Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
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Post by Sandbagger on Jun 4, 2016 18:07:57 GMT -5
Worst case scenario? I do without the 7-10 hours of broadcast television I watch per week, a good portion of which is the news and that's usually depressing. Honestly, the amount of "free" (not factoring internet cost) content I get with my Roku is more than I could ever watch. And I'll just head over to my buddy's house to watch the Eagles. Suddenly I recall the "Kill your TV" t-shirts from the 80's. The Roku model seems to be the direction that content delivery is heading toward. Pretty soon the principle job of the cable companies will be to provide a very large (and fast) internet "pipe" for subscribers to connect to video content over the internet.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jun 6, 2016 14:16:23 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jun 6, 2016 14:32:08 GMT -5
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,247
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Post by Sandbagger on Jun 6, 2016 17:46:08 GMT -5
Well, when it comes to antennas, for a given band of frequencies, smaller is never better than its full sized counterparts. But I guess if you live near the transmitting antennas and space and aesthetics are of primary importance, something like this may fit the bill.....
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jun 29, 2016 13:02:55 GMT -5
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Post by BBB on Jun 30, 2016 11:10:55 GMT -5
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jul 22, 2016 9:03:09 GMT -5
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,247
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Post by Sandbagger on Jul 22, 2016 9:09:59 GMT -5
And I'm sure that number is rising. At least until the next newfangled video delivery method hits the market.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jul 28, 2016 11:01:50 GMT -5
Installed the Channel Master today. Big improvement on channel 2, yay! Hardly any improvement on channel 12, meh. No biggie, I can still get all PBS content on the Roku and I can get WNJS out of Trenton, albeit spotty and only after dark. As I mentioned in another thread, I had to take down the IMAX and the UHF antenna on the mast went down with it. So now I'm running only the Channel Master on the chimney and I switched the setting on the amp from "separate" antennas to the single setting. To my delight I lost no channels and I've been able to receive channel 12 the last few nights, albeit only a window of about 2-3 hours. I spent a great deal of time working to get channel 2 in, but now I'm kinda burnt out on CHiPS, Happy Days and Emergency!, so I'm going to prioritize channel 12 and adjust the antenna accordingly for the best signal. If I lose channel 2 so be it.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Jul 28, 2016 11:08:18 GMT -5
Note the angle of the antenna on the chimney. For a direct line to the transmit towers it should be pointing straight off the back of the house, but to receive channel 2 I had to turn it away, I believe because of multi-path interference caused by the metal chimney cap. I'm going to shimmy up there when I get a moment and turn it so it faces the towers directly and see if that gives me channel 12. Will report back...
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 10, 2016 10:57:48 GMT -5
... I'm going to shimmy up there when I get a moment and turn it so it faces the towers directly and see if that gives me channel 12. Will report back... Well, I repositioned the antenna and did get a slightly better signal level, but signal quaity is still in the toilet so it seems those few nights I was receiving channel 12 had more to do with atmospheric conditions than anything else. Channel 12 is relatively low power and I'm in bad spot, so a larger, higher gain antenna would be the solution and I'm not throwing my hat back in that ring again. Not yet at least. No biggie. I still have tons of PBS content through the Roku.
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Post by cbrown on Aug 10, 2016 15:02:36 GMT -5
My sisters family recently 'pulled the plug', dropping Verizon TV and trying broadcast TV. Unfortunately they live down in a valley so there are hills blocking the OTA signals, last count they were getting 2 channels reliably with a third popping in now and then.
My brother in law wanted to use an external antenna on a 10 ft mast on the roof (single story ranch). I don't think it would help much. I knew radio guys down there that had 60 ft of mast on their antennas just to be heard. Deep valley.
I suggested going Fire Stick.
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,247
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Post by Sandbagger on Aug 10, 2016 15:34:27 GMT -5
My sisters family recently 'pulled the plug', dropping Verizon TV and trying broadcast TV. Unfortunately they live down in a valley so there are hills blocking the OTA signals, last count they were getting 2 channels reliably with a third popping in now and then. My brother in law wanted to use an external antenna on a 10 ft mast on the roof (single story ranch). I don't think it would help much. I knew radio guys down there that had 60 ft of mast on their antennas just to be heard. Deep valley. I suggested going Fire Stick. The other issue with being surrounded by hills is multi-path cancellations. With analog TV, you'd see ghosting, but it was an otherwise watchable picture. With digital, it can play havoc with the bit error rate, and may cause it to tile or blank completely. Having a deep fringe directional antenna outside can not only boost signal, it can reject much of the multi-pathing. Of course there's always Roku..........
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Post by BionicChicken on Aug 10, 2016 21:18:21 GMT -5
Any outside antenna will be a drastic improvement over an inside (rabbit ears, etc) antenna. And to squelch all the hype on needing a HDTV ready antenna...no, you don't. An old analog antenna will pick up the signals. Some of the older antennas actually might have more range in fringe areas as the new ones do not have the surface area to pick up the signal. I am about 8 miles as the crow flies from the station I operate and can pick it up off a piece of coax with the insulation stripped back exposing the center conductor. A antenna on a push up pole 30' should help with signal. Of course all this depends on how far you are from the transmitters themselves. In a valley you might have problems as with any form of communication. There are many DIY plans online to build a HDTV antenna. You might try one of them and experiment with a pole to see if there is any improvement. Good Luck
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Post by cbrown on Aug 11, 2016 12:23:44 GMT -5
Any outside antenna will be a drastic improvement over an inside (rabbit ears, etc) antenna. And to squelch all the hype on needing a HDTV ready antenna...no, you don't. An old analog antenna will pick up the signals. Some of the older antennas actually might have more range in fringe areas as the new ones do not have the surface area to pick up the signal. I am about 8 miles as the crow flies from the station I operate and can pick it up off a piece of coax with the insulation stripped back exposing the center conductor. A antenna on a push up pole 30' should help with signal. Of course all this depends on how far you are from the transmitters themselves. In a valley you might have problems as with any form of communication. There are many DIY plans online to build a HDTV antenna. You might try one of them and experiment with a pole to see if there is any improvement. Good Luck I'll mention it to him to try the antenna outside. He's been doing this on his own without my help or input. He's on his second antenna from Best Buy. He didn't even listen when I told him which way to face the antenna. The closest towers (based on nocable.org) are 36 miles away and go up to 60 miles distance.
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Post by cbrown on Aug 11, 2016 12:26:33 GMT -5
Of course there's always Roku.......... What kind of content do they have for free on it?
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 11, 2016 16:01:10 GMT -5
Of course there's always Roku.......... What kind of content do they have for free on it? Tons. So much so that you could never watch it all. Go to their website and check out the channels. Then google Roku private channels. It's literally endless.
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Post by cbrown on Aug 12, 2016 15:18:35 GMT -5
Well. I bit the bullet and ordered her a Roku 3. Hopefully she'll like it, she says she misses her morning news with her coffee.
Thanks for the private channel thing, I'll pass it along.
Also open to any antenna suggestions for broadcast.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 13, 2016 15:59:12 GMT -5
Well. I bit the bullet and ordered her a Roku 3. Hopefully she'll like it, she says she misses her morning news with her coffee. Thanks for the private channel thing, I'll pass it along. Also open to any antenna suggestions for broadcast. Check out the Roku channel called NewsOn. Local channels from all over the country are on it. Many you can watch live and/or after their last broadcast. Good stuff. As far as an antenna, bigger is better of course, but you'll need to do a little research. Determine what your locals are and what frequencies they're on. Most stations have moved to UHF, but not all. Some in my area remain on VHF lo and VHF hi so I needed an antenna that was capable of pulling them all in. That said, Channel Master makes some very nice antennas but tend to be on the pricey side. Winegard also make quality products that generally cost a little less. RCA is readily available (Walmart and Home Depot) and affordable. And this probably goes without saying, but don't use twin lead. RG6 is the only choice.
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Sandbagger
Administrator/The Boss
Posts: 6,247
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Post by Sandbagger on Aug 13, 2016 16:40:43 GMT -5
Well. I bit the bullet and ordered her a Roku 3. Hopefully she'll like it, she says she misses her morning news with her coffee. Thanks for the private channel thing, I'll pass it along. Also open to any antenna suggestions for broadcast. Check out the Roku channel called NewsOn. Local channels from all over the country are on it. Many you can watch live and/or after their last broadcast. Good stuff. As far as an antenna, bigger is better of course, but you'll need to do a little research. Determine what your locals are and what frequencies they're on. Most stations have moved to UHF, but not all. Some in my area remain on VHF lo and VHF hi so I needed an antenna that was capable of pulling them all in. That said, Channel Master makes some very nice antennas but tend to be on the pricey side. Winegard also make quality products that generally cost a little less. RCA is readily available (Walmart and Home Depot) and affordable. And this probably goes without saying, but don't use twin lead. RG6 is the only choice. 300 ohm twin lead went out in the 70's. It's less lossy, but you had to use standoffs and keep it away from anything metallic that could detune or interfere with it. 75 Ohm coax has been the standard since. It's also a misnomer that digital HD TV requires anything different than what we used in the pre-digital days. RF is RF, whether the modulation is analog or digital. If your particular local OTA TV market is all UHF, so much the better as you can get away with a high gain, single band antenna with a relatively small footprint. But for those that still use both UHF and the VHF bands (and for how much longer might be a question), then you need a dual band antenna, which is physically larger, but will give you decent gain. How much gain depends on your location and distance from the transmitters. Here's a site that might help in that department: www.antennaweb.org/Address
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 13, 2016 20:37:06 GMT -5
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Post by cbrown on Aug 16, 2016 12:46:05 GMT -5
Thanks guys, the Roku seems to be working well. I'll look at antennas, but after I entered their GPS coordinates I notice at best they'll get 5 channels.
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Post by BBB on Aug 16, 2016 15:49:01 GMT -5
Spent another couple of days down the shore in Delaware, but upgraded the size of the flat screen to as big as I could jam in the cut out. The amplified Winegard Sensar antenna on the camper roof worked well. It rotates manually from inside the camper.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 16, 2016 16:05:12 GMT -5
Thanks guys, the Roku seems to be working well. I'll look at antennas, but after I entered their GPS coordinates I notice at best they'll get 5 channels. Check out the Plex "app" for Roku. With it one can watch content from the major networks and many cable channels. It is a little confusing, it took me some time to figure it out, but it is an excellent resource for content.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 16, 2016 20:34:18 GMT -5
Spent another couple of days down the shore in Delaware, but upgraded the size of the flat screen to as big as I could jam in the cut out. The amplified Winegard Sensar antenna on the camper roof worked well. It rotates manually from inside the camper. And how does that uncompressed HD picture look?
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Post by BBB on Aug 17, 2016 10:21:23 GMT -5
"Crisp" is the word I would use to describe the OTA display Verizon just "gave" us the HBO suite as a loyal overpaying customer. They're really trying to keep folks I guess.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 17, 2016 17:01:58 GMT -5
"Crisp" is the word I would use to describe the OTA display ... Coming from standard definition satellite I described it as "unbelievable", especially factoring in the "free". And to think, some folks pay extra for high def. Oh, the humanity!
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Post by cbrown on Aug 18, 2016 15:31:13 GMT -5
Check out the Plex "app" for Roku. With it one can watch content from the major networks and many cable channels. It is a little confusing, it took me some time to figure it out, but it is an excellent resource for content. Is it free?
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 18, 2016 16:06:05 GMT -5
Check out the Plex "app" for Roku. With it one can watch content from the major networks and many cable channels. It is a little confusing, it took me some time to figure it out, but it is an excellent resource for content. Is it free? Good question, it was when I signed up. I'll check it out and report back...
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Post by MonkeyMan on Aug 18, 2016 16:08:24 GMT -5
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