# Advice on building an HD OTA system



## onthevirge (Jul 1, 2007)

Hello,

I'm looking into setting up an HD OTA system to watch on my computer. I'm currently doing that with an analog OTA signal using a Hauppauge TV tuner.

I have a few questions:

1) Does anyone have any advice on *who makes good PCI (not PCI excess) HD tuners?* Preferably they should be hardware tuners/ decoders so that my CPU is freed.

2) Does anyone have advice on *good OTA antennas?* I'm in Atlanta, Ga, surrounded by many large skyscrapers, but I'm less than 5 miles from the stations that I want to receive.

3) Does anyone know if you need processors faster than a single 2.5Ghz CPU to watch HD TV on a computer? [i.e. Does watching/ recording HD TV on a computer require significantly more computing power than analog signals?]

Any advice and reviews would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks in advance!


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

There aren't too many ATSC tuner cards available in the market as yet. Virtually all have some drawbacks. Best bet: check www.newegg.com for video cards and video devices. Read the customer reviews.
Regarding OTA antennas -- here it depends on a number of issues. If all the local transmitters are UHF, you might be able to get by with a good indoor antenna. I've had quite good luck with a Radio Shack model 15-1892 indoor antenna -- http://www.radioshack.com/product/i...057.2032187.2032189.2032204&parentPage=family 
The nice thing about this antenna is the fact that you can aim it at each individual station's transmitter and save that info, recalling it by entering channel number on the included remote. I'm not a fan of Terk antennas. Some folks swear by them, but I've tried several and found them to be poor performers.
In my area, there's only one station transmitting HD on VHF, and I've had little luck receiving it with an indoor antenna.
I have an outdoor amplified UHF antenna (the LaCrosse from Antennas Direct), and am getting good results from transmitters over 25 miles away. I'm feeding two TV's from it.

All this being said: Why use your computer for HDTV? Unless you are planning on using it as a DVR and feeding the output to an HDTV receiver, you aren't going to get much benefit. IMHO, a 20 inch or so wide screen computer monitor is a poor substitute for a large screen HDTV.


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## onthevirge (Jul 1, 2007)

Thanks for the response, Cholly.

I didn't think there would be much of a difference between an HD TV and HD on a computer. I have a 20" LCD with DVI input, so i figured that the quality shouldn't be too bad. I don't watch much TV, but I figured that moving up from the analog signal would be nice, especially since all i need is a good HD tuner and antenna.

On another note, i just learned about free HD broadcasts on the cable coax (assuming you have a QAM tuner). *Does anyone know if Comcast in Atlanta, Ga still gives free access to the OTA digital channels on thier coax system (if not in Atl, a confirmation in another city is better than nothing).*


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## GFloyd (Jun 3, 2003)

At 5 miles away, you may have a bigger problem with being too close rather than too far. Try it with some rabbit ears pointed towards Brookhaven and you'll find out for sure.

I knew a guy that literally tossed a YAGI style antenna in the crawl space of his in-town home and pulled in everything with 100+ readings.


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