What are some of the better indoor and outdoor HDTV antenas?

[dphirschler]

This one looks more robust... for an indoor antenna. And it's a great price too.

http://www.antennasdirect.com/SR8_indoor_yagi.html


Darryl

[MJA]

Thank you so much for all your suggesitons. I just put in an order for the Samsung DBTH260F HDTV Terrestrial Tuner so all I'm looking for is the right antenna for this tuner. I'll take all of your suggestion into consideration. The only problem is I don't want to run two cables into my home. I already have one cable for my broadband Internet access and so I dont' want to drill another hole in the wall for that. I would love to go with the outdoor antenna though but not sure if I want to drill another hole or make the existing hole bigger to fit two cables.

thats why you should ask a professional antenna installer

[edDV]

Thank you so much for all your suggesitons. I just put in an order for the Samsung DBTH260F HDTV Terrestrial Tuner so all I'm looking for is the right antenna for this tuner. I'll take all of your suggestion into consideration. The only problem is I don't want to run two cables into my home. I already have one cable for my broadband Internet access and so I dont' want to drill another hole in the wall for that. I would love to go with the outdoor antenna though but not sure if I want to drill another hole or make the existing hole bigger to fit two cables.

thats why you should ask a professional antenna installer

The good thing about using the local installer is he(she) already knows what works from your location. Saves you having to learn it all and trash several false start antennas in the process. Not to mention falling off the roof

Next best is to get on your local forum at AVS and talk to others who have already made all the mistakes.


PS: another technique is to cruise your town looking for modern antenna installations (especially UHF). The people with antennas are either long term cheapskates tuning OTA analog VHF or cutting edge techies looking for HDTV. Note what they are using and knock on their door and ask about reception.

[SingSing]

Channel Master 3010 looks like an F-117 stealth bomber

Not really. Most people work at LM will agreed.

[dphirschler]

OK, I did a little on-line research about combining antennas on the same mast. Here is a good writeup about it and what you should be concerned about.

http://www.tvantenna.com/support/tutorials/combining.html

FWIW, there is also a good article about attic mounting on this website.


Darryl

[MJA]

update us with the latest news with pic's will be nice too

[stagescrew]

I purchased the Silver Sensor (Zenith/Philips) from Amazon. I actually got two, they were cheap, and I had read about the lousy connection at the antenna. Sure enough, mine broke off inside, but a quick solder job fixed it. I also bought an in line antenna amplifier from Radio Shack. I had great reception, but experienced a lot of multipath interference due to the antenna shooting through several walls in my house. All the HD transmitters in my area (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, WB) share an antenna farm about 15 miles away from me. I eventually got an outdoor antenna, but now use the Silver Sensor in my bedroom on the other side of my house. No multipath issues, since it's only shooting through one wall.

I did a lot of research, and the most important thing I discovered is finding the correct height of the wavelength is crucial to getting good reception. If you can't get a good signal, try it on the floor, or on top of a bookcase. It makes a big difference. Also if your house has insulation with a foil or metal backing, it will degrade your reception. That might preclude you from using an indoor antenna.

Here is the 42" UHF Yagi I eventually installed. The rotator is for the PBS station, directly opposite from all the others, and about 35 miles away. Great reception BTW.

[xxiangg]

My experience with this radio shack antenna

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103058&cp=&sr=1&origkw=indoor+a...entPage=search

is significantly better than the Silver Sensor type antenna.
I got 2 Silver Sensor type antennas. One was with HDTV wonder
card and the other was packaged with FusionUSB box. Both
antennas performed about the same. Later on I bought the
radioshack antenna. It performs much better than the other
two. My setup is as follows. The antenna feed to a 300/balanced
to 75/unbalanced converter, then feed to a 20db UHF inline
amplifer. The output of the amplifer goes to my receiver.
I live in 30 miles south of San Fransisco. I can receive all
major TV stations from both San Fansisco and San Jose
(Ch2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 20, 26, 32, 36, 44, 48, 56, ...).

[dphirschler]

How much is that antenna from Radio Shaft? I was considering getting a Weingard UHF yagi.

http://www.tvantenna.com/products/tvreception/tvantennas/winegard/HD-9085P.html


Darryl

[SingSing]

My experience with this radio shack antenna. It performs much better than the other.

I am really suprised you got good result from this double bow-tie antenna, that has 300ohm impendence, and need a converter.

Here is the 42" UHF Yagi I eventually installed. The rotator is for the PBS station, directly opposite from all the others, and about 35 miles away. Great reception BTW.

You are ready for a phase array antenna, so you don't have to rotate the antenna.

[dphirschler]

Over the weekend I bought one of the Radio Shack rooftop UHF-only antennas described earlier in this thread. http://www.radioshack.com/sm-40-boom-length-17-elements-outdoor-antenna-for-uhf-only--...i-2103088.html
It was only $26! The boom is about 3.5 feet long. It was probably the same UHF antenna they have sold for years, only now it has an "HDTV ready" sticker on the box. (Wow! I was just reading the feedback on Radio Shack's website and this antenna is loved by all.)

I did a quicky ghetto mounting job just to test it out. I aimed it using a compass bearing that I got from www.antennaweb.org. Did an auto-scan in Dvico's software and I watched the (trademark protected) championship football game in HD! My PC is connected to a projector. It was nice. Later on, I manually set up the same channels in WatchHDTV using info from www.titanTV.com.

I live about 25 miles from the broadcasting towers in Atlanta. I will likely have much better reception after I mount it properly on the roof instead of under my deck. I might even try an attic install.


Darryl

[MJA]

Over the weekend I bought one of the Radio Shack rooftop UHF-only antennas described earlier in this thread. http://www.radioshack.com/sm-40-boom-length-17-elements-outdoor-antenna-for-uhf-only--...i-2103088.html
It was only $26! The boom is about 3.5 feet long. It was probably the same UHF antenna they have sold for years, only now it has an "HDTV ready" sticker on the box. (Wow! I was just reading the feedback on Radio Shack's website and this antenna is loved by all.)


Darryl

I live 75 miles west from downtown chicago so don't think this Antenna will pckup all the channels.

[BirdDaddie]

If your wanting it to be hidden Terk makes one that is big but is like a board

[dphirschler]

Did you read some of the feedbacks on the Radio Shack website? One guy said the 75 mile rating on this antenna is underrated. I think he was getting 83 mile reception.


Darryl

[edDV]

Did you read some of the feedbacks on the Radio Shack website? One guy said the 75 mile rating on this antenna is underrated. I think he was getting 83 mile reception.
Darryl

Many variables for fringe reception, the three most important are transmitter power (Chicago will be high from main channels), antenna directional gain (big and long for UHF) and antenna elevation.

I live near 3,000 ft level but get nothing from 150mi away San Francisco stations because a hill blocks that path. A friend that is not blocked gets strong reception from the SF stations with a "90 mile" ChannelMaster because he has a direct line of sight without ground weather absorption.

AVS Sacramento users report seasonal difficulty getting San Francisco (only 60mi away) during ground fog conditions while the stations come in great up here at 3,000 ft and 150 mi. away.

[xxiangg]

My experience with this radio shack antenna. It performs much better than the other.

I am really suprised you got good result from this double bow-tie antenna, that has 300ohm impendence, and need a converter.

Here is the 42" UHF Yagi I eventually installed. The rotator is for the PBS station, directly opposite from all the others, and about 35 miles away. Great reception BTW.

You are ready for a phase array antenna, so you don't have to rotate the antenna.

Yes, I have a 300ohm to 75ohm converter with an inline 20dB UHF amplifier. All were
bought from radio shack. If you check the user review on radioshack.com, the feedback
is very good for this antenna. Although I do not know if the reviews have been filtered or not.