Direct TV and on board antenna

"Does the OFF AIR INPUT also provide the 12VDC signal that the OTA Antenna needs to operate?"

The OFF AIR INPUT is simply a coax from the OTA Antenna. No 12 Volt involved.

Back in the day, VHS Recorders would require just one coax out to the TV... the TV saw the tape recording OR the passed through live OTA. Same thing going on with the DTV box. Your TV will either see a Sat channel or the passed through live OTA signal.

Doug - Does the OFF AIR INPUT also provide the 12VDC signal that the OTA Antenna needs to operate?

It was so simple back in the day haha... bring along SAT ANT with two ports and two SAT RCVRS from the house and hook up the SAT RCVR video output to each of the two RV HDTVs. Then using the TV local remotes you could select VID1 that now has SAT TV or whatever mode you was using from CABLE or OTA... That's how we did it at any rate...

Now we just just watch HDTV from the OTA antenna and also cable when we visit public campground places. HDTV looks much better coming from the local TV stations then what comes from the CABLE TV hookups... This of course doesnt let us see the CABLE TV stations like CNN TWX etc when camping off the grid but always get a bunch of local clear TV National Broadcast and oldies stations all in full HDTV mode or nothing at all haha... We also always find a live 24/7 LIVE RADAR from one of the local OTA stations which is important when camping in a OFF-ROAD POPUP camper haha...

We are seeing a few campgroounds however finally changing over to HDTV signals now.

Roy Ken

As another requested, need Receiver model. MOST Direct TV SD receivers have 3 coax fittings on the back

1. IN FROM SAT
2. OUT TO TV
3. OFF AIR INPUT from local Antenna
There is a button on the remote that switches from SAT signal to the Off air coax input OR you can just turn the Sat receiver OFF and this defaults to the OFF air antenna connection.

What year model RV. I have NEVER seen a TV that did not have RCA inputs even on cheap TV's in the RV's. Doug

Tom N wrote:

Big Katuna wrote:
Why not connect both to TV and switch inputs with tv remote?

Because the Standard Def direct TV box connects via the TV coax IN. There would be no coax IN connection available for the off air antenna. Although I may be incorrect.

-Tom

I connected the sat antenna coax OUT to the BOMB at Sat or Aux IN connector and TV antenna to the TV IN connector on the bomb.

Use the Box of Many Buttons switches to switch between sources.

Big Katuna wrote:
Why not connect both to TV and switch inputs with tv remote?

Because the Standard Def direct TV box connects via the TV coax IN. There would be no coax IN connection available for the off air antenna. Although I may be incorrect.

-Tom

X2 what Big Katuna says...

Back when we just bringing along a DIRECTV dish and a couple of SAT RCVRS from the house on our trips we wanted to make it as simple as possible. Our SAT DISH has a two port head on it so we would run RG cable into the trailer one going to the bedroom area and the other going to the living roomarea. Then these RG cables fed directly to a SAT RCVR.

Then we would run RGB cables from the SAT RCVR to the TV SETS to a RGB VIDEO INPUT. This way of connecting was we could still use our trailer TV SETUP normal picking up the CABLE and OTA TV signals and if we wanted to watch the SAT TV just use the TV REMOTE to switch to the VIDEO CHANNEL.

With the two RG cables coming from the two dish ports each location could watch whatever SAT CHANNELS they wanted to see using their remote unit. Seemed like the best of all deals for us. Oc course this was when only STANDARD SAT TV was being available. Have no idea how this would work with HDTV being received VIA SAT TV.

Finally when the NATL BROADCAST came out a few years ago with their DIGITAL HDTV signals FREE from the local towns we stopped bringing along all of our SAT TV items and now just watch HIGH DEF DIGITAL TV from the local towns. Back then this was a much better TV SIGNALs to watch than the standard mode TV was coming down from SAT.

Roy Ken

Why not connect both to TV and switch inputs with tv remote?

Thanks, I was just thinking about the "off air in"!

DTV's SD receivers should have a second coax connector on the back labeled "off air in". Hook the off air antenna coax to this connector. Then when you turn off the receiver the off air antenna signal is sent to the TV.

If there is no "off air in" connector on the back you'll have to use an A/B switch in the coax that goes from the sat receiver to the TV.

-Tom

What receiver?