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Need Digital TV Antenna Advice ASAP — Brooklynian

Need Digital TV Antenna Advice ASAP

jazzomine
jazzomine
edited November -1 in Prospect Heights
OK, so I have about ten people and $100 worth of groceries arriving for the Oscars tonight and Cablevision and ABC failed to reach an agreement, leaving me with a problem. Looks like I need to get a digital television antenna STAT. Anyone got any advice on what to look for, where I can get one, how much I need to spend for something that works? And, if you have one to loan me, I promise to return it tomorrow along with a nice portion of the short rib chili I'm making for the occasion. Thanks!
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Comments

  • MOD
    MOD
    I bought mine at PC Richards and Sons on Atlantic (across from the Target/Atlantic Station). It was around $70 but at that time I had a govmt coupon so it was cheap for me. It a Zenith brand, there might be a cheaper one, but the sales reps will walk you through it.
  • mantic
    mantic
    Get a bunch of coat hangers, a piece of wood, a handfull of screws, ruler, wire cutter and a screwdriver. Google Coat Hanger Antennae and get busy.

    I've made a half dozen in the last year for neighbors. Works like a charm.
  • jazzomine
    jazzomine
    Appreciate the advice. Not so thrilled with spending $50 or more, but I suspect the DIY solution may not work for me. My TV is more than ten years old and definitely not digital. (In fact, it has a curved screen.) Haven't all signals gone digital at this point?
  • MOD
    MOD
    yup all digital, sucks
  • tybur6
    tybur6
    Yeah... it's all digital now. So you need a converter box. (As an aside, I ordered one of those vouchers for my mom -- two times. Never got one! Bastards. Luckily my brother bought her a new TV, so it worked out.)

    That being said. To get the basic channels, they have strong signals. So regular ol' bunny ears would probably work AOK. The better antennas help you pick up lots of other channels.

    But, it's all moot without a digital converter box. :(
  • squindar
    squindar
    If your TV is so old that it doesn't have a digital tuner (which sounds likely), you need not just an antenna but a converter box (which is an external digital tuner)

    once you get the antenna and converter box hooked up, look for a menu setting in the tuner that shows you signal strength. Select that and then move the antenna around until you get the strongest signal you can.

    I've got this antenna, it works ok for me:
    http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3611256
  • tybur6
    tybur6
    But like I just said in a newer post about this...

    I find it hard to believe that the Oscar's advertisers are going to allow tens of thousands of viewers to not watch their ads!!
  • ltjbukem
    ltjbukem
    buy a cable to hook up your laptop to the tv and watch it via hulu.com
  • mantic
    mantic
    If you happen to have a VCR laying around with a digital tuner, you can try that in lieu of a converter box connected to an analog TV.
  • rezist
    rezist
    I was also going to suggest the coat hanger antenna. More importantly can we have your recipe for the chili?

    You could try Target they have a $50 dollar digital converter box and antennas as low as $15.
  • filhelsel
    filhelsel

    Subject: Screwed by Cablevision

    Not trying to trawl message boards here (I live on Sterling in Prospect Heights), but I work at the NY Post and we're doing a story on Brooklynites screwed for tonight's Oscars.

    Anyone suddenly left without a way to watch it, would you mind giving us a call for the story, or if you just want to give your opinion on the Cablevision impasse?

    Thanks!
    Cathy Burke
    212 930 8546
  • emily
    emily
    Hmmm. Wouldn't you then know that it's called Sterling Place? (Is there a Sterling Ave. in Brooklyn at all?)

    Good luck with your story and all, I'm just a geography buff.
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    Emily wrote: Hmmm. Wouldn't you then know that it's called Sterling Place? (Is there a Sterling Ave. in Brooklyn at all?)

    Good luck with your story and all, I'm just a geography buff.
    It's the NY Post. They're not sticklers about details and facts and stuff. :lol:
  • tybur6
    tybur6
    play nice...
  • toadette
    toadette
    We got this one during an outage from Target on Atlantic for $30 and were happy with it - http://tinyurl.com/yfpjgbc I figured getting something that amplifies the signal was important, hence getting this one and not the cheaper ones.

    And, er, there is nothing in the packaging that seals shut, so if you buy it and decide you don't need to keep it... Well, let's just say there's a reason I'm not offering to loan you mine.

    One thing is that we found it worked better near a window as opposed to near the tv (because when people would walk in front of it the picture would flicker), so you might also want to get a long coax cable to set it up that way. We just got a coax from the dollar store, worked fine.
  • idlewild
    idlewild
    If you have a digi TV you can take the cable wire from your box and plug it directly into your coaxial input on your tv. From what I understand all standard channels must go through the wire but are filtered by the box.
  • idlewild
    idlewild
    Or you could try a splitter if you have extra coaxial cable.
  • jeffrey
    jeffrey
    ^ requires cablecard to decode signal from Cablevision cable server...which is in the set-top box ('natch).
  • apophis36
    apophis36
    Idlewild wrote: If you have a digi TV you can take the cable wire from your box and plug it directly into your coaxial input on your tv. From what I understand all standard channels must go through the wire but are filtered by the box.
    I don't think this would work...ABC is probably being filtered at the head end? (ie the signal never reaches people's home)...You could probably see every other free channel (ie NBC, CBS, PIX, WNET, etc) if you did this though...
  • jeffrey
    jeffrey
    Yeah, what I read is that ABC has changed it's signal to Cablevision to display a pro-consumer screed message against Cablevision.

    And Cablevision, for it's part, has substituted in their own version of a pro-consumer screed message in its place.
  • bkhoosierfan
    bkhoosierfan
    if your desperate to find an online feed of ABC to watch the Oscars try downloading the TVUplayer from Cnet.com and search for "A B C" channel
  • MOD
    MOD
    So did you get yourself set up?? The pre-Oscar red carpet show is starting
  • idlewild
    idlewild
    I just picked up a digi antenna for my TV. A weird ass looking Terk to be more specific. Pretty retro.
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    It's streaming live here:

    http://www.livestream.com/aplive


    You can even watch it full screen.
  • raisedeyebrow
    raisedeyebrow
    $25 antennae works perfectly. Radioshack!
  • jeffrey
    jeffrey
    Cross-post:

    Streaming the Oscars full-screen, live over the internet:

    http://veetle.com
  • mougar
    mougar
    ABC is back on cablevision!
  • carnivore
    carnivore
    It's back on on Cablevision.
  • jeffrey
    jeffrey
    Woo-hah!

    Veetle.com stream was pretty darn crisp, tho.
  • filhelsel
    filhelsel
    Yo carnivore, I'm just helping another writer out. You caught me, I got my own street wrong. Way to go
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