Experience with digital antennas in Boerum Hill/Downtown?

We’re thinking of canceling our cable TV and going with a combination of digital antenna + various online services. So just curious to hear any else’s experiences with using a digital antenna in Brooklyn, esp. the Boerum Hill/Downtown area? Do you get all the network channels consistently and in good quality? (We don’t have roof access, so it would be an in-apartment antenna–we’re on the 3rd floor of a 4-floor townhouse, if that matters.)   Thanks for any input!

Brownstonerlogin

in Television 12 years and 8 months ago

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slopegirl | 12 years and 8 months ago

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we have an antenna on our roof. it far PRE-dates digital TV, but we plugged it into our HDTV set when we cancelled cable and this is what we get: all networks, NY1, TBS, NJTV, WLIW, WNET, and Al Jazeera, and a couple of others.

megazoid | 12 years and 8 months ago

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We have a cheap rabbit ears antenna in our rear parlour (Bed-Stuy; North-West-facing, if that matters) and it works great. Getting all the channels in crystal-clear quality: major networks (NBC, CBS, ABC etc) + the PBS channels + a lot of random stuff (Korean, Chinese and Hispanic channels and radio stations; I even get DeutscheWelle and TV5 programming sometimes!). We mostly watch PBS or use a computer hooked to the TV to stream Internet feeds or movies (in this day and age almost everything can be found online).

MDR | 12 years and 8 months ago

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  Brownstonerlc, it is an RCA.  I think this is it:  http://www.pcrichard.com/catalog/product.jsp?modelNo=ANT1650&utm_medium=cse&utm_source=GoogleBase&CID=Google_PLA&CAWELAID=1492206838&cagpspn=pla Good luck!

Brownstonerlogin | 12 years and 8 months ago

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Thanks everyone for all your input, very very helpful. Sounds like it’s kind of hit and miss–which I guess I should have suspected :-). Maybe we’ll see if we can find a returnable antenna and give it a trial run before we make the final decision about cable. Downgrading to the minimal TV package might be a good bet too, although I dread the hoops I’ll have to jump through with Time Warner customer service to get that done, or even get a clear answer on prices (it’s practically impossible to find straight info on prices for very basic services on their website).

MDR | 12 years and 8 months ago

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I have never paid for cable and when they switched to digital transmission it was a good thing for me.  I have a powerred anrenna that is just a flat box – no rabbit ears.  I get all the networks and pbs perfectly. I am on the second story and the antenna is near a north facing window, which seems to be the best spot for reception.  You can connect the antenna with a long cable if your tv is not in a good spot for reception.  The newer TVs don’t require a converter box, you just need to connect the antenna.

Bklnite | 12 years and 8 months ago

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I’m not in your neighborhood, but on the 1st floor w/ rabbit ears I get pretty much nothing. On the 3rd floor it’s better. I found plans for DIY antenna that I was able to make out of stuff I already had:
http://www.tvantennaplans.com/
With that I get good HD reception of the local channels most of the time, but it drops out sometimes. Got a Roku (mostly for netflix) and was looking to cut the cable. When I called to cancel TV (and keep internet & phone) I got the cable company to put me back on the 1st year intro triple play price.

NeoGrec | 12 years and 8 months ago

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We have a small HD TV/DVD in the bedroom and rabbit ears with a fairly clear shot at the Empire State from whence some of TV signals are broadcast. The channels that I can pick up are crystal clear BUT there aren’t many of them AND if the rabbit ears get moved, there’s a lot fo fussing to bring them in again. I’ve been told we really need an antenna on the roof.

zgori | 12 years and 8 months ago

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I experimented with a powered indoor digital antenna in downtown brooklyn. Some channels came in ok, others did not, and it required a lot of fussing with the antenna when I switched channels, since the signals come from different directions. It wasn’t a stable situation so I gave up. This was from the 12th floor of a brick building, facing southeast. I think things may have been different if I was on the north or west side. I ended up giving up on the antenna and downgrading my time warner to the lowest possible tier (around $18 a month I think for broadcast channels only) which is fine because we’re still paying them for internet anyway and they raise the internet rate by $10 if you don’t have tv at all. My total TWC bill with taxes/fees is around $55\. We’re perfectly happy with that plus netflix. We just have to be patient and wait for the cable shows we like to come to netflix.

m926bk | 12 years and 8 months ago

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I’ve also used an antenna in Park Slope and Windsor Terrace.  In both apartments, I had spotty but watchable network channels.  Sometimes the signal goes out and I have to fuss with the rabbit ears, but I always get it back.  The only channel I consistently have trouble with is 7.  But it’s not so bad for maybe $75 up front (for the digital antenna and digital converter box) and no money afterwards, IMO.

slopette | 12 years and 8 months ago

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This is only somewhat relevant as I’m not in the immediate area, but I recently went from the 3rd floor of a 4-floor building in the South Slope to the second floor of a 3-floor building in northwest Windsor Terrace. We had almost zero signal in the Slope; have a reasonably good signal on some channels in WT, although it still breaks up. I didn’t watch TV for the four years I lived in the Slope, and only made it through part of the Olympics in WT. My guess is that it’s pretty random, but has the potential to be nonexistent. We also used an in-apartment antenna.