HDTV Forum

I have a few questions about basic HDTV recording and antennas.

My status:
==Just bought a single story house built in 1938.
-----In Temple City, CA 91780 - (Los Angeles area)
-----Antennaweb.org shows me about 9 miles away from Mt Wilson (where all the station towers are)
-----All the houses around me are all single story but I have a HUGE evergreen tree (3ft - 4ft dia trunk) in my front yard with branches spaced far apart
-----I can clearly see the Mt Wilson standing on my roof (the tree is sort-of in the way)

==Cable Info
----I had coax cable (quad-shielded) installed running (30 ft each?) from four different rooms to the attic.
----There I will crimp them and join them all with "joiner" that I bought from Radio Shack (Gold Plated!).
----Then more cable (10ft) from the joiner, through the roof, to the external antenna (see antenna info below)
-----I don't know how to crimp.

== Antenna info: My friend had Non-HD DirectTV dish and local station antenna that came with it.
-----He got an HD package and the guys came out and took down everything and put up new equip
-----He gave me his old local station antenna. It's T-shaped. The "cross-beam" is flat.
-----He says he used to get great HD OTA channels with this antenna
-----I mounted it on my roof. It is not connected to anything.

==TV Info: An LG HD TV with an ATSC/NTSC coax input (plus others)
----I use radio shack rabbit ears with a dial-thingy on it.
----Reception is okay to pretty-good but I want it to be great.

==I don't have/want cable or satellite.

QUESTIONS:
1) If I hook all this up, will this work okay or am I missing something major? Will I get a MUCH better signal or will it be just minimally better?
2) Do I have to worry about the newly installed electrical wiring in my walls (standard romex) interference-wise?

BIG QUESTION: I want to record my HD or SD shows and watch them later. (just like the old days)
==I want to be able to plug my coax from the roof-antenna into some kind of recording box
==Then I want to run a cable from the recording box to my TV (Coax? HDMI? Component?)
==I want to set the timer and record my HD shows. (just like my VCR used to)
-----maybe two shows at once!
-----maybe watch one show and record another!
-----then set my TV to channel 3 (or something) and watch my shows
==I don't neccessarily need removable media (DVD) but I'm flexible
==I don't want to use my computer for any of this
==I don't want to pay a monthly fee (Tivo)

Does such a box exist? I've asked Circuit City people and others. They tell me no such box exists nor will it (probably) ever exist.

Good Morning Imprimartin -

Golly, since there are a 'few' points to your 'post', please allow the easy one first.

No - unfortuntely, one may Not currently record HD Over-The-Air unless one does pay the monthly fees to TIVO, at the least.

No - all our days of endless taping with our VCRs of anything/everything are over & done with.

Richard's reference to the..Digital Millennium Copyright Act - 1998 .... explains how it began.

There are now multitudes of Copyright Rules encoded into the digital signals which are strictly enforced... essentially no hard copying onto one's own blank disc of HD.

Instead, one may use the TIVO Series 3 unit - which you'll not pay for - to record HD onto a hard drive, the same as in our computers. There is also a dual HD tuner to facilitate exactly what you do want - watch one, record another or record two, etc., as well as an excellent library feature. This box is $799, subject to various 'promotions.'

Before a "firestorm" besieges us all protesting about all the available workarounds with software, computers & other assorted gear, I'm just offering the more " reasonable, non-geek " answer, o.k.?
Naturally, with external tuners, hard drives, software and the like, essentially anything IS electronically possible.

You do need to know more about that donated antenna - too much work will be involved in order to have a properly installed, working system to be just "guessing." Hopefully, your friend still has some paperwork, carton, or recalls the name or type, etc..

Your tree will be a definite problem or challenge. If not sufficiently strong, those HD signals will not "lock" - we no longer have to fret about half pictures or snowy, ghosts, diagonals, etc., using digital ---
- it is all 100 % or just a blue / blank screen.

Operating more than 1 or possible 2 HDTVs from the signal provided by an outside antenna is possible, of course, but - it'll involve an antenna-mounted, good quality preamp of some sort. Whether or not it will support as many as you propose is up-for-debate.

Those "crimped terminations" are very dubious ( how about useless ). There are many video tutorials on our web sites about the procedure of using a much superior, very simple 'compression' tool & associated weather-tight connectors. These are also available in varying sized kits from the web or even your local LOWE's, etc..


That "Quad Coax" is very fine / appropriate. Simply cut off those previous terminations & reapply the compression.

Nine miles distance will be " a piece of cake " other than for your tree problems.

Since it is still actively being debated herein as to whether or not all future HD broadcasting will be strictly UHF, I prefer to suggest that one use a balanced antenna ( both spectrums ) instead. Although more "unsightly" atop one's roof than the other, these will be needed ... IF ... both happen to be used after Feb '09.

Do compare the existing antenna with the Channel Master # 3016 in the provided link. Or, if it is strictly UHF, it may resemble the DB-4.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display ... OD=ANC3016

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=AD-DB4


Since all towers emanate from the one location, you'll Not need any rotation of the antenna, which is a good thing.


No, there will be no 'interferences' offered from that home power wiring (romex).

For now, this should " get you going ."

Naturally, until you DO buy that above TIVIO, you need do nothing at all.

There is another Tivo model that runs $299 and the top one dropped to $599. They are pretty aggressive at the moment...

[quote]

Morning Richard -

Many 'thanks' for reminding about that other TIVO ! In fact, there was a 'posting' regarding
yet another "TIVO" box in the works with a slightly different ' cable card' which would do away with any local cable company's HD Receiver, for those that wish.

It is still amazing at how some expect all the great features of HD - including unlimited HD Recording - to be absolutely "free."

Just how are all those involved supposed to get these huge investments back in a proper time frame if Not by charging ? And, at TIVO's $13 / month, why the complaint? A fully-featured local cable HD account will run about $80/mo, with a satellite's ... 101 all HD channels ... easily topping $100 !

Have a great weekend !
eli whitney

While admittedly not "really HD", if you connect a Panasonic combo DVD/VCR model EZ475V to your setup and output it's recordings on DVD to your TV via the HDMI output or (better yet) take the recorded DVD and put it in a Playstation 3 connected to your TV you will discover an astonishing level of picture quality that is nearly indistinguishable from the original broadcast. It will do cable (qam) or OTA (ATSC) channels and when the signal is recorded at the XP (1 hour on a DVD) speed it really is amazing quality.

Hope this is helpful.
John

..Hi All -


For all who might not yet have noticed, here's another possibility - complete w/ all three tuners - including HD - internally as well as an old VCR unit for the existing libraries - Sony's RDR-VXD655 @ $380 plus their 5 year warranty @ $80...

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 1665186462

Of course, this unit STILL doesn't overcome those Copyright rules...Digital do not copy, etc..

IF a particular show is so protected, there'll be no recording at all. So, Richard's TIVO unit or the larger capacity original will provide a hard drive HD recording while one is away.

While it does not have dual tuners and cannot do some of the things you would like:

I have a Mitsubishi HD VCR and feed it via a standard single plane antenna that is laying in my attic. I get great HD reception and am about 25-30 miles from the transmission towers. Pretty flat terrain though and no large trees.

The problem with the internet is that once a false rumor gets started there is no way to get it stopped. There is no

I use a 91XB UHF antenna on my roof to receive free OTA HD programming from CBS,NBC,FOX,ABC etc I connect to a AVerTV Hybrid Ultra USB (Media Center Upgrade Kit) with ATSC tuner and use Vista Media Center to record my HD programs that I store on low cost 500GB HD's. I use a DVI-HDMI cable from my homebuilt Core 2 Duo PC to my Sharp Aquos LC-42D64U 42" HDTV in 1920x1080 display mode and the recorded HD programs look fantastic.
[img]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/jogiba/Album%20number%202/Sharp42Heliob-1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a21/jogiba/Album%20number%202/doubleburnout.jpg[/img]

----I use radio shack rabbit ears with a dial-thingy on it.
----Reception is okay to pretty-good but I want it to be great.


I may be out in left field, but when I read your statement that reception is okay to pretty-good it suggests to me that you are not getting the digital stations at all but rather are just getting the old VHS stations. The digital stations that are in HD will either be excellent or not there at all. Well, I suppose that you could count intermittent breakup and pixellation as okay to pretty good - most of us wouldn't. But if you're lookin' at a picture that runs from old fashioned "snowy" to pretty good, you're not watching HD channels at all.....

Incidentally, I live in a woods and about 70 miles from the Twin Cities. My OTA does not get above the trees nor does it peek through a hole in the branches and I get digital stations with 100 signal strength (on my Dish box) all the time. So that tree may or may not be a problem. I'm guessing at 9 miles unless its a real monster, it may not be a problem. With a dish, it would be, of course....

Jerry