I know antennas have been discussed here in the past. Specifically, homemade ones in the attic.

I live in a small town that's about an hour outside of New York City. Based on this, you would think I could get great access to tons of over the air programming. Unfortunately, any sort of small indoor antenna I've tested with yeilded NO signal. None!

This could be because I'm in a bit of a valley, but I really think I should at least get something. Check out this map from antennaweb.org:



These are the results for my street with installing the antenna above 30' from ground level selected. These stations are nothing I'm interested in, and they're at the "violet" level when only ~35 miles away. Most broadcast TV stations in NY come off the Empire State Building, or a tower in Alpine NJ which are both at a shorter distance than 37 miles. So why wouldn't antennaweb think I could get those with a violet antenna?

So, then I see these big antennas on Amazon. Some of the commenters are talking about receiving stations over 100 miles away with these.

Is there anyone here with a big antenna in their attic that happens to live in a valley? Can anyone comment on what it would take to get me off cable TV? I have access to an attic with power. It's above the 3rd story of this building. It seems like I could make something work here.

You could try putting whatever antenna you have up there to see if it improves things as a test.

Does your attic have a radiant heat barrier (i.e., sheets of foil below the roof)? These have the unfortunate side-effect of attenuating TV and cellular phone reception. Putting an old fashioned monster antenna on a pole above your roof might make a world of difference.

There is no foil on the roof.

I live in a condo, so I'm fortunate that I actually have access to the attic. Putting something on a pole on the roof is out of the question.

The only barrier I can possibly see in the attic (other than the roof and asphalt shingles) is the brick of the exterior wall. I don't believe that would be in my line of sight, though.

I can try sticking a small set-top antenna up there, but I have little hope.

Use this site instead: http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29

On that site, most signals are in the red which seems like a sufficiently powerful antenna could work. I think I might give it a go. Thanks.

Results link

Don't buy any cutesy antenna that doesn't state a gain (in dB) figure...

I think any simple yagi antenna would beat those flat things.

Wait a day until Mark gets back behind the keyboard.

I also like this tool: http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=90

...To see everything overlayed on a map. I always use my actual coordinates as input.

I would think a yagi or two would be a great option since Rob stated that the broadcasters antennas were all located in a couple spots. This one seems to review well.

There are forums off the TVfool website, go on the large side of what they recommend - I didn't, and had one channel come in marginal enough to be un-viewable, but then the OTA tuner on the Tivo Premier isn't the best, the S3 Tivos are better, as are many TVs.

This is my TV Fool output, and with a Channel Master 4221hd, a 4 bay bowie tie style antenna, which sit's outside on the roof of our one story house, it gets us the green and yellow channels. The reds are just a little out of reach, but findable when the weather is right. So you'll want something with more reach that that IMO.

The one JBjorgen linked to is UHF only, though it does have a built in joiner for adding a dedicated VHF. You'd need a VHF that covers high and low frequencies, unless you don't care about WKOB and WPKO, in which case just a VHF-HI will do.

This PDF lists the various categories and suggest suitable antennas for each. A good place to start from.

Good luck!

I'm not big on attic antennas, so not much to offer from me on that front. But the actual tuner being used to receive/decode the DTV broadcast can also make a big difference.

In Rob's case, I fully expect he's got the latest/greatest TV from Brand-X though, so it very likely has a good, modern tuner chip in it.

That one looks good. 12db gain at the end of the band nothing is in, 16db in the center.

My TVs are probably 5-6 years old by now, and I have no plans to upgrade. They're both Sharps, so I would assume the tuner is at least decent.

But, I would definitely be using an external tuner. I have a Ceton InfiniTV4 now, so I would probably just replace it with an HD HomeRun. Or maybe wait and see what's going to happen with this new Boxee Box.

For the love of **** (insert your deity here), don't wait for, nor then rely on Boxee for your TV. That would be a colossal mistake, as development history shows far too much instability and too many regression issues that will drive you nuts for a system that should simply "just work."

Get yourself a SageTV extender and download the last beta server app (no expiration, the same as released version) to use with the HD Home Run or other HD tuner(s).

Google didn't spend a few million on SageTV because it sucks.

Is SageTV + accessories available again now, or just resold units from eBay?

My own experience with three generations of HDHomeRun tuners is that they suck for OTA reception compared with many other tuners out there. The HVR-950Q USB stick tuners are my favourites, but there are some good Hauppauge PCIe tuner boards out there now too, which may be even better.

Cheers

Well, I have two Boxee Boxes. And, for streaming local network content, I think they're pretty nice. I would like to experiment with Plex on Roku though. The main benefit of that would be Roku supports Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime Videos. Boxee doesn't. If I ditch cable, I may have to rely on those types of services.

Also, I have the Ceton card in a Windows Media Center PC. As a DVR, I think it's great and definitely wouldn't mind using WMC with an OTA-only setup. However, I use an Xbox 360 as an extender in my bedroom. The Xbox can do Hulu, Amazon and Netflix but you need an Xbox Live Gold account. I don't get why I should have to pay Microsoft on top of those other services when I'm not a gamer. Linking internet media streaming to an online gaming service subscription is just silly.

At least Boxee would be fee-free.

I also heard that Dish Network might be launching a proper IPTV service. They currently run such a service for their "world" programming with a Roku client. If they can pull-off IPTV with good channels and (hopefully) a la carte subscriptions, I might be interested.

Mark, no it's not back at retail. You have to pick up extenders used. The Sage forum is the best place for that as the prices aren't as crazy as eBay.

If you've already got WMC running, then you can use that. But put it this way... DVR/PVR software is DIFFICULT. Super difficult to design and quite difficult to implement. Everyone that has achieved a stable platform has taken years to do it - at least 5 years of full-time development with at least a handful of engineers.

The Boxee Box software has had over 5 years of development behind it and thousands of beta testers. I (and pretty much everyone in their forum) still consider it below beta level. I don't hold much hope for DVR/PVR from them.

To your WMC system you can add the (slightly delayed) Ceton Echo extender which should be much better than XBOX 360 in every respect for this purpose. I recommended Sage because it's the only thing "available" today that already has proper extenders you can buy/use right now. I'm not a big fan of the XBMC-style newer UI, so I continue to use the older UI. It's a lot more versatile than WMC and can easily handle as many tuners as you want to put in the box. But if you don't cut the cord and want to keep CableCard with your current Ceton box, you'll need to keep using WMC.

Dish seems to be losing channels every day. I keep seeing scrolling messages on Buffalo locals saying they're about to be dropped on Dish. I do love the commercials I've seen for "The Hopper!" though.

If you can connect your WMC system to your TV, you can try SageTV without spending a dime - just install the software. Extenders are anywhere from $150-$300ea on the used market. You can also place-shift using a computer instead of an extender. I just picked up the last extender they released before the Google acquisition - it's only a little bit bigger than my hand. Two decks of playing cards next to each other on the long edge with a few extra cards stacked on top. This one is going in the bedroom.

Have you played with Plex at all, Rob? I'm not saying it isn't a good application [service?], but the experience can vary. I use it on Android (phone, tablet, and Google TV), and it works very well but it pales in comparison to what you get in the Plex app for desktops. The desktop app is gorgeous, using the show's promotional art in the background and even playing the theme music for whatever show you're browsing through at the moment. It looks great and it does all of this automatically.

But on Android (and, I suspect, on a device like the Roku) the experience is very different. The shows just become plain lists. I wouldn't call it unattractive, it's just not the great UI experience I wish it were.

Then again, you've probably seen this and I'm only telling you what you already know

I've never used Plex at all. This video on YouTube of the Roku interface looks similar to the Boxee Box:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8OYjkSyaxU

I'm sure it's crappy compared to the full-blown Plex desktop application, but this looks very workable. I'm interested in checking it out. I'm just going to wait for a hot deal on the Roku XS.

Weird, that actually looks nothing like the desktop OR Android interface Looks like they attempted to tailor the UI more to the Roku interface, which is good of them to do. No, it's definitely nothing like the desktop app, but it was certainly smart of you to get a feel for what it looks like before you go with that solution.

I'm just updating my status regarding "cutting the cord." Aereo became available to residents of the NY metro area rather than just the 5 boroughs of New York City this week. I've been using the service as my only means of live TV for the week and I'm sufficiently pleased. I signed up for the $80 plan which gives me two "tuners" and 40 hours of cloud DVR space for 15 months. I've been using their Roku client, but the service is also accessible from iOS and various web browsers.

So far, I'm very impressed with the image quality and how quickly channels are cached before they start playing. The only thing I'm not so pleased with is you can't simply stream a channel for hours unattended. Once a show ends, your streaming ends. You then need to begin streaming the next program. I can survive like this, but I can imagine it can become a pain when a live program runs over its allotted time slot. I think a better compromise would be streaming for at least 3 hours. If in that timespan, you don't have any activity from remote control presses, then it cuts you off to prevent bandwidth hogging.

The service is new and still undergoing legal battles. Hopefully they can outlast and improve on that one issue. As it is now, I think the price paid is well worth it. I'm very satisfied.

They have plans to expand to more markets, so if anyone is interested in more details, I can answer questions.

Aereo is a ridiculous hack that makes no sense and will most likely be made completely unnecessary in the next 10 years.

Man, I hope they do great.

Barry Diller certainly doesn't seem to be backing down on this, so it'll be interesting to see how the case goes. The expansion certainly makes it seem like they have a positive outlook on their future, so I'll take that as a good sign.

I wonder what they mean by "Washington DC." I'm assuming that I won't count. I'd love to try out their free hour or the day pass.

$80 a month for a digital version of broadcast TV? I can get the broadcast TV plan from my local cable company for $15 and add a DVR receiver for another $12. Does your cable provider have no such plans? Or does Aereo offer more benefits I'm not taking into account.
It's worth noting I'm quoting prices from a city-owned cable provider called Click!. Comcast and other cable companies may not be interested in providing low cost broadcast TV plans.

No. $80 for 15 months = $5.33 per month.