I should be getting my new new tuner card in the mail today and want to use it to watch OTA HDTV. How is the signal strength in this area? What stations can you pick up (any Canadian)? and what kind of antenna should I be using? I know they make HD antennas but I recall hearing that you can just use a regular UHF antenna too, right?
Right now, my standard TV is using a regular antenna and I BARELY get channel 2 to tune in but the rest seem to tune in fine… a little static but not too bad. Are there ways to amplify the signal? Any help is appreciated.
edit: and the card I bought supports up to 1080i, if I’m running 1080p, is it a problem?
Not sure about out there in east bajesus where you are, but after trying several different antennas in Williamsville the best I found was a DB4. Start reading on various HD forums and that’s the one people rave about for HD locals. I can’t pull in any Canadian HD stuff with it mounted in my attic though.
www.antennaweb.org Plug in your zip and it will tell you what stations are around and how good of an antenna you’ll need to get them. I could get all the locals (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, PBS and something else) with just rabbit ears but I’d have to aim them differently depending on the channel. After some trial and error with the DB4’s aiming I was able to find a sweet spot where it would pull in all of the channels without needing to be adjusted.
Then Dish Network added Buffalo HD locals and now I only OTA when I need the extra tuner to DVR something.
I think it was bigairskier who had a big roof mount antenna that would let him get CBC HD out of Toronto.
But a simple indoor antenna will work just fine steve, the towers are in grand island and alden i believe, i have to check but i believe its alden. Check antennaweb like Jay said and you should be all set.
I’m 99% sure I have a Philips Silver Sensor that I’d sell you for $20 if you want it. That’s the indoor one I see recommended a lot. It worked well for me, but not as good as the DB4.
If you’re interested let me know and I’ll make sure I still have it. I believe it’s sitting right at the top of the attic stairs in the garage.
I have both in the attic, one towards GI, one towards South Bflo. Use a high bandwidth splitter / combiner and I never have to adjust either of the antennae.
You shouldn’t be getting “static”… if you are, you’re not on HDOTA. It’s either all or nothing.
If your tuner card takes a RG6 input, then just run the line right to it and capture 1080i OTA.
I can’t speak to cathching CBC or the like… I haven’t tried that hard.
If you have DirecTV, you don’t need the antenna cause CBS is in HD now.
I have an old set of rabbit ears and I get all locals in crystal clear HD. My buddy went to Best Buy and bought some fancy new antenna and it can’t pull stations for shit.
When I first got my HD set a couple years ago, I hooked up a pair of $1.XX rabbit ears and i was able to get most of the HD OTA, but with min signal, and I’d have to change the aiming to get diff channels.
I lol’d my ass off that I had rabbitt ears hooked to a $3k tv, but they do work.
Worth a shot, and if you don’t get everything, the silver sensor style antenna is only $20 - $30 beans.
Set em both up with a compass. Short run to the combiner. Single run to a 4way splitter in my data box. Runs from there to each tv (or poss) tv location. All RG6 & high bandwidth barrels / couplers - almost nil signal loss.
I need to post a pic of my “structured” wiring box one of these days.
It happened a few weeks ago. I was watching the news on channel 4 and they said that DTV was now carrying the HD signal. Sure enough, I got home and there it was.
If you want the Canadian HDs, your best bet is to go big with a rotor. An antenna with 50+ elements should work great.
I put a 30 element with a rotor at my parent’s house in Cheektowaga and they can pull in Canadian HD, but the signal is a little low. An amp might correct the problem, I just haven’t tried it yet.