HDTV reception in Charlotte (law, places, outlets)

[sundrop]

Originally Posted by GCharlotte

I'd love to know the model antenna and where you are in town. Also, how well you can pull in WTVI and the Rock Hill ETV. Those are the only things I struggle with in 28214 NW side almost in Mt. Holly.

I use the Terk HDTVa which is the #1 seller on Amazon for indoor antenna though I got it at Best Buy when it was carried there.

You are right about the picture quality. I usea TV card and Windows 7 as my PVR. It would drive me nuts to pay for the muddy TWC signal and then have to pay for the PVR.

I apologize for just now replying......I am just catching up on CD.
We have a Phillips model antenna, it sits on a half-circle base. We pull in WTVI very well and most days get RHETV and a Columbia ETV channel even better. We actually get several ETV channels from SC during the day and often at night. It is my understanding that these channels lower their signal at night for whatever reason.


Having viewed TV this way for so long, I have no inclination to pay for TV
again. The clarity is SOOOOO much better.

[vmaxnc]

I just plugged an AM antenna into my HDTV, and picked up the 4 major networks in HD and 14 other channels. My house is on a long hill, and is below the level of the surrounding neighborhood and major roads. Height can make a huge difference in reception, so maybe I'll zip a wire up to the roofline.

The type of antenna isn't so much the difference as where it's located and how it's oriented.

[trckn4life]

Does it typically make a big difference to justify say putting a hdtv antenna on the roof (and the work involved) and splitting it off to the tv's? Is it primarily that you get a lot more channels? I have tried to weigh if it would be worth doing at our house.

Originally Posted by vmaxnc

I just plugged an AM antenna into my HDTV, and picked up the 4 major networks in HD and 14 other channels. My house is on a long hill, and is below the level of the surrounding neighborhood and major roads. Height can make a huge difference in reception, so maybe I'll zip a wire up to the roofline.

The type of antenna isn't so much the difference as where it's located and how it's oriented.

[vmaxnc]

Originally Posted by trckn4life

Does it typically make a big difference to justify say putting a hdtv antenna on the roof (and the work involved) and splitting it off to the tv's? Is it primarily that you get a lot more channels? I have tried to weigh if it would be worth doing at our house.

Generally, yes. Typically antennas perform better the higher they are. But that will depend on a lot of factors. The only way you're really going to know how much of a difference it will make is to try it. RG6 quadshield is fairly cheap. I would buy a roll of it, run it through a window or door to the approximate place you'd mount the antenna, in the attic or on top of the home, and see how the reception improves. You may receive more channels and/or get a more consistent signal on the channels you already receive. If it proves to be worthwhile, then you may consider a more extensive (larger and properly designed) antenna array.

One common issue is having a major structure between you and the transmitter. In Charlotte, some people cannot receive WBTV OTA no matter what antenna they use, because there is some building (I never found out which one) directly between them and WBTV's transmitter. There's not much you can do in that case.

When I prewire a home, I assume all antennas will be in the attic, and run the appropriate wiring to the structured wiring panel or equipment home as necessary.

[mjh]

I know this is a pretty old thread, but I just wanted to give my input on it. I live in Harrisburg - just east of Charlotte - and have pretty good reception of all the Charlotte channels as well as a few stations out of the Greensboro market.

I'm using an Antennas Direct ClearStream2 antenna. I installed it on the mast that used to hold my DirecTV dish on the roof. Which allows me to also use the same cabling that they used, without having to rewire my house.

An incredibly useful site for checking your reception is TV Fool: tvfool.com. My favorite part of TV fool is the Maps app. It'll overlay signal strength on a map and it takes into account terrain. You just enter your address and how high up you intend to mount your antenna. Then when you've got the map, you choose a station from the list available and it gives a pretty accurate picture of what your signal reception should be for that station.

Where I live, I get 30 channels (including all the subchannels). All except the two noted come in consistently well:

WFMY - CBS Greensboro (2 subchannels)
WBTV - CBS Charlotte (3 subchannels)
WGHP - Fox Greensboro (2 subchannels) - occasional digital artifacts
WSOC - ABC Charlotte (2 subchannels)
WCCB - Fox Charlotte (3 subchannels)
WCWG - CW Greensboro (3 subchannels)
WCNC - NBC Charlotte (2 subchannels)
WTVI - PBS Charlotte (3 subchannels)
WXLV - ABC Greensboro (2 subchannels) - inconsistent reception
WJZY - Independent Charlotte (2 subchannels)
WMYT - MyTV Charlotte (2 subchannels)
WUNG - PBS Charlotte (3 subchannels)
WAXN - Independent Charlotte (1 subchannel)

The nice thing about getting Greensboro CBS and FOX stations is that they're not officially in the Panthers primary market. Normally when the Panthers are playing at home, that is the *only* game allowed to be on in that market. But Greensboro isn't in that market. Which means that I get 3 afternoon games every Sunday - even when the Panthers are playing at home - and the night game Sunday night.

Harrisburg is really a quite good location for OTA HDTV reception.

Anyway, just posting this for people who search this thread in the future and want to know what OTA reception is like in East Charlotte / Harrisburg.

[FrankTheTank2]

Cool website. I live in Southpark area at a fairly high elevation. I can get most of the major channels in HD but CBD (3.1) is a little patchy at times.

[brokensky]

Glad this thread was resurrected - more good info! TY!

[brokensky]

UPDATE: Hubby just hooked up a very small (cheap!) HDTV to a $30 antenna and he is getting terrific reception. We are totally shocked. This is great!

We tried this out to see if we could get decent over the air reception and could drop UVerse. We hate to say goodbye to some of the stations we are currently receiving but the service has been lousy (not typical w/ UVerse -we are just too far away from the "node" to get robust service). The cost has been very high and service has been unreliable.

We are now trying to figure out where to go from here . . . big leap w/ losing so many channels (especially History channel, all my movie channels, etc). But the savings is HUGE.

Thank you all for the great info!

[southbound_295]

Originally Posted by anifani821

UPDATE: Hubby just hooked up a very small (cheap!) HDTV to a $30 antenna and he is getting terrific reception. We are totally shocked. This is great!

We tried this out to see if we could get decent over the air reception and could drop UVerse. We hate to say goodbye to some of the stations we are currently receiving but the service has been lousy (not typical w/ UVerse -we are just too far away from the "node" to get robust service). The cost has been very high and service has been unreliable.

We are now trying to figure out where to go from here . . . big leap w/ losing so many channels (especially History channel, all my movie channels, etc). But the savings is HUGE.

Thank you all for the great info!

Ani, THIS TV & Antenna TV run a lot of movies. If you wake up in the middle of the night, you might be in time to watch Dobie Gillis on ME TV.

[FrankTheTank2]

Ani,

Do you guys have Netflix? We found that you can watch instantly (through your computer or TV if you have the ability) a lot of good shows and movies. That seems to fill the cable void for us.