OTA antenna -non hd only

drdarren said:

i just read on tivo's website the ad for the S3(i just bought my second one). it specifically says you can attach an ota antenna(non hd). i asked in another thread about decreased quality but it appears that it doesnt even support hd unless it is coming from the cablecards..

just curious if anyone else saw this.

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Boy are you ever WRONG!

I've got an S3 hooked up to an old TV antenna in my attic and it pulls in all the local digital/HDTV broadcasts and the analog channels as well.

By way of some education, there is no such thing as an HDTV antenna. Any regular antenna can be used for both analog and digital channels. Digital/HD channels broadcast within the same frequency spectrum as the analog channels. If you have a half way decent all channel (UHF/VHF) antenna, you should be able to pick up your local channels for free.

No, didn't see it. The S3 will receive both NTSC and ATSC OTA signals for as long as they are both broadcast, and will do so without cablecards. The S3 will receive HD with a coat hanger but antennaweb.org is a good place to start to determine the best type of OTA antenna for your area.

my bad. the site actually stated digital antenna and analog antenna separately as sources. i only saw analog antenna when i first looked at it.

drdarren said:

my bad. the site actually stated digital antenna and analog antenna separately as sources. i only saw analog antenna when i first looked at it.

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There is no such distinction. OTA HD is broadcast over UHF and VHF, just like OTA non-HD has been done for the last 60 years. Most OTA HD is UHF, but some is VHF.

Any antenna that can pick up UHF (and VHF) will get you OTA HD. There's no such thing as a "digital antenna".

It is not "OTA-HD", it is "OTA-Digital", AKA ATSC. HD is often carried on those ATSC channels, but they themeselves don't define an HD channel.

classicsat said:

It is not "OTA-HD", it is "OTA-Digital", AKA ATSC. HD is often carried on those ATSC channels, but they themeselves don't define an HD channel.

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Says who? I wasn't referring to the specification, otherwise I would have said ATSC.

I was referring the the method (OTA) and the programming type (HD). That is OTA HD. Is there some rule that I can't refer to those two things together in a sentence?

drdarren said:

i just read on tivo's website the ad for the S3(i just bought my second one). it specifically says you can attach an ota antenna(non hd). i asked in another thread about decreased quality but it appears that it doesnt even support hd unless it is coming from the cablecards..

just curious if anyone else saw this.

Click to expand...

I realize you found your error, but just to make it clear . . .

Any HD TiVo supports both cablecards and OTA antennas. It can also support an HD signal from both sources, even at the same time. I have two cablecards and an OTA antenna. I have HD from cable, and HD from OTA. Both. At the same time. It's easy.