Indoor TV Antennas

[jwmorrice]

About a year ago, I cancelled my Rogers cable. I didn't watch enough tv to make it worth my while. However, occasionally there are shows that I would be interested in seeing.

I live in uptown Toronto and face south. Is there anyone in a comparable location that could clue me in on their experience with indoor tv antennas? Any makes or models that seem to perform well or abysmally?

I've checked the Future Shop website but no reviews there, just rankings.

jwm

 

[kooley]

just get a direct tv dish

 

[jwmorrice]

just get a direct tv dish

Nah, I'm not so enamoured of tv that I want to get into that.

jwm

 

[xix]

antenna

I don't live in TO. But I do have one. I live in QEW/407/403 area.
I get at least a dozen channels.
CBC, CITYTV, FOX, CH, CTV, PBS, TVO,CBC FRENCH, 23UPN, 47OMNI. And the vcr can pick up more.
I got the flying saucer type for $100. you can get them for $10 to $60 to $100. THis type of antenna saucer has to be set up horizontally on a pole.
How many will you get it all depends on the following:
TV RECEIVER
VCR receiver
area you live in.
and most important luck.
This is plenty for me.

Best of luck

 

[Mrs_Stiffler]

Keep us up to date if you have any luck. I for one would love to hear about it. I'm sick of paying monthly charges for 300 channels of garbage and it's the same garbage on DirectTV or Cable. I'd be happy to invest in some decent hardware to get the core channels. I live in a south eastern facing high rise and should be able to pick up decent reception.

 

[xarir]

I bought the most expensive antenna I could find at Radio Shack. It works OK most of the time. I get CBC, CFTO, Global, TVO, CBLT, City, OMNI, Fox. I do have trouble with ghosting (image) sometimes.

Here's a semi-useful link about antennas:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/spectravox/tvanbuyguid.html

And here are a few antennas to consider:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/spectravox/accessories-tv-antennas-indoor.html

 

[Mikehorn]

You don't need to pay for 300 channels. I have basic cable, which goes up to channel 42, and it's included in my rent.

 

[oldjones]

Location, location, location. I have used nothing but rabbit ears in two houses south of Danforth. From one, I could see the lake from the bedroom verandah, and got trouble-free signals on CBC English and French, CTV, TVO, Global, City, 47 Omni, the underground guy on Ch 15, PBS-both channels, 26, 29, 49, 2, 4, 7, (variously ABC, NBC, CBS, WB etc never watched, never cared)
Since I moved and there are trees and buildings between me and the lake and me and the tower, signals come and go a bit, but I get all I want (the underground guy got shut down and TO1's been added) which doesn't include the big US guys—they're iffy at best here. The bunny ears, and a UHF bowtie for Ch14-99 will set you back aboutv $20 and that may include the 300š to 75š transformer you'll need if your TV has only cable inputs
I'm curious whether any of the flying saucer guys have rabbit ear comparisons at the same location.

 

[jwmorrice]

An update

A couple weeks ago, I went to Future Shop and bought the cheapest sort of indoor antenna: an $18 set of rabbit ears. I live in North Toronto between St. Clair and Eglinton and my antenna faces south. The result? I get the following: CBC (English and French stations), CTV, Global, PBS, TVO, FOX, CITY-TV, and OMNI-TV. Previously I only received CTV and CBC, the latter poorly.

Now if only there were something worth watching. Since buying the antenna, I've looked at tv for a total of about 10 minutes. It reminded me of why I cancelled my cable.

jwm

 

[itsallgood]

I'm with you jwmorrice, regarding not watching much tv. My prob is that I love sports and can't get what i want with just CBC CTV etc. Unfortunately I need cable for the other sports stations. Can anyone recommend other than cable and satellite? For instance does settting up with a vcr receive more channels?
Thanks