Another Newbie here looking for some help...

[roadking00]

Hi All, very new to this stuff and looking to get out from under the strong hand of the Cable/Satellite companies ridiculous fees.Anyhow, I have a few questions to get me started on the right path.(GREAT FORUM)

My existing set up I have is a Satellite TV coax from the dish to a central location (a closet under my staircase) where I then have HDMI cables going to 4 separate TV's (along with Cat5 as a future option) throughout the house(3 on 1st floor-1 on 2nd floor)All of my satellite boxes are in that closet and they all have RF remotes that control each box for each specific room separately, with one of them being a Whole house DVR that is accessible from any of the other TV's (typical full house DVR set-up available from DTV).

I have a VERY large walk in attic (Typical wood frame, asphalt shingles, no metal at all) That I would like to try having the antenna located, but not against having to mount a chimney or peak of roof mount if needed?
So with that said I would like to get a antenna that is suitable for inside and/or outside if the attic mounting don't work out to good.

I have a 5th TV in the other room on the 2nd floor that I have very easy access from the attic to get a RG6 coax to for signal testing purposes and will be my trial and error TV location separately while I still have my satellite
hooked up,until I do the switch over to OTA in the rest of the house.I wanna get the signals the best I can 1st at this location so I can decide at that point if my wife and 5 yr old son will be able to survive without
the cartoon network and a few other channels we get from the satellite service.

From that point I will venture into the DVR options and internet streaming possibilities for OTA users I've been reading a lot about on this Forum.

Are there OTA converters out there that I can place in the same closet that would work for multiple TV's if I have just one RG6 coming into the closet and 3 HDMI outputs to the separate TV locations ? And maybe even
with RF remotes? Or I may have to use some type of IR extender ?

Is there a combo antenna out there that not only would pick up TV signals but also FM radio signals as well ? Or is a separate FM antenna the way to go ?

Here is my report Link...

http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wr...cc49bb25e0c362

Thanks in advance for any and all advice/info,
Steve

[GroundUrMast]

An RCA ANT-751 mounted on the chimney pointed at 225° would be an easy option.

The traditional distribution method would be RG-6 coax from the closet under the stairs. With HDMI cables already in place you may consider a Channel Master CM-7001 tuner. Centronix, Epivision and Winegard are also potential tuner options. IR remotes would likely be your option if locating the tuners remotely.

Best practice is to use a separate FM antenna and cabling. You have strong local TV signals, I presume that there are strong FM stations nearby as well. That's a recipe for FM interference if you combine the two services on a single coax system.

Another option is to place Home-Theater-PCs next to the TVs. Use the CAT5 to integrate SiliconDust HDHomeRun tuners, Hulu, Netflix, etc. on the LAN.

http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=820
http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=2882

[roadking00]

Thanks for the response GroundUrMast, it amazes me that a recommended $40 antenna is all I need to get to get the ball rolling I think I may try out the reception mounting it in the attic first ? But I guess I'll need to bust out the compass first and see how the options look at that time, like you and most folks on here state that outdoor mounting IS optimal...

If going with a Channel Master CM-7001 tuner or one of the others you mentioned are there better options between some of these that stand out compared to others?

I am DEFINITELY interested in the HDHomeRun tuners option in the near future (or at least work my way to that point) I just need to learn some more on how they are hooked up and options I may have to simplify things for my better half Can they be located in the closet along with a laptop/desktop dedicated for it with a cat5 distribution to cat5 capable TV's ? Or are they specific to each TV ? Again, I need to try and understand a bit more about the way they work first I guess...Time to read a bit more.

Thanks again and I look forward to learning a bunch more here and cutting the ties from a monthly constantly rising bill....

[GroundUrMast]

I would suggest you keep things simple to start with. Hook up the antenna to one TV with an RG-6 cable. You can run it temporally to start with, though doors or windows. Be sure the TV is set to scan for 'Air' or 'Antenna' channels, not cable or 'Auto'. Any TV built after the first third of 2007 has an ATSC capable tuner, the FCC mandated that manufactures had to include ATSC if any tuner was in the TV. (ATSC is the standard for broadcasting TV over the air in digital) You'll then know what signals are reliable and if the antenna aim needs adjustment or the antenna needs to move out of the attic.

If your TVs don't have ATSC tuners, it suggests they are pre-2007, standard definition (480i resolution). If that's the case, outboard tuners (digital to analog convertors) make sense, otherwise I question the economics of buying a bunch of tuners that only duplicate the built-in capability of all newer TVs. For the cost of the tuners you should easily be able to hire a structured cabling company to run RG-6 to each TV location.

Your situation is a bit unusual with HDMI and CAT-5 cable run, but little or no RG-6 coax. The traditional method of distributing OTA, cable and satellite is coax. To make channel surfing easy for the wife and others, I would cable from the antenna to a splitter. Then from there, a coax to each TV. The viewer simply needs to use one remote, the original remote shipped with the TV.

I own several SiliconDust tuners. I use them as a pooled resource, available to any PC to use. The media center software should be able to 'lock' a tuner while it's in use, forcing other PC's to search for an idle tuner. The current HDHR-3-US has two tuners, each independent of the other. They connect to the antenna using F type coaxial connectors just like the tuner in the TV. They connect to the Ethernet LAN using a standard Ethernet patch cable connected to an open port on your Ethernet switch/router. When the HDHR is powered up, it asks for an IP address from your router the same way your PC iPhone or other network devises would. When viewing a TV program broadcast in 1080i at full rate, you can expect to see data at rates up to 18 Mb/s from the HDHR tuner to the PC that decoded the MPEG-2 video+audio stream. Wired Ethernet is far more reliable than wireless. If I am going to record to hard-disk I avoid using wireless and use wired Ethernet from the HDHR all the way through to the PC that's doing the recording. If you run many HDHRs, and have other high bandwidth traffic on your LAN, a Gigabit Ethernet switch would be recommended. A 100 Mb/s Ethernet switch should be able to handle four 1080i streams if no other significant traffic is on the LAN.

A home theater PC is the interface between the home Ethernet LAN and the TV. This is an area of nearly unlimited options and choices. If you want to stream Netflix, Hulu, etc. Windows 7 Home Premium is likely the OS of choice.

[roadking00]

That sounds like a plan, fortunately I'm an ex-electrician so I can basically get any cable where I need it as far as RG6 cable, is there much of a benefit to run quad shielded when it comes to OTA signals ?

[GroundUrMast]

Quad Shielding won't hurt... but don't pay any extra over the price of RG-6/U (double shielded). The extra shield of quad is needed in closed systems such as the link between a satellite dish and tuner. An over the air antenna is open to the air... the tiny amount of interference that might get through the shielding of standard coax is going to find a much easier and open path through the antenna. The loss is the same for both types of coax... except at DC and 60 Hz AC. There are a few rotator and amplifier applications that can benefit from quad... I don't see that as an issue in your case.

An easier way is to use the RG-6 coax at each Tv location connected to one of these boxes at each Tv location.

http://www.epvision.com.

http://www.channelmasterstore.com.

[roadking00]

Originally Posted by teleview

An easier way is to use the RG-6 coax at each Tv location connected to one of these boxes at each Tv location.

http://www.epvision.com.

http://www.channelmasterstore.com.

Yeah, I was actually looking at those..may end up doing something like that on a couple of TV's but use an IR extender for the remote for my living room and kitchen TV's so I can still have no Audio/Video components at those TV locations (no furniture there for boxes, wall mounted) as I originally planned when I had the brainstorm with running all HDMI & Cat5e cables (and wish now I had ran RG6 as well)from my audio/video closet...
First things first though, waiting on my antenna to get here now and need to mount it on the chimney and see how the signal quality of what ever channels I pick up , hopefully it wont be too long before I can cut the ties from satellite/cable companies, my 1yr promo period end is approaching soon, then they'll want to charge me even MORE $$$

[roadking00]

Looking to order a roll/box of RG6, should I go from the antenna to my attic (possible splitter location) with a cable that has the ground wire with it and then I can run a separate ground wire from there to my electrical service ground rod and call it good ? Or is that overkill and should I just run a ground from the splitter to the ground rod and not worry about the antenna ? Probably sounds like a stupid question but I just wanna make sure my bases are covered before ordering anything....I'm assuming proper grounding can/will effect possible signal loss/interference?

Oops..just found a very detailed sticky on Grounding ....all good now ..

[roadking00]

So far so GOOD antenna is up, picking up most if not all my local channels in HD and then some will have to do some writing down channels and come up with a spreadsheet for a guide for now but all is looking good....

I may end up raising the antenna a few extra feet to clear a few things in the way, does anyone know of a extension pole I can add to the grey dish type mount that comes with the 751 antenna ? All I would need is 3-4 feet maybe....

Thanks for all the help, now I just have to wait for the leaves it the direction of my stations to come back so I can see how bad if at all they effect my signals

Oh yeah, when I am watching a channel and flip to the menu and go to antenna this specific TV shows a signal of 57-59 and a little more then a half a bar graph ? I'm assuming that 57-59 is in dB's or could it be a % rating of 0-100 ??

http://www.zap2it.com.

http://www.titantv.com.

_______________________

Also in the google search box.

Can type in variations of the Tv stations call sign.

Examples: . wung , wung tv , wung-tv , wung-tv 44.

wccb , wccb tv , wccb-dt , wccb dt.

The 2 web sites that will pop up that have the most information are , Wikipedia and http://www.rabbitears.info.

Here are some examples , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNC-TV , http://www.rabbitears.info/market.ph...ility_id=69124 , http://www.rabbitears.info/market.ph...ility_id=49157.

[Stereocraig]

Yes, the bar graph shows a rough percentage and has no real meaning, except as a benchmark and for comparison among different channels.

Before you waste a lot of time writing down stations, try out titantv.com.
It shows main and sub channels and the listings are in real time.

[roadking00]

Originally Posted by Stereocraig

Yes, the bar graph shows a rough percentage and has no real meaning, except as a benchmark and for comparison among different channels.

Before you waste a lot of time writing down stations, try out titantv.com.
It shows main and sub channels and the listings are in real time.

Great site, thanks...