Got antenna installed now need advise on amp to feed my tuners-also ? about backup

[fletchb]

Hello,
Have been considering dropping comcast for sometime now. In my area they keep raising prices while at the same time taking away more and more channels.
To make matters worse they were changing frequencies on at least a couple of channels on a weekly basis, which made both my TV and DVR lose access without reprogramming. Weird thing is they would make the change on Thursdays then change it back on Mondays. Ok if I didn't want to record during the weekend but a lot of work if I did. So to deal with it , got some RS rabbit ears which worked surprising well for most stations , minus our local fox station (wala). So I programmed DVR to use the rabbit ears for stations comcast kept changing and It worked at first but was spotty on Wala. Sometime earlier this year I lost Wala completely. They are VHF-H but are very close so not sure what the issue is. I have seen others here complain about their signal. I was just going to procrastinate, then comcast jacked up prices about $14 for limited basic so that was the last straw.

After doing some research here and other places, I decided to give the RCA 751 a go. Installed it in the attic a few days ago. Since I would have to feed the coax via the attic regardless, decided to give it a try there and if it didn't work the go outside. But it seems to be be working well and Wala is back. At first I could even get a distant station to the south east of me, but went a bit more NE to ensure wala and a more distant station in Fla.

So My issue now is how to distribute to my tuners . One is internal to the WMC dvr (Haupage 2 tuners but one external connection) and the other is an external hdhomerun (2 tuners, 2 connections). Right now I have the antenna hooked to one port on the hdhomerun but want to feed the other port and the haupage and I understand I will probably need a distribution amp. Before I run down to RS, any recommendations for a good one?

Also once I make the switch everything will be running via my DVR, which is great unless it breaks, so I want a backup indoors antenna for my main room TV as I won't be able to reach it via coax. When I had the rabbit ears in that room , signal was not nearly as good as in my DVR/computer room.

A girl at work uses one of those thin as paper wall/window mount antennas. Any comments on those?

Thanks...

[GroundUrMast]

The thin 'leaf' like antenna lacks VHF support. Consider the Terk HDTVi (not HDTVa).

Use a passive splitter with only enough output ports the serve the planned number if tuner inputs. The HDHomeRun has great signal quality metering, you'll be able to tell if any amplifier is needed. If you prove the need for an amplifier, I'd suggest the Channel Master CM-3410 which can be powered remotely and therefor can be mounted close to the antenna (provided the amplifier is protected from the weather). The best place for an amplifier is close to the signal source (the antenna) where it can help overcome all of the cable and splitter losses on the output side of the amplifier.

http://www.amazon.com/Terk-Technolog...rds=Terk+HDTVi

http://www.channelmasterstore.com/An..._p/cm-3410.htm
http://www.channelmasterstore.com/Am...p/pctmpi1g.htm

[fletchb]

Thanks for the info on the antenna. Since WALA fox is VHF-H , I would like to have it on my backup if possible. On another forum (AV) I saw many people saying they could not get this station, so it may be unrealistic on any indoor antenna.

As far as the amp goes, I am getting the signal I need right now using 1 tuner, so I don't think I need a preamp, just wondering if I will need it once I do the split. The split will happen in my "computer room" closet so yea I guess I should just try a passive one and see what happens. I am just a bit gunshy about those splitters as I had a long standing problem with internet access that turned out to be due to one installed in the wall by comcast. It would work fine most of the time but would die on warm/hot/wet summer days. I removed my own splitter and then it did not happen as often but still persisted. Only when I was running ethernet cable did I find the comcast splitter in the wall. It was to feed the next room over. Removed and have been problem free ever since.

Thanks for the amp advise. I saw that one on amazon and it had good reviews. I also saw a slightly newer version with the remote pwr adapter included for 10 more. On the very remote chance that one day I do a split in the attic to feed other tv's as a backup ...will the amp be able to survive the extreme heat of my attic during the summer months?

Thanks...!

[GroundUrMast]

Consider mounting the amp in a closet below the antenna, even if it adds a few feet to the coax run. Heat that does not damage an amplifier can still make it produce a bit more noise and distortion.

[fletchb]

Thanks, will do!