Attic Antenna Worth It?

[coder_t2]

Hey guys, right now I pay $11 a month to get basic cable (local channels and few extra) from my cable provider. Do you guys think it is worth it to install an Antenna in my attic and get rid of this monthly cost? I don't plan on getting cable until I have kids, which won't be for another 4-5 years most likely. I was curious as to how the quality of OTA compares to cable, and how easy it is to install an attic antenna and route the cable? Thanks guys.

 

[vi edit]

Tought call, but at $11 a month, unless you are ultra, uber strapped for cash I don't think an antenna is worth it. If you have cable internet through them then it might be more like $6 a month if they are cutting you a break on the internet bill for having cable TV too.

How far are you from the broadcast stations? If you a decent distance then trees/houses/weather might interupt your reception a decent bit. It's just nice with cable to plug it in and forget about it.

 

[NutBucket]

Are the channels you get from $11 cable HD or not? If not, ditch it and go for the antenna.

 

[coder_t2]

I do get HD for the $11 a month. But I have no idea how far away I am from the towers. I do have trees around my house, though. Just using rabbit ears I get decent reception sometimes. I was hoping that putting a big antenna in the attic would help with the reception issue. And from what I understand, at that point I would just route a cable from the antenna and somehow connect it to the current cable lines run through the house from TWC, though I could be wrong about that.

I am not super strapped for cash, but if I could save $120 a year by installing an antenna, it seemed like a worthwhile investment, as long as its not a horrible DIY project and that getting good reception is possible.

 

[NutBucket]

www.antennaweb.org

Your friend for all things OTA

 

[SpatiallyAware]

I do get HD for the $11 a month. But I have no idea how far away I am from the towers. I do have trees around my house, though. Just using rabbit ears I get decent reception sometimes. I was hoping that putting a big antenna in the attic would help with the reception issue. And from what I understand, at that point I would just route a cable from the antenna and somehow connect it to the current cable lines run through the house from TWC, though I could be wrong about that.

I am not super strapped for cash, but if I could save $120 a year by installing an antenna, it seemed like a worthwhile investment, as long as its not a horrible DIY project and that getting good reception is possible.

You're actually better off being a good bit away from the towers, that way you can point the antenna in one direction and pick everything up. If you're "in the city" then the towers are spread around and you can't use a powerful directional antenna.

 

[kalrith]

I tried installing an antenna in my attic without any luck. I didn't want to mount it on my roof, so I just installed it off my back deck about 10' off the ground. Then I routed the 50' cable under my deck, through the basement, through the crawl space, and then up through the livingroom floor.

I have some trees starting about 200' back from the antenna, but the lot slopes down, so it seems to be a good spot for it. I'm also only 13 miles from the towers, and they're all in the same direction, so that definitely helps. BTW I have the CM4228 antenna. The antenna plus the mast were about $85 shipped.

Also, as long as you have good signal strength, OTA is the best quality HD broadcast you can get. It seems that in some markets cable TV doesn't compress the HD signal much, but in other markets they compress the crap out of it, making it look bad. I can definitely tell the difference between OTA HD and the DirecTV I used to have. I ran both for a month or two while I was setting up my HTPC, so I was able to do some back-to-back comparisons of the exact same programs.

 

[coder_t2]

Ok. Good to know. I did try rabbit ears once, and video was choppy. I am assuming because of bad reception. I am hoping the attic Antenna fixes this. I looked at antenna web, and all my towers are roughly in the same direction, like a 15 degree difference between them all, and they are about 20-25mi away. I think I will build my own antenna as well. The only thing I am iffy on is wiring the cable from the antenna to the TV. Not sure how to do that through the walls.

 

[vi edit]

Ok. Good to know. I did try rabbit ears once, and video was choppy. I am assuming because of bad reception. I am hoping the attic Antenna fixes this. I looked at antenna web, and all my towers are roughly in the same direction, like a 15 degree difference between them all, and they are about 20-25mi away. I think I will build my own antenna as well. The only thing I am iffy on is wiring the cable from the antenna to the TV. Not sure how to do that through the walls.

If you have cable running into your home, you probably have it running into a splitter somewhere that distributes to other rooms in your house. If you can run the antenna feed down to that splitter for the cable you don't have to do any other work.

 

[bobdole369]

All providers, including Comcast, Time warner and Charter - all compress the HD feeds that come over the wire. They specifically compress (at least Comcast in my area) to about 2/3 bitrate, and retransmit over clear QAM, the locals.

If you are using a cableco box to tune "HD" channels, or your TV needs a Cable Card, you are also experiencing this compression.

Provided you are capable of running RG-6 safely and neatly through your walls, an attic antenna makes a lot of sense and is a lot better than rabbit ears. You are also not a slave to the cable company. TiVO works very well OTA only. That might be worth your $12/month

 

[vi edit]

TiVO works very well OTA only. That might be worth your $12/month

I'm partial to Windows Media Center. It likes OTA feeds quite well too. And no fees

 

[kalrith]

I'm partial to Windows Media Center. It likes OTA feeds quite well too. And no fees

I agree completely. Why escape the cable-company fees only to become a "slave" to Tivo, and actually pay more money for less content (not to mention the big up-front cost of the Tivo)?

At $11/month it would take a long time to recoup the costs of building an HTPC, but if the OP has a computer and/or a media extender (PS3, XBOX360, etc.), then he might be able to do it on the cheap. I built a "cheap" HTPC for around $400 that does everything I want it to and draws very little power (~40W at idle) as well. I already had a case, power supply, and Windows, but I bought everything else new.

I'm not sure if I could justify the costs compared to $11/month, but my HTPC allowed me to save $80/month by canceling DirecTV, so it's more than paid for itself already, and I just canceled DirecTV last September. An HD DVR was a requirement for me, and I wanted more content than just OTA. Therefore, an HTPC was the only real choice for me. The next runner-up was Dish's DTVPal DVR, but there were too many shortcomings, and it was too close in price to a HTPC ($300) that I decided against it.

 

[radioouman]

In my experience, an antenna in the attic doesn't work all that well. You'll have magnitudes more success mounting it above the roof of your house. (I am 15-25 miles away from the TV towers.)

 

[Modelworks]

OTA quality completely blows away cable or satellite. Both cable and satellite grab the local signals and process them multiple times before they ever get to your home. Often they reduce the quality so they can fit more channels in their systems. Watch OTA HD one time and you will notice the difference.

I left directv and got a tuner card for $45 and an antenna for $45 so for $90 I now get tv for free which was one months payment to directv. It has been 4 months now so I saved over $300 !

If you go the tv tuner route for DVR make sure you have plenty of storage space. It uses about 7GB for one hour of video in HD.

If you are only 25 miles from towers then you shouldn't have a problem with getting signal. I am 45 miles to nearest tower and with antenna outside + preamp on the antenna , my signals are in the 90+ range for most channels, lowest is 60. The higher you get it the better, but mine is only 4 foot off the ground mounted on the old directv pole.

This is the guy I got the antenna from. It is basically a manufactured version of the one for free on the internet. Build quality is pretty good and it works well for the price.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-TERRESTRIAL...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5a3bd395

 

[sivart]

I'm 18 miles from the closest city towers and 55 miles from the next largest city's towers. I am able to pick up all of my local channels and all but one of the locals from the next largest city (city center 100 miles away). Gives me about 8 extra channels that the local cable company doesn't provide.

I have an outdoor antenna (36") mounted in the attic and split the feed to 3 different sources (2 HTPC's and one HD DVR). I have an amplifier before the signal is split into 3 in the house. I never have a problem with the locals (unless that station has a problem) and rarely have issues with the other channels from the next nearest city (really bad weather)

I say go for it, give it a try. If you have a single story, obviously much easier than a two story.

 

[sivart]

This is the guy I got the antenna from. It is basically a manufactured version of the one for free on the internet. Build quality is pretty good and it works well for the price.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-TERRESTRIAL...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5a3bd395

That is only UHF, may want to check before buying. I have a few (7,9,10,13) VHF channels in my area that this antenna would not pick up or would struggle with.

 

[coder_t2]

If you have cable running into your home, you probably have it running into a splitter somewhere that distributes to other rooms in your house. If you can run the antenna feed down to that splitter for the cable you don't have to do any other work.

Yea this is what I thought. So I should be able to just unhook the "cable" and insert the antenna in it's place. Correct? Also, where would this splitter be? In the basement perhaps? I would expect that I could run a 50' cable to get to this splitter, amplify before splitting and all would be good?

For those commenting about TIVO, I do have a HTPC already. I have a HVR-2250 for recording TV. It works fantastic. I also have all my music and movies on the HTPC, and I have Netflix as well. This works out great for me. If I get this antenna working good, I'll only have to pay for internet! Which is awesome. Hopefully ATT or Cincinnati Bell or even Verizon gets some internet my way so I have an option other than Cable, although I do prefer Cable Internet the most.

 

[sivart]

Yea this is what I thought. So I should be able to just unhook the "cable" and insert the antenna in it's place. Correct? Also, where would this splitter be? In the basement perhaps?

I ran a separate feed for mine (it was in my master bedroom closet with the phone etc) so that I could still have cable internet from the cable company.

 

[kalrith]

That is only UHF, may want to check before buying. I have a few (7,9,10,13) VHF channels in my area that this antenna would not pick up or would struggle with.

That's what I like about my CM4228. It picks up the lower VHF range (like my local channel 10) quite well.

OP, I use an HVR2250 with my antenna, and it works great. The tuner seems to be very good and picks up the signals very well.

 

[coder_t2]

I ran a separate feed for mine (it was in my master bedroom closet with the phone etc) so that I could still have cable internet from the cable company.

Yea I just remembered that disconnecting it would disconnect internet. Well hopefully I can trace the cable and slide the antenna wiring along the cable wiring.

 

[smitbret]

There's really no way of knowing where the splitter is or even how many there are until you just follow the lead from start to finish. A good set up will have the cable run into the house on one wire to a splitter/distribution site. From there one cable runs to each room in the house. More commonly, though, the cable comes in the house at some random point and just splits off wherever someone decided another jack was neeeded. The splitters could be in the attic, inside walls, in the cellar or any combination. If it works trouble free for cable, though, it'll probably work just fine for OTA. If you're lucky, there'll be a termination point outside your house. Just pull the cable lead and insert your antenna lead. Done.

I'm gonna sound like a schill, but try www.dennysantennaservice.com. The website is full of info and they'll give you recommendations on what to get and how to set it up. The money-back guarantee is real, too. I'm using the EZ-HD antenna right now (roof mounted) and I'm picking up channels that are 48 miles away and separated by about 70 degrees with little or no problem. The other plus of OTA is the subchannels that you don't get with a cable or dish setup. Every OTA that I receive has at least one sub-channel and most 3 or 4. I was setting up an OTA thinking I'd get 5 channels and ended up getting about 14. The quality is not always the best on the sub-channels, but it's nice to have choices.

 

[smitbret]

Yea I just remembered that disconnecting it would disconnect internet. Well hopefully I can trace the cable and slide the antenna wiring along the cable wiring.

You don't need a second cable, just diplex the lines into the house. That way you can run the single line into the house and then just separate the signals out as necessary.

 

[Modelworks]

That is only UHF, may want to check before buying. I have a few (7,9,10,13) VHF channels in my area that this antenna would not pick up or would struggle with.

The design is UHF but UHF will work for VHF but it depends on the direction they are coming from , you need to have the elements parallel to the direction of the vhf station for it to pick them up well.

There really are not that many vhf stations left anymore. What is confusing is the channel numbers. 7 was a vhf channel before but may not be now. Here the channel number is 7 but the actual channel frequency is 32. 12 is 48 and even the uhf are screwed up , 14 is 19.

This page allows you to put in your zip code then click the channel call sign and see the actual broadcast frequency.
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/

 

[sivart]

The design is UHF but UHF will work for VHF but it depends on the direction they are coming from , you need to have the elements parallel to the direction of the vhf station for it to pick them up well.

There really are not that many vhf stations left anymore. What is confusing is the channel numbers. 7 was a vhf channel before but may not be now. Here the channel number is 7 but the actual channel frequency is 32. 12 is 48 and even the uhf are screwed up , 14 is 19.

This page allows you to put in your zip code then click the channel call sign and see the actual broadcast frequency.
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/

Unfortunately, in my area they are still using VHF

Frequency / Virtual Channel
7 / 7 (KTBC)
9 / 6 (KCEN)
10 / 10 (KWTX)
13 / 62 (KAKW)

 

[Tifababy]

How well an attic mounted antenna works also depends on how your house was built. The signals will really struggle to penetrate aluminum siding. Some reports I've read say you lose as much as 90% of the signal. In that case you'd be better off getting an indoor antenna if you have a large window near your TV. Brick is a little bit better, but not much, if you have vinyl siding, that is the best case and an attic antenna should work pretty well. I am 30-45 miles from all the local towers and have aluminum siding, so I decided to stay with basic cable for $16/mo including taxes and fees.

I also decided to go with a tivo instead of a HTPC. People say you shouldn't be a slave to tivo, but I paid for the lifetime subscription for $400 (the tivo was a gift), so for $600 you have a tivo with no monthly fees (about the same price as a decent HTPC). And the tivo is so much easier than a HTPC. Maybe not as customizable, but it just works and I can hand the remote to my wife or friends and they have no problem figuring everything out.

And you can still stream your media files from your PC with a tivo and you can view podcasts and youtube and netflix on a tivo, the only thing I miss out on by not having a HTPC is hulu.