Question regarding OTA antenna for HDTV

[ndimuzio]

Hello,
I am new to this so please bear with me. I live in Fairfield County, CT.. am using DirecTV with a small Terk Sat dish mounted antenna which is not really working well at all. I was planning on purchasing a Channel Master 3019 VHF/UHF/FM antenna to mount on my chimney, but I just want to understand what I need to do with it. My Terk antenna was installed by the DirecTV guys, it has a ton of outputs on it(i dont know why, maybe 8?) and each TV has a wire coming down for off air which goes into a spliter and is then maybe into two wires which go into the off-air and sat in on the recievers. (what is the two wires to the spliter on each TV for?) I am very confused.

 

[hancox]

Being from Fairfield County myself, should be able to help

The dish-mounted Terks are notoriously bad, even in better places than CT. Our county has the unlucky placement of being between 2 markets (NY and Hartford). Depending on where you are, WTNH-DT is probably the first one to test with, as it's a nice strong VHF signal that's accessable from most of the county.

As for your outputs on the antenna, as I remember, these antennas have a built in diplexer, which combines the sat frequncies and the OTA signal on one coax line. The "splitter" near your TV will uncombine the frequencies.

The CM3019 will be a big upgrade to your existing setup. I would suggest also getting a rotor, as this will prove helpful in pulling in NY and CT stations.

I can also point you to some sites to help you out - let me know...

 

[ndimuzio]

Hey, thanks for your quick response! I am planning on getting a rotor as well, so do I need to combine my signal with the Sat signal? Im confused. I have a HD Tivo and dont want to loose my duel tuner ability, please explain!

Thanks!

 

[hancox]

OK - now I see what your problem might be.

AFAIK, the HD Tivo has 3 coax inputs. 2 for the Sat, 1 for OTA. The Tivo then splits the OTA internally to provide a 2nd tuner. I would bet the diplexer on the terk is muffing this.

If at all possible, I would have 3 coax lines running in, without any diplexers. This will give you maximum OTA signal (you lose some in the process of combining the signals).

Honestly, I'll have to read up on how the HD Tivo plays with diplexers, I'm not sure how it reacts.

 

[hancox]

Here's something I found with HD Tivo's and diplexing - a good read, and good info...

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=211920&highlight=diplex

 

[ndimuzio]

Okay, but there is only two wires running down.. basically I would disconnect the current antenna, run the two wires from my dish to the tivo and run another wire from my new antenna to the tivo OTA port?

 

[hancox]

Yep. The diplexer is being used to combine/discombine the OTA onto one of the sat cables. You can continue to do this (using a different set of diplexers, as the CM won't come with them), at the expense of some signal strength. If you were in a better OTA area, it wouldn't make a difference. But for us in SW CT, I wouldn't take any chances.

 

[ndimuzio]

So what should I do exactly? (I swear im not stupid, this is all just new to me)

I want as many HD channels as possible, I need to Sat in's for the TIVO and I want to use my new antenna.

 

[hancox]

No problem, OTA is an "art" at best. The inputs on the HD Tivo don't make it any less confusing.

Best scenario: Drill one more cable through. Total of 3 coming into the house. 2 will be coming from either your multiswitch or the dish itself, depending on your setup (don't worry - this shouldn't be a change from your current setup, you're just taking the diplexer and OTA out of play). The other coax goes straight from your CM antenna to the HD Tivo's antenna in. The HD Tivo internally splits this, giving you 2 OTA tuners, along with the 2 sat tuners.

Other scenario: Buy 2 diplexers (you can call Claude at dishstore.net if you need them), and run the CM coax into one of them, combining one of the satellite runs into it. This will go down into the room where your TV is, where the other diplexer will split them off, and you'll run one into the Sat in, and one into the antenna in.