Outdoor Digital TV antenna and recording Programs

[EddieWalker]

Your KLTV is on channel 7 which is a VHF-High channel. At roughly 15 miles distant, I don't think that 8 bay UHF antenna will be a problem though. You might be a little better served by using the CH-4221HD 4 bay UHF. The reason being that it has a broader capture area. You might even get by very well with a little Eagle Aspen 2 bay UHF for $20 ( DTV2BUHF) or an Antennas Direct DB-2.

KLTV is the only station that I can get with a indoor pair of rabbit ears. I did that when I was building my house and living in it before it was done. Then I had satellite installed and never thought about going back to antenna until recently. My internet is now fast enough that I can stream shows, and ROKU has more on it to watch then we can find on Dish. And the biggest reason is that Dish is $123 a month!!!

I'm so new to this that I don't even know what the top name brands are, so learning about Channel Master is reassuring.

I'm also struggling with my belief that if you pay more, you get better quality or more power or just a better product. I realize that this isn't accurate, but for most things, there is some truth to it. I also know that it's easy to pay for a lot of extras that I will never use, so that has me hesitating too.

Summer is almost over and it will be a lot easier working on the roof. Sometimes it gets so hot up there that I become light headed and my feet start to burn through my shoes!!!

 

[nybirdman]

Just dumped Direct TV,luckily got an high speed internet service.Have no problem getting 20+channels on my 35 year old ,no name antenna.
Went with a FireStick and Sling($50/month) compared to $180 for Direct TV.Also dumped Verison($82/month) and get unlimited phone for $40.

 

[TractorGuy]

Isn't it funny that all the contract services keep driving customers away with high prices and just keep going up on the one's that stay. I don't understand that business model. Surely they will eventually run out of customers.

 

[mikester]

Stacking a second antenna gives you an additional 3 Db gain. It's OK if you really need it, but often times, not worth the effort. Buy adding the second antenna, you've increased the gain, but you've also narrowed its beamwidth. In other words, you've made its capture area narrower. The higher the gain of any antenna, the more directional it becomes.

The UHF "pizza box" 2,4 and 8 bay bowtie antennas are actually quite broad antennas when it comes to being directional. The 4 bay is usually the best compromise between gain and beamwidth. If you really need the gain, then most of the stations you view tend to be in one direction. At that point, you are maybe better off getting a Yagi beam antenna. They are usually highly directional and come with potential mechanical problems with their long boom lengths.

It was a big improvement for me after the ATSC switch happened. At the same time PBS went with a new directional antenna that killed my signal. Stacking the antenna was a cheap way of getting those UHF channels back as I already had a CM4228HD. Fortunately most of my channels are in one direction and the off axis channels are in line with the antenna lobes. I went from 12 to 39 channels on the stacked setup.

Lately the stations have been switching frequencies and we are starting to get more VHF channels again which is a weak point on the CM4228HD. Im interested in finding out if the new deep fringe antennas would work better or if getting a tuned high gain low noise amp would be the way to go. Im just too afraid of heights to climb the tower to experiment more.

 

[arkydog]

i want to thank everyone for the responses. i don't remember like i used too but this thread made me remember that the installer also added a signal booster that plugs into the 110volt wall outlet. thanks to the replies i am ordering a tivo recorder so that i can keep momma happy. (soap operas and reality shows). thank ya'll so much!!!!

 

[EddieWalker]

Please let us know how it works for you. My wife has been asking for something like that and I've been playing stupid by saying that I don't know how to do that.

 

[arkydog]

Please let us know how it works for you. My wife has been asking for something like that and I've been playing stupid by saying that I don't know how to do that.

well, we called tivo and talked to their service department and they said since we have dsl slightly faster than dial-up, we shouldn't get a tivo. we got on amazon and ordered one of these. hope link works. will let know how it does.


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0186E64EC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[drssg]

That's nice that TiVo was up front about the internet speed requirements. I've noticed that it does live hits to the internet to get details about the current show that is highlighted in the TV guide or recorded shows. If the internet is very slow, I can see how the TiVo menu navigation would also be slow and frustrating.

 

[arkydog]

it was nice of tivo to not try to recommend something just to sell something. when we get the amazon recorder and set up, i will post results.

 

[arkydog]

Please let us know how it works for you. My wife has been asking for something like that and I've been playing stupid by saying that I don't know how to do that.

latest update: we were down that tivo wouldn't work for us so i got on amazon and thought for under $40 just buy one of the cheepies which we did. we bought an EXUBY and with a little thinking between wife doing most of it and me we can now record programs off the antenna. the only problem was the paper instructions were missing page 3 and 4 which we eventually found out were intentual because in index of directions there are no direction calling for anything on those pages.

as for as this box, it works fine but it only records one station at a time and you can't watch tv at same time. if programed channel time comes it will switch stations to programed channel. internet search resulted in using signal splitter for antenna and recorder so you can watch tv thru coaxial cable and record thru splitter on other coaxial cable. our tv ins' the best but it does have hdmi input from recorder also which the recorder uses to tv also.

we have talked about buying a different $40 recorder box that will record a different channel while you watch another or record more than one channel at a time, but we are happy with this box at the time. watching tv thru cable box gives the same quality picture as before. it is dooble and wife is happy!

thanks for all the responses and help, i appreciate it. again make wife very happy. she gave me many kisses (know what i mean) last night!