Convinced Family to Cut the Cord
 

I was directed to this site by a friend who had mentioned it to me in the past.

Long story short, we will be dropping our cable TV soon and going OTA and streaming content. To that end, I will be purchasing a new plasma TV and building a budget based but capable HTPC (with a TV tuner card) to act as a DVR and media center.

Here is the report I ran.

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...e1c6029769ba07

It looks like I will have no problem with a small and simple antenna, but I am new to this cord-cutting venture and want to double check everything before I proceed.

I'm not sure if this matters, but my TV sits in the corner of my living room. According to the compass on my iPhone, the TV points 150 degrees SE.

As for my "must haves", I am really only concerned about the local ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS affiliates and any sub-channels (callsigns WFTS, WFLA, WTSP, WTVT, WEDU and WUSF respectively). Anything beyond that, like the CW and ION channels would be gravy but we don't watch them enough to where I could justify really going out of my way to get them.

With that in mind, what would I need to look for in an antenna? Would a simple off the shelf indoor antenna work?

Thanks in advance for the help! :D

....Anyone??

You have lots of signal available and in the same general direction. Gravy! Where you place the antenna, what might be blocking it from getting a clear view to the the ESE will be very important to getting good performance from an indoor antenna. Building materials especially metal roofing or siding, trees and foliage all block UHF.

The first dozen channels are all strong, line-of-sight, and in the same direction; tailor-made for a small outdoor high-VHF/UHF antenna like the ANT751R or HBU11 or HBU22.

But for an indoor antenna, I'd try the Terk HDTVi (the non-amplified version), which is more directional on UHF than a simple loop, which can be good with multi-path signals bouncing around inside your house. The VHF portion is still rabbit ears, though, and with 4 channels on high-VHF, an outdoor antenna is almost certainly going to be better, both because it has more elements, and because it's, well, outdoors.

I've had good luck with a cheap rabbit ears and UHF loop, but it wasn't reliable enough for a permanent solution, and my stations are about half the distance, with similar noise margin. That's why I think the Terk is a step up, but outdoors is better still.