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Are bigger TV antennas better?

  • Articolo

I recently moved to a new house that doesn't get very good TV (or radio) reception. I have been living with an old set of "bunny ear" antenna for a while, but that is just not cutting it here. I went to RadioShack and got the biggest "indoor" antenna they sell , but it is only marginally better. I really only watch 1-2 hours of TV a week, so I don't want to spent a fortune on this, and I especially don't want to pay a monthly fee to the cable folks...

 

So what are my options?

1. Get a bigger "outdoor" antenna and mount on roof (ugly, hard)

2. Get a bigger "outdoor" antenna and mount inside (would that work?)

3. Give up my last 1-2 hours of TV a week and blog instead?

4. Wait for them to start streaming TV over the web like they do radio...

5. other ideas?

 

thanks

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2004
    Antenna design is somewhat of a black art and bigger does not necessarily mean better. the only thing I can really recommend is to try different antennas and see if you get better results. You could also try getting a signal booster/amplifier (e.g. http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F003%5F010%5F001%5F000&product%5Fid=15%2D1170)

    Other than that, an outdoor antenna will outperform an indoor one almost any day of the week, you can mount them inside your roof, if there's enough room, which'll at least mean there's not a big ugly antenna on your roof.

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2004
    Either blog more (you're not missing anything), or go watch it at a friend's house.We actually wait till shows come out on dvd (full season) and get it through netflix .

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2004
    Either blog more (you're not missing anything), or go watch it at a friend's house.We actually wait till shows come out on dvd (full season) and get it through netflix .

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2004

    1. BitTorrent.

    2. An attic-mounted external antenna. Use "www.antennaweb.org" to figure out how to aim it best for your area.

    3. A PC-based HDTV tuner (like the FusionHDTV3) combined with (2) above.

    4. Once you have good reception, get a ReplayTV or TiVo. Something about actually having something interesting to watch will solve your lack of TV-watching skills. ;)

    5. DISH Network is cheaper than most cable packages.

    6. Most cable providers have a "basic basic" service < $15/mo that will get you clean local feeds and a few extra channels. I have mine bundled with RoadRunner service.

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2004
    Check out www.tvoon.de/ctv

    haven't seen the site myself, but I just read a blurb in the newspaper about this: P2P applied to PayTV. You can search online for currently streamed shows (provided by users with PayTV) and join the fun!

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2004
    Its all about placement Brad. The design plays into it somewhat, but a giant arrow looking TV antenna can get worse reception than a little pair of rabbit ears on the TV is not placed and positioned correctly. I would play around with the direction and positioning of the antenna before putting more effort into purchasing a new one or looking for other alternatives.

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2004
    Clearly blog more.

    If you blog an additional 1-2 hours per day, the average competence of .net developers around the world would increase markedly.


    Mounting inside can work great. But as others have pointed out, reception from an antenna is all about three things; location, location, location. (Or placement and orientation.)

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2004
    http://www.tvtorrents.net/

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2004
    I bought a decent sized external antenna from Fry's Electronics for about $35. I opened it up and just set it on top of the insulation in my attic pointed in the general direction of the TV broadcast antennas in my area. The reception isn't perfect but it's FAR better than the amplified rabit ears I was using. Since I didn't actually mount the antenna the installation was incredibly easy. One of these days I'm going to go back up in the attic and aim it a bit - maybe suspend it from the trusses using rope or prop it up on something.

    It was $35 well spent. Now BeyondTV gets good enough reception to archive the shows I like.

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2004
    http://www.tvtorrents.net/ ++

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2004
    Blog more there's almost nothing on the TV anyway.

  • Anonymous
    November 18, 2004
    http://www.the-realworld.de/index.php

  • Anonymous
    November 19, 2004
    The comment has been removed

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