New to this and need help/advice

[popparob]

Hello all and I hope I am in the right place,

As of the end of Jan we are going to go to OTA tv and what we might be able to get off our slow internet, yes we live in the country and the nearest OTA stations are around 25 miles away and from the same direction, there is 8 of them but I think we'll only be able to get 4 from what I have learned so far,

Anyway I was hoping some of you can get me started in the right direction on what to get and how to go about it all,

I have a OTA ant on a 25' pole and another one I can add if needed, I got all of this when I first moved here back in 2002, zip code is 72070, I have several computers to use and have windows 7 any flavor you want or need, I repair computers for extra money, self taught, I am Disable on SSD and broke more than not, lol, can get around good enough to do chit but not all at onetime, I have limits, my brain is the only thing that works most of the time,

I don't mind people contacting of group but i think until I see whats in here, have not look around as of yet, maybe that in group is best, as others can see what has been suggested and what I have asked and tried to learn so far,

Oh, I/we have Direct but can't afford the changing prices that we see almost every month, if they would of stayed at the $32 buck a month I would be ok, one month it is that or the next over a $100 and we don't do anything but watch the same shows and have no xtra chit, just the very basic plan, the service is good, but the lies and mis-information is not worth the calls and time it takes every month to keep it, besides I need the money now for food and insurance and medical bills, lol

Ok, hope I said enough so you get an ideal of my needs and not to much to turn you away from helping or suggesting things,

Poppa Rob and Miss Linda thank you for the time and advice,

[johnsonx42]

Yes, looks like you'll get 4, maybe 5 stations (which is either 8 or 9 channels). Good thing you have an outdoor antenna on a 25' pole, you'll need it. At least your stations are in the same direction... you must be on the "wrong side" of your transmitters; I'm 35 miles from my towers, and can receive most of them with a bit of loose wire.

Basically you need a TV tuner for your PC, and NextPVR. OTA is the easiest to support, almost any tuner will work. Hauppauge tuners are always recommended here however. I think it's safe to say that Windows 7 is current'y "best" for NPVR, Home Premium or better (just for the MS video decoder which is absent on older versions other than Vista Home Premium, and unusable on Windows 8/8.1).

If you need to buy a tuner you may want to choose one you can return without too much hassle; there is some variance among tuners with how good they are with weak signals. Be prepared that you might have to add a pre-amp to your antenna.