How much would/did you pay for OTA?

[zeppy65]

I had a guy thats done all my antenna stuff for 30yrs install a 40ft tower with a 15 ft long antenna, preamp(20db) and rotor with a channelmaster controller, I don't know brand names of them. Everything is wired with rg6 and it's hooked up to my 50 inch pioneer 5020fd and looks simply amazing. I get around 25 channels and all but 4 are in HD. I live in Oshawa in a new sub-division and figured I'd catch hell from the neighbours for putting an antenna up, but no complaints just a few people asking where I got it cause they want one hehe. I get abc,nbc,cbs,fox,wutv,cw23, 3 pbs stations, citytv, omni, cbc, global, ctv etc... I also get a couple of other analog stations that aren't on digital yet.
Total cost for everything was 900 cash. May sound like alot but if basic cable is 30/month it pays itself off in 2.5 yrs + I get stations you can't get on cable too.
It's all new shiny lookin like my house and I'm a happy camper so I guess that's what counts. Only thing is my old pvr 7 day recording doesn't work with digital so I been looking for a replacement with no monthly fee, with no luck. I've seen those dtvpaldvr but I don't think you can get them in Canadian stores yet.

[Moosebox]

I spent about $14.

Built a SBGH6 out of PVC and wood I had lying around. So my only costs were:
9m of 10 gauge wire - $7
Brass hardware - $3
Balun - $4

With an attic install, I get all Toronto stations + PBS and CW. I might add a CM preamp which will cost about $50, which I'll use on this antenna temporarily, until I build a proper outdoor one. But so far I'm very satisfied with my results, thanks to this site!

[eastavin]

I paid $59.95 plus taxes at Walmart on Trafalgar/Dundas St for a RCA DTA800B1 today. The store manager ordered a case load of these after I explained to him that he had no competition ....as Best Buy/Future Shop/The Source by CC/Audio Video 2001 are all refusing to carry them as of course they dont get any residual commissions like they would with Rogers or StarChoice.

Hooked it up to my existing outdoor pizza shaped dish antenna that I bought at Radio Shack 20 years ago and I get 16 channels with crystal clear reception. While this has a built in rotor.. I dont really use it... I have it pointed at WNED in Buffalo and it seems to get enough signal off the sides for Toronto, Hamilton and all the Buffalo stations. Nice TV Guide, pass through and all the subchannels too.

So back to the original question: if you count the old antenna... it cost about $100 plus the new unit for $59.95...total about $170.

[Almost]

An Apex $70 converter box (instead of a new tv)
A $3 homemade Yagi antenna in the attic. plywood, alumifoil, cloth hangers ...
Result ? better than a CM 4221

[hyghwayman]

I had been suffering from analog ghosting and snow for a long time. then in 2006 I saw the difference between analog / digital broadcasting in my local HHGregg and was sold.

Replaced my 1991 26" JVC CRT TV with a new 27" digital CRT TV. $350.oo
New antenna built with my own hands (priceless) $0.00
HDTV Sony KD-34XBR970 $700.oo
2nd home made antenna $10.oo
2 converter boxes $40.00

Total spent $1,100.oo , minus the Sony $400.oo I guess I picked the wrong box either way.
hyghwayma

[stampeder]

Actually hyghwayman:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...1&postcount=41

So your amount would be in the lowest range, less than $100.

[bowshock2]

multistar (clone of channel master 4221), two antennas stacked together , each $30..connected by aluminium wires..one single coax connected to winegard ap 4700 preamp..then to splitter combiner..so around $170 i get around 21 channles HD..US + canada

[Chuck]

I just paid less than $100 including tax for a TERK HDTVi set top antenna and Artec T3AP converter box. I live near Rodeo Drive in Mississauga, on a low hill in flat land, so to speak, with Lake Ontario on the horizon. I got about 14 channels, mostly HD. The first picture I got was of the PGA tour last Saturday, in HD 16:9 format. I was flabbergasted. The picture is better than cable. I'm going to cancel cable as soon as I switch my phone and internet back to Bell. OK, I will loose Discovery, but my cable bill averages $1,000/year. The choice is clear, I'm going full OTA. Thank you.

[HDTV101]

Originally Posted by zeppy65

..........install a 40ft tower with a 15 ft long antenna.............. I live in Oshawa in a new sub-division and figured I'd catch hell from the neighbours for putting an antenna up
.

I first checked with the municipality about installing my tower. This way I knew if anyone did complain I would know legally where I stand. My next door neighbour did question about it… I told him it was only 45 feet and that in Mississauga you can install a tower as high as 65 feet without a permit from the city. A week later a region of peel inspector stopped by my home and delivered a large envelope… as my next door neighbour watched thinking it was to do with the tower and that I was in big trouble about it ........ to his joy I would think… he later asked me about it “so what did the region of peel guy want?” I told him what it was about…. He was delivering the $50 worth of garbage tags I had bought on-line… hheheheh the look on my neighbours face was classic!

[TVOR]

from the apartment tower dumpster, washers, screws from the hardware store. Oops, not big enough washers, and screws so, another purchase. That was $9.44

The Tivax STB T8 from The Source a gift from my partner (about $100.00)

Then for the balance of the Sunday afternoon, I put together the CHA (coat-hanger antenna). Plugged that sad-looking piece of junk into the STB and then into some 90's-era Sanyo and received 10 HD signals immediately. Took it the second floor, and picked up 18 HD signals.

Cancelled Rogers four days later at $68 month.

Loved all of this so much I bought a combo Viewsonic HDTV/LCD for $474.00, for a birthday gift to myself.

Now, a huge thank you to all the contributors and knowledge in this forum, and at Digitalhome. Stampeder, if I could nominate you for a Governor General's Award for all your work and advice to users here you would be on your way to Rideau Hall tomorrow.

Finally, a thank you to the CN Tower, and all those foresighted enough to put that up 35 years ago.

[stampeder]

Originally Posted by TVOR

Stampeder, if I could nominate you for a Governor General's Award

Hee hee and while I'm there I can set up Her Excellency's OTA gear too!

[goforit]

$450 got me: 4228HD antenna, CM Rotor, CM Pre-amp 7777, coax RG6. side wall mount and other materials: get all TO/HAM/BUF digital.

I also set up a second (wife) TV with 2 4221HDs- one pointed to Toronto and one pointed to Buffalo. Get almost all except wutv and wnyo (that's ok, wife doesn't care for fox)- cost $100.

OTA all the way!

[ontherooftop77]

I have a black 17-18 foot pole in my backyard which is good for J pole mounts.
I found some parts in my attic and with some tools made a 4 foot Jpole , Free
Channel master 4221HD antenna was $70
The winegaurd UHF pre amp was $80
Then a bunch of RG6 cables, a splitter , ground block $35.

so all together 185 bucks plus labour , thank god for the thinking of my J pole
and assembling it with clever thinking saved me some coin.

[Jim2CPU]

Thus far I've got $357.50 invested.

HDHomeRun - $250
EyeTV - $100
DIY Antenna - $7.50
* Transformer - $5
* Washers - $2.50

No more cable for me! Looking forward to making this more permanent. Willing to invest another 150-200 if necessary to get even more channels (currently get 12 digital, 5 HD)

[CHrisCHu]

For the purpose to suggest to newbies what is expected to cost setting up OTA rig, I voted $100-500 for mine. However, in reality there's no clear cut answer to this question. The reason is that some parts for the rig I didn't buy them just for OTA so I can't just tally up all the cost. Let me provide more details for you to judge.

I was working in US between 2006-2008 where I had a full cable subscription complete with VOD included. Since it was a small city, OTA wasn't that practical plus I got ridiculous amount of allowance from work so why not get the full cable subscription. Back then, HD broadcast and cable HD lineup were booming in the US. The number of HD channels with real HD contents my cable company (Comcast) provided pentupled to over 50 in 2 years and at times they had to play catch-up to set encryption flags for their new digital channels. Since I noticed my Westinghouse and Samsung HDTVs with built-in QAM tuner was able to receive and show VOD programs I decided to get a QAM tuner to capture them to my PC (I also had the Motorola dual-tuner HDPVR at the time but the encrypted programs can't be transfered to the PC). I ended up getting the Pinnacle HDTV Ultimate USB Stick (CAD$90-equivalent, the only QAM tuner that actually worked under XP32 at the time) to capture my 3TB (that's terabytes) worth of VOD contents which included new HD movies from encrypted paid channels like HBO, SHOtime, etc. (the "free" flag in the VOD stream weren't set at that time). The 3TB contents also included firewire captures from my HDPVR box on unencrypted HD contents (network channels, Discovery HD, NGC HD, etc.). It's not until I moved back to Canada to start using the Pinnacle USB stick for OTA. Even if not for any OTA use, I've got more than my money worth from the Pinnacle USB stick so I wouldn't even consider that cost for my OTA rig.

Once I moved back to Canada, all I needed to do to set up my OTA rig was to get a good antenna. I ended up getting an amplified antenna (comes with a dish, a loop and rabbit-ears) from Radio Shack for the sale price of $40. The DVR software that came with the Pinnacle USB stick works OK but I eventually got Beyond TV which is extremely user-friendly like the various versions of Motorola DCT's HDDVR boxes I used in the US. I'm so satisfied with my rig that recently I upgraded it with a couple of 1.5TB HDDs for storage ($300, while still keeping my sytem and other HDD use on the original separate system drive) and the ATI TV Wonder 650 combo tuner USB box (CAD$90 from Future Shop at regular price) as my 2nd and 3rd tuners. It's a combo tuner box in that I can record from both built-in NTSC tuner and ATSC concurrently. What's more, the ATI box takes cable and OTA inputs separately. What that means is that now with my rig I can record 2 HD channels plus a cable SD analog channel all at the same time, or an HD plus a cable SD analog plus an OTA SD analog all at the same time, all without having to switch cable inputs. Beyond TV manages the various tuners almost perfectly, plus it intelligently records shows onto the 2 1.5TB HDDs alternately determined by free space on each, just like the Motorola HDDVR does with its internal and external HDDs. This is good because 2 simultaneous HD recordings takes more than just negligible disk performance hit, especially if I'm fast-fowarding a 3rd HD recording or doing some HD editing. The 3TB storage comes in very handy because with 2 HD and 1 SD recordings simultaneously, HDD storage goes 22GB/hr. Beyond TV can also intelligently records each of 2 simultaneous HD programs onto each HDD.

So, in the end, my 4-tuner OTA/cable HDDVR rig includes:

- Amplified dish/loop/rabbit-ear antenna from Radio Shack: $40 -- 100% for OTA use
- ATI TVWonder 650 combo tuner: $90 -- 100% for OTA and cable use
- Beyond TV: ~$100 -- 100% for OTA and cable use
- 2x 1.5TB HDDs: $300 -- 50% for OTA and cable use
- Pinnacle QAM/ATSC/NTSC Ultimate Stick USB: $90 (Jan2008) -- cost already been recovered even before OTA-use in 2008
- Samsung 1080p LCD HDTV: $1200 from Jan2008
- Sony 5.1ch sound system: $140 from Nov2007

Let's put it this way. If I were not to set up my OTA rig, I would've been about $380 richer based on the above numbers. Sure it sounds high, but note that with that much spent, I get a 4-tuner (3 simultaneous) HDDVR with 1.5TB storage and remote/internet-programming capability. It's not something one requires to run OTA, but it's a pretty nice setup in my opinion.