Digital TV

[PCHeintz72]

This was being discussed by someone in a thread before the forum crash and reset, since I cannot currently find that thread I assume it is defunct.

In any case... the topic was turning toward what was needed for free TV.

At the time I had the equipment but not fully installed yet.

But still wanted to share how I did it and my results as I've since installed it and have it operating housewide as a part of my central wiring setup.

Basically:
- For knowing where to place the antenna - in the U.S. TVFool ( http://www.tvfool.com/ ) can tell you where the stations are in relation to your house, even gives you a radar type map. for directional antennas they should be pointing either toward the largest concentration of stations... or toward the ones most desired. For Omnidirectional antennas... should place antenna as close to that edge of the house as possible.

- For the Antenna - RCA800R omnidirectional mounted in the attic, originally wanted to mount outside the house for best reception, but found out I would need to submit a plan to my city and pay a fine for an external mount antenna. So instead I mounted it in the rafters of my attic. The coaxial power injector that this antenna needs (not all need one) is down in the basement though. For Digital TV a traditional style directional long range antenna is often used, for me that would be bad as I am surrounded by big cities in three directions, I would want to recieve as many as possible for which a directional antenna would not be best for. It should be noted that technically, if you already have a good working antenna, even an old one, you could use that. The house I bought earlier in the year did not have anything other than a Time Warner antenna dish the prior owner had and not meant for general reception and it was not pointed in remotely near the correct direction for me in any case.

- For the Wiring - RG6 Quad shield with compression fittings for every connection. Note the compression fittings should be specifically for RG6 Quad, or they either will not fit correctly or not give good results. I found these are worlds better than the old style crimp connectors.

- For the Splitter - ChannelPlus H838 mounted in the central wiring cabinent to spread the signal through the house. This method allowed for the laying of a single line from the antenna to the unit, and the unit spreads the signal through the house.

- For the Recievers. PrimeDTV 8VX ATSC Reciever/Media Box. Some flatscreen Televisions still have a *very basic* reciever built into them but only rarely will it be more than a minimum. While you can use them, they generally will not give best results. While a old NTSC/ATSC hybrid converter box (these are the government sponsered coupon ones from 2007-2009) to convert digital TV to Analog could be used, that is also not a good choice for best results. A full blown ATSC reciever should be used for full digital reception. I went one further, this unit allows for multiple types of external inputs in addition to antenna (VGA, composite, component, HDMI, etc), so can connect a computer, a game console, or other source and it will take it.

Results... despite an attic mounting instead of a roof mount which normally hampers signal reception, I get:
- Total of 42 channels recognized and able to get to in the basement and Living room.
Of those:
- 2 are very weak and have sound but a unviewable picture. I'll delete those from the lineup when i get a chance.
- 1 is in Spanish and since it has been some 20 years since I had spanish classes, am unlikely to view it.
- 1 is a duplicated channel (1 version HD, 1 version SD)
- 3 are audio only channels, no video. These are tenchically coming in fine, but I have no need of them.

So... some 35+ free channels to play with. Not too bad for being free. Not like the 500+ with DirectTV or Dish Network... or even more with Satellite... just how many of those channels are really useful... and $0.00 beats the $95.00+ monthly bill those services can get to.

Would this setup work for everyone? Doubtful that most would need a setup this elaborate... But remember the costs of the reciever(s) and antenna and splitter (if needed) are completely offset by the fact once working, no additional money needed.

For those only needing it to go to 1 TV, simply lay the line from the antenna to the TV, and have the power injector (if their antenna uses such a device) at the TV going to the antenna.

EDIT: Meant to add to the above... once this is set up... for a channel listing, you can create an account on TitanTV ( http://www.titantv.com/ ) You tell it your channels and it will keep that and any time go to it it will give you a show schedule like a DirectTV Info button will report.