has anyone had luck with digital antennas in easton area? (Philadelphia: rental, home)

[Chamix]

I've been looking at some of the info and it seems that with an 'indoor' mount (and where I live it would have to be indoor & amped) only fox and pbs are most consistently reliable....maybe a couple of independent stations....and cbs and nbc with 'mixed' reliability. Sure would love to get rid of cable (with FOUR price hikes in the last two years...and I have the most basic tv/internet pkg!). If anyone has any experience, would love to know if it worked for you.

[Patmcpsu]

I had a similar experience to you with my digital antenna in Macungie. I gave up after a while and went with internet-TV instead.

As long as your TV has an HDMI port and a wifi signal available, you can buy a Amazon Fire, Roku or Apple TV for roughly the price of an antenna and then use that to view Sling, Playstation Vue, and I'm sure other services. I'm very happy with Playstation Vue because it gets you all the local channels and NBC Sports Philadelphia. The services cost money, but not as much as RCN, and the quality of the service is way better.

[briantroutman]

Unfortunately, cities on the fringes of major TV markets were some of the biggest losers in the transition from analog to digital television. You’re too far to reliably get the major stations from Philadelphia and New York, but the market as a whole is too close to its larger neighbors to have gotten its own set of network affiliates. That’s precisely why places like the Lehigh Valley were among the first to see proliferation of cable television back in the ’50s and ’60s. Digital just made the situation worse: If a signal isn’t coming though clearly, it doesn’t come through at all.

The two stations you’ll have no trouble receiving are WLVT (PBS 39) and WFMZ (Channel 69, independent)—both of them broadcast from a tower site on South Mountain. In fact, I’ve received crystal clear signals from PBS 39 here in greater Philadelphia.

But the digital transition wasn’t all bad news. In the digital era, most stations broadcast more than one program at a time using various sub channels. So in addition to WFMZ’s schedule of local newscasts plus syndicated talk shows and the like on 69.1, you also get the 24-hour Accuweather channel on 69.2 and a mix of drama series reruns (Star Trek, JAG, NYPD Blue) on Heroes & Icons channel (69.3). WLVT airs standard PBS programming on 39.1, the Create channel with cooking, home improvement, and how-to programming on 39.2, and French-oriented programming on 39.3. If you’re a heavy TV viewer, that’s probably not enough to replace cable, but there might be enough worthwhile programming to justify buying a decent budget (~$50) antenna.

The FCC has a DTV Reception Maps locator tool where you can enter your address and see what stations you’re likely to pick up. Based on a general search of “Easton”: After the stations mentioned above, the next strongest signals would be for the North Jersey public television stations (WNJB, WNJN) followed by WPVI (ABC 6) in Philadelphia. But you’d probably need a good outdoor antenna to get those—reception on an indoor antenna would likely be flaky if not nonexistent.

If you’re trying to cut out cable, I definitely agree that an Internet-enabled box is a good way to help do that. And if you have any Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac), I’d strongly urge you to consider getting an Apple TV—specifically because in addition to playing TV channels and on-demand movies directly from the Apple TV, you can also send almost any video or audio content from your iPhone or iPad directly to the TV screen. It’s a very convenient setup for browsing for content on your phone or tablet and then watching it on your larger TV screen.

More and more people are turning to online streaming to satisfy their TV/movie-watching needs, but the landscape is still a patchwork. Some providers make their content free to watch with commercials; others make you sign up for nominal monthly fee. Still others lock their content down unless you have a current cable subscription (these companies are completely behind the times, in my opinion). A TV series might be available on Netflix now, but it could be gone next month. You’ll have to do some research to figure out whether the shows, networks, etc. that you want to watch are available on the services and devices you plan to use.

Good luck!

[thecoalman]

There is no such thing as "digital" or "HD" antenna other than the marketing hype. If you have an old antenna the first thing to try is is plug it in and see if you get any channels. If you get the channels you want there is nothing more you can do to improve it.



The better antennas can improve your ability to receive stations, they can't improve the quality of the video stream. This all or nothing deal, you either get it or don't.



Based on this map it appears you are not going to get many channels.



https://antennaweb.org/Stations?Addr...ngitude=-75.21

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by briantroutman

Unfortunately, cities on the fringes of major TV markets were some of the biggest losers in the transition from analog to digital television.

As I understand it Brian one of the changes with digital is they could use a lower wattage transmitter. The stations either underestimated the amount of power they needed or simply opted for it to save money. It's not limitation of the tech but limitation of the pocketbook.

[JohnZ963]

In Bethlehem Township, besides PBS and FMZ, I could only get the Philly Fox station about half the time. This was a digital indoor antenna non-amplified, fairly inexpensive.

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by Chamix

I've been looking at some of the info and it seems that with an 'indoor' mount (and where I live it would have to be indoor & amped) only fox and pbs are most consistently reliable....maybe a couple of independent stations....and cbs and nbc with 'mixed' reliability. Sure would love to get rid of cable (with FOUR price hikes in the last two years...and I have the most basic tv/internet pkg!). If anyone has any experience, would love to know if it worked for you.

The local stations broadcast from South Mountain near I78 are pretty slim pickings.
35.1 WPPT MHz 480i
35.2 WPPT World 480i
39.1 WLVT-PBS 720p
39.2 WLVT-Create 480i
39.3 WLVT-France 24 480i
60.1 WBPH-HD Main WBPH programming 720p
60.2 WBPH-D2 Radianttv.com 480i
69.1 WFMZ-HD Main WFMZ-TV programming 720p
69.2 WFMZ-AW AccuWeather Channel 480i
69.3 WFMZ-HandI Heroes & Icons 480i

If we could get the Philadelphia broadcast stations the selection would be much better. The Lehigh Valley is unfortunately blocked by hills from 850-1015' high. Although that doesn't seem very high the broadcast towers in Philadelphia and New Yotk City are also not very high. Depending on precisely where you are located, you can sometimes get a signal between the hills.

Amplification won't help with a signal blocked by a mountain.

1. Me-TV
2. KYW-3 (CBS)
3. WWOR (My Network TV)
4. WPVI-6 (ABC)
5. WTXF-29
6. WCAU-10 (NBC)
7. WPHL-17
8. WHYY-12 (PBS)
9. WPSG-57
10. WUVP (Univision)
11. WWSI (Telemundo)
12. WPPX (ION)
13. WPIX (CW)
14. WBPH (Familynet)
15. Live Well
16. QVC
17. HSN
18. Jewelry TV
    --------- standard definition
19. WHYY 24-Hour Arts
20. WFPA (UniMás)
21. WGTW (TBN)
22. EVINE Live
23. THIStv
24. Retro-TV
25. Cozi TV
26. Antenna TV
27. COMET
28. Movies!
29. Exitos
30. France24
31. Bounce
32. getTV
33. LAFF TV
34. Buzzr TV
35. Start TV
36. Decades

Streaming services costing anywhere from $15-$45 have Live TV delivered over the Internet and are usually much cheaper than cable but with a more limited selection of channels. I know with RCN, the surcharges taxes and fees associated with TV only (not with telephone or internet) are now $43.47. Equipment rental (just TV only) can easily cost another $20 to $50 a month. So RCN advertises that if you buy internet you get Philadelphia broadcast television for free, but they leave out the surcharges taxes and fees and equipment rental.

Netflix is $13, HBO Now is $15, Amazon Prime is $13, Showtime is $11 and Hulu Video on Demand with no advertisements is $12. Sling Orange is $25 which will give you ESPN and some other sports.

The map shows where the NBC stations are in Philly, New York, Scranton, and Harrisburg. The Green crosses are on mountain peaks that are 850'-1000' high, and the red ones are on mountains over 1000'.

[PacoMartin]

more of a close up image.

But LV is all a matter of luck. If a signal can squeeze by the hills, you have a chance. If one is in the way no amount of amplification will help. Better of sticking to streaming.
The antenna in Philadelphia at altitude 1523'. Your line of sight would be 48 miles at sea, but if you hit a 1000' hill after 25 miles it takes out most of the signal.

[tupdegrove]

Large (13-16') antenna works great in attic (pointed towards Philly) with amplifier (100' cable) behind South Mall off of Lehigh St in a lower part of the neighborhood. Get ~50 channels. Channel 6 (ABC) on VHF has problems with thunderstorm. Use Sling ($25/m) for other channels.

[Conquistador1]

Free broadcast TV is streamed on locast.com. In the Lehigh valley we get access here to ALL Philadelphia based broadcast local stations. I dropped my 50/month TV service today when I found this. It's completely legal. Consumer reports and NY times have articles on this. Quality of picture is awesome too. Don't spend money on an antenna. Citizens of Lehigh Valley, we are finally rescued! Enjoy