i just picked up a Digital Stream digital video tuner from RS for the CRT unit in the garage. i discovered that i also need an antenna. i had hoped that hooking to the former cable feed would be enough of an 'antenna', but it ain't finding nuthin'. what have you guys found is the best indoor antenna? seems like there is a wide variety of opinion out there....

If that cable feed was your local friendly CATV service, they use a different DTV transmission standard than that used for over-the-air DTV broadcasters. So it's not surprising that it didn't find nuthin.

Over the air DTV tends to work better if you have a directional antenna, indoors that's feasible only for UHF. Otherwise, for VHF DTV, you may need a rooftop antenna, as indoor antennas would just be the same as old fashioned rabbit ears (but DTV tends to be fussy to receive with such).

This is the famous DIY antenna (coat hangers and a piece of wood) for reception of digital tv stations.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2045777&postcount=13

I use it for an old Trinitron in my garage and it works great. I get about 25 digital stations and I'm 30 miles west of Chicago. I put about 10 feet of coax cable between the antenna and the digital conversion box so I can set the antenna outside the front garage door during the summer when I have the door open, but it works very well inside, too.

By the way, those indoor antennas they now sell that sit on the TV and you plug them in, the reception on these is terrible, the DIY antenna above works way better.

Cheers, Snade

This is the famous DIY antenna (coat hangers and a piece of wood) for reception of digital tv stations.

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showpost.php?p=2045777&postcount=13

I use it for an old Trinitron in my garage and it works great. I get about 25 digital stations and I'm 30 miles west of Chicago. I put about 10 feet of coax cable between the antenna and the digital conversion box so I can set the antenna outside the front garage door during the summer when I have the door open, but it works very well inside, too.

By the way, those indoor antennas they now sell that sit on the TV and you plug them in, the reception on these is terrible, the DIY antenna above works way better.

Cheers, Snade


Excellent!!!! :thmbsp: You just helped me with my decision on finding a "GOOD" digital antenna in preparation for next year.

ah, the riches to be found in that shining virtual city on the hill--AK!! i will proceed forthwith to create snade's/pmsummers' hand made version.

snade-- i compliment you on your choice of olympic events to grab a screen shot of-- olympic swimming this summer was mind bending

Read this post (if you missed it):

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=170137&page=2

before you proceed forthwith...

A reflector adds enough value to be worth the extra time.

I am not using the best antenna(amplified rabbit ears), but these work fine (in good weather) as I am only 30 miles from the transmitter. I am sure that the directional antenna mentioned below would work better at longer distances.

However, I have found that if something metal(like my shop garage type door)is between the transmitter and receiver, this can cause pretty good reception issues. I have no reason to expect this would not to be the case. This would indicate that if you live in a building with a metal frame, you may have issues. For some reason, analog NTSC does not seem to have this issue at a distance of 30 miles-possibly due to the present difference in transmitted power levels.