HD antenna question

[RU482]

My dad has a 37in LG LCD TV. He lives in a small town, and has a crappy local cable company (no cable box). I bought him an HD antenna for Christmas (mainly to show him how good an HD picture can look on his TV).

Unfortunately, the antenna I bought him only has a F-connector output (no pass though)
The TV only has one tuner.

Is it feasable to put a splitter in so he can utilize both the analog cable in and the HD antenna?
Is there a better method?

Thanks!

 

[Mloot]

Your cable's analog signal and the OTA signals coming from your antenna share the same frequencies, so they cannot be combined. Since your TV set has only one F-input, you will need an A-B switch, such as this one. This will let you switch between cable and antenna inputs with little fuss. There are cheaper ones which will let you switch manually, but it requires you to go to the box everytime you want to change. Unless you want the extra exercise, the remote switches are supposed to work very well.

EDIT: Depending on your dad's tv, it may have a QAM tuner. If it does, you might be able to tune in to whatever unscrambled digital/HD channels your cable company may be passing along with their analog signal. These usually just include your local digital channels, but most of the time they are passed along unencrypted so that you will not need a cable box to get them. If you haven't already, check in the TV's menu options to see if it will let you scan for clear QAM channels.

 

[heyheybooboo]

I use the $15 manual A/B Switch without any problems. I had the perfect accessible cubbyhole to place it. I don't use a remote - use wireless keyboard - so if your Pop is into the universal remote thang the IR model may work best for him.

 

[Christobevii3]

My cable company doens't encode their stuff so I didn't need to worry about this. I get like 30 channels in HD and can view the payperview channels when people order too...