Hope I'm in the right forum for this question. I want an antenna over my shop, with a tuner and TV dedicated to strictly OTA. I know what I want in an antenna. I live out in the boonies across the lake from New Orleans, in Covington.

If this receiver isn't a good selection, can someone explain why? Thanks for the time, and any answers!

Sirwriter

If I'm not mistaken, I have read elsewhere that the HTL-HD can be used as a stand alone OTA receiver with or without a D* subscription of any kind (unlike the newer receivers). They also will scan for channels where the newer receivers won't.

I plan on trying the same thing, but haven't had the time to do it yet, so can't say for sure.

Hopefully someone else can verify.

I have one of these. You can get cable and OTA without a supscribtion. I find its a pretty good hd tuner and gets reception pretty well. I got it off ebay for around 35 without a remote but i have seen it cheaper.

It should work fine, but it may need a DirecTV access card in it. Assuming it has the old card when it was used for DirecTV, it should be fine.

no card in mine.

Hope I'm in the right forum for this question. I want an antenna over my shop, with a tuner and TV dedicated to strictly OTA. I know what I want in an antenna. I live out in the boonies across the lake from New Orleans, in Covington.

If this receiver isn't a good selection, can someone explain why? Thanks for the time, and any answers!

Sirwriter

The Hughes uses the same LG based HDTV tuner family as the Sony SAT200, 300, Zenith 520,530, LG LSS-3200 Directv receivers. I have heard it described as having a few less software menu or remote control features than the above models but OTA tuner wise it should work the same. I own the Sony,Zenith and LG and they all work well. I have used them for years now OTA without a card on composite/S-Video on a regular 480i 27" CRT TV with a great picture. I have tested them on a RP 57" HD ready set on component cables as well for HD OTA reception. The tuner is a little older generation than the the latest Samsung STB and the CECB coupon boxes so if you have multipath problems (ghosting on analog) they may have an issue but I am very happy with mine, I've farmed them out to various friends & family members and they all work well. I have one with a weak channel 3/4 coax out but believe that to be that particular unit. You can also hook them up to an old computer monitor with an RGB cable and run the sound to a stereo or boombox with RCA jacks and get real 1080i HDTV OTA.

Thank you all for your responses. It answered my question. I plan to erect an antenna beside my shop and hook an older CRT monitor up to it and it should work fine!

Sirwriter