A Basic OTA question

[betsy c]

Hi All,

My first post - hopefully you can help w/ some basic questions. Please point me in the right direction if I am on the wrong forum.

To start with, I know very little about HD, except I've seen it & I want it. To this end we are building a HT in our basement, it's taking awhile but I think it will be well worth it. We will be purchasing a front projector, currently we are leaning towards the Panasonic AE700. We expect to be complete w/in 2 months, drywall goes up soon. Once up we want to get satellite TV (not sure yet whether Dish or D*) - HD programming, including local channels, will be important. We live in the Washington, DC area.

Anyhow, my OTA/HD question(s): As I read here, I think I understand that in order to get (most) local HD channels, we will need an OTA. My question has to do with tuning to those local channels since we don't have a tuner. Am I correct in understanding that satellite receivers have tuners that can tune to local OTA stations (regardless of HD or not)? Or do I need a special tuner outside of the satellite receiver?

If my assumption is correct, the next question is - do only specific receivers deal with HD? In otherwords, does it take a higher-end receiver to tune to HD or will all receivers work?

Thanks for any feedback - there's a lot of depth in this forum, as I am new its mostly Greek to me, but I hope to get up to speed!

Bets

PS - what forum would be recommended as to ask about which satellite provider would be better for my needs & location?

 

[DarrellP]

Betsy, welcome to the forum. All new satellite receivers have OTA capability built in, it's called an 8vsb module. Some have it as a built in chip on the motherboard, others like Voom & the old Dish 6000 have a module that must be inserted into the stb.

You must have a HD receiver to recieve digital OTA signals. If you don't want to go satellite and just want local OTA, you can buy a very cheap OTA receiver from WalMart for less than $200. Voom only tunes in OTA digital and will not receive analog channels, if that is a concern.

Congrats on the Panny AE700, that is an awesome machine.

Browse the different forums here, there is a ton of info for you. You may also check out AVSForum.com but their info is a bit more scattered and harder to digest.

 

[K R Kimmel]

Darrell,

Your post should read "All new HD satellite receivers have OTA capbility built in."

SD satellite receivers do not have OTA tuners (digial or analog) and would not help Betsy in tuning in her local OTA channels.

If my assumption is correct, the next question is - do only specific receivers deal with HD? In other words, does it take a higher-end receiver to tune to HD or will all receivers work?

Yes. Only specific receivers deal with HD. It's not necessarily a higher-end receiver but one that is designed for HD that you need to look for.

 

[betsy c]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for the info! I suspect I'll be asking lots of questions until I get a handle on all of this. Since I will want both digital & analog, I'll go with either Dish or DirecTV, that will be a whole other journey of what's out there.

A followup question: For HD receivers from say Dish or DirecTV, I assume that the OTA tuner works independently of the subscription service or am I wrong? In other words, could I use the tuner to get a local HD channel without subscribing to a 'local' package?

Also, I imagine that the receiver hooks up to the OTA through a standard Coax cable, right?

Thanks again!
Bets

 

[K_FleXXX]

Hey Bets,

Kent gave you a good answer on the HD OTA receivers.

Now for the forums to ask about which satellite provider would be better for my needs & location? Check out several here VOOM, DirecTV, Dish. They each have plus and minus not matter the location. VOOM has the most HD programing right now as that is what they are specializing in. Then I would say DirecTV and then Dish network.
I have DirecTV and like but wish more stations were in HD, so I would not need the OTA to watch local stations in HD. And I love watching football in HD with the NFL package they have added more HD games this year. But again games carried locally are excluded and thus must switch to OTA.

Biggest down side with OTA is the Antenna (Best located on the roof with a rotator) to get the most channels. But if you can live with the looks or place the antenna on the rear of the house where is may not be as visible from the street than you forget it is up there.

 

[Carl B]

A followup question: For HD receivers from say Dish or DirecTV, I assume that the OTA tuner works independently of the subscription service or am I wrong? In other words, could I use the tuner to get a local HD channel without subscribing to a 'local' package?

Also, I imagine that the receiver hooks up to the OTA through a standard Coax cable, right?

As long as your DBS receiver w/ OTA tuner capability "communicates" with a DBS satellite, your OTA tuner will work. You don't need to subscribe to the "locals", at least not at this point in time.

The connection is a standard coax. I recommend you keep all the coax from the wall plate to your receiver as RG-6 coax, not RG-59, which is what most pre-made hookup coax cables in standard lengths are. Quad-shielded RG-6 is even better, but much stiffer and difficult to work with. You can get RG-6 coax in standard lengths at Lowes or Home Depot. Home Depot's may be slightly higher quality as it is swept to 2300 MHz.

Good luck.