Montreal: OTA Antenna

Now that I'm pretty much done setting up my old Xbox with XBMC (which I am still enjoying today), my next "project" is getting free OTA (Over The Air) TV channels with my new DB4 antenna. Since I am not a huge TV watcher it was easy to cancel cable TV and try my hand at OTA TV.

OTA Antenna, Free Television Channels

I learned a lot in my research, and the biggest upside to going this route is that you can (this really depends on where you live) get channels without paying any subscription. The other upside is that you can get an uncompressed HD signal. This is the best quality signal you can hope to get today—even if you are paying for TV. Cable and satellite providers compress the HD signal that you watch at home...So you are actually better off going with an antenna in this case.

The downside is that you can only get a few channels OTA. Also is the work that you need to do to get your antenna set up. Ideally you would place the antenna outdoors (ideally on the roof) and point it towards the transmitting towers (where line of sight is important).

Direct DB4 Multi-Directional Antenna

November 17, 2012 Update: I'm using my DB4 antenna indoors which does perform better than simple rabbit ears. Unfortunately, I lack both a balcony/roof access and line of sight at the moment; so I am only getting a handful of local HDTV channels OTA. I was hoping to get a digital signal from the US but being on the ground floor and surrounded by apartment buildings doesn't help things at all.

Videotron Technician Impressed

The funny thing is that I had a Videotron technician fixing my internet connection one day and I had the television on...He took one look at my 5-year old LCD TV and actually said "Wow! the image is so clear!". He ended up asking me how I had it set up (since I did not subscribe to cable television with Videotron) and advice on other technology related items. I can only assume he's seen his share of TVs and my simple OTA set up still wowed him.