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OTA Antennas

D

downingp

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 26, 2006
640
3
I am not sure if this is the right forum for my question, but I thought this was at least the closest.
I am wanting to ditch DirecTV and get an OTA antenna for local HD content. I have a Pioneer receiver with surround sound along with a Panasonic HDTV. For those of you that have an OTA antenna and want to output the sound in surround, how do you go about doing this? Do you need a "middle man" like a TiVo to transfer the signal from the antenna into the receiver via HDMI? Or can you go directly from the antenna into the receiver? What is the best way to do this?

Thanks in advance?
 
My TV has an antenna input on the back and an optical (toslink) out to send surround sound to a receiver.
 
bohbot16 said:
My TV has an antenna input on the back and an optical (toslink) out to send surround sound to a receiver.
Click to expand...

I just checked my TV and it has the same setup. That would be simple enough, I would think.

Thanks

----------

Does it matter what kind of Indoor antenna I get? Any recommendations? I went to Best Buy yesterday and they seemed to have a pretty good selection.
I believe my contract with DirecTV isn't up until early next year so I can't make the switch quite yet unless there are any suggestions on how to get out of the contract?
 
Read this. If your TV and audio receiver both support "audio return channel" the audio from the TV can be sent back to the receiver over HDMI. You will need to look in the manual for both devices to determine if you have this feature.
 
bohbot16 said:
My TV has an antenna input on the back and an optical (toslink) out to send surround sound to a receiver.
Click to expand...
Ya, this is a good idea but in practice it frequently doesn't work. Many TV's don't send the full dd 5.1 signal out through the optical. For whatever reason, they dump the surround channels and just sent 2.0 stereo out the optical\digital output.

Its worth a try, but just keep your expectations low. :0
 
DustinT said:
Ya, this is a good idea but in practice it frequently doesn't work. Many TV's don't send the full dd 5.1 signal out through the optical. For whatever reason, they dump the surround channels and just sent 2.0 stereo out the optical\digital output.

Its worth a try, but just keep your expectations low. :0
Click to expand...

For most TV's, the only time it outputs 5.1 via optical is with OTA signal. That's what it is for.
 
Well I just went to best buy and got me an OTA antenna and love it!! I know it says it picks up local HD channels but I guess I was questioning the quality. All I can say is it is definitely HD. I bought an RCA antenna based on the reviews and am pleasantly surprised. The best part is, the antenna was $10.99!!
Now all I need to do is get it hooked up to my surround sound. I placed an order for a toslink cable so hopefully that will work. I am hoping kirsch92 is right.
 
If you use cable for your internet you can also plug the TV directly into the wall via coaxial cable and get all your local channels plus a few others. They won't be on the right number scheme but they will come in and you will get HD.

But if not, then your setup seems pretty great.
 
downingp said:
Well I just went to best buy and got me an OTA antenna and love it!! I know it says it picks up local HD channels but I guess I was questioning the quality. All I can say is it is definitely HD. I bought an RCA antenna based on the reviews and am pleasantly surprised. The best part is, the antenna was $10.99!!
Now all I need to do is get it hooked up to my surround sound. I placed an order for a toslink cable so hopefully that will work. I am hoping kirsch92 is right.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear the OTA is working well for you!
A question, what are you using for a DVR? I want to get rid of cable but also like being able to DVR for watching shows, especially ones I can't find online, or are delayed by several days. Thx!
 
downingp said:
Well I just went to best buy and got me an OTA antenna and love it!! I know it says it picks up local HD channels but I guess I was questioning the quality. All I can say is it is definitely HD. I bought an RCA antenna based on the reviews and am pleasantly surprised. The best part is, the antenna was $10.99!!
Now all I need to do is get it hooked up to my surround sound. I placed an order for a toslink cable so hopefully that will work. I am hoping kirsch92 is right.
Click to expand...

I have two Panasonic plasmas, both manuals spell out very specifically the channel output for that optical output under OTA and other digital sources. I would expect your Panny to be the same. Good luck.
 
Just wanted to update everyone that was interested that the toslink cable works great! I now have HD TV with surround sound.
Now for my next question. What would be the best way to implement something like TiVo? I have seen a few TiVos for sale with the lifetime subscription, but am wondering if the older generation Tivos would work with my setup? Do I need to get a series 3 TiVo in order to watch HD TV?

Thanks.
 
Glad to hear it is working. Did you mount your antenna in the attic, or on the outside of the house, or just inside near your tv? And, if you did set it up away from the tv, how did you get the signal into the tv? I would assume that you hooked the antenna up to the existing built in cable, but how did you do that? Thanks for the info!
 
BigDukeSix said:
Glad to hear it is working. Did you mount your antenna in the attic, or on the outside of the house, or just inside near your tv? And, if you did set it up away from the tv, how did you get the signal into the tv? I would assume that you hooked the antenna up to the existing built in cable, but how did you do that? Thanks for the info!
Click to expand...

It was actually really easy and straight forward setting up the antenna. All I did was take the coaxial cable from the antenna and plugged it into the back of my TV. I have the antenna hidden and out of sight behind my TV and the reception is perfect.
The toslink cable is plugged in from the TV into my receiver for surround sound.
 
Nice to hear the indoor antenna was adequate for your use. My transmitters are only 12 miles away, and it is a clear shot, so an indoor one would work for me as well I imagine.
 
BigDukeSix said:
Nice to hear the indoor antenna was adequate for your use. My transmitters are only 12 miles away, and it is a clear shot, so an indoor one would work for me as well I imagine.
Click to expand...
AntennaWeb says I'm 30-35 miles from the transmitters. And I'm in a bit of a challenging spot unfortunately. sigh.
 
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