cutting the TV cord

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Feb 23, 2016 6:26 pm

so someone run through a basic set of either a roku, fire or sling TV setup. Like I said, going to ditch AT&T in favor of TW highspeed internet. In regard to my current setup, have a 4 year old plasma non-smart TV. I can run netflix, amazon and so on via my xbox 360 and wireless connect.

How would I set up a TV alternative? Is it possible to have something like a Tivo/DVR intermixed for recording and pause/playback? I've become addicted to a DVR and being able to kill commercials is priceless... Also have 3 other TV's w/ STB that can ping the DVR for content. What's my option for viewing options on the other TV's?

Roger McDaniels · **Posted:** Tue Feb 23, 2016 6:50 pm

Tivo Roamio OTA with Tivo Minis? Get broadcast TV, all the subscription services, and all the Tivo features, with a Mini for each of your other TV's that pulls from the main Tivo. That's basically what I use, except I use the cable version instead of the OTA version.

Michael Czeiszperger · **Joined:** Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:35 am **Posts:** 861

RodneyWright wrote:

so someone run through a basic set of either a roku, fire or sling TV setup. Like I said, going to ditch AT&T in favor of TW highspeed internet. In regard to my current setup, have a 4 year old plasma non-smart TV. I can run netflix, amazon and so on via my xbox 360 and wireless connect.

How would I set up a TV alternative? Is it possible to have something like a Tivo/DVR intermixed for recording and pause/playback? I've become addicted to a DVR and being able to kill commercials is priceless... Also have 3 other TV's w/ STB that can ping the DVR for content. What's my option for viewing options on the other TV's?

They all have their pros and cons, but the new stuff doesn't follow the broadcast paradigm; its all on demand so its all recorded. Netflix doesn't have any commercials and is so cheap at $9/month that you don't complain too much that all of the shows are a year old.

http://www.cnet.com/news/chromecast-vs- ... d-you-buy/

The exception is SlingTV, which is also broadcast.

The rumor is Apple has been negotiating a SlingTV-like service for years, but who knows? I recommend going with whatever eco-system you feel comfortable with.

Jason Tower · **Joined:** Wed Jun 11, 2008 3:31 pm **Posts:** 1173

rodney i have an older roku that you're welcome to borrow (or keep, what do i care at this point).

Cash Davidson · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2016 8:36 am

Others have pointed out my cheapness - and geekyness, so here's what I have.

I plotted the distance and bearing to TV towers from my house:
ABC, NBC, CBS - about 25mi south
PBS - about 40mi west
CW, ION - about 25 east.

I selected three different antennae & have them permanently pole-mounted in my attic (I have a big walkup attic). I have them each carefully aimed at each tower site for best reception (1deg makes a big difference). I run each antenna output into a signal combiner and thru a pre-amp - then out to three TV locations in the house. I get crystal clear HD channels regardless of weather.
PBS - 4.1, 4.2, 4.3
CBS - 5.1, 5.2
ABC - 11.1, 11.2, 11.3
NBC - 17.1, 17.2
CW - 22
28
Church - 30.1, 30.2, 30.3
Ion - 47.1, 47.2, 47.3, 47.4, 47.5
Fox - 50.1, 50.2
and a couple others

Lessons learned:
You want dedicated antennae - you don't want one of those motors that spins a single antenna. They are not repeatable.
You want them in the attic so they aren't affected by wind, ice, etc.
You'll have to upsize the antennae to account for signal loss thru the roof structure. My largest antenna (pointed to PBS) has an 8foot boom. You need plenty of room.
You'll need power at the antennae for the pre-amp.

Beyond this setup, I have CenturyLink DSL and Amazon Prime for streaming.

Cash

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2016 9:47 am

Cash, the engineer in you never ceases to amaze me... My attack is full of crap, so it may be tough setting that up, but I do have a little height in the attack where nothing is stored, so there is that. So where did you get the tower info from?

Cash Davidson · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:33 am

Someone else already posted it: http://antennaweb.org/
Click the "Start Here" button. Enter your address. Check the box that indicates you plan to install your antenna over 30feet high - this will give you all the towers you could conceivably receive. It will plot your location and give you bearing & distance to the towers. It will also recommend antenna type - this is the wildcard. There are lots of variables to selecting an antenna - distance, terrain, obstructions, etc.

Here's the map it plots of my house - notice it doesn't include the PBS tower in Chapel Hill - it underestimates my genius!

Lots to study - check it out.

Cash

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:42 am

Fair warning about Sling TV, it does get sensitive to crappy wireless routers since it's a live stream there is almost no buffer.

So I would recommend if anybody wants to use it make sure your router is mostly decent. My $18 Rosewill is not working too well with it, it must not be too happy with the packets per second and I have to reset it pretty often.

Cash Davidson · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:45 am

You can zoom into the map and drag/drop your antenna location. If I move mine to the highest point on my property and assume a 30' mounting height, it gives me this:

Cash Davidson · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2016 10:56 am

Oh, and I have countless hours invested but less than $300. I bought most of my stuff from http://www.solidsignal.com/. Great vendor with an informative site. Mine has been up and running for over 5yrs.

Cash

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2016 11:00 am

thanks for all of the info. Come to think of it, I have a TON of room in the attack itself, so no issues going large w/ a pole mount. Only issue is it's a PITA to get to. Might need to my Cash hat on and fab up some access steps. I'll need an education on how you routed all the antenna into the single receiver.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2016 2:56 pm

So Cash, looking at all of the vectors you have from source antennas, how did you configure 3 receiving antenna to capture the signals? Looks like my map has 4 primary locations, so I think I could 3 antennas to get away w/ what I need.

Cash Davidson · **Posted:** Wed Feb 24, 2016 3:47 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

So Cash, looking at all of the vectors you have from source antennas, how did you configure 3 receiving antenna to capture the signals? Looks like my map has 4 primary locations, so I think I could 3 antennas to get away w/ what I need.

I looked at the channels that the towers carried and picked the ones I wanted. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox & RDC28 are all on the Clayton towers and are close enough together I was able to get them all with one antenna. Then I have one antenna pointed to the PBS tower in Chapel Hill. The last one is pointed to the CW & ION tower in Franklin Co. Some of the vectors shown are duplicate broadcasters - just further away like PBS & NBC out of Greenville. The towers I passed on are Trinity TV, HSN, Univision, Indy & Religion. There's no reason you couldn't add more antennae to get ALL the channels in your area.

You do have to pay attention - over the years I've had channels lost or suddenly show up. Its because sometimes broadcasters will switch towers. CW used to be on the Franklin Co tower; now its in Clayton.

Clearly I have spent way to much time on this. :lol:

Cash

Andrew Jonell · **Joined:** Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:43 pm **Posts:** 1350

Cash Davidson wrote:

RodneyWright wrote:

So Cash, looking at all of the vectors you have from source antennas, how did you configure 3 receiving antenna to capture the signals? Looks like my map has 4 primary locations, so I think I could 3 antennas to get away w/ what I need.

I looked at the channels that the towers carried and picked the ones I wanted. ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox & RDC28 are all on the Clayton towers and are close enough together I was able to get them all with one antenna. Then I have one antenna pointed to the PBS tower in Chapel Hill. The last one is pointed to the CW & ION tower in Franklin Co. Some of the vectors shown are duplicate broadcasters - just further away like PBS & NBC out of Greenville. The towers I passed on are Trinity TV, HSN, Univision, Indy & Religion. There's no reason you couldn't add more antennae to get ALL the channels in your area.

You do have to pay attention - over the years I've had channels lost or suddenly show up. Its because sometimes broadcasters will switch towers. CW used to be on the Franklin Co tower; now its in Clayton.

Clearly I have spent way to much time on this. :lol:

Cash

Except you did like a few hours worth of research and you don't have a $50/month bill to account for. Seems like a decent ROI.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Sat Feb 27, 2016 2:21 pm

Cash, did you buy some kind of signal meter to help aim the antennas?

Here's my situation...my barn sits up on a hill with pretty good line of sight for DirecTV. My house is about 200' away (which ends up being close to 300' of RG-11 with overhead), but in a more heavily wooded lower area with NOWHERE to put a dish that's usable. All buildings have metal roofing and almost no attic space, so internal antennas are impossible. You can see the back of the barn with satellite dishes and some old OTA antenna stuff no longer being used:

Many many years ago we engineered a solution of multiple RG-11 cables to get me satellite signal along with OTA signal from the barn to my house. With lightning strikes and various re-engineers we ultimately dropped OTA support. Recently I learned a LOT more about DTV distribution and reconfigured my satellite system to DSWM which got me my satellite over ONE RG-11 pull, leaving several more pieces of RG-11 free. And I have that antenna pole up there. I've thought about adding back some HD OTA support.

I know I can't diplex on the SWM stuff, but I do have a second coax to each DTV receiver location because in the old days you needed two for dual tuner stuff. And I have nice distribution where it all happens in my house. And I have spare RG-11's between the barn and the house. I'd just need to get antenna(s) for the pole for whatever I wanted, combiners for those antennas, and then an amp to send the signal that far, and then a splitter (need three way) in the house.

Anyone know of any sites that would help me spec the combiner, amplifier, and splitter? One "special" consideration is lightning. We've been in MUCH better shape once we stopped having ANY equipment connected via copper between two buildings that needed grounding on BOTH ends. For DTV, for example, I have a power injector in the house that feeds DC power up the RG-11. In the barn is the amplifier, which is powered by that PI and also passes power up the RG6 to the LNB on the dish. We took great care not to have any of the dish mounting touching the roof or any other metal. Then it's signal goes into that amp and down the RG-11 with nothing being grounded at the barn. Once the signal gets to the house it hits the PI and then into surge suppression and DC blocking and then to the green-label SWM splitter (all of which are well grounded on the house end). I'd *like* to keep that kind of separation if I were to do OTA stuff. Which would mean the amp is in the house OR the amp would have to be powered up the line from the house. I'm not sure that's "a thing" when it comes to these kind of amps. It's obviously better to amplify a good signal DOWN a wire, than to pick up a weak signal off a wire and then amplify it (thus the reason for the amp needing to be at the barn). But if the amp has to be plugged into power directly, well, then the amp is getting a ground. So, suggestions here are welcome. I know, I'm an edge case. *sigh*

And if anyone needs info about sending DTV over longer distances, I'm your guy.

--Donnie

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