Where are folks here mounting their silicon dust antennas?

[NeverDie]

I presently have mine indoors, but since I'm presently in a mode where I'm pulling cable, I'm thinking of relocating the antenna to the attic and pull coaxial cable wire from it to the SiliconDust inside the house.    Is that what others here are doing, or is there a better location where they can function well and not be an eyesore?

 

[pete_c]

Yup here mounted an antenna in one corner of the attic using PVC piping.  I am some 25 miles SW of the city and originally had installed an inline amp in the attic and a distribution amp in the basement.  I left those in place and the Silicon Dust tuner works fine.
 
All of the channels work fine.  (even with that older RG-6 (junky) Monster Cable in place still).  The tuner is tacked to the media panel RG-6 section (well there area also satellite feeds and cable feeds there).

 

[drvnbysound]

I bought and was going to mount an antenna in my attic, but returned it after I connected my HDHR tuners directly to my Comcast cable and pull the OTA channels from their signal...

 

[sic0048]

I bought and was going to mount an antenna in my attic, but returned it after I connected my HDHR tuners directly to my Comcast cable and pull the OTA channels from their signal...

 
Enjoy it while it lasts.  Most cable companies have done away with clear QAM unfortunately.  I guess Comcast hasn't yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear an announcement that they are pulling it someday.

 

[pete_c]

Here CC in Chicago has removed the OTA channels such that you have to utilize a cable card. 
 
I thought the changes were nationwide.  I have read of one little BB provider in FL that still provides the OTA channels and even premium channels on the wire which is nice.  Thinking that they manage the HD stuff at the CO's?
 
That said I also have a SD for cable and OTA online. (two boxes)
 
Both connect to my MythTV box.
 
I did also read that CC is going in the direction of no cable cards and their own proprietary set top box making the use of cable cards obsolete.
 
Here too backfeeding channels to an older NTSC capture card also plugged in to the MythTV box.
 
This allows me to stream a variety to whatever (mostly XBMC) running on whatever such that I am streaming SD, 720 HD and 1080 HD back to the house.

 

[NeverDie]

Isn't the visual fidelity of the HDTV that you can capture over cable typically inferior to what you can capture OTA anyway?

 

[pete_c]

Here compare Comcast to Direct TV to DISH. 
 
Compression artifacts is worst on Direct TV / DISH.  The difference is in a PPV movie versus some TV show.
 
Comcast isn't much better as they are now having to put much more data on the cable wires.
 
Web streaming is the worst of all.
 
Nicest looking HD video is broadcast OTA for me.

 

[drvnbysound]

Isn't the visual fidelity of the HDTV that you can capture over cable typically inferior to what you can capture OTA anyway?

 
It's better than the quality I get from my HD-PVR, which I use to record content from the Premium channels.

 

[NeverDie]

Assuming NEC applies, is a UL-listed CL3R the proper coaxial cable for connecting with an antenna in an attic?

 

[neillt]

Here compare Comcast to Direct TV to DISH. 
 
Compression artifacts is worst on Direct TV / DISH.  The difference is in a PPV movie versus some TV show.
 
Comcast isn't much better as they are now having to put much more data on the cable wires.
 
Web streaming is the worst of all.
 
Nicest looking HD video is broadcast OTA for me.

 
You haven't seen painful HD compression until you go watch AT&T U-Verse.  Thankfully it seems like they turn up the bandwidth for channels that will be popular like NFL games.  But head up into the nether-regions of the higher channels and I swear it's like watching YouTube through a dial-up connection.

 

[NeverDie]

The colors on AT&T U-verse are washed out across all the channels.  ATT U-Verse was the last provider we had prior to our cutting the cord.  It's ironic that OTA is now a vast improvement over cable, but it is.  When we recorded this year's winter olympics, the OTA broadcasts were fantastic.  We recorded the original video transport stream, so nothing was lost as compared to watching live HDTV.

 

[pete_c]

Yup; here my references related to live HD. 
 
Personally here though had an issue with the Verizon FIOS Motorola STB not working with an HDMI cable.
 
 I had to connect HD analog like with was a PITA as the chase for the cables was already full. This is from a couple of years ago. 
 
I left it alone as the media center was custom built and its a real pain to move the wires around.   I don't pay attention any more.

 

[NeverDie]

Assuming NEC applies, is a UL-listed CL3R the proper coaxial cable for connecting with an antenna in an attic?

 
Bump.  Anyone know?

 

[NeverDie]

Answering my own question:  looks as though CMR cable coax would work, and I'm finding it easier to source.  

 

[Del91574]

There's enough interchange on the cable in the NEC.
 
You only need to know which article applies to your installation. Riser is not needed in 99% of residential installs.