HD Antenna

[sweer]

I saw a post on CNET that a couple of people who bought Sony Bravia TV's with internal receivers purchased HD antennas to pick up the local HD stations. Does anyone know how well this works or should I go with Directv's HD DVR? I want to keep my DVR but don't really see the reason to spend $400 for an HD DVR and then $10.00 more a month for the few stations they have in HD besides the local channels.

[ericl]

Any TV antenna will work(UHF i believe), you don't need a special "HDTV" Antenna. You must have one lying around, give it a shot and see how good your reception is.

[elapsed]

You may want to read these articles:

An Introduction to High Definition Off-Air Antennas
http://tv.about.com/od/hdtv/a/hdantenna.htm

Top 6 Indoor and Outdoor High Definition (HD) Antennas
http://tv.about.com/od/accesspries/tp/topHDantenna.htm

Let us know how it goes!

[topspeed]

I installed an amplifed OTA antenna because DirecTV charges extra for local channels in HD. For $50, why not? It works very well and I was surprised at how many extra channels I got from it. Who knew PBS had an HD station?

As for popping for the HD DVR, all of the satellite companies rake you over the coals to upgrade. However, if you're a new client, you can get the same receiver for usually half off. I'm not joking. It's an asinine philosophy that I've ranted about before and it caused me to switch from Dish to Direct. That said, Direct is scheduled to release a new HD DVR when they upgrade their HD from MPEG3 to MPEG4 sometime in the near future. This will force current users, such as your's truly, to ditch their current receivers for the new ones. Ain't it grand?

[Hyfi]

My Bravia XBR1 picks up HD sub-channels with just a Radio Shack roof antena. All local stations broadcast the HD as .1(ABC, CBS, NBC-3.1, 6.1, 10.1). All PBS stations have between 3 and 5 sub-channels. WB has a channel called The Tube- Music Videos 24/7.

The pic on my 40" LCD with roof antena betters Plasma's with cable feed.