OTA Question

I currently own a Mits. 57732 DLP w/ comcast high def. I am considering
buying a winegard antenna to pick up high def on UHF. I live 10 miles
from 7 HDTV towers all within 3 degrees of each other.

Anybody else have a good or bad experience with using a OTA for high
def.? I have heard that with an antenna it can look better than cable
high def.

Any and all input is appreciated!

~J~

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:24:16 -0400 JER67 wrote:
| I currently own a Mits. 57732 DLP w/ comcast high def. I am considering
| buying a winegard antenna to pick up high def on UHF. I live 10 miles
| from 7 HDTV towers all within 3 degrees of each other.

Tell us which TV market that is so we know what the channels really are.
Or are you sure that all the digitals channels are, and will stay, on UHF?


| Anybody else have a good or bad experience with using a OTA for high
| def.? I have heard that with an antenna it can look better than cable
| high def.

Depends on who you ask. Ask Bob Miller and he'll tell you that you're
wasting your money and that ATSC/8VSB does not work and you'll get no
picture at all most of the time. Ask anyone else (including people that
have actual digital TVs and get actual signals over the air from distances
a lot further than yours) and they will tell you that you can get a very
good picture and that it will be better than cable if your cable company
does re-compression (apparently most do). You may also get subchannels
your cable company doesn't even carry.

--
|---------------------------------------/----------------------------------|
| Phil Howard KA9WGN (ka9wgn.ham.org) / Do not send to the address below |
| first name lower case at ipal.net / |
|------------------------------------/-------------------------------------|

From:

Tell us which TV market that is so we know what the channels really are.
Or are you sure that all the digitals channels are, and will stay, on
UHF?

-----------From ~J~ JER67----------------
Boston MA. Break Down:
1) Antenna Type: "color" & ALL UHF
Y= yellow, G=green, R=red
2) Call Sign: "All DT"
3) Channel: "ALL HD"
4) Network:
5) City: "ALL Boston"
6) State: "All MA."
7) Compass Degree:
8) MIles:
9) Frequenct Assignment:

(7) Channels I am looking to get:

Y-wgbh-2.1-PBS-102 deg.-9.2 mi-19

Y-wlvi-56.1-CW-105 deg-10.1 mi.-41

Y-wskb-38.1-IND-102 deg-9.2 mi.-39

Y-wbz-4.1-CBS-102 deg-9.2 mi.-30

Y-wcvb-5.1-ABC-102 deg-9.2 mi.-20

G-wfxt-25.1-FOX-105 deg-10.1 mi.-31

R-whdh-7.1-NBC-102 deg-10.3 mi. 42

I have comcast High Def Cable. I am only looking to pick up these high
def channels via outdoor antenna.

JER67 wrote:
I currently own a Mits. 57732 DLP w/ comcast high def. I am considering
buying a winegard antenna to pick up high def on UHF. I live 10 miles
from 7 HDTV towers all within 3 degrees of each other.

Anybody else have a good or bad experience with using a OTA for high
def.? I have heard that with an antenna it can look better than cable
high def.

Any and all input is appreciated!

~J~

If you provide your zip code, we can look up the digital stations and
see if they are all on UHF and whether they will stay on UHF after the
analog shutdown in 2009. The zip code also tells us something about your
terrain - hilly, wooded, flat plains, desert - which impacts antenna
selection. At 10 miles, an indoor or attic mounted antenna can often do
the job but not always if you live down in a valley or in dense woods.

Most people have very good experience with OTA digital reception -
provided they live in an area where OTA reception is feasible - now that
most major stations are at or near full power on their digital channel.
I get 16 digital stations - 13 with HD sub-channels - quite reliably
with a Channel Master 4221 4 Bay bowtie in my attic. I expect I will get
18 OTA digital stations by the end of the year when the last two
holdouts in the Baltimore-Washington market - WUTB-DT My 24 in Baltimore
(should be soon) and WHUT-DT PBS in DC go full power.

Yes, the local stations can look better OTA than via cable, but that
varies a lot depending on whether the specific local cable system adds
more compression to squeeze the HD channels into limited bandwidth. OTA
reception will also get all the SD sub-channels that Comcast may not
pass through.

Alan F

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:24:16 -0400, (JER67) wrote:

I currently own a Mits. 57732 DLP w/ comcast high def. I am considering
buying a winegard antenna to pick up high def on UHF. I live 10 miles
from 7 HDTV towers all within 3 degrees of each other.

Anybody else have a good or bad experience with using a OTA for high
def.? I have heard that with an antenna it can look better than cable
high def.

Any and all input is appreciated!

~J~

You are in luck.

At your location, all you have to do is hang a cheap bowtie antenna
off your ant input and you should get perfect HDTV reception for all
those channels.

Your only problem is figuring how to share the OTA with your box.
You may want to use a cheap splitter to combine the two or you may
have an extra jack on your TV or box. Or you may find less problems
using a switch between the two.

"JER67" wrote in message
...
From:

Tell us which TV market that is so we know what the channels really are.
Or are you sure that all the digitals channels are, and will stay, on
UHF?

-----------From ~J~ JER67----------------
Boston MA. Break Down:
1) Antenna Type: "color" & ALL UHF
Y= yellow, G=green, R=red
2) Call Sign: "All DT"
3) Channel: "ALL HD"
4) Network:
5) City: "ALL Boston"
6) State: "All MA."
7) Compass Degree:
8) MIles:
9) Frequenct Assignment:

(7) Channels I am looking to get:

Y-wgbh-2.1-PBS-102 deg.-9.2 mi-19

Y-wlvi-56.1-CW-105 deg-10.1 mi.-41

Y-wskb-38.1-IND-102 deg-9.2 mi.-39

Y-wbz-4.1-CBS-102 deg-9.2 mi.-30

Y-wcvb-5.1-ABC-102 deg-9.2 mi.-20

G-wfxt-25.1-FOX-105 deg-10.1 mi.-31

R-whdh-7.1-NBC-102 deg-10.3 mi. 42

I have comcast High Def Cable. I am only looking to pick up these high
def channels via outdoor antenna.



Before you spend any money, try one of these UHF loops that used to come
with TV sets. You will need a 300:75 Ohm transformer, but you will need that
with whatever antenna you end up using.

Tam

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:24:16 -0400, JER67 wrote:

I currently own a Mits. 57732 DLP w/ comcast high def. I am considering
buying a winegard antenna to pick up high def on UHF. I live 10 miles
from 7 HDTV towers all within 3 degrees of each other.

At only 10 miles, suggest you try a cheap uhf/vhf antenna. I assume your
TV is a newer ,odel with a built in ATSC tuner.

Anybody else have a good or bad experience with using a OTA for high
def.? I have heard that with an antenna it can look better than cable
high def.

I switched from NTSC to ATSC only about 2 years ago. I'm about 42 miles
from the towers and I get perfect reception except during extreme storms
where I may get some pixelation. OTA ATSC is almost always better than
cable or sat. It will never be worse.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

"JER67" wrote in message
...
I currently own a Mits. 57732 DLP w/ comcast high def. I am
considering
buying a winegard antenna to pick up high def on UHF. I live
10 miles
from 7 HDTV towers all within 3 degrees of each other.

Anybody else have a good or bad experience with using a OTA
for high
def.? I have heard that with an antenna it can look better
than cable
high def.

Any and all input is appreciated!

If you can easily return the antenna I would just try it.

I live outside Boston and get all my HD and other digital
TV OTA. My closest station is about 11 miles way the
farthest
is about 30 miles. In my case seems less important than
what's
between me an the transmitters as the farthest station is
acually
the most stable.

I use an amplified indoor antenna which requires
occasional adjustment but works great. I actually get more
stations(plus the sub channels) than I did under analog
only.

--
Rick Evans
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lon -71° 04' 35"
Lat +42° 11' 07"

On Jul 10, 4:24 am, (JER67) wrote:
I currently own a Mits. 57732 DLP w/ comcast high def. I am considering
buying a winegard antenna to pick up high def on UHF. I live 10 miles
from 7 HDTV towers all within 3 degrees of each other.

Anybody else have a good or bad experience with using a OTA for high
def.? I have heard that with an antenna it can look better than cable
high def.

Any and all input is appreciated!

~J~

If you can see the towers you'll have very little trouble. OTOH if
there is a mountain or tall buildings, it will get interesting.
Distance is not a big issue as long as the multipath (ghosts) are not
severe. Even then there are things to do. Check out this one and
particularly, Rev 2

http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~wn17/

A little extreme but it proves the point. Yes Bob, I know COFDM works
better.

GG

"G-squared" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jul 10, 4:24 am, (JER67) wrote:
snip
http://www.prism.gatech.edu/~wn17/

A little extreme but it proves the point. Yes Bob, I know
COFDM works
better.

ROFL
--

Rick Evans
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lon -71° 04' 35.3"
Lat +42° 11' 06.7"