New Construction

[00SCSS]

First off I am amazed at the knowledge floating around this site. Makes me think I came to the right spot for some help. I'm building a new house and want to go with an antenna. I will be in zip 29902 (32.404513,-80.697799 should be pretty close) and only using one tv for a while, which is a new LG with built in tuner. For buildings there isn't anything more than 2 story homes around, but the neighborhood does have a number of trees. What kind of setup would you recomend with mounting the antenna in the attic?
Also, I am about to run all of the cable wiring in the house, so I can run it which ever way would be the most beneficial. We will have cable internet when we move in and somewhere down the road I may get cable, the question is how should I wire it? Run everything like normal for cable and add a leg from the attic directly to the tv? Thanks in advance.

[tigerbangs]

If you are concerned about wiring, we should start there, especially since you are undecidied about cable TV or an antenna. If your walls are open, and you have easy access, I would run high-quality RG-6u coaxial cable from a central point in your house (like a panel in the attic) to each room where you want television. Use "F" fitting type wall plates to accomodate the cable, and try to run an even number of leads, since cable divides better when run in multiples of two. You can wire as many rooms as you like using this method. Be sure that you have AC power available where all the coax cables converge. When all the cables are brought to one point in the attic, determine how many total cables you have, and buy an appropriately-sized splitter to accomodate the cables ( 2-way, 4-way, 8 way etc) If you are planning to run multple cables ( 2 or more ), considder adding a 2-way cable TV amplifier in the line before running from your signal source ( TV antenna or cable)

I have successfully used splitter-amplifiers like the Channel Master CM341x series with up to 8 TV outlets. These devices have both splitter and amplifier built into one chassis, and are convenient, but, like all amplifiers, require AC power to operate. This system will work equally well with Cable TV or an external TV antenna.

If you are considering using multiple computers, you can use Wi-Fi easily enough, but you will get faster speeds and greater security if you run CAT-6 cable brought to the same single point in the attic, and use a good-quality router to distribute your internet needs. All cable is a pain to run once the walls are in, but easy to do if you are still in the construction phase, and have access to open walls and an electrical contractor.

http://www.channelmaster.com
http://manuals.solidsignal.com/AntInstallGuide.pdf

[00SCSS]

Between cable and antenna it is going to be antenna for some time, but I will be using cable for internet purposes(using a wireless router). What would be the best way to setup a system to use the antenna for TV and cable for internet? Is there some type of splitter that will take 2 inputs (antenna, cable) then distribute to the rest of the house? Power for an amplifier/splitter in the attic is easy to add while I am still in the wiring process.
What would you recomend for an antenna? Should I go with a rotator since I have signals coming from both Savannah and Charleston?

[tigerbangs]

If you have cable TV for internet, then you have basic cable by default: you cannot distribute cable TV and broadcast TV over the same cables simultaniously. My suggestion would be to use the basic cable provided by the cable TV company : you won't necessarily have all the digital stations, but they DO distribute the major TV networks in High-Def without encrypting them: your TV set will need to have a QAM-capable tuner in order to see the stations, but you will get them.

[00SCSS]

Thank you for your help. Another question for you, if I did go the route of an antenna what would you recommend for my location?

[tigerbangs]

The Savannah stations are closest to you, at about 44 miles, and have both UHF and VHF signals: I would suggest using a Winegard HD-7696P antenna mounted on the roof aimed at roughly 245 degrees in order to pick them up.

[00SCSS]

Thanks a bunch for the help tigerbangs.