The good and the bad of using an attic antenna
I have 4 televisions in my house. Since I dropped DIRECTV last spring, I have only been able to watch television on 2 of them. This is because I now require an antenna to pull in the analog or digital signals currently transmitting over the air and I only have 2 indoor antennas. 2 antennas, 2 televisions that I can watch.
I have digital converter boxes for the other 2 televisions but they aren't doing me any good without an antenna hooked up to them. But at this point, I feel like I am spending too much on individual antennas for each television so I have decided to forego individual antennas for each television and go with a master antenna installed in the attic.
Consider an attic antenna specialist
This should be relatively easy to do, although I am not doing it myself. Instead I am hiring it out to an attic antenna specialist (yes, this person actually exists). But I still say it will be a relatively easy job since the multiswitch that routed all of my satellite signals is also in the attic. So basically the installer only needs to install the antenna and then swap out the old satellite multiswitch with a normal splitter and I will have an antenna signal at every location in my house where I used to have a satellite signal. This includes all 4 of my television locations.
I'm guessing that last paragraph was a little over some noobies heads so let me sum it up an easier way. The installer will just hook up the new antenna to all of my existing satellite wiring.
There are advantages and disadvantages to using the master attic antenna approach and I thought this would be a great opportunity to share them with other noobies that may be wanting to save some money and switch to all digital, over-the-air, high definition (oh, and did I mention free?) television programming.
Let's start with the advantages:
- All televisions share the same antenna signal. Lock the signal in once and it's good for all televisions in the house.
- Out of sight, out of mind. With a master antenna in the attic, you don't have to spend all of that time trying to hide the indoor antennas at each television location.
- It's up higher. Generally, the higher you can get the antenna, the stronger the signal you can pull in.
- Depending on how many televisions you have, one large antenna may be cheaper than purchasing several small indoor antennas.
Now, the disadvantages:
- All televisions share the same antenna signal (ironically, this was also an advantage above). If it goes out for one, it goes out for all of them.
- If the antenna needs adjusting, it is easier to adjust several small indoor antennas than to crawl up into the attic and shout down to someone in front of the television asking, "is it clear yet?"
- If you don't have existing wiring from your attic to each television you (or someone else) are in for a big mess trying to fish wire through the walls. Luckily all of my wiring is already in place.
- If something goes bad with the wiring (water damage, squirrel, you name it) between the attic antenna and your television, it can be very difficult to diagnose and repair.
As you can see the master attic antenna approach isn't for everyone but at least you now know what you're up against.
Did I miss any advantages or disadvantages? Have some of your own feedback to add? Leave a comment and let me know.
9 comments for this blog post so far...
September 17, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Michelle Hartz
One more disadvantage: Attic antennas are often not an option for apartment dwellers.
We live in a townhouse and supposedly have a shared antenna. But we’ve tried hooking up to it, and it didn’t improve reception any. So we’re stuck with our rabbit ears.
September 17, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Patric Welch
@Michelle Good point. I should have noted that my advantages and disadvantages applied mostly to single family dwellings.
September 24, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Jim Daniel
Michelle, Many apartment complexes that have a master antenna system are wired such that each apartment can use either the antenna or a cable service. If the previous occupant had cable service, it is likely your wiring was simply disconnected by the cable company when the apartment was vacated. Your maintenance person should be able to reconnect you to the antenna.
September 24, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Patric Welch
@Jim Excellent clarification. Thanks! My follow-up blog post discussing the work you did for me should be up on my blog in the next day or two.
September 26, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Brian Emery
I find these articles fascinating. I used antenna for TV watching for 4 years before I got Dish Network. I still use a TV rotor on an existing antenna- but some of the wires got cut this last year. I would like to get back to antenna (free programming); but have hard time getting all the major networks without carefully missing with antenna rotor control. The part about using a Tivo HD DVRs is brilliant. Would Attic Antenna be interested in doing the work in the Greensburg area and would it be feasible to get a similar 25 channels with great pictures. Thanks for letting us know about these options, Patrick!
September 26, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Patric Welch
@Brian I had the same issue as you except with individual rabbit ears. I could get most of the channels in but not all of them. If I tried to get a stronger signal on the “other” channels then I lost the original ones. Attic Antenna solved this by installing two antennas in my attic. Each was pointing in a different direction so I could pick up ALL of the channels. Attic Antenna will combine the signals from both antennas. It’s pure magic.
September 27, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Jim Daniel
Brian, I’d be glad to talk with you about your antenna. Call me at 317-781-0149 or email . Jim
September 29, 2008 at 5:39 am
Stacey Rich
@Patric
You mentioned “all digital, over-the-air, high definition, free television programming… do you have to purchase or lease an HD-DVR in order to get the HD benefit? I currently have Dish Network (NOT even HD) and $17.00 of the monthly fees are “leased receiver” and “DVR Service” fees. (I have one satellite feeding 4 TV’s, 2 of which have DVR’s.)
Obviously, I will have to buy an HDTV if I want high def, but will I also have to buy/lease the HD-DVR? FREE all digital, over-the-air programming is hard enough to imagine being government-provided. But HD too?
Also, I don’t have an attic - not even crawl space - all vaulted ceilings. I’ve seen antennas mounted on rooftops, but how would that work in my case?
Thanks for all the info!
September 29, 2008 at 9:46 am
Patric Welch
@Stacey Many of the digital broadcasts coming over-the-air (thus that can be picked up via antenna for free) are absolutely high definition. Mostly prime time shows right now but many more such as most news and sports broadcasts are being added. So you don’t need anything but an antenna and a high definition television with a digital tuner (very commonplace now) to receive the high definition, digital broadcasts.
That being said, if you want to record or time-shift any of these broadcasts with a DVR, you will need to pay some sort of monthly fee. TiVo’s monthly fee is roughly $8-$12 per month depending on how much you pre-pay. That’s not a lease fee. It’s a fee for the TiVo service itself. And this doesn’t include the roughly $300 you will pay for the TiVo HD DVR itself.
So yes, the digital, HD broadcasts are free and it costs nothing to receive them, but it does cost to record or time-shift them.
As for your antenna, I’m sure Attic Antenna could mount an antenna right next to your current satellite and then just borrow the satellite wiring to get the antenna signal to your televisions. That’s exactly what they did for me. I used to have DIRECTV. Your best bet is to call Jim Daniel at Attic Antenna, 317-781-0149 and explain your setup to him. Don’t forget to print out the coupons on my other blog post to save you some money. http://tinyurl.com/4hwntw
Hope this helps!
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