r/ota

Random confession but I still turn on the antenna instead of streaming sometimes and I genuinely don’t know if it’s nostalgia or if I’m just tired of choosing.

There’s no scrolling, no “recommended for you,” no 45 minutes deciding what to watch. Whatever’s on is on. You just… watch it. It reminds me of being a kid when TV wasn’t a decision, it was just background noise to your day.

Honestly a big part of it is the old movies. Growing up there wasn’t money for cable or the movie theater, so whatever played on regular TV was the movie theater. Now I’ll catch some random old movie on antenna that’s probably sitting on a streaming service somewhere, but I’d never think to pick it on purpose. Something about it just landing on your screen hits different than searching for it.

Part of me feels like I’m holding onto something from a simpler time. Part of me wonders if it’s just stress relief from having too many choices everywhere else in life. Anyone else do this? Am I the only one who finds regular TV weirdly relaxing in 2026?

looking for a good quality scanner band antenna (mainly for ads, 433, vhf)

I recently got the ANT700 and it looked like shit, felt like it was going to break.

any others I should try?

My brother-in-law wants to ditch cable but he watches a LOT of TV. He asked me about Tablo. After doing a bit of basic research, there seems to be split opinion on Tablo and perhaps other more capable devices are available. I've always been a cable/Tivo guy so I don't know much about the OTA DVRs. One person recommended HDHomerun. Whatever I recommend for him has to be VERY simple to use, and able to stream Netflix, Disney/Hulu/ESPN, Prime, and HBOMax as well as the OTA broadcast channels. If Tivo was still making DVR hardware, I'd recommend an OTA version of that but the last generation of Tivos were pretty iffy and now out of production. You can still buy refurbed ones from Weaknees but they don't have all the required streaming apps and I'd rather not recommend multiple devices if I don't have to. The Tivo Guide (program listing, TV Guide, call it what you like) is what really sets Tivo apart from similar devices so having something similar in an OTA DVR/streamer would be a significant plus. The selected device will also need to be able to feed at least three TVs and perhaps a phone or two. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts, both positive AND negative about Tablo, HDHomerun, and any other relevant devices. Thanks.

I have a HDHomerun Flex 4K tuner (from SiliconDust), and it has DVR capabilities. I wanted to have it record one of the FIFA World Cup Soccer games which is being broadcast on an ATSC 3.0 channel in my area, but I've just realized that channel has DRM, which means it won't let met DRM it, and it won't even let met stream the channel to my network.. I don't think they've always had DRM enabled, because I've watched that channel before using my HDHomerun tuner. What's even the point if you can't even watch the channel using your tuner device?

Thankfully, the same channel also broadcasts an ATSC 1.0 channel in my area that isn't DRM-restricted; however, that channel doesn't have quite as good reception for me as their ATSC 3.0 channel. I do have Plex Media Server set up with DRM capability (and I also have a Hauppauge PCI Express TV tuner in that PC), and I've set that to record the game - Hopefully the reception is good and it's able to successfully get all of it.

Hi!

I've been playing around with this indoor OT antenna I got at an outlet, and I'm trying to figure out the cause of the issue.

The antenna is a "one for all SV9420".

I live within a close range of 2 towers, one a bit further away but both large mountain top towers, covering both sides of my house. Maps are saying excellent signal.

I've got the antenna at a window facing the closest tower, and the signal coming in is at around 75 - 80 and says its strong.

There are only about 3 channels OTA here + radio, so not much to choose from. I'm just doing this out of curiosity.

So, signal is supposedly strong. But quality is going from anywhere at 15 - 30 %.

So garbage. Sometimes no sound, very glitchy, stuttery, or nothing etc.

Now, my TV I am using this on is a distance from the window, and the coax cable is too short out the box, so I had to find a random tester cable to extend (I cannot swap the antenna cable cause its not unpluggable) just to see if my outlet antenna was even alive/working

Could the quality be because I am using some old, long random coax cable as an extension? Or is quality only connected to the actual signal to the antenna itself? Sorry if its a really stupid question, haha I just dont know how these things work anymore.

I wasnt too keen on buying a better extention unless I know for sure that its the root cause, especially since its mainly just a little side project.

So, if signal is supposedly good, but quality is dirt poor, is it likely the random coax cable I am using as a makeshift extension, or the actual antenna?

I just built a small camp off the grid with a mini generator/small generators. Some guy on the local Facebook page told me to use an antenna when I asked about tv options that don’t use much power. I didn’t believe them then we got in an argument and then they told me to come here. So here I am asking professionals to see if I can get Fox.

https://www.rabbitears.info/s/2785685

Attic ? or Roof?

Right now, my antenna is mounted in the attic. I live about 45 miles (as the crow flies) from all the TV stations. Reception is OK, but not great. Would mounting the antenna on the roof make much, if any of an appreciable difference in reception?

I’ve just now did a channel scan on my converter box to try to get hasbro legends but unfortunately I checked the channel list and haven’t got it yet still in Des Moines Iowa.
I even looked up the schedule for it on a website called ontvtonight and it said on the website that it can’t find any listings or upcoming schedules and shows for the channel yet on my zip code on the website.

I’m installing a televes dat boss mix on my roof within the next 2 weeks. We will be trying to get it 85 feet above ground level. I have some high hopes to get channels that seem next to impossible. I do have reasons to believe that it is possible.

I’m trying to pick up

W26FR-D 26 2 edge signal from 3 miles away (Pretty much a guarantee)

WEKW-TV 18 1 edge signal from 26 miles away (Pretty much a guarantee)

WVER 10 LOS signal from 5 miles away (Pretty much a guarantee)

W32FW-d 32 2 edge signal from 67 miles away (seems possible to pick up a weak signal).

WNYT 21 which is a 2 edge signal from 99 miles away (Seems impossible)

WRGB 35 2 edge signal from 99 miles away (seems impossible)

WMUR 9 Tropo signal from 49 miles away (seems impossible)

WCWN 22 2 edge signal from 99 miles away (seems impossible)

WTEN 24 2 edge signal from 99 miles away (seems impossible)

WMHT 25 2 edge signal from 99 miles away (seems impossible)

WNYA 7 2 edge signal from 99 miles away (seems impossible)

WXXA-TV 8 2edge signal from 99 miles away (seems impossible)

WPTZ/WNNE 14 Tropo signal from 81 miles away (seems impossible)

WCAX-TV 20 Tropo signal from 81 miles away (seems impossible)

WVNY 7 Tropo signal from 81 miles away (seems impossible)

WFFF-TV 16 Tropo signal from 81 miles away (seems impossible)

As you can see a lot of these seem like impossible signals to even get a weak signal of but I have my reasons to believe I may be able to.

Currently I can pick up W26FR-D, WEKW-TV, and WVER inside my house very strongly. On my roof with a broken Clearstream 4 max 30 ft above the ground I can pick up all those channels even stronger pointed directly north. I can also start to pick up elevated signals of WPTZ/WNNE, WCAX, and WMHT with the broken antenna pointed north.

With the televes antenna I plan on pointing it towards Burlington VT or the Albany NY area depending on which one gets me more channels I would watch. If the antenna ends up picking up signals from both of those areas I will just buy a 2nd one and mount it and combine it with a smartkom device to pick up both markets.

It seems to be impossible to pick up any signal with my current setup of WMHT, WPTZ, and WCAX but it’s happening consistently everyday for over a year. So this is the reason I believe it may be possible to actually get the signals from Albany and Burlington VT even if it means not all of them anything extra would be great.

I’m wondering what last minute advice you could give me for this setup? I will be running a solid copper coax from the antenna into the basement to the amplifier power source. I will then be running another wire to the HDHomeRun device.

I know I’m taking a big chance here and hoping for some impossible stuff but the signals I’m getting now with my current setup just don’t add up.