In my two previous posts about antennas, I explained what I did to research and install an over-the-air TV antenna. Now that I’ve gotten everything installed, I’ll share with you my results.
The Channels
These are all the stations (including subchannels) that I pull in with my new installation.
- 4.1 WRC (NBC)
- 4.2 NBC Weather Plus
- 4.3 Universal Sports
- 5.1 WTTG (FOX)
- 7.1 WJLA (ABC)
- 9.1 WUSA (CBS)
- 9.2Weather Radar (Doppler 9000 HD)
- 20.1 WDCA (MyNetworkTV)
- 26.1 WETA (PBS)
- 26.2 Create
- 26.3 WETA Kids
- WNVC (MHz Networks)
- 30.1 MHz Worldview
- 30.2 NHK World TV
- 30.3 Metro Chinese Network
- 30.4 Russia Today TV
- 30.5 Al Jazeera English
- WNVT (MHz Networks)
- 30.6 SABC News International
- 30.7 France 24
- 30.8 Nigerian Television Authority
- 30.9 VTV4
- 30.10 Euronews
- 32.1 WHUT (PBS)
- 50.1 WDCW (CW)
- 50.2 This TV
- 66.1 WPXW (ION)
If you take all the major stations and add their subchannels, that’s 30 channels! Granted, there are three 24 hour weather channels, two children’s channels, a bible channel, and ten foreign news channels, but the ratio of channels I watch to channels I don’t watch is about the same as it would be on cable TV.
Quality and Reception
All the of the major channels (NBC, FOX, ABC, CBS, MyTV, PBS, CW, ION) are in HD. There is a mix of 720p and 1080i, but it all looks the same on my 32-inch 720p TV, and I have to say it looks pretty amazing.
The MHz channels and all other subchannels are broadcast in 480p, which while not as good as HD, does not look terrible.
Since this is all digital, it’s pretty much all or nothing. There is no graceful signal degradation like there was with analog signals. That does present a problem with a few channels.
WDCW is the worst offender, since the tower is located about two miles farther away and two degrees off from all the others. Occasionally I can’t get a signal from that station at all.
The other two that have issues are WJLA and WUSA, and problems usually happen when there is a heavy overcast. These stations are the only ones that broadcast on VHF, so my guess is that my antenna is less effective at pulling in that band.
Future Improvements
The first thing I plan on trying is a pre-amplifier, which should eliminate the problems we’re having with the stations I mentioned. Also, we sometimes get little tears or warps in the picture, which I assume is the result of interference. Hopefully a pre-amp will also take care of this problem.
As an alternative, I could always go with a bigger antenna. The longer the boom, the farther away I should be able to pull in signals. While I am totally in favor of this idea, I think my wife would rather stick with something smaller.
Conclusion
So far, my broadcast TV experiment has been going great. We are able to watch most of our favorite shows as they air. (Interestingly enough, sometimes we prefer to just watch them on Hulu). I get to watch some of the sports I’d been missing out on. Most of what we miss gets filled in with Hulu and Netflix streaming.
Most important of all, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! keep my wife busy long enough for me to get other things done.
My next project in the home theater department will probably be putting together a PC with XBMC or Boxee, mainly to be able to watch Hulu. Sounds like another blog post!
Signing off…
Update: I almost forgot about this but I wanted to thank Joe for helping me install my antenna. He took an entire Sunday out of his time to help me out. Thanks Joe. You’re a true pal.
Thanks for the information. XBMC is the best media player..Ever!