[HarleyRandom]

I have to do it for a few minutes for something that doesn't last long. But if I want to record a 30-minute show, or something longer, that's not an option. Especially if I'm not at home or doing something else.

I was getting a nearly perfect signal as long as a car didn't pass. Then the Series 3 quit and I had to not only hook up the Bolt to the antenna (the best one Sears had in 2009) but also change TVs since the Bolt didn't have a way to connect to an analog TV (which gives me a high place to put the antenna, but not high enough). It took some effort but I finally got the wire from the antenna in a position that gave me a perfect signal. That's because I was standing right in front of the TV.

It's not often I can't just record from cable with the Roamio (FedEx also delivered an Edge yesterday, but that's just in case because I was warned the Roamio might be ready to quit working, but it obviously wasn't). But I do have the need from time to time.

 

[dlfl]

Perhaps a comfortable bar stool would suffice?

And periscopes for other viewers to see around you?

 

[Wil]

Perhaps a comfortable bar stool would suffice?

And as long as you've got the stool, why not build a mini-bar, strategically placed. I see this more as an opportunity than a problem.

Certainly better than going to the trouble of installing a decent antenna.

 

[Sheffield Steve]

 

[HarleyRandom]

And as long as you've got the stool, why not build a mini-bar, strategically placed. I see this more as an opportunity than a problem.

Certainly better than going to the trouble of installing a decent antenna.

And how would I know if it was decent? This was the best one I found back then. I don't intend to spend the money now until someone can put it on the roof. But that's for stations I now get on cable.

This antenna was working. But something has changed so that I am needed. Somehow by standing in front of the TV I have become an antenna. Now I just need to know how to duplicate that when I can't be there.

Previously I posted that I had to touch the wire, but that is no longer necessary. Again, it seems that made me an antenna.

 

[Wil]

Somehow by standing in front of the TV I have become an antenna

Things changed because of repacking or power reduction or tower location. By standing there you block out (or create) some interfering reflections or/and change the capacitance characteristics of the area around the antenna.

You need a roof antenna, on the roof or attic or mounted or on an outside wall exposed to the direction of the broadcast tower. Even a very small outdoor antenna is going to be better than an indoor antenna. There are no good indoor antennas. There are bent coat hangers and the equivalent of badly-bent coat hangers with hugely noisy amplifiers.

But for fun get some sheets of aluminum foil of various sizes and position them in various places adjacent to your indoor. Try both touching and insulated from the antenna. Crumple the foil a bit, fool with positioning it for awhile and you might wind up with something.

 

[warrenn]

If you want reliable OTA recording, you'll have to try to get a more reliable antenna solution. The signal is going to vary from day-to-day based depending on the weather. That's not necessarily a problem with live TV since you'll see the problem and can tweak the antenna, but recordings will have dropouts that prevent the shows from being recorded. You'll need to get the antenna setup in such a way that you generally don't have to tweak it.

 

[CinciDVR]

the antenna (the best one Sears had in 2009)

You don't give any info about your 2009 antenna. Is it just rabbit ears? A bowtie? A combination? I agree with others that an outside antenna is the best solution, but depending on what your current indoor antenna looks like, you may be able to get a better indoor antenna.

 

[HarleyRandom]

Things changed because of repacking or power reduction or tower location. By standing there you block out (or create) some interfering reflections or/and change the capacitance characteristics of the area around the antenna.

Except nothing had changed until I changed DVRs.

You need a roof antenna, on the roof or attic or mounted or on an outside wall exposed to the direction of the broadcast tower..

Getting it installed is the problem. First I asked what if I finally decided it's not working. Of course, it would always be better than the one inside. But to make it worthwhile I'd have to be able to drop cable. I can't see that happening. When the person actually said I need to remove it myself and take it back to the store, I told him how would I do that? I said I couldn't install it myself.

As for the direction of the broadcast tower, I need several antennas. For the stations I was pointing at this location was working pretty well, and very well for one or two stations. At the very start before there were leaves on the trees and it wasn't windy, I got very good results from five stations. One has moved to where it can't be picked up.

 

[HarleyRandom]

You don't give any info about your 2009 antenna. Is it just rabbit ears? A bowtie? A combination? I agree with others that an outside antenna is the best solution, but depending on what your current indoor antenna looks like, you may be able to get a better indoor antenna.

I don't think I still have the box. The part I believe is picking up the signal is shaped like a football and it plugs in and I can adjust the gain. I haven't tried that but I think it's as high as it will go. There are "rabbit ears" but I think that's for VHF which has never worked. One of my stations had to go back to UHF because of this being a problem for many people.

 

[dlfl]

Obviously a hopeless situation. Put in the mini-bar, have a few drinks, and your worries are over!

Actually maybe what changed is the electronics in your football have failed.

 

[HarleyRandom]

Obviously a hopeless situation. Put in the mini-bar, have a few drinks, and your worries are over!

Actually maybe what changed is the electronics in your football have failed.

The antenna works just fine. The only changes were the specific TiVo model and the TV because the old TV didn't have a way to connect to the new TiVo. Before with the old TV and TiVo, everything was close to perfect. It's the signal that's the problem, and like I said, it I'm standing in front of the TV, I am an antenna. The signal is fine then but I can't stay there throughout every program.

I did notice the wire still needs straightening. There may still be something about the direction it is going. I'm not going to test anything for a while because I need to use the same TV to set up the Edge. And I chose not to get an Edge for an antenna, just in case I can't get an antenna that will allow me to replace cable.

Someone mentioned just putting an antenna on the outside of my house, not the roof. That could work, but I'm not what you would call handy and I'd still need someone even to do that.

 

[warrenn]

They have these leaf antennas which are designed to be taped to a wall or window:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RCA-Amp...Antenna-with-65-Mile-Range-ANT1150E/307823691

They come with a long cord so you can put it on a window that's not next to the Tivo. One of these may give you a good signal without having to resort to an actual outdoor antenna.

 

[HarleyRandom]

They have these leaf antennas which are designed to be taped to a wall or window:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/RCA-Amp...Antenna-with-65-Mile-Range-ANT1150E/307823691

They come with a long cord so you can put it on a window that's not next to the Tivo. One of these may give you a good signal without having to resort to an actual outdoor antenna.

I have put this antenna on top of the TV all these years, but it has a really long cord. This was the problem. If I took advantage the way you said, that might improve things, but it's relatively close to a window anyway.

A few minutes ago after rearranging everything temporarily so I could set up my new Edge before actually finding a place that sold the TV I need, I found that the Bolt wasn't recording at all. And so I repeated the process from before and found myself holding on to the connection to the antenna in the back of the Bolt. Perfect signal, but not quite in time. I'm hoping there will be a video of the news story soon but the station is slow about putting those on its site if the story gets put there at all, and then there's the temperamental search function. Anyway, once the story was over, I backed away and got the usual result, but I started fiddling with the wire, which still has something wrapped around it after 12 years. Whatever I did, I was able to back away and not lose the signal.

For now ... PROBLEM SOLVED!

 

[HarleyRandom]

The Bolt is full but once I figure out how to transfer recordings off of it, it appears I can record without being here. Once I turned the TV on and played what I had recorded so far, no problems.

Now I need to experiment with other channels, but not before I can delete something. I seem to have succeeded in transferred a total of three shows.

 

[HarleyRandom]

No problems recording, even when I wasn't at home to adjust the antenna.

 

[HarleyRandom]

I don't know what happened today. Even moving the antenna around didn't fix things. The judge show on the other channel, however, worked fine. I should have started ten minutes ahead because that's how long it took me to fix things and I'm not even certain they are still fixed. Holding the connection to the Bolt didn't help this time. Holding the connection to the antenna didn't help. I finally got something when I held the wire up. I kept trying to position the wire so it would stay in place but as soon as I left the signal went bad again. Whatever I finally did to position the wire correctly worked for a short time and even after I backed away. I don't know where the knob was but I maybe shouldn't have touched it. I don't know what the ideal gain is. Anyway, I won't be doing any more recording anytime soon. But this needs to be fixed. the web site doesn't have anything I missed and when I emailed them to ask where everything was that I missed, no response. They shouldn't make these news stories so hard to find. I did see a news story, but only enough of it to know it was there. I'm still having to watch the recording and fast-forward and even then, I actually backed up to the start of the news story, forgetting the antenna can only be adjusted live. So I lost the whole story. I did add the 8:00 newscast but I'm not there to adjust the antenna.

 

[HarleyRandom]

This is frustrating. The channel where people talking to each other in front of a judge with every other word bleeped is doing perfectly. The channel I am trying to record is doing perfectly. Now, the ABC affiliate, which performed the best of all stations with the Series 3, is doing worse with every test recording. I say test recording because this ABC affiliate never pre-empts shows, and for a while the ABC affiliate on my cable system wasn't working at all. So far, not a real problem. I'll figure out how to fix the ABC station when I'm actually recording tonight.

 

[HarleyRandom]

I managed to get the wire in the right place to get a good signal. Now I just hope I haven't messed up the other stations.

But I was definitely not getting the signal from this station that I did before with the Series 3.

 

[HarleyRandom]

And after I knocked over the TV, it's messed up again. Even on the "You better not be the father!" station now. I managed to get it fixed for the few minutes of the TV news story I wanted to see which isn't on cable. After some more fiddling with the wire I backed away and the signal was fine. Then it wasn't. Every time a car goes by it gets messed up, worse than before. Temperature seems to have something to do with it. This is the first real Fall weekend,