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Originally Posted by greenguy
thank you for the quick reply, and it is nice to here your encouraging words. I have read many of your posts here in other threads and you are exactly the type of poster I was hoping could chime in and give me some pointers.
Thanks I will look into that antenna you recommend. Is it as easy as point the antenna generally towards NYC and run coax into the house?
We currently have 3 TVs. We would probably add one more eventually and one may need to be replaced as it is old 4:3 analog or I would buy a box for it
Yes I would definitely like an OTA DVR for recording. And I would supplement the loss of cable channels using streaming to my Mac Mini and my Apple TV2.
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I am glad to help out. I'm no antenna guru, but I have installed and played with a few over the last several years. I dropped my sat service around 5 years ago in favor of the antenna. Haven't regretted it either.
As for easy to do, actually, yes. You're pretty close to some broadcast towers, so aiming the antenna in the general direction will probably work fine. However, a compass using the degree coordinates on your plot will help you zero in on the best signal for a given channel. That's your starting point. Connect to the TV over coax and have it scan for antenna channels. Most HDTV's will have a signal strength indicator of some sort. You won't typically be able to tune all at 100%, so you have to find the sweet spot that gives you good strength on all that you want to watch.
teleview has given you a good antenna recommendation and tuning advice as well. Either way, you are going to tune a lot of networks. If you don't know, most have sub channels as well; 3.1, 3.2, etc. So you'll get a lot of channels.
You have some trees, but if they're a good ways away, you'll be fine. The conifers are consistent, so you can tune most any time of year and be done. Summer when the deciduous are in "full sail", that can change things. Just like the dish, the clearer the view of the sky, the better. The dish only needed a hole to peek through where the antenna likes a clean horizon, so typically height helps you.
As for DVR's, I use Windows Media Center on a PC that connects to my TV over HDMI. I put my TV signals on my network using HDHomeruns. Any PC in the house can watch TV using an included app. That's a bit more technical for the average house, but it works pretty well for us. Other DVR options are available from Channel Master & Tivo. I don't have any experience with those devices. I think the Tivo is cheap, but it has a monthly fee. The CM I think is more expensive, but no monthly required. There's also something I saw not long ago called SimpleTV. It can record and then stream to popular devices. It's got a $5 monthly fee I think. And solutions keep coming too.