[JonCiccarone]

Hello all,
I'm planning on purchasing and installing an HDTV Antenna to replace our Comcast subscription (which has risen to $225 per month!!). Probably going to get either Fairpoint or Verizon for Internet and phone.
I'm going to purchase a roof mounted antenna since this will be best for my location.
I'm torn between two companies, Clearstream and Channel Master. Both seem to make good outdoor antennas at relatively the same price.
What are the pros and cons of both?
Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
JC

 

[ddawg16]

First off, there is no such thing as a HDTV or Digital TV antenna.

If you have an old UHF antenna laying around, it will work just fine.

I would suggest going here for some good info

http://www.antennaweb.org/

As for which one is best? Look at the gain. The higher the gain, the better.

And....one of the keys to getting a good signal is good coax. RG6 is the norm now. And doing the connectors correctly. That is where most people make the mistakes.

And if you need more than 2 connections, look into getting an amp. A 2-way splitter cuts the signal in half to each TV. If you go more splitters....the signal level drops real fast....4-way = 1/4 of the signal...etc.

 

[JonCiccarone]

First off, there is no such thing as a HDTV or Digital TV antenna.

If you have an old UHF antenna laying around, it will work just fine.

I would suggest going here for some good info

http://www.antennaweb.org/

As for which one is best? Look at the gain. The higher the gain, the better.

And....one of the keys to getting a good signal is good coax. RG6 is the norm now. And doing the connectors correctly. That is where most people make the mistakes.

And if you need more than 2 connections, look into getting an amp. A 2-way splitter cuts the signal in half to each TV. If you go more splitters....the signal level drops real fast....4-way = 1/4 of the signal...etc.

Thanks for your quick reply!
I ended up going wth the Clearstream 2V Antenna, picked it up at my local Best Buy.

My next question:
My current coax cable setup is in the basement, where the cable company's line comes in, then it's hooked up to an amplifier, and then split 6 times to different rooms of the house. My hope is to disconnect the cable companies line from the amplifier/splitter, disconnect the line from the splitter that goes to the modem for Internet (I'm keeping subscription for Internet), connect the cable companies line directly to the modem cable, and then connect the antenna cable to the amplifier/8 way splitter to send signal to the rest of the rooms in the house.

Will this setup work? Do you see any flaws in my plan?
Will the antenna signal still be strong enough after being split 5 times, even with an amplifier? Antenna cable has to go from roof to basement setup, probably about 30-40 feet. Purchased 50 feet of quad shield coax.

Thanks again!
JC

 

[ddawg16]

JC....you have the right approach. That is basically what I'm doing.

The amp is there because you are feeding so many TV's.

Your cable modem will work just fine with the Cable Co's coax connected to it.

The antenna will then connect to the Amp's input where the Cable Co 'did' connect.

You will need that Amp.

Your setup sounds fairly 'recent', so the chances are all of your coax is already RG6. If so, don't change anything.