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Aynone know anything about Antenna television?

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markronz:
So I recently cancelled my cable TV.  I got tired of pay $80 a month.  My plan now is to use an antenna for TV, and  few WD Live Plus players to fill the gap.  I can stream netflix and hulu, and I have an old PC with a TV tuner card in it that I plan to use as a DVR for broadcast TV.  The stuff I record will then be put onto a shared network drive in house, which my WD Live player can reach and stream those shows.   I think between all those things, I should barely miss cable.  Anyway, I've got the majority of this stuff set up.  The part I am trying to do now is to set up the outside antenna and have the signal sent to all the TV's in my house, and I have a few questions.

First some more information about my setup.
- I have 5 TV's, and one dual TV tuner card in my computer.
- This is the report about the TV signal in my area.  Looks like all my local channels are pretty much 15 miles or closer to me.
- I just bought this antenna which seems like it should have plenty enough range to get all the above channels.
- Some of my TV's are new enough that they have a built in tuner, and others are older, and I have converter boxes for those.


This is what I am still trying to figure out...
1. Is there a splitter to accomodate such a large number of devices? Or would I have to do some sort of chain thing with like a 2 way splitter followed by two 4 way splitters?
2. Is there anything else that I would need? Like any kind of amplifier because I have so many devices or anything else?

Anyone on here happen to know anything about this stuff?  Just thought I'd post it just in case!

HaRuMaN:
I've done basically the same thing, except I had Directv.

I have an antenna, and have split it two ways.

My TV in the livingroom needed an amplifier, but the one in the bedroom did not.

I don't miss Directv at all...   :cheers:

HaRuMaN:
8 way splitter @ monoprice:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10422&cs_id=1042206&p_id=8218&seq=1&format=2

Samstag:
With an antenna that size and stations within 15 miles you can probably get away with splitters located wherever it's most convenient.  I have a much smaller antenna mounted in my attic that's split into 4 signals with no amplification and I pick up over 50 local stations.

I use windows media center as my DVR, which saves files in a format most media players can't handle, but I use a couple of xbox 360s as media centers rather than running the antenna signal to all my rooms.  

markronz:
I plan to use Windows Media Center too, which I assumed just records in WMV format.   I think the WD Live Plus player can play WMV's, but I'm not positive.  I guess I will have to see when I get to that point.   I did anticipate some futzing around with everything to get it how I wanted.

Thanks for the link Haruman.   Do you know if using a single splitter is at all beneficial to doing a daisy chain type deal (with a two way splitter, and then 2 four way splitters)?    The reason I ask is that I have those other splitters already.  I just didn't know if an 8 way splitter would be better, or doesn't it matter?

One other question.   About that radar picture (attached) from the TV Fool report that I linked.   Should I read it that most of my stations are south?  And hence I should be aiming my antenna south?

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