columbus
14-Dec-2012, 4:26 PM
Hello all. Thanks in advance for the advice.
My TV fool report is http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dcc4954f21bdfc6
I have been using just OTA broadcasting for about a year now, and love it. The picture looks great on my 50” LG HD TV. I use a Winegard YA-1713 VHF antenna, an Antenna Direct 91XG, and a Channel Master CM7777 amplifier. I can pick up all the channels I want (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, and PBS) out of Indianapolis, so I just use the rotor to occasional fine tune the reception after a storm. The antennas are mounted on the roof and I’m surrounded by trees. It is rare that I have any issues with reception. My LG TV says I have signal quality of 100% on all of these channels and signal strength of 66 to 83 depending on the channel. The cable run from the antenna is long. There’s 100’ cable from the antenna to the cable box on the outside of the house and I estimate another 75’ from the box to the outlet behind the TV. There is one cable that runs from each outlet to the cable box so I know that there is only one outlet per cable. The electrician explained this to me when the house was built. There are no splitters connected. Just a straight run to my television with the power unit for the amp in the circuit.
The one thing I do miss about cable is the DVR. I went out and bought a Hauppauge tuner card. Installed it in my desktop and thought I could use media player as a DVR. It kind of worked. I could pick up some of the channels some of the time, but this was not an acceptable solution. So I bought the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Dual. This had a little better reception, but again it could not pick up all of the channels I wanted and would freeze and stop. So that didn’t work either. I thought it must be that the cable run was too long, so I ran the 100’ quad shield RG6 cable from the antenna, though the back door, and plugged that into the HDHomerun device. There was no improvement in reception. I tested a second television and that TV could pick up all the channels I wanted, just like the LG. I’m not sure what the issue is. Is the signal strength just too low for these devices but ok for the television? Can I increase the signal strength? Is there a better computer tuner? Do I need a different antenna? Would a TIVO tuner perform more like the television tuners? Or, am I just out of luck?
Thanks again!
My TV fool report is http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3dcc4954f21bdfc6
I have been using just OTA broadcasting for about a year now, and love it. The picture looks great on my 50” LG HD TV. I use a Winegard YA-1713 VHF antenna, an Antenna Direct 91XG, and a Channel Master CM7777 amplifier. I can pick up all the channels I want (NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, and PBS) out of Indianapolis, so I just use the rotor to occasional fine tune the reception after a storm. The antennas are mounted on the roof and I’m surrounded by trees. It is rare that I have any issues with reception. My LG TV says I have signal quality of 100% on all of these channels and signal strength of 66 to 83 depending on the channel. The cable run from the antenna is long. There’s 100’ cable from the antenna to the cable box on the outside of the house and I estimate another 75’ from the box to the outlet behind the TV. There is one cable that runs from each outlet to the cable box so I know that there is only one outlet per cable. The electrician explained this to me when the house was built. There are no splitters connected. Just a straight run to my television with the power unit for the amp in the circuit.
The one thing I do miss about cable is the DVR. I went out and bought a Hauppauge tuner card. Installed it in my desktop and thought I could use media player as a DVR. It kind of worked. I could pick up some of the channels some of the time, but this was not an acceptable solution. So I bought the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Dual. This had a little better reception, but again it could not pick up all of the channels I wanted and would freeze and stop. So that didn’t work either. I thought it must be that the cable run was too long, so I ran the 100’ quad shield RG6 cable from the antenna, though the back door, and plugged that into the HDHomerun device. There was no improvement in reception. I tested a second television and that TV could pick up all the channels I wanted, just like the LG. I’m not sure what the issue is. Is the signal strength just too low for these devices but ok for the television? Can I increase the signal strength? Is there a better computer tuner? Do I need a different antenna? Would a TIVO tuner perform more like the television tuners? Or, am I just out of luck?
Thanks again!