DIY HDTV antenna

[Hiro]

Haven't tried it, but I got suckered into an indoor HD antenna that just plain sucks. May have to try this.

[ElementXsoftwarE]

You can just use a regular tv antenna that would normally be mounted on a tower and it will work fine. I had a normal tv antenna mounted on a six foot stake in my front yard that worked just fine to receive HD, an I live in the middle of a woods with the nearest hd transmitter being an hour and a half away. It doesn't take much.

[Hiro]

Well, that's something I didn't think about trying. the current antenna I use indoors sucks the big one and I can't do squat with it.

[abalavsan]

I just built this last weekend and I have to say I was very impressed. The instructions in the first link is for a DB2, but you can stack them to make DB4 or 8s. My Analog signals are ok... much better than some Radio Scrap rabbit ears, but I can pull down 11 digital channels now using this.

[Quasar]

I built something similar. Total cost was $10 and it beats the crap out of my uncle's $60 RCA POS.

[furillo]

i made this over the weekend and hooked it up i am not very happy. My channels are still snowy and i am not sure why it looks like i am not getting high defnition channels.

[ElementXsoftwarE]

Originally Posted by furillo

i made this over the weekend and hooked it up i am not very happy. My channels are still snowy and i am not sure why it looks like i am not getting high defnition channels.

Snow doesn't occur on HD channels, you get pixelation or tiling since it's a digital feed (basically what a satellite dish does when it's about to storm). Are you sure you are using an HD tuner?

[furillo]

i have a widescreen tv that my dad said is a hdtv. its a 42" projection from Toshiba.

[ElementXsoftwarE]

Originally Posted by furillo

i have a widescreen tv that my dad said is a hdtv. its a 42" projection from Toshiba.

Just because it's widescreen doesn't mean the tuner is capable of tuning digital. You'd have to make sure that it's an ATSC tuner, probably by looking up the tv model online. A lot of HD tv's come HD ready, not actually HD integrated. HD ready means that with the proper external tuner, it can display HD signals.

[furillo]

oh ok. my friend asked me the same thing. i guess i need to buy this tuner and plug it in. r they easy to install?

[sandviper]

I'm not OTA guru, but I built a DIY DB8 (I think this is a DB8) for a recent review. Works awesome.



I didn't setup a deflector on this one, and I am pretty sure I need to cross over the top and bottom rods, but this is only the second antenna I tried to make. I am planning on making a second identical one and hooking them up together side-by-side with a cable joiner sometime in the near future.

[akia]

Hah, nice use of coat hangers and a 2x4. I've read the use of a reflector is needed, but you seemed to do ok without one. Nice review BTW.

[ElementXsoftwarE]

Originally Posted by furillo

oh ok. my friend asked me the same thing. i guess i need to buy this tuner and plug it in. r they easy to install?

It's just like a DVD player or VCR or whatnot really. You plug the antenna into the antenna in, and then send an output (HDMI, Component, etc) out to the tv.

[furillo]

ok i thought it was a pci card i needed to open on my tv to put in. my dad wouldnt be happy if i did that.

[Katiju]

No, you don't need to crack your TV open. If you do a search on eBay for ATSC external tuners, you'll find a whole bunch. If you can hook up a DVD player, you can set one of these up/