How Do You Mostly Receive Broadcast TV? - Page 4

in Charlotte you will receive about 20 channels from OTA. 30 if you count the duplicates. My antenna is in my attic with an amplifier and can reach stations up to 55 miles. Every thing is digital now days so you either have a picture or you don't. no more "snow" from bad reception. every house and location can be different with OTA antennas.

Why do you put the antenna in the attic

You will reach further when it's monted on the roof (the higher the better).

I hung mine from wires in the attic, so that I wouldn't have to put holes in the roof when mounting the pole.

I have had problems in the past with wind storms turning the antenna when it's mounted on the roof, and that's not good with the antenna that I have.

I put mind be side the house so I have no holes also I can make adjustments on the ground with a clamp to stop rotation. It does take one more section of pipe. It is also on the back side of the home so no one sees the Antenna from the streat.

It doesn't look like this poll is an accurate representation of the average avsforum user. 

 

For whatever it's worth, 95% of my TV viewing is with cableTV (basic and premium cable TV shows).  The other 5% is for "free 2 air" DVBS2 satellite channels and 1080p itunes Pay-Per-View TV shows.  I have had OTA ATSC "HDTV" since 1999; but, very rarely use it.

 

I'm looking forward to see what Sony has to offer later this year when they join DirecTV, Comcast, Dishnetwork as a virtual MSO service; offering "real" TV channels over Internet (both basic and premium TV).

I'm actually using three methods currently. I was using FIOS only until a little over a year ago. I dropped their expensive TV package with terrible, limited spaced Motorola box. I switched to DirecTV and their new, 1TB whole-home 5 tuner DVR and two satellite boxes. Better DVR, more space, and less money per month. About 3 months ago, I built a HTPC and setup a Synology DS1812+ RAID NAS. I also purchased an HomeRun Prime HD external three tuner box which I use WMC to record stuff onto the RAID via iSCSI drive. I dropped one of the DirecTV satellite boxes (the one in the HT) and added a FIOS QAM card. It was a net savings of $2 per month, but the PQ is supposedly better over FIOS and I get more tuners and control with this setup. It works well and the shows are displayable upstairs on the XBox (and PS3 support is coming).

Since then, I started using SickBeard on the Synology and find that this is the most convenient method for watching shows. I'll keep FIOS Internet and the QAM card to HD Prime, but will drop DirecTV as soon as my remaining year is up. The HD Prime will provide realtime TV plus DVR for the wife, but I'll continue to use Sickbeard for most of my viewing in the HT. I love the Synology RAID and the available apps for it. I voted "Online."

We have no accsess to CBS in my area without a huge ant. Then if HBO was to be offered with a streaming box, I will jump. It's just a matter of time. Then they will have streaming down, with 1080p and high quality audio, that's the reason I rent movies.

I have used everything on the list at some point in the last few years. Currently I have fiber optic that I receive both TV and internet (at 50mb). The picture quality is good enough for me.

Word. I think I had to get help to reposition my antenna within the first month or two after initial installation - it clearly wasn't mounted tight enough to the mast. Ever since then she's stayed the course, although I won't lie there have been several really violent storms over the past few years that had me awake at night and just listening for that sound of my antenna ripping off the peak of my roof :S


Complete oversight on my part but the BEST solution especially if you are not using a rotor. I wouldn't have ideal access in this house just based on roof layout/window position but hell ya if you had like a lone window on the side of your house that was otherwise all foundation wall going right up to the roof, you could totally brace a nice long mast to several sections of the foundation wall and have it rise like a good 2 full meters above the peak of your roof... even better if you could somehow create an inner mast (smaller tube inside the main outer support tube fixed to wall) that you could rotate by hand from the window and then LOCK firmly from that position. Would be so easy to turn the antenna yourself then lock it in place... at least there'd be no way of the thing flying away!

Next house Im' going to concoct a setup like this.


Reason a lot of people can't/won't cut the cord: needing specialty channels especially sports networks. That's why teh cable company(s) will never offer individual channels for purchasing - otherwise everybody would ditch their expensive channel packages and buy the two or three they need most.

I use a Omnidirection Antenna I can get all my channel and yes the pipe use is 6 ft above all homes and no holes in roof.
There are few channels I am planing on putting a Antenna they are all on the same mounton 120 mil away
I am still looking for a Antenna some come with a rotor


This is just a little off topic but just sharing with ever one
Try this if you ever wonder why

Pattens
http://www.google.com/?tbm=pts#hl=en&output=search&tbm=pts&sclient=psy-ab&q=tivo&oq=tivo&gs_l=hp.3..0l10.3312.3844.1.6500.4.4.0.0.0.0.204.626.0j3j1.4.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.5.hp.vvpSIURV5t0&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.43148975,d.cGE&fp=be34b536d174b864&biw=1114&bih=819

recordings
http://www.google.com/patents/US20080188213?printsec=drawing&dq=tivo&ei=8rgwUc6gPOfdigKVqoC4BA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Edited by Smithdoor - 3/1/13 at 7:19am

We have been with Direct TV since around 2006, cost around $105/month (2 HD DVR, 1 DVR, SHOW). Cable was terrible in our area, we were at the end of the line and the signal was always out of balance, whatever it was not worth paying for. So, with satellites' weather anomalies aside, awesome PQ & SQ! I have always had good relations with CS also. I have an antennae for local during the weather anomalies and would love to save some $, not sure if we are willing to give up the channels just yet. I looked into a Comcast offer, but everything was a la cart, and at the end the trial period I am paying more for maybe less quality. Would previous cable problems still exist? I am very hesitant to try it again. Are there any new technologies on the horizon?

Dish Network for me.. The only carrier for Indian Channels and Cricket! in the USA..

I use directv for most of my viewing due to PQ, DVR, and it's easy to use. I have cable backup as I am in mountain/rural area and do not get OTA. In the early mornings and during really bad storms I rely on the cable channels for news. Cable sucks. PQ is horrible. I watch some programming online via my HTPC box. PQ online is very good for me.

I've been watching OTA TV since the late 50's. I use to have to go up in the attic to turn the antenna to watch stations out of Toronto on my fathers B&W TV back then. .
(The 4228 inside the attic was just a test. Also, I'm not using all of those traps below the DA anymore)

we cut cable (fios) a few years a go - after you factor in the additional taxes and equipment fees for the boxes and the limited amount of tv we watch it made sense -

now i have 2 hd tuners. one on our 36" sony vega xbr from about 2001 ish - the internal tuner died but this works great for ota with a small antenna sitting behind the tv -

the other tuner is in our move theater - 106" screen attached to our receiver with a near ceiling wall mounted rca antenna. the images look great.

beyond the tuner we stream netflix and amazon prime.

My setup looks just like this, except the antenna is the smaller one and the swivel is a stand with a dowel that pokes through the ceiling in my living room so we can spin the antenna standing on a chair. Even though I live 15 miles south from the broadcast center in Chicago there are always one or two stations that I can't get with the others. For channel 2 I just about have to point the antenna toward the lake. I keep dreaming of mounting it outside on the chimney, but haven't taken the time to learn what I need to about ground and how to attach it (I have no desire to go through the surface of the roof.) We record everything we watch using WMC, so we frequently have to check the signal during the day to make sure everything records right.

All that being said I grew up as one of the first families with cable and cut the cord during college going OTA well before HD existed. 15 years later, HD-OTA is a dream come true and the only thing I miss is occasional baseball and hockey games. Even when regular shows don't record you can always find them online, and all the money I've saved on cable has payed for my projectors, stereos, antennas, computers, tuner cards, etc. We probably watch 75% OTA and 25% online from various sources.

Absolutely no problem if done correctly. You already have, or should have sewer vent pipes that are basically the same thing was what I did.

Again, that was just done as a test. The conventional rotor that was used , leads had to be reverse to take into consideration the reverse mounting of the rotor (basically upside down).

Was your reception vastly different from inside the attic to the roof? I know that it shouldn't be a problem, I am just trying to minimize my impact on the roof. My chimney is actually a good spot since there is a clearer line of site to the broadcast than the rest of the roof. I was hoping to find a way to strap to it so that I didn't have to screw or bolt into anything. I can easily then lead the wires down the chimney to my soffits.

Absolutely. Huge difference on distant signals.

Do NOT use the chimney for any reason reason, especially on older houses (pre WWII). Mortar deteriorates with age and there is the issue of gases & soot from the water heater(s), furnace(s) and fireplace (depending on if it is a furnace or fireplace chimney). I have always used tripods and only had a problem once due to roof age, (which was going to be replaced anyway) that was easily re-sealed.

Holy cow :O
You could probably hack into Sputnik with that setup! ha

Looks like a 70 cm Cushcraft Ringo and a couple of discone antennas with the 4228. Are those for TV use too? The discone on the arm off to the right looks like the one I have but I don't remember the brand.

Youtube downloader...

Terrestrial OTA - here in suburban MD area, get great signal quality from tons of Baltimore and DC/N.VA stations.

Mostly OTA; occasionally online. For broadcast TV, I feel OTA gives me the best quality and value.

Gave up cable when I moved to Texas. I do have satellite (Dish) but for "cable" channels only. I never use it for broadcast TV.

I haven't watched either Broadcast or Cable TV since January of 2007. Prior to that time I was spending $65,00 a month for Cable, since that time I've used that money to purchase my programing on DVDs, lots and lots and lots of them!

I have AT&T U-verse, 200 package. Primary reason is because I'm a retired AT&T employee and get employee discount and have had it even before they started selling to the public. Happy with it, no problems with mine. I've had cable and Dish Network in the past. Cable was terrible and got tired of loosing signal during hard rain storms with satellite.

I get 2 "markets" OTA, Shreveport, LA & East Texas. 3 CM4228's & a CM3671 gets everything without using a rotor.
2 each of the 4 majors, 12 separate stations total.
All xmtr's 50-70 miles away.

Switched to terrestrial supplemented by online content from a variety of sources after a 12 year DirecTV subscription. DirecTV constantly "rewarded" me with free sporting content that had no value for me not being a sports fan, coupled with rates rising faster than the US debt, the death of Tech TV, and the rise of "reality" programming!

I have limited basic with Comcast in New Britain, CT (near Hartford). I get the locals, QVC and The Weather Channel (national feed) in HD. I also get The Weather Channel (local crawl and conditions) in SD. Other services include many broadcast subchannels, TBS, NECN (Boston regional news channel), C-Span, CT-N, HSN and the so-called P.E.G. access channels.

With strictly an antenna, I'd only get the following:

WFSB-TV (CBS) channel 3 Hartford [digital 33]
WCCT-TV (CW) channel 20 Waterbury [digital 20]
WEDH-TV (PBS) channel 24 Hartford [digital 45]
WHPX-TV (ION) channel 26 New London [digital 26]
WVIT-TV (NBC) channel 30 New Britain [digital 35]
WCTX-TV (MY) channel 59 New Haven [digital 39]
WTIC-TV (FOX) channel 61 Hartford [digital 31]

Notice who isn't on that list? WTNH-TV (ABC) channel 8 of New Haven [digital 10].

Here's my other issue. I live in the south end of New Britain, CT, at the bottom of Walnut Hill. (That same hill is home to The Hospital Of Central Connecticut and Walnut Hill Park.) It hinders my reception of anything from Avon Mountain. Channel 3 is there about 95% of the time and that's only because they're at a full 1 million watts ERP. The same site has WUVN-TV (UNI) channel 18 of Hartford [digital 46]. It always breaks up and is rarely reliable to watch for more than a few minutes. I NEVER got a reliable signal from channel 18 in the analog days. Channel 24 was the same way until they moved their site to Rattlesnake Mountain in Farmington, about a year before the 2009 analog TV cutoff. The signal was like night and day! The only indoor antenna which ever got a decent signal of WTNH-TV was a so-called RCA Batwing one. I had to rest it vertically, having it sit at the top of my south-facing second floor bedroom window.

Sometimes, when I aim the antenna towards New London County for channel 26 (ION), I'll get a bit of WPXQ-TV (ION) channel 69 [digital 17] of Block Island/Providence, RI. That transmitter is in Exeter, RI, fairly close to the Connecticut state line, putting it only a few miles further than the channel 26 site in Montville.

I used to get a snowy color signal of WEDH-TV (PBS) channel 53 of Norwich, CT. I lost that completely when they went to VHF channel 9 for their digital (it was more reliable than channel 24 was from their old Avon Mountain site).

I don't receive any signals from Springfield, MA on digital. Period. Analog channels 22, 40 and 57 were never clear here, whether they transmitted from Agawam, MA (channel 22) or Holyoke, MA (channels 40 and 57).

Lastly, we once had an antenna in the attic, which my late grandfather may have installed. We've never had an antenna on the roof itself. My landlord won't allow one to be put up there either.

We have cut the cord. We get broadcast via OTA. We have two TiVo Premiere boxes for DVR functionality. We also use an AppleTV for streaming Netflix, iTunes, and mirroring a laptop or the iPad for other sources.

Back up. We had cancelled DirecTV a couple years ago, but caved and turned on basic cable last fall for football season (we're big college sports fans). Of course we ended up having to add a special sports package to get most of the games. So much for getting a cheap cable package to watch the games.

So we cancelled it again. We made a list of all the shows we recorded and watched. We crossed off the shows we really didn't care about, and it came down to 2 shows that were on cable - everything else was broadcast. Those two shows (the League and American Horror Story) were both available next-day on iTunes for $32 each, per season. So it was a no-brainer.

We've taken the money we're saving on the cable bill and we've subscribed to NBA League Pass and MLB All Access on the AppleTV. We stream & mirror other games on the fly-by-night sites.

I am on a bit of a crusade to rally the troops and get as many to cut cable/satellite as possible. Remember when you first got cable and thought "Man, I wish we could just pay for the 8 channels we wanted and not have to pay for these other 20"? The infrastructure is there. If ESPN offered it, I'd pay for it legally. Better yet, if the Big XII Conference offered a package, we'd pay THEM directly. If the NFL Sunday Ticket were available via AppleTV, without a cable package, you bet we'd sign up.

The infrastructure is there. The content providers need to understand that they could profit more in the long run and focus their efforts on only the content that people want to see if they simply cut out the middlemen and sell directly to the viewer. Let the cable companies focus on providing better internet service to their customers. Our cable company has publicly stated that providing television and phone service has become a loss leader for their internet service. When I cancelled my television service, they were actually happy.

It's time to stand up for what you want and stop paying for what you don't care about!