Indoor TV Antennas?

[snyder66]

Has anyone had any kind of success with these? I do have a newer TV with a built-in, but never tried it. I'm just trying to get the will to totally dump my evil Comcast. Giving up live sports is going to be tough...

[sscritic]

I use an antenna indoors, but it is hard to call it an indoor antenna. I use it to get the 11 Mandarin channels I watch. I have an earlier version of the ChannelMaster 4220.
http://www.ChannelMaster.com/HD_televis ... a_s/46.htm

It's UHF only, but in my area, that means not only 14 and up, but those channels with numbers below 7 that are actually broadcasting on UHF. For channels 7 - 13 (non of them in Mandarin), I sometimes need to do a little turning to get reception.

[stemikger]

Has anyone had any kind of success with these? I do have a newer TV with a built-in, but never tried it. I'm just trying to get the will to totally dump my evil Comcast. Giving up live sports is going to be tough...

I use it for one TV in my kitchen and it is good for most of the local channels, but I need to rescan the TV sometimes becasue I lose channel 11 and sometimes I can't get it back. I would not have this option as my main TV becasue of this. For the other TVs in my home I paid an installer to put an antenna on my roof and it has been the best picture quality and best receiption I have ever received. It never goes out in bad weather and is just amazing. I get all my local channels and then some.

I like you gave up paid for TV 3 years ago and it was a great small victory for me. I still get to see many of my favoriate cable channels with a ROKU box which has no monthly fee and only pay for Netflix and I get Amazon Instant Video for free with my Prime membership. It was one of the best moves I ever made.

[wjwhitney]

I suggest http://www.tvfool.com/ which will give you specific recommendations for your location.

[sscritic]

I love tvfool. It not only will tell you which way to point your antenna for each channel, but will tell you the real channels that are being used. Where I live, virtual 4.1, the channel my tv displays, is on real channel 36, which is why my UHF antenna has no problem getting a clear signal.

[dbltrbl]

Clear Stream provides indoor/outdoor amtenna. I have one which pick up channels from about 50-55 miles out. It is a new lcd tv. I havent' paid comcast in 20+ years. Amazon sells it. I picked mine at COSTCO but now it seems Costco do not have it or only outdoor antenna.

[The Wizard]

tvfool ranks the channels you might possibly receive in color coded categories, so if all you want are stations within 15 miles, a simple indoor antenna (or possibly a coathanger) should work fine.
Further away signals on their list might need an outdoor antenna up high...

[cleansparks]

I have had good success with and Antennas Direct DB2 mounted to a floor lamp.

[sscritic]

I have had good success with and Antennas Direct DB2 mounted to a floor lamp.

The DB2 is the same as my older model ChannelMaster 4220. I bought the (old style) ChannelMaster because I could find it for less than the DB2.

P.S. Your living room must be as ugly as mine. I used to just leave the antenna inside the box it came in; you couldn't see the antenna, but what was this cardboard box doing sitting on the table by the window? Then I decided I needed more height (and I wasn't sure about the transmission properties of cardboard), so I put an old rabbit ears antenna inside the box, poked the rabbit ears out of a single hole in the top of the box (so they were bunched together), and slid my antenna over the rabbit ears. Now my living room is even uglier than before.

[shawcroft]

"

I love tvfool. It not only will tell you which way to point your antenna for each channel, but will tell you the real channels that are being used. Where I live, virtual 4.1, the channel my tv displays, is on real channel 36, which is why my UHF antenna has no problem getting a clear signal.

Here's another typical dumb question from me: What do you mean by the term "virtual channel"?

I've also been trying to dump cable....back here in Connecticut, Cablevision is the company EVERYONE loves to hate. I would have dropped it a while ago but others in the family have favorite shows ( in the "vast wasteland") which they cannot live without. So, to maintain domestic tranquility,.....
Shawcroft

[Sidney]

I've also been trying to dump cable....back here in Connecticut, Cablevision is the company EVERYONE loves to hate. I would have dropped it a while ago but others in the family have favorite shows ( in the "vast wasteland") which they cannot live without. So, to maintain domestic tranquility,.....

Cable is cheaper than a divorce.

[SHL]

Plain old rabbit ears work well at my house; no cable, no dish.

[LonePrairie]

The "Terk HDTVa Indoor Amplified High-Definition Antenna for Off-Air HDTV Reception" I ordered from Amazon worked very well for me in a mostly flat city. In another city where there was a hill between the transmitters and my house, it brought in only one channel well.

[sscritic]

Here's another typical dumb question from me: What do you mean by the term "virtual channel"?

Your tv says it is on channel 4, but it isn't. The station you are watching says it is channel 4, and that may be what it calls itself, but it isn't. The switch to digital required tv stations to give up some of the channels they had been using. For a while during the transition, channels were actually broadcasting on two (or more channels), e.g., channel 4 was still sending out an analog signal on channel 4 but a digital signal on channel 36. When the analog channels were turned off, some channels could go back to where they had been, so the digital 7 went back to 7 from the, say, 43 where it had been while 7 was still analog, but others couldn't, e.g., 4 is no longer in the tv spectrum.

Now they could have just made the TV stations actually use their new channel numbers, but they didn't (there is another issue of the multiplicity of sub channels; where I live there is 44.1 - 44.10). Thus, the number the station uses and that your tv displays is 4.1 or 4.2 (the virtual channels), but the real channel is 36. If you use cable, you probably don't see any of the .1 or .2 and don't see the sub channels as sub channels. For example, 44.5 is Arirang TV , which you may have on channel 438. Another example, Skylink 31.5 is on TimeWarner 156, DishNetwork 9957, and Champion 207 in my area. If you watch TW 156, you probably don't know you are watching 31.5 (maybe you do, I have never watched there).

[shawcroft]

Here's another typical dumb question from me: What do you mean by the term "virtual channel"?

Your tv says it is on channel 4, but it isn't. The station you are watching says it is channel 4, and that may be what it calls itself, but it isn't. The switch to digital required tv stations to give up some of the channels they had been using...........

Now they could have just made the TV stations actually use their new channel numbers, but they didn't (there is another issue of the multiplicity of sub channels; where I live there is 44.1 - 44.10). Thus, the number the station uses and that your tv displays is 4.1 or 4.2 (the virtual channels), but the real channel is 36. If you use cable, you probably don't see any of the .1 or .2 and don't see the sub channels as sub channels. For example, 44.5 is Arirang TV , which you may have on channel 438. Another example, Skylink 31.5 is on TimeWarner 156, DishNetwork 9957, and Champion 207 in my area. If you watch TW 156, you probably don't know you are watching 31.5 (maybe you do, I have never watched there).

Thanks for the explanation.....
So,,,, If I use TV just connected to an "indoor antenna" that has a digital tuner (which , I believe, goes from 001-999), I won't be able to select the precise digital sub-channel being sent over CABLE (i.e., channel 44.2) because the TV tuner doesn't tune that precisely- and, anyway, it ain't going over the air. ..
But I might get the same station-over the air- if it broadcasts -over the air-on another "precise number channel" and not a subchannel ...and, of course, my antenna is pointed in its direction.
Did I get this right?
Shawcroft

[shawcroft]

Cable is cheaper than a divorce.

Yes, that thought was included in my cost-effectiveness analysis.......a major influence in the final decision which, of course, was to quit grumbling openly and just smile when I open the cable bill each month.
Shawcroft

[dewey]

Check this HD indoor antennae @ http://www.gomohu.com/

It gives me all the major networks in HD, along with several Public television stations in HD, plus a chunk of other channels. It's great. And is under $40.00. My reception (I use it in my office) is perfect. They'll also tell you in advance which channels you'll receive in your area. I'm in the Portland, OR region.

[sscritic]

Thanks for the explanation.....
So,,,, If I use TV just connected to an "indoor antenna" that has a digital tuner (which , I believe, goes from 001-999), I won't be able to select the precise digital sub-channel being sent over CABLE (i.e., channel 44.2) because the TV tuner doesn't tune that precisely- and, anyway, it ain't going over the air. ..
But I might get the same station-over the air- if it broadcasts -over the air-on another "precise number channel" and not a subchannel ...and, of course, my antenna is pointed in its direction.
Did I get this right?
Shawcroft

Wrong way around. Your tv with an ATSC tuner can get any channel sent over the air that you can get. The tuner is matched to all the legal frequencies. [Stop here: I am a layman, so I am giving you the non-technical layman's version.] The sub-channels are just that; they are all carried simultaneously on the one "channel." Now some channels use their full capacity for just the one channel, say 11.1. Other may split into three, 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3. As long as your antenna can see channel 7, your tuner will see 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 and if you click on next channel up, you go from 7.1 to 7.2 to 7.3. If you look at an ad for an antenna, you will see references to VHF (7-13) and UHF (14-69). These are the channels in use in the US over the air.

I don't have cable, so I don't know what your cable company outputs. I don't know really what you are asking when you ask about what your tuner will see from your cable company. But if you are getting an antenna, what your cable company does either doesn't matter (because you are dumping them) or will continue just as it is (whether you have a cable box now or not). As suggested earlier, go to tvfool.com and put in your address. It will show you all the channels you can get and their strength.

[dratkinson]

Plain old rabbit ears work well at my house; no cable, no dish.

+1.

For some reason, my basement TV (analog, converter box, and rabbit ears) is more sensitive and picks up more clear channels than my upstairs TV (analog, same converter box, and external rooftop antenna).

But it seems you can no longer buy simple/cheap rabbit ears in the stores.

[mostlycloudy]

[b]COMCAST..............[b] Here in Portland, Oregon, I tried both the amplified and regular rabbit ears type of antenna. My location required the amplified indoor type of antenna ($50.) because of a lot of huge trees around my home. I was so very pleased with the t.v. reception, but then got a Comcast surprise. They said that if I cancelled the cable t.v., my internet service monthly fee would be increased. Therefore, it would be a "wash", no savings.

[verbose]

We live on the edge of a large metro area, so an indoor antenna didn't work for us. Instead, we installed an outdoor antenna in the attic. It's in the attic for two reasons: 1) Midwestern storms would probably take it down every couple of years and 2) although federal law gives us the right to put it up, our HOA would go bonkers and we don't want to deal with it.

We hired a professional antenna installer. He showed up with a truck full of antennas and amplifiers. He tried several different ones until he found the ones that worked best. He then spent an hour or so adjusting the position of the antenna for maximum reception. All this in a hot attic filled with loose insulation. That was $400 well-spent. It's been four years since he was here and our TV reception is still perfect.

[N1CKV]

for those looking to clean up the appearance:
I had an "indoor antenna" purchased from Target, it was a powered version. I found that I received a few channels with it on top of the tv, but not perfect signal (it would drop the digital stations or freeze sometimes). I got a wonderful idea being that I'm cheap and wanted my bedroom to have tv working too, I went in my attic. I located the large splitter the cable company had installed that had one line coming in and four going out (bedrooms and living room), I disconnected the cable company's incoming wire, connected my antenna output and plugged the amped power in to a nearby receptacle. After a few trips back and forth to check the picture I was able to pick up an additional two channels and better quality signal all over. I then had no antenna visible from inside my house or outside, which gave a clean look.

[Polydorus]

For some reason, my basement TV (analog, converter box, and rabbit ears) is more sensitive and picks up more clear channels than my upstairs TV (analog, same converter box, and external rooftop antenna).

It might be time to run new coax to your outdoor antenna.

[gosalukis]

I ditched comcast last month myself. I bought a Mohu Leaf Indoor Antenna from gomohu.com and it has been working great. They are selling it for $35.99 if you buy from their website. I did have to do some finetuning on where I got the best signal, but it was a lot better than the regular one I picked up from Radioshack.

[danwhite77]

I use an AntennasDirect DB2 inside. Works great. I cancelled Comcast back in July of 2010 and haven't missed it for a day. That said, sports is the hardest thing for most people to give up. I don't have that problem because all of my teams suck, so I'm better off not watching.

[Hat]

I use both the Mohu Leaf and DB2 antennas mentioned above. Both are excellent antennas and resulted in reception of all expected channels listed on tvfool.com. The DB2 is slightly better in my area, but the Leaf is much more compact.

[ejvyas]

The "Terk HDTVa Indoor Amplified High-Definition Antenna for Off-Air HDTV Reception" I ordered from Amazon worked very well for me in a mostly flat city. In another city where there was a hill between the transmitters and my house, it brought in only one channel well.

Terk HDTVa is the best. I live in a remote town and get great digital channels from > 30 miles