OTA HDTV

[silverpig]

So I just installed a pchdtv 5500 card in my box and hooked it up to an antenna. I'm in a bad building in a not so great part of town as far as receiving hd content ota is concerned, but I get one channel loud and clear. Most people in my area with more favourable reception conditions get at least 3 channels with a basic antenna, and if you get a little crazy you can apparently get 24 hd channels for free.

I'm in Vancouver in a 1st floor partially underground apartment on the far side of the building from the local hd towers and surrounded by highrises. I only get CBC|HD.

How is the OTA hd content in your guys' areas? Is it viable to switch to free OTA instead of cable/sattelite? My cable provider doesn't provide any QAM/unencrypted hd content, so it's either OTA or paying for basic cable + premium package + digital box + hd content. Basically to get cable hd plus internet it's $120/mo. And how many channels would I watch out of that? I just made a list and figured on 12 hd channels and one sd digital channel that I would regularly watch.

If only there was more OTA content available here, I'd not even bother with cable.

 

[Shadowknight]

In my area it's:
A) ABC - most things look fine, but for some reason prime-time shows like Grey's Anatomy have a bunch of frame skipping to the point of being unwatchable. The audio's fine, and all the usual, boring crap plays fine/
B) FOX - well, it's Fox, everything plays perfectly fine
C) I get two different PBS affiliates which, as to be expected, are fairly boring. I get two different 1080i channels, and several 720p and a couple of ED, though two channels have some issues with the picture and/or have no sound
D) Local station; it's supposedly in ED, but it looks lousy despite being in ED. PBS's ED looks noticably better than standard broadcast, so evidently they just don't care.

I have a cheap HDTV, so maybe the OTA tuner isn't that great, contributing to a few of the problems, but the stations I do get look beautiful.

 

[arrfep]

OTA HD is tops for me for one main reason: It's free. I use an ATI HDTV Wonder card, with the antenna that came with it. I can tune HD NBC, ABC, WGN, FOX, PBS, all the time, and sometimes CBS. That's really all that's worth watching anyway, but I still get about a dozen other channels which are local syndicates that just show reruns.

Content looks pretty decent on my monitor, a 21" Samsung 215tw. It's no 1080p on a Pioneer Elite, but it's a lot nicer looking than SD on a CRT tv, which is what I moved up from. Plus it's cool getting things non-cropped in widescreen. DVRing the stuff is a pain, since an hour of content will sometimes fill over 1G of disk space.

To me, it's worth it to get an HD card for a PC for the local channels (to watch Lost, Prison Break, Heroes) and because it's a cheap way to get a DVR. If you've got the money, sure, HD cable for the HD movie channels and HD Discovery. I guess it's all about how much you want to spend, and how much TV you watch.

 

[buzzsaw13]

I get 20-30 channels depending on where I put the antenna. Most of them are in SD, but the ones in HD look awesome (like 6 or 7 channels)

Kinda sucks you don't get QAM. I'm waiting for Toshiba to come out with this DVD recorder/upconverting player/QAM tuner for $230

 

[Blayze]

Going to be trying out some OTA HDTV in a few weeks and I was wondering what would be a good indoor antenna? Antennaweb.org says I can pickup most of my channels with an indoor (all but FOX), and I'm renting so I can't use an outdoor antenna. The towers range from 9 to 38 miles away from my house.

 

[ColdFusion718]

Try using an amplified antenna. Get one with a 45dB gain.

 

[huberm]

I bought a cheap $24 outdoor antenna at radio shack and a 35db amplifier for $30. I live out in the sticks and can still get about 20HD channels. I even get an HD ABC channel that is about 80 miles away on clear nights. Beats the heck out of paying Dish Network $70 or so per month.


This is the antenna I got

 

[mercanucaribe]

Sounds like you get more HD channels that I get with cable.. which is about 7.

 

[Red Dawn]

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Sounds like you get more HD channels that I get with cable.. which is about 7.

What provider do you have? I have Comcast here in the Greater Boston area and we get 20 (sometimes 21 when they broadcast INHD2)

 

[mercanucaribe]

Originally posted by: Red Dawn

Originally posted by: mercanucaribe
Sounds like you get more HD channels that I get with cable.. which is about 7.

What provider do you have? I have Comcast here in the Greater Boston area and we get 20 (sometimes 21 when they broadcast INHD2)

Time Warner in Houston. This is the lineup with digital basic, but I only get some..

290 HDNET (HD Plus)

291 HDNET Movies (HD Plus)

292 ESPN HD (HD Plus)

293 Universal HD (HD Plus)

295 TNT HD (Standard)

298 HDTV - iN HD (Digital Value)

299 HDTV - iN HD2 (Digital Value)

301 HDTV - Discovery (Standard)

305 HDTV - KHWB WB 39 (Basic)

308 HDTV - KUHT PBS 8 (Basic)

309 HDTV - KRIV FOX 26 (Basic)

311 HDTV - KHOU CBS 11 (Basic)

312 HDTV - KPRC NBC 2 (Basic)

313 HDTV - KTRK ABC 13 (Basic)

 

[ghostman]

I have an separate HD receiver for my tv and a Zenith Silver Sensor antenna. Unfortunately, I can't get any channels reliably. I get channels: 2 (occasionally), 4 (frequently, but not when the weather is bad), and 5/9 in non-HD fairly consistently. Kind of a waste of an OTA tuner, but when it does pick up NBC long enough to watch, Heroes looks great on it.

I'm wondering if I should get an antenna on the roof, but the logistics of running the cable down would be a nightmare.

 

[nakedfrog]

I can get all of the major networks. Most of the time. But if there's a storm, forget it.
And sometimes the antenna can be in the exact same spot it was when I was watching a show the week before, no rain, and still not enough signal.
I think I'm going to try a roof-mounted antenna (which is what antennaweb recommended anyway).

 

[TheAdvocate]

INHD2 is no more. They folded it up.

 

[Safeway]

OTA HDTV is crystal clear at my parent's house in Dallas. They use a 16 foot wingspan, roof mounted antenna to get it though. Rain or shine, there is never static.

 

[psteng19]

Do OTA HDTV antennas also pick up non-HD channels?

 

[Bootprint]

Originally posted by: psteng19
Do OTA HDTV antennas also pick up non-HD channels?

So called HDTV antennas are nothing special, just regular VHF/UHF antennas or specific UHF antennas.

 

[wyvrn]

I use OTA HDTV in Dallas also. The reception is great and we get about 20 channels, plus some cool subchannels like the Tube for 80s music. I put a $49 Radioshack antenna on my roof and just plugged it into the distribution box in my closet. The house is prewired, so I can get both normal OTA and HDTV OTA signals for my various TVs. Cost of install was like one month of satellite. I also have a computer that records my favorite shows, and I use Blockbuster Online to watch any cable series that I might want to watch. So I spend like $8 a month for videos. Pretty sweet deal.