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max157

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Planning to purchase a HDTV TV and don’t know much about HDTV. The two models I’m looking at are the Pioneer Plasma PDP-4360HD and Pioneer Elite Pro-930HD. Both are HDTV ready. Most of my TV watching are DVDs and local stations. My question is do I only a HDTV amplified antenna to watch local stations HDTV channels since I don’t have DirecTV or Cable TV services.
 
I don't know the answer to your question, but I will say this. Don't invite a bunch of people over to watch the Super Bowl on some wide aspect LED TV's with a lousy connection and stretched out images. I had to sit 15 feet way before the picture was no longer a blurry facade of double vision. The 13 inch CRT TV screen sitting on the table four feet away from me was larger and better than the LED many feet away.

Guess what I'm saying is you are paying big bucks for a nice Plasma TV - feed it a good signal, the better the better. :)
 
Max, i don't know the area of the country that you live in but if you have "over the air reception" to a major city the answer is YES. Assuming the sets you are considering are "TV's" (tuners built in) then all you would need would be a yagi with relector (UHF / FM Antenna) with decent gain. This would provide you with all the Hi-def programing your urban area has to offer. There is an antenna web site with more info, don't know it but google away or possibly another member knows.

Good Luck !!
 
Pioneer Plasma 43" HDTV...

max157 said:
Planning to purchase a HDTV TV and don’t know much about HDTV. The two models I’m looking at are the Pioneer Plasma PDP-4360HD and Pioneer Elite Pro-930HD. Both are HDTV ready. Most of my TV watching are DVDs and local stations. My question is do I only a HDTV amplified antenna to watch local stations HDTV channels since I don’t have DirecTV or Cable TV services.
Max,

IMHO, Pioneer is an excellent choice for plasma HDTV... I really enjoy my Pioneer 43" HDTV. If you can, I would recommend the Pioneer Elite 43" HDTV. I would also recommend Cable, Dish or both instead of only antenna for your HD reception.

Although, for sometime now I have been very interested in changing from plasma HDTV, to a front projection HDTV with wall mounted screen set-up. ;)

Good luck in your vision quest, Max... :D
 
max157 said:
Planning to purchase a HDTV TV and don’t know much about HDTV. The two models I’m looking at are the Pioneer Plasma PDP-4360HD and Pioneer Elite Pro-930HD. Both are HDTV ready. Most of my TV watching are DVDs and local stations. My question is do I only a HDTV amplified antenna to watch local stations HDTV channels since I don’t have DirecTV or Cable TV services.

If you only want the local stations, you need an over the air antenna and you would probably need it even if you had cable or satellite. If you like sports, a cable or satellite with ESPN and TNT is nice. I love the programming on HBO which looks great in HD. Here is a link to the AVS forum discussing HD programming and you can find it for your locality.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=45
 
TomDac said:
Sporting events are friggin' AWESOME in HD!! Almost better than being there in person!Tom.

Friggin' A Bubba! [the Superbowl looked great--too bad the game wasn't that good].
 
FWIW, I use a non-amplified hi-def antenna for my Toshiba DLP and it works fine, with signal strengths ranging from 88-95 for various channels from inside my house. The local HDTV antenna farm is about 20 miles southeast from me, so that may be a factor also. After reading various reviews, I use a Zenith Silver Sensor antenna that I got at Sears. This antenna is well-regarded, although it frankly looks and feels pretty cheap... It still seems to work OK. It's small enough that it sits on a bookshelf in my living room, pointed out a window.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006FXR9/102-7176848-9580928?v=glance&n=172282


Warning, "HDTV-ready" is often code for "doesn't come with a built-in HDTV tuner(s)": translation, it is an HDTV monitor. Be sure that the unit you get has a tuner, or you will have to buy an additional outboard tuner box. As an alternative, some cable systems send local channels in hi-def, so you may just need a unit that supports CableCard or get a hi-def cable box.
 
Robin said:
Although, for sometime now I have been very interested in changing from plasma HDTV, to a front projection HDTV with wall mounted screen set-up. ;)

Wow I went the other way...

The thing about getting satellite is that you don't get the HD local channels. So you would still need the OTA antenna to receive those channels in HD. However all channels on satellite are digital so...

Anyone got an indoor antenna to recommend?
 
I'm in MA and use OTA antenna and I get NBC,CBS,ABC,FOX,PUN and PBS with no problem. If you have a old antenna still on your roof it will bring in HD. But like everybody says depends were you live
BTW the show "24" I think is the best show period. In HDTV offcourse.
My opinion offcourse :)
 
Chucky said:
I'm in MA and use OTA antenna and I get NBC,CBS,ABC,FOX,PUN and PBS with no problem. If you have a old antenna still on your roof it will bring in HD. But like everybody says depends were you live
BTW the show "24" I think is the best show period. In HDTV offcourse.
My opinion offcourse :)
relative the "old" antenna. it's the UHF portion that will recieve the high-def signal. Also you will want to use RG-6 coaxial cable for your downlead.
 
twich54 said:
relative the "old" antenna. it's the UHF portion that will recieve the high-def signal. Also you will want to use RG-6 coaxial cable for your downlead.
True Dave. When did you think we would have to put antennas back on the roof again? :)
 
Yang1815 said:
Wow I went the other way...

The thing about getting satellite is that you don't get the HD local channels. So you would still need the OTA antenna to receive those channels in HD. However all channels on satellite are digital so...

Anyone got an indoor antenna to recommend?

And where did you get this info from? Which satellitte provider are you referring to? Direct TV does provide local channels in HD with the HD subscription package? Not everyone can get OTA reception like most of you. You are so fortunate. If I could receive OTA I'd do it in a minute! :D
 
Statman said:
And where did you get this info from? Which satellitte provider are you referring to? Direct TV does provide local channels in HD with the HD subscription package? Not everyone can get OTA reception like most of you. You are so fortunate. If I could receive OTA I'd do it in a minute! :D

At present, DirecTV only provides HD locals in a few limited major TV markets. They have launched several new satellites with the intention of rolling out additional hi-def locals, but the timeframe I saw was 2007. They tend to roll this stuff out based on the size of the market. Unfortunately, my market is 29th on the Nielson list, so it may be awhile here...

DirecTV has a web app on their site that you can use to check for HD locals in your area by zipcode. Note, this same app is used to see if you can get SD locals, so just because it lists stations for your area, unless they specifically claim it's an HD local, it won't be.
 
Chucky said:
True Dave. When did you think we would have to put antennas back on the roof again? :)
Some folks are lucky enough to live where they can pull in good reception with indoor antennas, I'm not one of those !! Unfortuneatly I'm stuck with Comcast as my cable provider....Horrible Co. to deal with.
 
Statman said:
And where did you get this info from? Which satellitte provider are you referring to? Direct TV does provide local channels in HD with the HD subscription package? Not everyone can get OTA reception like most of you. You are so fortunate. If I could receive OTA I'd do it in a minute! :D
This info is from my own personal experience. I use DirecTV. They do offer HD Local channel for New York and Los Angeles. But that's it. In order to receive other HD local channels, you must use an OTA antenna. Keep in mind that every city is different. If you use an indoor antenna, you might run into the problem that the direction from the towers are different, or even opposite from each other. In that case you might have to choose which ones to receive. However if you use an outdoor one, you shouldn't have that problem.
 
twich54 said:
Some folks are lucky enough to live where they can pull in good reception with indoor antennas, I'm not one of those !! Unfortuneatly I'm stuck with Comcast as my cable provider....Horrible Co. to deal with.
At least with cable you get all the HD channels!
 
twich54 said:
Some folks are lucky enough to live where they can pull in good reception with indoor antennas, I'm not one of those !! Unfortuneatly I'm stuck with Comcast as my cable provider....Horrible Co. to deal with.
That's to bad. They better crack down with all the local channels so people can get all the main channels. What's the deadline now for shutting off analog? Jan 09?
 
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