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Old 04-03-2012, 10:34 PM
 
Location: Summerville, SC
3,382 posts, read 8,650,120 times
Reputation: 1457

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IF you are going to do an antenna, consider building one of those homemade ones. They actually will be better, just bulkier. Also not a bat idea to do a quick coil of 3-4 wraps of the coax coming off the antenna to make it a BALUN.


Either way you guys are going the wrong way. If you have cable internet. Unhook your cable modem, run that specific wire directly to your TV. Auto program your tuner. You will get alot of the basic channels and maybe some extras, that are not blocked.

Get a higher quality splitter and toss on, and hook up both.

I had about 20 extremely awesome quality HD channels. Still had internet.



Before anyone claims it is not stealing, they are broadcasting the signal into your house. Infact if you read the fine print, its included with your internet as broadcast TV.
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Old 04-04-2012, 07:34 AM
 
Location: San Diego
5,319 posts, read 8,985,244 times
Reputation: 3396
Quote:
Originally Posted by MustangEater82 View Post
IF you are going to do an antenna, consider building one of those homemade ones. They actually will be better, just bulkier. Also not a bat idea to do a quick coil of 3-4 wraps of the coax coming off the antenna to make it a BALUN.


Either way you guys are going the wrong way. If you have cable internet. Unhook your cable modem, run that specific wire directly to your TV. Auto program your tuner. You will get alot of the basic channels and maybe some extras, that are not blocked.

Get a higher quality splitter and toss on, and hook up both.

I had about 20 extremely awesome quality HD channels. Still had internet.

Before anyone claims it is not stealing, they are broadcasting the signal into your house. Infact if you read the fine print, its included with your internet as broadcast TV.
Thanks for the info. This does work as you mentioned.

I picked up around 21 stations after an extremely lengthy cable scan. The scan didn't start finding stations until it was around 75% completed.

The TV stations it found included the basic broadcasted channels such as ABC, Fox, PBS, etc., but they didn't appear to be in High Definition.

It also found several locally broadcast radio stations, and set them up as TV channels.

So this is good information, but I still prefer the High Definition channels I receive from my digital TV antenna.

HD channels actually say ABC-HD, Fox-HD, etc on the screen, and the picture quality of HD is really a huge improvement over standard TV, when watching it on an HD television.

So I will stick with my digital antenna, since it receives the HD versions of the channels, plus a lot of additional TV channels cable didn't have, such as Antenna, MeTV, The Cool, and This.

Your info would be very useful if you are in a place where digital broadcast reception is poor or unavailable.

Last edited by RD5050; 04-04-2012 at 07:45 AM..
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Old 04-04-2012, 03:48 PM
 
2,420 posts, read 4,370,522 times
Reputation: 3528
Quote:
Originally Posted by RD5050 View Post
Thanks for the info. This does work as you mentioned.

I picked up around 21 stations after an extremely lengthy cable scan. The scan didn't start finding stations until it was around 75% completed.

The TV stations it found included the basic broadcasted channels such as ABC, Fox, PBS, etc., but they didn't appear to be in High Definition.

It also found several locally broadcast radio stations, and set them up as TV channels.

So this is good information, but I still prefer the High Definition channels I receive from my digital TV antenna.

HD channels actually say ABC-HD, Fox-HD, etc on the screen, and the picture quality of HD is really a huge improvement over standard TV, when watching it on an HD television.

So I will stick with my digital antenna, since it receives the HD versions of the channels, plus a lot of additional TV channels cable didn't have, such as Antenna, MeTV, The Cool, and This.

Your info would be very useful if you are in a place where digital broadcast reception is poor or unavailable.
It only works sometimes with your cable from cable box. That is when you shut off your cable service and there is still a live wire. Otherwise you need an outside antenna or inside antenna, which will give you better quality HD than you were receiving from your cable box. The reason for this is because the OTA signal is not compressed like it is for your cable.
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Old 04-04-2012, 04:00 PM
 
6,066 posts, read 15,049,118 times
Reputation: 7188
Quote:
Originally Posted by MustangEater82 View Post
Before anyone claims it is not stealing, they are broadcasting the signal into your house. Infact if you read the fine print, its included with your internet as broadcast TV.
This explains why when I called Comcast to cancel our limited basic TV because we never watch TV, the guy said he'd just give it to us free - saving us $29.99 a month that we were paying for it before. lol We still have cable internet.

Seems so stupid, but I'm not going to complain.
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Old 04-04-2012, 04:13 PM
 
16 posts, read 19,514 times
Reputation: 38
You remember those big, clunky things that were on the roofs of houses since the 50s? The ones that everyone got rid of when they got cable or satellite or when the change happened? You should've kept them all along. Those aerial antennas are more likely able to pick up all the signals that you need.

Those converters are just converters, folks, you still need a good antenna to pick up the signal.

If you don't live in a house, look over your lease or ask your landlord if they supply tv signal in your building. If they do, you should have a coaxial cable coming from the wall that you can hook up to your converter and you'll be fine. If they don't, see if you can get some of your neighbors to convince your landlord to buy one (good luck with that one).
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Old 04-04-2012, 04:21 PM
 
16 posts, read 19,514 times
Reputation: 38
Quote:
Originally Posted by MustangEater82 View Post
IF you are going to do an antenna, consider building one of those homemade ones. They actually will be better, just bulkier. Also not a bat idea to do a quick coil of 3-4 wraps of the coax coming off the antenna to make it a BALUN.


Either way you guys are going the wrong way. If you have cable internet. Unhook your cable modem, run that specific wire directly to your TV. Auto program your tuner. You will get alot of the basic channels and maybe some extras, that are not blocked.

Get a higher quality splitter and toss on, and hook up both.

I had about 20 extremely awesome quality HD channels. Still had internet.



Before anyone claims it is not stealing, they are broadcasting the signal into your house. Infact if you read the fine print, its included with your internet as broadcast TV.
Do you mean before someone claims that IT IS stealing? Well, it is.

Most likely, their audit team will block your channels with a filter at the main connection when they do an audit in your area and this will cause your internet signal to lower because of the splitter inside your house (most splitters that are not supplied by the cable company are not "high end" no matter how much they claim to be).

When you complain about your low internet speeds or not being able to log on at all you run the risk of the technician passing on the info to their audit team. The cable company then decides whether to 86 your acct, give you a fine or both. Guess what they'll choose to do.

Seen it happen. Not worth the risk in my opinion. They don't care if you've been paying for internet.
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Old 04-04-2012, 04:28 PM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,468 posts, read 61,396,384 times
Reputation: 30414
Quote:
Originally Posted by proudtobefromla View Post
You remember those big, clunky things that were on the roofs of houses since the 50s? The ones that everyone got rid of when they got cable or satellite or when the change happened? You should've kept them all along. Those aerial antennas are more likely able to pick up all the signals that you need.
Simply because urban areas have cable companies does not mean that everyone got rid of their aerials.

When we moved to this area, we were using rabbit ears to get signal. Rabbit ears allowed us to watch one of our area's three TV broadcast stations.

Then we shifted to a small aerial on the roof, and it allowed us to get all three channels [but of course pointed in different directions].

When high-power TV broadcast was made illegal. We shifted to a massive aerial on the roof. Hoping to pull in enough signal.



Quote:
... Those converters are just converters, folks, you still need a good antenna to pick up the signal.
If it is possible.

An aerial is only capable of doing so much.



Quote:
... If you don't live in a house, look over your lease or ask your landlord if they supply tv signal in your building. If they do, you should have a coaxial cable coming from the wall that you can hook up to your converter and you'll be fine. If they don't, see if you can get some of your neighbors to convince your landlord to buy one (good luck with that one).
You have seen leases that included cable?

I have never seen such a lease.
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Old 04-04-2012, 07:28 PM
 
541 posts, read 861,244 times
Reputation: 743
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grandpa Pipes View Post
Wow! I don't know how you can get it free.

I have a Sony streaming box that has an icon to connect to VUDU which when I click it gets me shows for free.
Wait, so you connect to Vudu through your Sony and you get to see the shows for free?

I guess I'll just have to beg those in charge for Vudu on Roku.
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Old 05-31-2012, 01:02 AM
 
4 posts, read 7,480 times
Reputation: 15
Why don't you get one of those media center PC. some included TV tuner inside (ATSC). I am getting one is like an all-in-one device for enterainment. I am thinking to get mac-mini or MC101 ARCTIC, check it out, could be somethign for you too!
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Old 06-01-2012, 05:07 PM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,468 posts, read 61,396,384 times
Reputation: 30414
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anika1010 View Post
Why don't you get one of those media center PC. some included TV tuner inside (ATSC). I am getting one is like an all-in-one device for enterainment. I am thinking to get mac-mini or MC101 ARCTIC, check it out, could be somethign for you too!
Be prepared to return it if it does not work.

Having bought the digital converter, the huge antenna, the signal amplifier, the additional cable all to find out that it does not work, was disappointing for us.
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