What to buy and reception questions

[honavery]

Just bought an HDTV a few weeks ago. Been picking the channels up OTA using an old set of rabbit ears. The channels come in sometimes, but the reception can be spotty (a car drives by and it goes out) and sometimes it is difficult to get in at all. I'm open to buying a new indoor antenna, but I would like to get some sort of advice on what to buy. Any suggestions would be great. I live on the West side of German village in a townhouse. I figured being this close to downtown I would have no problems, but that hasn't quite been the case.

Thanks for any help.

[rossl]

If you can get a Channel Master 4221 up in your attic, that would probably give you all you need.

[festivus]

If you don't want to mess with putting somthing in the attic and running another coax through the house you can get a good set top antenna. I live north of powell and have no issues with locals using a Terk HDTVi. I got it at Circuit City over a year ago for $40-50. You could probably get one online cheaper. It has a UHF antenna which looks like a flattened, horizontal tree. It also has VHF dipoles. Lets you get wsyx better. Point the tree at the majority of the towers (Northwest? depending on your exact location) and extend the dipoles into a big, 90 degree V. Make sure that the UHF "tree" is inserted all the way into the base. I think that you'll be satisfied with its performance, especially since you're so close. You may have to rotate it though depending on the station.

One note. All receivers are not created equal. My reception with my vip 622 is a bit better than what I had with my samsung ota receiver. I get no drops (under normal conditions) with the vip 622 but got a hiccup now and then with the samsung.

[honavery]

Cool, that Terk sounds like a good option I will give it a shot. I'm renting so I don't think I can do an attic thing.

What do you mean by receivers? The TV I have has an ASTC tuner inside of it, so I don't heed a receiver right?

[festivus]

My TV doesn't have a built-in digital tuner. It's about 4-5 years old. So I need to use a separate receiver. If yours is built in to the TV then you're right, you don't need a receiver.

One more note about the Terk. It's not tiny. The UHF tree is about a foot long, the base is a little less than a foot high, and the dipoles can be extended 3 or 4 feet if necessary. I think it looks cool but my wife doesn't.

[jpdublin]

Yes, the TERK is a good way to go, I have a TERK in my basement and get NBC, ABC, CBS, & FOX, I however can't pick-up CW (or whatever its name is these days).

[Dbailey]

i also have the channel master, it is the antenna i recommend to anyone who asks, i have 2 of them... 1 in the attic and 1 outside(dont ask). Both work great. If you have a dish you might be able to diplex the signal through existing satelite cable(rg6), that is what i am doing from the outside. Get it from solidsignal.com, they have best prices and great service.

[honavery]

So I did go with the Terk, and it works much better than what I was using before. Thanks for the recommendation. I still have to mess with it on occassion, but overall I am pleased. Plus I put it right next to the couch so I don't have to move to adjust it! That being said Fox is the only channel that comes in 100% of the time. PBS is still sketchy, but that was expected. I don't really get 51, but don't care, and the CW is shaky at times. NBC, ABC, and CBS are good about 90% of the time, and are easily attainable with small adjustments usually. I think the tuner on my TV might be especially sensitive to signal drops. I was wondering if "amping" the signal up with something might help? I don't even know where to begin with that though.