater pc with an antenna and a tv tuner. We bought the antenna for $18 off monoprice. The antenna works great. I think we are 36 miles from Shoreview. We use windows media center for recording tv shows.

[OnAFly]

So far my antenna gets once channel...and poorly. I'm going to use the existing lines in my house to run the antenna from my attic. Hopefully that helps the situation. Right now it's in my basement.

Also, I found out NHL Gamecenter Live does not show local games. I was banking on streaming that for hockey. Oh well. If they want to play that way, I'll just find some source to stream it for free instead.

[OnAFly]

OK, I put the antenna on the top floor and used the existing lines to run down to my TV in the basement and I'm in business. I get 20 channels...20 channels of dump. So, I'm only down about 60 channels of dump from where I was before

It's free, I'm happy!

[LMITOUT]

Ha ha!

[pushbutton]

Dude, at 5 ish in the morning you will be able to watch Sea Hunt, nobody with cable or satellite can say that.....

[leech~~]

OK, I put the antenna on the top floor and used the existing lines to run down to my TV in the basement and I'm in business. I get 20 channels...20 channels of dump. So, I'm only down about 60 channels of dump from where I was before

It's free, I'm happy!

Great idea! I have never-ever heard someone putting their antenna in their basement? Low=not good high=good!

[OnAFly]

Yeah, stupid mistake on my part. I forgot the first step to doing anything...take head out of a$$. .