Does anyone use an outdoor antenna for over the air channels? I was wondering if you get more channels with an outdoor antenna than an indoor antenna in the 40/42 area. I am just wondering if it is worth spending more money for an outdoor antenna vs an indoor antenna. If you do use one, can you tell me what you are using. Thanks in advance.
I will say that the selection at Home Depot for antennas is better. We picked up a $10.00 indoor antenna at Lowe's. It worked well on our TV upstairs (we got all versions of 5 & 11 and then 17, 22, 28, 40, 50 and 4 and maybe more), when we moved it to the tv we wanted to use it on it didn't pick up very many stations at all (read: it picked up channel 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3 and that was it), but my husband wanted an outdoor antenna and picked up a decent priced one at Home Depot. Here is what we picked up to put outside and it gave us all the channels we wanted over the air on the downstairs tv and we have really great signal. Now I will say that we are NOT located at 40/42 - but we're on Guy Rd. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Winegard-Freevision-Outdoor-HDTV-Antenna-FVHD30H/203972856
PS: I don't know anything about how he hooked it up or anything. I just let him do his thing and I have television - (We did order a TIVO so we could record program. We went satelite free two weeks ago" and I haven't missed it one bit. Between the antenna & Hulu Plus I have just about everything I watched on the Satellite with a few exceptions, but I can live without those! We're testing Hulu, Netflix & Prime - even if we keep all three it will be more than a third of the price of Sat elite bill per month.
Thanks alot. I was just wondering if was worth buying one of the more expensive antenna. I will get the one that you emailed me. Thanks again.
You might look at this device, just saw this today but is from a source I trust. Cut The Cord With The 1byone Digital Indoor HDTV Antenna
I would love to cut the cord with TWC. But where my home is in South Plantation I kind of live in a valley. With Cell phone service if the wind blows the wrong way I loose cell service. So I am assuming that would be the same with over the Air TV signal
Go for it. Cell towers and TV towers are not always the same and most times in that area they are not.
Go to www.tvfool.com and enter your address. It will tell you which channels you can receive and tell you the type of antenna (eg indoor, attic mount, roof) that you need to receive each. I have the Winegard Flat Wave Amped HD TV Indoor Antenna - bought from Amazon, and it was significantly better than a couple I tried from Walmart.
We've now been without satellite for over a month and I've not missed it - period. And the tvfood.com is a great website. We use this one: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Winegard-Freevision-Outdoor-HDTV-Antenna-FVHD30H/203972856 But here was the thing - if it didn't work, we would have put it back int he box and returned it! Nothing to lose to try it. We're not in the "saving" mode yet - b.c we bought a TIVO with lifetime subscription for the life of the box, but give it 4 more months -and we will be saving $120 per month. That's a huge savings! We are still in our free trial for Hulu Plus, but we will definitely keep it! Amazon Prime - we're iffy on, but we've already paid for the year. Netflix - it might be one of those things that we decide to only have a few months out of the year to binge watch certain television shows, but we've been using it since December (got a gift card that lasted us until June so we've only used our money one month so far).
Just checked tvfool and it looks like a good site. I tried a 60 Rabbit Ear Antenna and it only picked up two channels more that I was getting with $10 Rabbit Ears, so I returned it. The Clerk told me that most people returned that model of antenna.
I have an old portable (analog) TV that I am trying to see if I can get over the air channels. I tried one of those digital antenna's and also an old fashioned rabbit ears (that does both UHS and VHS), But I get nothing. Over the air is a digital signal now?
Remember about 5 years ago when the government gave out coupons to get free digital to analog converters? This is what they are for. You can still get them, but I think they run around $40 - $50 retail. If you really want one I would check Ebay or ask around because a lot of people have moved on to digital. Honestly, if you can't get one for next to nothing, I would put the $ towards a new TV and take that one to the dump.
Actually I have two of them in my closet. Found them when I was looking for something else. I found then when I found the rabbit ears. I couldn't remember when I got them. I do remember they were free and you were able to get a limit of two. I also couldn't remember if they went to all digital over the air. I am able to get tons of the old Analog TV's for free off of craigslist. But you are right it may be time to get one of the new flat panel TV's but right now my pay cannot afford that. Thanks
While we have TWC, we use Rabbit Ears on all of the TVs except the living room where we use the cable. Will save us about $15 a month when they start charging for all TVs connected to cable in several months. Get better picture usually with rabbit ears.
There you go, just connect one of those between your rabbit ears and your TV and you should pick up most of the local stations.
Just buy a new TV and hook an antenna up. See what you get. Then decide on what type of antenna you need. Old tvs with a digital converter, you already pushing a rope.
Well I hooked up the digital/analog converter to the little portable and attached the digital antenna. I finally got it to work. Get about 15 channels. Just wish PBS was one of them. But heck I can't complain. Thanks everyone for their input. When I change jobs and make more $ I will look into getting flat screens. I went to DTV.gov and to reception maps. According to them and where I live. I get a handful of channels. But they had this just above the map: Signal strength calculations are based on the traditional TV reception model assuming an outdoor antenna 30 feet above ground level. Indoor reception may vary significantly.
I get pbs at my house if I put the antenna in the window. My parents live a mile away and don"t (same antenna). Their tv is in a glass room about the same elevation as me. They do have a cell tower about 200 yards behind them, I don't know if that matters, but they can see the lights on the tv tower at 70. Not sure if pbs uses that tower. I'd guess my place is 50 feet higher than Rocky's
