Two HD Tuners, Two Antennas

[Llamas]

I'm thinking about dusting off my SageTV license, and configuring a box with two A180 HD Tuner cards to record OTA HD at my new apartment.

What I am not clear on is how/if it is possible to map different channels to the different tuners. I can't pick up all stations with a single antenna orientation, but I can between two different antennas. However, if the channel selection is per line-up, rather than per tuner, how can I tell (before going to all the time and trouble to setup a new machine) if there are multiple line-ups available in my area (Seattle) to allow me to work around this?

Thanks,

--Mike

[theHac]

Have you tried combining the signal from both antennas? You may have to play around w/ the orientation and spacing depending on how much of the other signal each antenna picks up, but you should be able to find a layout that works pretty well with some experimenting.

If you've got good signal strength, you could always try an omindirectional antenna instead of the two you have.

[Llamas]

I'm about a mile from one set of antennas and two from another set...in opposite directions, and I've got a three story building standing immediately (10 feet away) between me and one set. Another set of antennas is off at an angle, and 13 miles away. I can receive all but the set that's blocked, and those to a marginal, but not acceptable, extent, by aiming towards the distant antennas. I think I get so much reflection that multipath may be the bigger problem, which may preclude an omni-directional antenna.

I guess I could try to combine them, though everything I've seen has said that it's a bad thing, unless I use a jointenna, or similar filter.

Anyway, there's definitely an element of complexity to making this work that reduces the attractiveness of the whole project. How much do I have to spend on different approaches before giving in and going with cable's mediocre HD DVR?

Thanks,

--Mike

[pcuoco]

I used a $6 radio shack spiltter/combiner to combine two OTA antennas to receive all channels in my area. It worked like a charm. All my channels now come in with min 85% signal strength, most in the 90's.

[theHac]

I think I'd rather have those issues I hear the VBOX 151 is good for multipath (I'll try and post back about that after I get mine working). I've got some of those issues as well, along with weak broadcast antennas and a lot more distance.
I'm about 45 miles away from some of the weakest signals, I've got two strong ones that are further west and another one that's towards the east. Add to that line of site issues and the fact that Sage no longer likes my HD tuners and I'm about ready for cable too, now that it's finally in my area... but I'm not giving in. At least I got the SuperBowl in HD and should get some Olympics too

[Goodspike]

There's a product called Join-tenna or something like that, that is best for joining two antennas together. They are custom made based on the frequencies you want to join, so you don't add to multi-path issues.

If Sage doesn't allow you to select different channels with different tuners, that would be a great feature to add!

[Llamas]

Originally Posted by Goodspike

There's a product called Join-tenna or something like that, that is best for joining two antennas together. They are custom made based on the frequencies you want to join, so you don't add to multi-path issues.

If Sage doesn't allow you to select different channels with different tuners, that would be a great feature to add!

There is the jointenna, but at $30 per filtered freq, it would be a $60 experiment. Joining through a splitter just made everything worse.

I thought I saw mention in another thread that I might be able to subscribe to two different, neighboring channel lineups to take advantage of the overlap. I'll have to go look for that again to see if that's a possibility. Perhaps Tacoma/Seattle or Everett/Seattle, or something.

MCE seems to do things the same way, where a given channel lineup is unique, rather than an instance per tuner. It's too bad there isn't a filter between each tuner and the channel lineup, especially in the case of HD where it's all OTA and very directional.

Thanks,

--Mike

[Goodspike]

Originally Posted by Llamas

There is the jointenna, but at $30 per filtered freq, it would be a $60 experiment. Joining through a splitter just made everything worse.

Yes, that's the one. The people I've heard who have it have been happy with it, but what else would they say after spending $60.00 on a splitter!