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mihanson
PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:36 am 
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Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:50 pm
Posts: 1013
Location: Los Angeles
I'm about to jump into HDTV and my wife and I decided that DISH Network's current lack of HD programming (including locals) does not warrant us subscribing to their HD Pack. So, I've been Googling a bit and searching this forum trying to figure out a good make & model of over-the-air (OTA) antenna to buy for receiving HDTV signals. My house is very old (for Los Angeles standards -- built in 1928) with no crawl space a human can fit thru under the house, but the last owner ran coax cable under there when they did a remodel. I wish they had done it in the attic insead, but I digress... I'm not real keen on running new coax for an antenna, so I would like to make use of a diplexer to send the OTA HDTV signal on the same line as my DISH Network and seperate the signal again just before it enters my Mythbox. (HD-3000 / PVR-150). The easiest solution I can find is a Terk TV-42 / TV-44. This unit seems to have everything I'll need included. However, I've seen some not-so-flattering user reviews on a few search engines/price comparison pages. Has anyone on this forum had success with this type of antenna? I'm also considering the DB4 from Antennas Direct, but that installation will be a little more involved due to lack of built in diplexer and more involved mounting installation.

FWIW, all the stations I want to see range from 38-41 degrees from my compass location and are 25-26 miles in distance according to AntennaWeb.org. So my long winded question is: What antenna do you use and what has been your experience?

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Liv2Cod
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 1:58 am 
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Joined: Fri May 21, 2004 11:55 pm
Posts: 1206
Location: Silicon Valley, CA
There's really nothing magic about HDTV reception. HD channels are carried mostly on UHF band, so you can get any good UHF antenna and get good HD reception. I live about 40-50 miles away from Sutro Tower which is my main source of HD material. My antenna (some ChannelMaster model with four bowtie antennas on a big groundplane) is in my attic. I have two amplifiers on it -- one 10dB amp up in the attic and a second one just in front of a 3-way signal splitter to overcome its loss. The splitter is used to send the signal to three receiver cards -- two HD-3000s and a HD-2000. Sometimes the recpetion is a little glitchy, but 98% of the time it booms in perfectly.

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pkscout
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:52 pm 
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Joined: Sun Nov 06, 2005 4:34 pm
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Over at AVS Forums the Terk is generally considered to be an over priced piece of garbage. I got a Channel Master 4 bay antenna (I think it's the 4224) which has been great for me, and I know others have had excellent success with the 4228 (which is the 8 bay version of the one I have).
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mihanson
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 11:23 am 
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Location: Los Angeles
Thanks for the comments. I ended up going with the 42XG from Antennas Direct. I'll be mounting it off the back of my DISH Network satellite dish with the help of a Winegard DS-1111. It's at the bottom of this page. I'll have to get the diplexers and put them in line myself and run a ground wire, but I don't think it should be too hard. (Famous last words.) I'll post back when I receive everything and get it hooked up.

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mihanson
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 12:56 am 
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Location: Los Angeles
Getting the antenna up on the house turded out to be the easy part. I had all kinds of trouble getting an image on my new HDTV. After a lot of reading, a lot of trial and error, and a bit of frustration I have an HD image on my screen. Unfortunately, my Celeron 2.8 GHz does not seem to be cutting the mustard. I tried turning on XVMC, selected the "Bob" algorithm and restarted the X server (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace), but it does not help my poor picture. (horizontal lines, tearing on the edges, etc) The antenna seems to be pulling in some very strong signals. When I was scanning for stations, it routinely was posting signal strengths in the 90's. I'm about 25-26 miles from the transmitters and I have a feeling I'll be very pleased once I get some more horsepower into my box.

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Xsecrets
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:30 am 
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Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2003 10:38 am
Posts: 4978
Location: Nashville, TN
if your set supports it I highly recommend 1080i modeline (unfortunately you have to go back to 6629 drivers for this right now) as when I was using that it eliminated any need to use deinterlace.

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mihanson
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:17 am 
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Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 3:50 pm
Posts: 1013
Location: Los Angeles
Thanks Xsecrets. This is my modeline section of XF86Config-4:
Code:
Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
#       Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
        Option "TVStandard" "NTSC-M"
#       Option "TVOutFormat" "HD1080p"
#       Option "TVOverScan" "0.9"
        Option "NoLogo" "1"
        VendorName      "Westinghouse"
        ModelName       "LVM-37w1"
        HorizSync 30 - 80 # DDC-probed
        VertRefresh 60 # DDC-probed
        #DisplaySize 203 153 # 100 DPI @ 800x600
        #DisplaySize 271 203  #  75 DPI @ 800x600
        #DisplaySize 535 415 # Real measurements
   # The "magic" modelines from http://xtiming.sourceforge.net
   # Modeline "1920x1080@60" 182.28 1920 1952 2640 2672 1080 1102 1113 1135
   # hfreq: 68.21 kHz
   # Modeline "1280x1024@60" 114.98 1280 1312 1744 1776 1024 1045 1055 1076
   # hfreq: 64.73 kHz
   # Modeline "1280x768@60" 79.75 1280 1312 1608 1640 768 783 791 807
   # hfreq: 48.62 kHz
   # Modeline "1024x768@60" 64.56 1024 1056 1296 1328 768 783 791 807
   # hfreq: 48.61 kHz
     Modeline "800x600@60" 38.21 800 832 976 1008 600 612 618 631
   # hfreq: 37.9 kHz
     Modeline "640x480@60" 24.11 640 672 760 792 480 490 495 505
   # hfreq: 30.43 kHz

# The following modelines are taken from http://www.linuxis.us/linux/media/howto/linux-htpc/video_card_configuration.html
   ModeLine "ATSC-480-59.94i" 11.958 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 Interlace
   ModeLine "ATSC-480-60i" 11.97 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 Interlace
   ModeLine "ATSC-480-59.94p" 23.916 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525
   ModeLine "ATSC-480-60p" 23.94 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525
   ModeLine "ATSC-480a-59.94i" 11.958 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 Interlace
   ModeLine "ATSC-480a-60i" 11.97 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525 Interlace
   ModeLine "ATSC-480a-59.94p" 23.916 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525
   ModeLine "ATSC-480a-60p" 23.94 640 664 736 760 480 484 492 525
   ModeLine "ATSC-720-59.94p" 74.176 1280 1320 1376 1650 720 722 728 750
   ModeLine "ATSC-720-60p" 74.25 1280 1320 1376 1650 720 722 728 750
   ModeLine "ATSC-1080-59.94i" 74.176 1920 1960 2016 2200 1080 1082 1088 1125 Interlace
   ModeLine "ATSC-1080-60i" 74.25 1920 1960 2016 2200 1080 1082 1088 1125 Interlace
#   ModeLine "ATSC-1080-59.94p" 148.352 1920 1960 2016 2200 1080 1082 1088 1125
#   ModeLine "ATSC-1080-60p" 148.5 1920 1960 2016 2200 1080 1082 1088 1125

My monitor does not support the 1080p (hence, it's commented out), but does support 1080i. I suppose I could clean this code up a bit, but it works as is. I'm now using Knoppmyth R5A26 and it seems to check for for the 7174 (?) version of the NVIDIA drivers at each boot. Do I need to disable that somehow to be able to use the 6629 drivers?

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