what is the best OTA receiver and indoor antenna... Madison Wisconsin

[funlvr1965]

my wife and I have pretty much had it with our cable company and direct tv and dish also seem to be a ripoff, we have decided to try the OTA route, we need a powerful reliable OTA HD receiver that hopefully will have hdmi and component outputs and also we need an equally powerful indoor antenna as we live in a condo and cannot place anything on the roof, if the OTA HD receiver will be able to display local VHF channels that will be a plus, thanks for your help in advance

[mikemikeb]

I'll start with the antenna.

Good and powerful VHF/UHF indoor antennas are hard to come by. See if there's a window pointing in the general direction of the towers. Being at a 90 degree angle to the transmitters might be OK. If you can get that sort of break, place the antenna in that area and run quad-shielded RG-6 cable directly to the HD receiver. If you're within fifteen to twenty miles of the transmitter, try the RadioShack 15-1868 for $21 at a local RS store. Go and experiment with the knob and dipole lengths and positions. It might take a while to get all your channels to work.

If you're between 15 to 25 miles of the transmitter, you might have to work a lot to pick up the signals. Further away, you would probably need an "outdoor" antenna, unfortunately. Most "better" indoor antennas are designed for UHF reception ONLY. Amplified indoor antennas don't have great amplifiers and can cause a lack of getting longer-range signals due to too much amplifier-created noise.

As for an HD receiver, I suggest the Samsung DTB-H260F, available for about $180. If you want a DVD recorder with the HD tuner, either the Samsung DVD-AVR960, LG DR797T, or LG DR787T. All the DVD models have not been released yet. The Samsung has been released but is hard to find. If you want to buy one at a brick and mortar, you'll have the best luck at Circuit City stores.

Good luck.

[jtbell]

Go to http://www.antennaweb.org/ and enter your address, to find out how far the transmitters are from you, and in which directions. Check the location that they show for you on their street-level map, and click on the map to adjust the location if necessary. Paste the table of stations here and people can give you more specific advice.

Also, check out the thread for the Madison area in the Local HDTV Info and Reception forum, to find out any specific local circumstances and problems (stations not broadcasting at full power, etc.):

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9&goto=newpost

[funlvr1965]

thanks for your input, the receiver will be in the basement connected to my projector so anyone know of any powered antennas that work well in a basement environment?

[afiggatt]

Originally Posted by funlvr1965

thanks for your input, the receiver will be in the basement connected to my projector so anyone know of any powered antennas that work well in a basement environment?

It all depends on how far you are from the broadcast towers, the amount of obstructions you have around you, and so on. If you are close, you can get an antenna to work in the basement, but that is not a recommended place for one.

It would be easier if you provided your zip code, but plugging in zip code for somewhere in Madison - 53703 - into antennaweb.org and a high antenna height just to get a list of your local digital stations:

* yellow - uhf WHA-DT 21.1 PBS MADISON WI 260° 8.1 20
* yellow - uhf WKOW-DT 27.1 ABC MADISON WI 260° 8.1 26
* yellow - uhf WISC-DT 3.1 CBS MADISON WI 260° 8.1 50
* yellow - uhf WBUW-DT 57.1 CW JANESVILLE WI 252° 5.8 32
* yellow - vhf WMSN-DT 47.1 FOX MADISON WI 260° 8.1 11
* yellow - uhf WMTV-DT 15.1 NBC MADISON WI 252° 5.8 19

The last number on each row is the actual digital broadcast channel for the station. WMSN-DT Fox 47 is broadcasting on upper VHF 11, the rest are UHF. You are around 5 to 10 miles ? from the broadcast towers and they appear to clumped into the same area. If you are interested in digital only, you need an antenna which can receive upper VHF and UHF. I suggest you try a Silver Sensor UHF antenna combined with rabbit ears for VHF. You also might to try an inexpensive unamplified VHF rabbit ear / UHF loop antenna for starters. You are close enough to the broadcast towers that an inexpensive indoor antenna may work.

The Samsung DTB-H260F is a good digital ATSC OTA receiver. But it is digital only - it does not have an analog NTSC tuner. Check the thread on the H260F in this forum. It lists for $180. If you have an HD TV of recent vintage, it should or may have a built-in ATSC tuner.

[funlvr1965]

Afiggat, thanks for the info, Im very much a novice at this, driven in this direction by my unpleasant experience with my local hd provider, Im afraid that my situation is not Ideal for an outdoor antenna like the one I had when I lived in newyork, then I had an samsung 151? OTA that worked great, as I said the basement would be the perfect place for it however I may be able to put a small antenna strapped to a fence post just outside our back patio door but the emphasis is on small and one that would pick up both uhf and vhf, any ideas and a site where I can see one?

[Riverplace]

Originally Posted by funlvr1965

Afiggat, thanks for the info, Im very much a novice at this, driven in this direction by my unpleasant experience with my local hd provider, Im afraid that my situation is not Ideal for an outdoor antenna like the one I had when I lived in newyork, then I had an samsung 151? OTA that worked great, as I said the basement would be the perfect place for it however I may be able to put a small antenna strapped to a fence post just outside our back patio door but the emphasis is on small and one that would pick up both uhf and vhf, any ideas and a site where I can see one?

I was in similar situation: using a projector for a long time but only to watch DVD, I didn't care much about TV. But recently I was hooked on 24, and deceided to watch season 6 on TV so a couple of weeks ago I bought the Samsung DTB-H260F tuner. It is a great device, no complaint about it. However, I had a hard time getting a suitable indoor antenna. After trying several different ones, I finally found the Philips MANT950 which is a little pricy but worked wonder. It is an Indoor/Outdoor antenna with pretty good look. The picture now is rock solid and Jack Bauer and CTU never lookso clear and detailed.

Good Luck!