Picking Up More than one set of HD Locals

[deaninsana]

Is it possible to pickup more than one set of HD locals? I was over a friends house a few years ago who lived in north jersey and picked up NY, philadelphia and a few Baltimore locals. Not sure what he did to do it.

Thanks in advance.

[mr.unnatural]

Only with an OTA antenna. DTV won't allow you to subscribe to more than one locals market via satellite. You can set up an HDTivo to receive a secondary market through the setup menus.

[deaninsana]

That is what I meant. Can you pickup more than one set of HD locals with a OTA and a HD TIVO?

Thanks

[fjwagner]

yes

[deaninsana]

right now i'm in southern New jerey. I pickup philly locals. What do I need to pick up other ones? What type of antenna? DTV put the one on the house already. Thanks again

[JimSpence]

In the setup of the HR10-250, there is a place where you can enter a secondary zipcode for OTA locals. You can also have the unit scan for channels.

[mr.unnatural]

You should be able to display whatever digital channels your receiver can detect when you scan for OTA locals. The caveat is that you may only be able to display guide data for the markets you designate as primary and secondary for OTA reception.

It would be nice if you could select guide data for specific channels a la carte. I get guide data for a ridiculous number of digital channels that are in addition to the primary HD channels I get (many channels have a -2, -3, etc., sub channel in addition to the primary HD channel) but there's nothing on any of them that I'd ever watch and many of these channels don't even have any content to display. I have to delete them from the "Channels I receive" list so they don't fill up my program guide.

[deaninsana]

What type of antenna should I get. I want to pickup maybe NY locals via the antenna. I didn't see how you could add a second zip there. I would prob have to point the antenna towards NY but aren't there multi-directional antennas?

Thanks in advance.

[mr.unnatural]

Omni-directional antennas tend not to work as well as directional ones, especially if you're located any distance from the broadcast towers. You'll first need to determine whether your HD locals are all UHF or if there are some VHF channels thrown into the mix. If they're all UHF then a good UHF antenna like the Channel Master 4228 should do you nicely.

If the broadcast towers are scattered around and not in a fixed location then you can either add more antennas or get a good antenna rotor to aim the antenna at whatever tower you'd like to receive. The only issue with using an antenna rotor is trying to schedule recordings when you're not at home to aim the antenna. I don't know if there are any devices that would let you program the antenna for a specific azimuth at a particular time but that would certainly make things a lot simpler.

[newsposter]

avsforums have good sections on each geographic area. I'm sure there are lots of people in your situation that can help ur specific situation.

[mr.unnatural]

I want to pickup maybe NY locals via the antenna. I didn't see how you could add a second zip there.
The menu to set up alternate locals is buried and is not intuitive to find easily. Here's the path:

Messages & Setup -> Settings -> Channels -> Off-Air Channels -> Set Up Local Network Areas -> Change Local Network Areas

You should get a list of alternate cities within your vicinity from which you may be able to receive locals. Scroll down until you find the city that matches your alternate locals and make your selection. I don't recall exactly but I believe it will stop and download guide data for the secondary area you have selected but, just like your primary locals, it will take some time for the guide data to fill in.