DLPAddict, in short you should go with a ZSS (or clone) as an indoor antenna or a CM4221 or CM4228 outdoors. There is a mountain of such information already here for you in this forum - read through the Toronto area threads, compare, and get your answers. Download the antenna chart too. Help us to help you. ;) If you have questions after that, let us know.

Thanks for the advice gentlemen. I do appreciate it, and love this forum so far. Yes, as for big, it's typical of what you would see in the suburbs. Here's a link to a picture on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7530368@N07/436918669/

It is located at the side of the home, and stands quite tall, well above the roof. From the descriptions I found on the knowledge base, I would guess it's a VHF antenna. If I am wrong, please let me know. Thanks.

Your photo shows 2 VHF antennas, with an additional FM radio antenna mounted above them, so my advice would be that if there are separate downleads from each of those VHFs you could run them into a TV and compare them, keeping the better one. If they give the same performance it would be easiest and safest to take down the bottom one. Replace whichever VHF antenna you take down with a CM4228 UHF antenna and keep that FM Radio antenna up there. That'll give you complete VHF/FM/UHF coverage.

What is your location?

I'm in Etobicoke, Queensway/Royal York area. I'll be shopping for a tuner soon, so if you've got any suggestions I'm listening. Thanks so far.
You need a UHF only antenna for DTV. If you want analog, keep the old antennas as well.
A lot of OLD anteena systems in the toronto area were set up specifically for picking up Ch. 2, 4 & 7 from buffalo. (I grew up with one)
All major stations are now in Digital, so theres really no need for analog.
Maybe this should be in the toronto outdoor thread, because thats certainly not true for the rest of the country, we're spoiled.
As for tuners, In another thread someone just got the new samsung tuner and hes got buffalo stations with a homemade antenna. The new 6th gen tuner is far superior, so worth it in my opinion.

The new 6th gen tuner is far superior, so worth it in my opinion.

Do you mean 5th generation tuner? LG announced their 6th generation chipset (http://www.tvtechnology.com/dlrf/one.php?id=1515) in December and it promises to be even better (it is 40% smaller, uses 30% less power and boosts receiver performance by 30%), but I don't know if any products are using it yet.

It was released with the 5th generation chipset but I wouldn't be surprised if its architecture is being/has been updated to the new 6th generation chipset - things move pretty fast in the chipset world and LG is typically very open with manufacturers about their upcoming chipsets.

We'll carry on about the Sammy box in its own thread and turn this thread back to reception results.

I have a couple of analogue TV’s (HDTV to come soon), so my objective was to get rid of my bunny ears/loop antenna. I needed both VHF and UHF channels. I decided on the CM4221 for the UHF but I was not sure if this would pick up the VHF channels (5, 9, 11). I chose to add a small VHF antenna as part of the same installation. The antennas were mounted to my chimney on a 2 story house. (thanks to Yaamon). Pictures are posted in the photo section. I am 8 km west of the CN tower and have a direct line of sight. Both antennas were aligned to point more towards Buffalo. I performed some tests on the reception with each antenna. I found some interesting results.
UHF antenna picked up channels 5, 9, 11 very well
VHF antenna picked up local UHF channels. 19, 25, 36, 41, 47, 52, 57, 69

Set up:
VHF antenna: Delhi ZIP 5V (boom length: 3.5ft)
UHF antenna: CM 4221
No rotor
Combiner: CM UHF/VHF
Cable run: 50 ft.

Channel---VHF only----------UHF only----------Combined
2---------snow watchable---no----------------snow-watchable
3---------snow non watch---no----------------snow-non watch
4---------snow-non watch---no----------------snow-non watch
5---------excellent----------excellent----------excellent
7---------snow-watchable---no----------------snow-watchable
9---------excellent----------excellent----------excellent
11--------excellent----------good--------------excellent
17--------no----------------excellent----------excellent
19--------excellent----------excellent----------excellent
23--------good--------------excellent----------excellent
25--------excellent----------excellent----------excellent
29--------good--------------excellent----------excellent
36--------excellent----------excellent----------excellent
41--------excellent----------excellent----------excellent
47--------good--------------excellent----------excellent
49--------no----------------good--------------good
52--------excellent----------excellent----------excellent
57--------excellent----------excellent----------excellent
69--------excellent----------excellent----------excellent

TKS you are welcome, one reason why the lower Vhf channels from Buffalo does not come in is that your vhf antenna is not capable and rated for medium to long range reception.

Once you get a hdtv with a built in tuner those Buffalo channels will no longer be a problem.

By the way where are the picture links posted did not see it under pimp my gear.

Psst thank you, the wine was very good. :p

TKS great set-up.When you get an ASTC tuner your Buffalo stations will be clear with it.

I moved some posts about rotors to our OTA Equipment Forum thread about Rotors:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=41103

My brother lives near 404 and Don Mills. He has a 2 storey house. We tried one of the plastic circular omni-directional attenas. It came with a little box that you could crank up the signal. We were only able to get CBC HD, Sun HD, and I think one more. No Global or CTV or Buffalo. The kid at Radio Shack said that the antenna can get Buffalo. Anyone have any luck with that style of antenna ??? Personally myself, I didn't have much faith in that style of atenna.

crockett18, Iam afraid those omni anrenna are not strong enought to get all the Buffalo stations. If its mounts up high on the roof or chimney with a clear view you should be able to pull in all the locals and maybe 2 from the US.

I have seen the powered omni pull in all the locals, is the power supply plugged in and did you try and move/adjust the antenna with the controller. Don't they come with a multi color wired controller to allow adjustments?

If the antenna that you got is not amplified then the results wont be half decent.

Try that, good luck.

The kid at Radio Shack said that the antenna can get Buffalo.We could have saved you a lot of trouble with that purchase! :) I've tried to be very direct about those antennas in the Knowledge Base & FAQ:

Thanks for the help. I will pass it along.

crockett18, I use one of those is Ottawa. It is fine for locals, but I wouldn't expect it to pick up anything very far away. One note is that although it is called an omni-directional antenna, it does have sweet spots so rotating it can improve your reception.

If I were to do it all over again, I would stay away from the "Radio Shack" antenna and go with either the Channel Master 3000 SMARTenna or the Winegard MS-1000 or MS-2000 MetroStar. Of these I would lean towards the MS-1000 and use an external pre-amp if needed.

Regardless I wouldn't expect it to pick up much, if anything from Buffalo.

Experimenting before I get into HDTV, this what I get on my analog tv.

VHF/UHF RCA ANT711 (which I can returned within 30 days)
Mounted in the Attic pointing south from Bathurst/Dufferin just north of Steeles.

Results:
Canadian Channels:
3 - Fair/Good, watchable, snow
5 - Clear
9 - Crystal clear, better than cable
11 - Clears up when antenna pointed south west
19 - Crystal clear, better than cable
25 - Crystal clear, better than cable
36 - Clears up when antenna pointed south west
41 - Crystal clear, better than cable
47 - Crystal clear, better than cable
52 - Clear, as good as cable
57 - Crystal clear, better than cable
69 - Clear

American Channels:
2 - watchable at night, snowy
4 - watchable at night, snowy
7 - watchable at night, snowy
17 - Good, some snow
23 - watchable, snowny
29 - watchable at night, snowy
49 - Good, some snow

I'm curious if I can improve reception mounting outside on the roof.
No homes on my street have any antennas mounted outside that I can see.
Pretty impressed with the quality of most Canadian channels so far.

citydragon, Not bad for a garbage antenna like the ANT711. Imagine what you could do with a good antenna like a CM 4221.

you'll be a lot more impressed with digital, especially hd.

CM4221 pointed south on chimney of 2 story home with 50' RG6

all HD PQ is perfect on viewsonic n3752w

receiving OTA HD
2.1 NBC
4.1 CBS
5.1 CBC
7.1 ABC
9.1 CTV
23.1 WLNO
25.1
29.1 FOX
43.1 PBS
66.1 SUN

plus some SD for a total 31

57.1 city is weak, only get it by pointing antenna west at cn tower,
but then lose the buffalo stations

4221 indoor facing west got all GTA channels
facing south/east got some buffalo and some GTA
so the outdoor placement is recommended for max benefits

ty for all helpful info, which allowed me to make good equipment choices

with the 4228 you'd probably get city and mytv 49