OTA antenna for HR10-250

[jstang]

With the NFL season and college season getting underway I am going to invest in an OTA antenna. I called directv yesterday and they said that I cannot add the antenna through them. They say that I would have needed them to add it on the day they installed it? They said I could purchase one from Best Buy but has anyone used one of these? I am hoping it gives perfect hd reception but I'm not counting on it. How do these things work?

[thebarge]

With the NFL season and college season getting underway I am going to invest in an OTA antenna. I called directv yesterday and they said that I cannot add the antenna through them. They say that I would have needed them to add it on the day they installed it? They said I could purchase one from Best Buy but has anyone used one of these? I am hoping it gives perfect hd reception but I'm not counting on it. How do these things work?Indoor or outdoor antenna? I installed a Channel Master 4228 in my attic and it works fantastic, and it's less than $100. I don't think Best Buy or Circuit City sells it though.

EDIT: By the way, be glad D* didn't install their antenna. According to the installer that hooked up my HR10-250, they use some cheap bowtie-shaped antenna that really stinks.

[jstang]

well at least the picture quality will be good. Directv says I can get one from Bestbuy for $50. Anyone have any experience with one of these?

[RexB]

Dunno about that antenna, but depending on how close you are to the Broadcast stations you might check out these antennas for comparison:


< 20 miles - Zenith ZHDTV1 Silver Sensor $21 inside mount
< 38 miles - DB2 $40 inside/outside mount - Excellent reception for me from 34 miles away.
< 50? miles- CM4228 $50 outside mount

[rlj5242]

At least at my local Best Buy, they have a wide selection of Terk antennas. Terk is the Bose of the antenna world. All hype and very little substance.

Start at AntennaWeb (http://www.antennaweb.org) and get a list of the digital stations in your area. Post that table here. We can recommend an antenna from that. You should really check out the Local HDTV section in the parent forum. Find the thread that corresponds to your DMA. You will have neighbors who are already getting HD and have taken the trial and error out of picking an antenna.

-Robert

[LlamaLarry]

I got my 4228 (http://www.warrenelectronics.com/antennas/4228.htm) for $63.26 shipped, came in 2 days.

[jnova]

Hey guys,
This is a little off the subject, but I just got a new Plasma and went out and bought a Silver Sensor (actually a Phillips PD3TV) to get the HD channels and so far am having a mixed experience getting them to tune in. I bought a cheap switcher from Radio Shack to switch betwen the analog cable signal and the signal from the antenna, but it seems like when I switch I have to reprogram the channels every time. Is there a way to avoid doing this that I'm missing? I have a Panasonic 42PX600U, but it says nothing in the manual about this.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks...

[A J Ricaud]

Hey guys,
This is a little off the subject, but I just got a new Plasma and went out and bought a Silver Sensor (actually a Phillips PD3TV) to get the HD channels and so far am having a mixed experience getting them to tune in. I bought a cheap switcher from Radio Shack to switch betwen the analog cable signal and the signal from the antenna, but it seems like when I switch I have to reprogram the channels every time. Is there a way to avoid doing this that I'm missing? I have a Panasonic 42PX600U, but it says nothing in the manual about this.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks...

If you only have one input I think you are stuck. A single input can be set up for EITHER QAM (cable) OR OTA (NTSC).

[TyroneShoes]

Hey guys,
This is a little off the subject, but I just got a new Plasma and went out and bought a Silver Sensor (actually a Phillips PD3TV) to get the HD channels and so far am having a mixed experience getting them to tune in. I bought a cheap switcher from Radio Shack to switch betwen the analog cable signal and the signal from the antenna, but it seems like when I switch I have to reprogram the channels every time. Is there a way to avoid doing this that I'm missing? I have a Panasonic 42PX600U, but it says nothing in the manual about this.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks...
From the little you have posted, it sounds as if the TV has a OTAHD or 8VSB tuner as well as a cable or QAM tuner, if you can truly get HD from both sources. TV's usually have separate RF inputs for the two tuners, but I guess there may only be one if the TV is supposed to get it from EITHER cable OR OTA 100% of the time, even if the TV is capable of both.

If there is but one RF input, that is probably not a problem you could fix, as the TV expects to see what it saw the last time, and if all of a sudden there is a new type of signal coming in that RF port (you switch externally from cable to OTA, for instance), the set will not know what to do without reconfiguration.

So, check first to see if you have separate RF inputs.

IF not, one thing you could do is use a PVR or STB that accepts either OTA or QAM (one or the other), connect to that first and then output that as a component or HDMI signal into the set on a separate input, meaning you get cable on one input (RF or HDMI/component), and OTA on the other (RF or HDMI/component).