Thinking of ditching my cable for a WD TV or Roku box and Hulu Plus

[soonerwings]

I got nothing...I've never seen that type of connection either. My in wall outlets are all made to plug in coax so I got lucky there.

 

[Blitzfike]

That is old school. It used 300 ohm flat ribbon twin lead for antenna lead. All the newer stuff uses 75 ohm coax, usually RG-6 type. You will have to get a "Balun" type interface which converts flat ribbon to coax and takes care of the 300 ohm to 75 ohm conversion at the same time. I would recommend scrapping all the flat ribbon and rewiring with coax and changing the outlet. You can get all the materials at lowes or home depot in the electrical section. Blitzfike

 

[kd5rjz]

That is old school. It used 300 ohm flat ribbon twin lead for antenna lead. All the newer stuff uses 75 ohm coax, usually RG-6 type. You will have to get a "Balun" type interface which converts flat ribbon to coax and takes care of the 300 ohm to 75 ohm conversion at the same time. I would recommend scrapping all the flat ribbon and rewiring with coax and changing the outlet. You can get all the materials at lowes or home depot in the electrical section. Blitzfike

Loop ya sum wirez around a hunk of PVC pipe and you got yerself a balun.

Like so: [Broken External Image]

 

[Waltherfan]

We have 2 TVs in the house and about the only time I watch TV is for the local news and then all I'm really interested in is the weather. One TV has an HD antenna and the other has basic cable (about 20 channels). As soon as I can get the wife to let go of cable, it's gone!

 

[inactive]

That is old school. It used 300 ohm flat ribbon twin lead for antenna lead. All the newer stuff uses 75 ohm coax, usually RG-6 type. You will have to get a "Balun" type interface which converts flat ribbon to coax and takes care of the 300 ohm to 75 ohm conversion at the same time. I would recommend scrapping all the flat ribbon and rewiring with coax and changing the outlet. You can get all the materials at lowes or home depot in the electrical section. Blitzfike

This is helpful, thanks. Good to know it can be done.


The antenna outlet I have is ina formal living room, which currently does not have a TV there (my grandparents had an old RCA cabinet stereo/record player there )

If I have coax and outlets at the two places I want them, all ran in the atic currently (as I have cable now), can they be tied into the antenna fairly easily, i.e. without doing much aside from unhooking the coax from the cable line and hooking the up the antenna with appropriate hardware? Meaning can I use a balun transformer in the attic, right off the antenna (rather than using the transformer the wall like we used to in the 80s), and then hook my coax up to that, no new lines needed?

 

[gunnut]

I use a jailbroken AppleTV with Plex and a usenet account, and everything is working out just fine.

 

[inactive]

Totally got my in-attic antenna working on both TVs ! I used the existing dry-rotted wire (I will replace/rewire soon) just to come off the antenna a few inches, then hooked up the Balun right off that lead, then used then existing coax in the attic and hooked it right up with the splitter. This also leaves me a phantom antenna 3-hole jack that is not hooked to anything, but meh. It's a conversation starter.

Surprisingly, I had one of the cheapo Balun converter/transformers in the garage (I think my grandparents used it "backwards", as in to hook their fancy cable up to the old 2-screw antenna TVs) and the signal is great, even with it split to two TVs. In Midtown, I am close to all the local broadcasters. I get them all great except Univison

Off to pick up a set top box, and then call my cable provider and tell them to go pound sand!




Big thanks to all here who walked me through the mild technical details and the parts needed.

 

[JxxxOxxxE]

My wife and I have been discussing canceling cable and our phone, and just keeping high speed internet....I havent done enough research yet to actually make the switch. Anyone have any experience with an OTA DVR?

I use a jailbroken AppleTV with Plex and a usenet account, and everything is working out just fine.

What benefits do you get from Jailbreaking the Apple TV?

I've got our iPhones and iPads jailbroken and know the advantages of those, but am not familiar with the Apple TV

 

[backspur]

I was researching this subject over the weekend. I came across this Channel Master DVR. It would only take a few months for the equipment to pay for itself. It think between the OTA DVR, Hulu, and Netflix I might be able to make it.

 

[flatwins]

I wasn't familiar with fee-free DVRs and I'm interested. I read the reviews on the Channel Master and someone mentioned Tivo. I guess I need to see if Tivo offers a DVR that is not tied to cable\satellite. I've had Tivo in the past and loved their product but I fired them due to some ridiculous business practices (like requiring me to go into a contract on a second Tivo box when I was already a month-to-month customer on another box). I have zero patience for that kinda garbage.