To He$$ with CC'S - i'M GOING OTA!!

How long is the cable?
I'm in a similar situation as Gray and I'm trying to decide between that and the Radio Shack one.

 

I get pretty good reception with the Terk sitting on my dresser. The cable is only about 6 feet long, but I'm sure you can add a cable if you need a longer run.

 

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It would be great if DirecTV created a cablecard-like interface that could be stuck in an HD TiVo. If they came up with such a device, just imagine how many cable subscribers they could lure away?

Considering I'm tied to Cox until my 3-yr TiVo service expires and I wouldn't like the fact that I'd be throwing money away on a TiVo paperweight (re: I definitely won't be switching to DirecTV if I can't use my S3).

I doubt my area will be getting FiOS anytime soon (Verizon continues to market DSL + DirecTV to me).

 

Man, Ereth you oughta be a slam dunk! Jam a coat hanger in there and try! Seriously, if you have an old rabbit ears laying around that will work for you.

Sounds like you'd be the kind of neighbor I moved out to the country to get away from!!!

One would think so, but my garage not only has the TechShield you describe, but also a metal roof, and my indoor Terk works pretty well shooting across two vehicles!

I DO plan to put up a real antenna or two, but it has been surprising to me how easy it is to get HD OTA out here in the middle of nowhere...

 

I can get all the stations that I want with the Philips PHDTVI that I got from TiVo with the new HD unit but one. I assume it’s because it’s a vhf station. Would a different antenna make the difference?

* yellow - uhf KMTP-DT 33.1 IND SAN FRANCISCO CA 179° 38.0 33


* yellow - vhf KNTV-DT 11.1 NBC SAN JOSE CA 176° 42.5 12

* green - uhf KQED-DT 9.1 PBS SAN FRANCISCO CA 179° 38.0 30
* lt green - uhf KFTY-DT 50.1 IND SANTA ROSA CA 309° 32.2 54
* red - uhf KGO-DT 7.1 ABC SAN FRANCISCO CA 179° 38.0 24
* red - uhf KBCW-DT 44.1 CW SAN FRANCISCO CA 179° 38.0 45
* red - uhf KCNS-DT 38.1 SAH SAN FRANCISCO CA 179° 38.0 39
* red - uhf KCSM-DT 43.1 PBS SAN MATEO CA 179° 38.0 43
* red - uhf KTVU-DT 2.1 FOX OAKLAND CA 179° 38.0 56
* red - uhf KFSF-DT 66.1 TFA VALLEJO CA 179° 38.0 34
* red - uhf KRON-DT 4.1 MNT SAN FRANCISCO CA 179° 38.0 57
* blue - uhf KBWB-DT 20.1 IND SAN FRANCISCO CA 179° 38.0 19
* blue - uhf KPIX-DT 5.1 CBS SAN FRANCISCO CA 179° 38.0 29
* blue - uhf KKPX-DT 65.1 ION SAN JOSE CA 176° 42.4 41
* violet - uhf KTSF-DT 26.1 IND SAN FRANCISCO CA 176° 42.4 27

 

Free OTA Rocks. I love saving $100/mo

 

THAT'S what I'M talking about. I would never even consider cable HD except I loves my hockey in high definition

 

well, all this talk makes me happy. i live in canada, between 55-62 miles from the detroit broadcast towers. unfortunately for the guide to work properly with the HD ota channels, i need to input a US zipcode, so my cable channels are out of wack (its analogue cable). but what i have found is that with the brains tivo has, there is more than enough tv, especially in HD with 7 channels than i had with 300plus satellite channels. i'll likely drop the analogue cable all together

its scarry to think how much i invested in the new tivo HD, just for an antenna. my wife thought i was nuts until the first time she wanted a snack in the middle of desperate houswives and i told her to hit the pause button...the rest is history.

by the way, the tuners in the 3 series are great, at my last house, i was closer to the towers, and my antenna was 15' higher and to get all the channels i needed a rotor, not so with the tivo tuner.

 

This is SO true. I had the same situation; used to have to rotate the antenna to get our CBS HD, but now, the backside of my CM 4221 gets it just fine with the S3 tuners.

 

When we first moved into our house 22 years ago, I put a Radio Shack antenna in the attic. 5 years ago we got basic cable with my Internet access and disconnected the antenna. 1 year ago I got the S3 and a Samsung HDTV and hooked both up to the antenna in the attic. Shoreview is not far away and the reception is great. Just wish the local channels would broadcast more hockey in HD -- too bad about 45-2.

 

I'm glad to hear other preaching the OTA word!

Stick it to the cable companie$!

 

Three words: Monday Night Football

And after thanksgiving with NFL network, that'll also be: Thursday Night Football

I love the idea of OTA only, but I'm a football junkie....can't pull the trigger and cut all ties just yet.

 

Fry's in north Austin has some CM 4228 antennas - big ones - on sale last I checked. I'm in Round Rock and use an attic mounted 4228 to pull 95+ signal strength on Austin stations. And the one time I tried pointing it in another direction (north) I also got all the OTA from Temple and Waco also (80+ miles away).

The day I got my S3 I dropped down to only basic cable ($14/month). I pull my HD via OTA, but also have QAM local HDTV channels (with no guide data) as a backup. And the $14 is worth it for the KLRU2 offering (PBS's second local channel, cable only, not OTA).

 

The $25 40" Yogi style Radio Shack antenna works substantially better than the "almighty" $80 Channel Master 4228 for me.

I am in San Jose, CA, receiving from San Francisco.

I get everything in near 100% @ 34db SNR except for NBC 90% @ 27db SNR.

Even NBC never macro-blocks, or anything.


I tried the Channel Master 4228 a while back, and it was bigger, heavier, and I received a much worse signal from it. Thank god Fry's Electronics took it back for a full refund no problem.

It could have to do with the multipath reflections we get in the bay area.

 

I live in condo and i get some drop outs on ota hd. Im thinking of using a flat cable. And putting my antenna on the patio. Anyone know if this is safe to do? Do i need to ground it some how? Do you think my neighbors will complain?

I sure miss The Tube on ota