[mythtv-users] Hardware questions

[R. G. Newbury]

Bobby Gill wrote:
> Okay, brace yourselves for the ultimate noobness.. but I've never used/had
> an antenna for TV--  Is the antenna all that's needed to get HD signals? How
> is it setup (in the simplest terms)? Is it used along with a subscription of
> some sort with a provider (bell, rogers. etc.) ?? Like from the start.. say
> I buy the channel master 4221.. what exactly am I doing with it to get from
> A-Z ?
> 
> I just purchased an HVR-1600 from best buy so I can test it with my parents'
> Rogers digital box (30 days to return so I can at least try the setup out
> and see what it would be like).
> 
> Thanks fellas
> Bob
If you are going to put up an antenna, get the 4228 instead of the 4221. 
It's about 1 metre square. You get a 10 or 12' piece of chain link fence 
rail from Home Depot. You get tripod or chimney mounts, and you stick 
the whole thing up over your house. Hosick TV on Jane Street (1800+/-) 
is one source for antenna and mounts. There is another place (name 
escapes me ) on Kingston Road near Port Union for the east end of the GTA.

MAJOR ITEM. Can you reasonably 'see' Buffalo. I am south of Lakeshore 
Road in Lorne Park west of Port Credit and have a straight shot to Grand 
Island. No hills, buildings, trees etc. I have 22 digital channels in my 
Schedules Direct lineup (using zip code 14174). Some are not really 
watchable, since the Toronto transmitters are 86 degrees from where I 
point the antenna and the Hamilton transmitters are about 78 degrees. I 
need another antenna set at 90 degrees to the Buffalo setup.

All free forever for the  sunk cost of less than $200 for the antenna 
and mount, plus the tuner. I use an HDHomerun. Works great and 2 tuners 
in one box. Integrates beautifully with Mythtv. The antenna also feeds 
the LG LCD tv and provides a great picture.

In addition, I still have a Rogers analog cable feed going to a PVR500. 
I use a cheap $15 switch on the input of the TV to switch between the 
antenna feed and the cable feed *to the TV*. Recently I have noticed 
that when I want to watch something in HD 'live' I have been doing so in 
mythtv, since I'm too lazy to get up, cross the room and slide the 
switch! So I am actually watching through the hdhomerun tuner.

The prognosis is that Rogers will eventually cut off the analog feed. My 
guess is that that will take place in August 2011, when analog 
broadcasting disappears. ROgers will blame the CRTC.

At the moment, it actually appears that Bell satellite is cheaper than 
Rogers HD digital, but the control question and box output to myth input 
question are unclear to me. Anyone else trying that combination? I 
understand that the Bell HD sat boxes have firewire: true?

Geoff