Digital Antennas & TV stuff ??

[solarvic]

You are losing some signal just by having your antenna inclosed in an attic, littls like having a bit of shade on your solar panels. I have the best uhf vhf channel master antenna I could find and and have it on a 30 ft tower and get reliable UHF channels from 90 miles. There still are some vhf channels in my viewing area. I guess now the channelmaster antennas are made in China. I have a usa made one. And niel a friend told me one of his friends has one of those antennas that look like a flat disk and it gets all kinds of channels. It is omni-directional. I never had one but was thinking of trying one to see what it will do. solarvic

[nsaspook]

Maybe I should of included the USB portion also ? I could add it if Mr Bill has a look and see's it's what he is using and getting at.
VT

If there is a signal that combo will find it, just be sure it's on a stable mount. That USB receiver will be great for tweaking in the signal from the antenna if you have a laptop but I think better units are available. http://www.diamondmm.com/TVW750USB.php

The designer of TSReader on the Artec-T14A.
http://www.freelists.org/post/opendt...sMonday-Memo,3
There is a free version of TSReader that can give you more detailed OTA channel data than the usual player program.
http://www.tsreader.com/tsreader/index.html

[Cariboocoot]

I shall make a small and probably not very valuable contribution to this thread.

Since having given up the Shaw cable in Langley due to the expense/usage factor, I installed a "digital" antenna (rabbit ears) to see what was available OTA. What I can receive is: CTV Vancouver, CTV Victoria, CityTV Vancouver, Global Vancouver, CBC Vancouver.

Reception quality: the video is noticeably sharper than cable. However, there are significant incidences of "drop out", which with digital means the sound goes dead and the picture freezes meaning portions of the program are lost (unlike with analog where you can "fill in the blanks" from the distorted signal). Often the signal drops to the point where "low signal power" is reported instead. It seems almost anything can interfere, such as walking beside the antenna or bad weather conditions. Clearly the digital signal is very low power and not designed for large coverage area.

Since the Shaw satellite signal at the new house in 100 Mile has the same problem as their cable (a lot of money for a little watching) I intend to try it here as well. Exactly what channels really are available is apparently subjective; just because it is listed in the area (there apparently are repeaters to carry at least some of the Vancouver stations up to here) doesn't mean you'll get them at your specific location. If I can get even a hint of signal strength may shell out the money for a ChanelMaster antenna on a pole. Maybe with a rotor (remember those?).

[BB.]

I have the Hauppauge 950Q for a couple years (with free software updates/downloads--so far) -- No idea if it is great or just passably usable. But is seems to work fine for me on a Windows 7 laptop.

I also use the external Video input to digitize from other analog sources. Files ain't small (at least what I have been able to produce)--but they seem fine otherwise.

Antenna--I find that even 10-20 degrees +/- can make a huge difference. But--once I find a "good" position (I just have it on a shelf in my 2nd floor room), it is stable (don't need to keep tweaking). We have some good sized hills/ranges (1,000-2,000 feet) which caused a lot of ghosting with analog TV.

-Bill

[icarus]

I was in Powel River in Aug of 2010.

I second 'Coot's comment on a cheap rabbit ear. We have a seasinal rental house in Maine the we spend some time at, and don't want to spring for cable. With simple rabbit ears we were able to get a dozen HD digital strains. Most were crap, but we could get the networks.. I have a couple of complete Bell expressvue dishes and receivers I can sell you cheap if you are interested!

Tony

[solarvic]

Mark Your satelite dish must not be aimed very well if you get dropouts of your Shaw direct. I hardly ever have dropouts here in Pennsylvania and there are people in Mexico still get a good signal. The snowbirds from Canada take thier receivers south for the winter. I do have the chanelmaster on the 30 ft tower but hear they are made in China now. The winegard is suposed to be the best now. http://www.global-cm.net/LOCAL%20TV%20HARDWARE.html Solid signal another link from nasa spook should have this also art a lot cheaper price. Where I got my channelmaster from. I supose you probably know where to look for in Canada. solarvic

[Cariboocoot]

Just to clarify, the drop outs are with the OTA digital - not the Shaw satellite.

[solarvic]

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp...(HD8200U)&c=TV Antennas&sku= Here is the solid signal link for that winegard antenna. solarvic

[waynefromnscanada]

Good info guys. Thanks a lot for sharing. Here in Nova Scotia, only the couple of cities, but not the rural transmitters have switched to digital - - - so far - -
So it's good to know what we'll be up against to get the two still existing "peasant TV" channels if we quit Bell ExpressVu.

[nsaspook]

Winegard-HD8200U-Heavy-Duty-Platinum-VHFUHFFM-HDTV-Antenna ... solarvic

That's a solid antenna and will replace my old Radio-shack VU-190 that's been up for 10+ years. She lost a few VHF elements during a big snow and wind storm last year. I don't really need the gain of a large antenna but need the directivity to reduce multi-path signal dropouts from large passenger jets. The glide-path for the local airport is between my house and the TV towers 30 miles away.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3074/2...1f22cd_z_d.jpg
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/VU-190XR.html