HD TV antenna?

[405driver]

Can anybody recommend a good (reasonably priced)HD TV antenna for permanent installation on my radar arch?

Thanks....

[mjk1040]

Welcome, can't give a specific answer as our 355's antenna is mounted upfront behind the sliding doors on the bridge. Of course it does not work now because its analog and everything up here in NY s digital. We use one of those flat panel ones and place it up on the bridge to get a few local channels. Your choice would depend on what you want to be able to view. You may want to go all out for a satellite dome for unlimited viewing. Hopefully someone will chime in with a good one for u. Mike

[Viper]

Glomex is a good unit

http://www.glomex.it/leisure/eng/antenna-tv-V9112-12.php

[g36]

Welcome, can't give a specific answer as our 355's antenna is mounted upfront behind the sliding doors on the bridge. Of course it does not work now because its analog and everything up here in NY s digital.

I will beg to differ on this. Sure they market digital antennas etc but in real life The type of antenna doesn't matter. for analog or digital. The tuner in the tv must be digital now or a analog convertor box with a digital tuner. What does is if the amplfier on the antenna is still operational how many splitters are inline which drops the signal strength each time and the tv station signals are decent enough. Some tvs digital tuners are not as sensitive to signal strength as others and will not display a channel when another tv will.
I still use the oem antenna on my 1997 405 (mounted in the stbd side forward flybrige storage area) along with my intellion sat dish with dish network. Doing this same thing with dish and ota channels at home and am still using the old aerial vhf/ uhf antenna at my house that my dad bought in the 70's. You can still use regular old rabbit ears too if the digital signal is strong enough. The draw back of digital compared to analog is the channel either comes in or it doesn't where analog you would get the signal and would at least have snow and audio on the set and even get by watching it with a marginal signal if you wanted. Don't let the digital marketing get you.although that's all your probably going to see now days. On my trojan I purchased a Shakespeare antenna and was happy with it. 405 driver I would check the antenna you should have. and the amp for it will be behind the tv in the salon.

[Viper]

.... The type of antenna doesn't matter. for analog or digital. The tuner in the tv must be digital now or a analog convertor box with a digital tuner.... .

Agreed
As you mentioned, there are some variables but essentially you're bang on. The antenna will still capture the signal range and data, it's a matter of whether your hardware down the line can process it or not. Some antennas are just better at capturing the signal than others.

405 driver, are you specifically looking for an HD antenna because you think that alone will give you HD on your screen or do you just want to upgrade your antenna anyway and want newer technology?

[405driver]

Thanks guys...

When I bought the boat last fall it was like one walked back in time to 1998. Everything was original including the TV's. I replaced the salon and aft cabin TV's with Samsung HD smart TV's. Our marina has a fast enough wifi to stream netflix. I also installed a HD antenna on one of the support posts of our slip and use it while in the marina. I get about 40 channels just over the air and a great picture.

Now, what to do when not in the marina? If I can use to the OEM antenna that would be great. Do I need anything additional to use the oem antenna with a digital TV? I was under the impression that I needed a digital antenna to use a digital TV but hopefully from the above comments, I'm wrong.

[g36]

Sounds like my boat was , oem all the way through. you don't need anything extra for antenna use ,just like normal. Probably have the same oem antenna i do you should verify the tv antenna amp is on. There will be a small red led on the bottom section on the antenna itself. Do this in the dark it will much easier to see if it's in the forward flybrige area like mine. The amp is plugged into a outlet behind where the salon tv is youll hsve to stick your head back in there to see it. The selector switch needs to be correct position also. The coax is labelled as to where it's from and goes so inspect this also. If you have a low or no channels picked up or no signal on the tvs temporarily I would take the feed from the antenna amplifier and bypass all the splitters selector switch and plug directly to the salon tv and do another channel scan to see what is picked up. This scenario will give you the strongest signal without the splitter loss etc. You may see a difference this way maybe not depending on your area.

[mjk1040]

Damn you learn something new everyday! Mike

[Lyndon670]

I thought I posted this before, if I did, I apologize, if not - it must have been on another forum. With data plans so cheap now, I am a huge advocate of getting an Amazon Fire Stick and plugging it into your TV. Use your phone as a hot spot and now you can get everything on your TV. I just select 480 res on each stream and I can watch as much TV/Movies as I want anywhere without even coming close to my 6gig monthly limit. I know that in the US you folks have much bigger data packages, so you can afford to watch stuff in HD.

We have 3 TV's on the boat and I have a fire stick on each TV.

[405driver]

That's a great idea....thanks