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| HDTV Antenna Recommendations? http://forums.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7083 |
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| Author: | mihanson [ Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:36 am ] |
| Post subject: | HDTV Antenna Recommendations? |
I'm about to jump into HDTV and my wife and I decided that DISH Network's current lack of HD programming (including locals) does not warrant us subscribing to their HD Pack. So, I've been Googling a bit and searching this forum trying to figure out a good make & model of over-the-air (OTA) antenna to buy for receiving HDTV signals. My house is very old (for Los Angeles standards -- built in 1928) with no crawl space a human can fit thru under the house, but the last owner ran coax cable under there when they did a remodel. I wish they had done it in the attic insead, but I digress... I'm not real keen on running new coax for an antenna, so I would like to make use of a diplexer to send the OTA HDTV signal on the same line as my DISH Network and seperate the signal again just before it enters my Mythbox. (HD-3000 / PVR-150). The easiest solution I can find is a Terk TV-42 / TV-44. This unit seems to have everything I'll need included. However, I've seen some not-so-flattering user reviews on a few search engines/price comparison pages. Has anyone on this forum had success with this type of antenna? I'm also considering the DB4 from Antennas Direct, but that installation will be a little more involved due to lack of built in diplexer and more involved mounting installation. FWIW, all the stations I want to see range from 38-41 degrees from my compass location and are 25-26 miles in distance according to AntennaWeb.org. So my long winded question is: What antenna do you use and what has been your experience? |
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| Author: | Liv2Cod [ Sat Nov 26, 2005 1:58 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
There's really nothing magic about HDTV reception. HD channels are carried mostly on UHF band, so you can get any good UHF antenna and get good HD reception. I live about 40-50 miles away from Sutro Tower which is my main source of HD material. My antenna (some ChannelMaster model with four bowtie antennas on a big groundplane) is in my attic. I have two amplifiers on it -- one 10dB amp up in the attic and a second one just in front of a 3-way signal splitter to overcome its loss. The splitter is used to send the signal to three receiver cards -- two HD-3000s and a HD-2000. Sometimes the recpetion is a little glitchy, but 98% of the time it booms in perfectly. |
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| Author: | pkscout [ Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:52 pm ] |
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Over at AVS Forums the Terk is generally considered to be an over priced piece of garbage. I got a Channel Master 4 bay antenna (I think it's the 4224) which has been great for me, and I know others have had excellent success with the 4228 (which is the 8 bay version of the one I have). |
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| Author: | mihanson [ Mon Nov 28, 2005 11:23 am ] |
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Thanks for the comments. I ended up going with the 42XG from Antennas Direct. I'll be mounting it off the back of my DISH Network satellite dish with the help of a Winegard DS-1111. It's at the bottom of this page. I'll have to get the diplexers and put them in line myself and run a ground wire, but I don't think it should be too hard. (Famous last words.) I'll post back when I receive everything and get it hooked up. |
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| Author: | mihanson [ Sun Dec 04, 2005 12:56 am ] |
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Getting the antenna up on the house turded out to be the easy part. I had all kinds of trouble getting an image on my new HDTV. After a lot of reading, a lot of trial and error, and a bit of frustration I have an HD image on my screen. Unfortunately, my Celeron 2.8 GHz does not seem to be cutting the mustard. I tried turning on XVMC, selected the "Bob" algorithm and restarted the X server (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace), but it does not help my poor picture. (horizontal lines, tearing on the edges, etc) The antenna seems to be pulling in some very strong signals. When I was scanning for stations, it routinely was posting signal strengths in the 90's. I'm about 25-26 miles from the transmitters and I have a feeling I'll be very pleased once I get some more horsepower into my box. |
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| Author: | Xsecrets [ Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:30 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
if your set supports it I highly recommend 1080i modeline (unfortunately you have to go back to 6629 drivers for this right now) as when I was using that it eliminated any need to use deinterlace. |
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| Author: | mihanson [ Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:17 am ] |
| Post subject: | |
Thanks Xsecrets. This is my modeline section of XF86Config-4: Code: Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0" # Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV" Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M" # Option "TVOutFormat" "HD1080p" # Option "TVOverScan" "0.9" Option "NoLogo" "1" VendorName "Westinghouse" ModelName "LVM-37w1" HorizSync 30 - 80 # DDC-probed VertRefresh 60 # DDC-probed #DisplaySize 203 153 # 100 DPI @ 800x600 #DisplaySize 271 203 # 75 DPI @ 800x600 #DisplaySize 535 415 # Real measurements # The "magic" modelines from http://xtiming.sourceforge.net # Modeline "1920x1080@60" 182.28 1920 1952 2640 2672 1080 1102 1113 1135 # hfreq: 68.21 kHz # Modeline "1280x1024@60" 114.98 1280 1312 1744 1776 1024 1045 1055 1076 # hfreq: 64.73 kHz # Modeline "1280x768@60" 79.75 1280 1312 1608 1640 768 783 791 807 # hfreq: 48.62 kHz # Modeline "1024x768@60" 64.56 1024 1056 1296 1328 768 783 791 807 # hfreq: 48.61 kHz Modeline "800x600@60" 38.21 800 832 976 1008 600 612 618 631 # hfreq: 37.9 kHz Modeline "640x480@60" 24.11 640 672 760 792 480 490 495 505 # hfreq: 30.43 kHz # The following modelines are taken from http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/video_card_configuration.html ModeLine "ATSC-480-59.94i" 11.958 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 Interlace ModeLine "ATSC-480-60i" 11.97 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 Interlace ModeLine "ATSC-480-59.94p" 23.916 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 ModeLine "ATSC-480-60p" 23.94 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 ModeLine "ATSC-480a-59.94i" 11.958 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 Interlace ModeLine "ATSC-480a-60i" 11.97 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 Interlace ModeLine "ATSC-480a-59.94p" 23.916 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 ModeLine "ATSC-480a-60p" 23.94 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 ModeLine "ATSC-720-59.94p" 74.176 1280 1320 1376 1650 720 722 728 750 ModeLine "ATSC-720-60p" 74.25 1280 1320 1376 1650 720 722 728 750 ModeLine "ATSC-1080-59.94i" 74.176 1920 1960 2016 2200 1080 1082 1088 1125 Interlace ModeLine "ATSC-1080-60i" 74.25 1920 1960 2016 2200 1080 1082 1088 1125 Interlace # ModeLine "ATSC-1080-59.94p" 148.352 1920 1960 2016 2200 1080 1082 1088 1125 # ModeLine "ATSC-1080-60p" 148.5 1920 1960 2016 2200 1080 1082 1088 1125 My monitor does not support the 1080p (hence, it's commented out), but does support 1080i. I suppose I could clean this code up a bit, but it works as is. I'm now using Knoppmyth R5A26 and it seems to check for for the 7174 (?) version of the NVIDIA drivers at each boot. Do I need to disable that somehow to be able to use the 6629 drivers? |
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