A Discussion On HDTV OTA Reception

oblioman · 03-05-2005, 04:34 PM

Stay away from the square shooter. It's nothing but a glorified bowtie for twice the price and half the reception. I read an article (I wish I could remember the url) that compared the squareshooter against Channel Master and the CM blew the SS away. I'll look for the article and if I find it I'll post.

rbuyaky · 03-21-2005, 02:55 PM

I'm a DirecTV subscriber who finally took the HD plunge. When I bought the new TV and HD receiver they sold me the Terk TV44 antenna for off air HDTV. I couldn't stand waiting for the installation so connected my existing dish to the new receiver and set the TV44 on top of my component cabinet and plugged it directly into the receiver. After fiddling with it I was able to pull in all my local digital channels (Zip = 43085 so I got ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS).

After installation on my dish I only get ABC and flaky signal on FOX; NBC is gone completely and CBS and PBS are unwatchable. Since the antenna worked well inside when I was testing it out and works terribly now that it's mounted outside I'm suspecting I've miswired it somehow.

I'm assuming I installed it correctly according to the connectors on the antenna even though the pictures in the manual do not match. I have it configured as follows:

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Connectors 1, 5, 3, 7 are labelled "IN" and are connected to my Dish.
Connectors 2, 4, 6, 8 are labelled "OUT" and are connected to my
receiver.

The picture in the manual make it look like the 4 leftmost connectors are "IN" and the 4 rightmost are "OUT," but that is clearly not how they are labelled.

When I was playing I only connected one cable directly from 8 to the HD receiver and I believe that is still the one that is connected, although it's through a diplexer (checked and rechecked the correct connections there).

Any suggestions on what I may be doing wrong?

TIA,

Reid

dels28 · 03-21-2005, 08:44 PM

I recently bought the KDF-55WF655 thinking I could pull digital broadcast from the aparment cable i was receiving, Wrong.
I then went to CC, and was recommended the Jensen 911, I pulled in all broadcast networks from Chicago(ABC,NBC,FOX,UPN, and WB),. unfortunately, Channel 2, CBS, has not been picked up in digital, it comes in poor from analog, as does NBC 5, but no amount of moving will change it. I receive PBS, and other local digital channels in Spanish.
The Jensen signal on these stations fluctute between 75-90% in strength. Thinking and reading the reveiws on how well the TERK 5 worked, I gave it a try, it was terrible, I could only receive two stations ABC 7, and WGN/WB at 72%.

Does anyone know of an indoor antenna as I'm stuck in my aparment until the first of May, (moving to a new house), and can anyone recommend an excellent outdoor antenna I can mount either in an attic or outside. I'm around 35 miles from downtown Chicago in Merrillville.

rbuyaky · 03-23-2005, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbuyaky

I'm a DirecTV subscriber who finally took the HD plunge. When I bought the new TV and HD receiver they sold me the Terk TV44 antenna for off air HDTV. I couldn't stand waiting for the installation so connected my existing dish to the new receiver and set the TV44 on top of my component cabinet and plugged it directly into the receiver. After fiddling with it I was able to pull in all my local digital channels (Zip = 43085 so I got ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS).

After installation on my dish I only get ABC and flaky signal on FOX; NBC is gone completely and CBS and PBS are unwatchable. Since the antenna worked well inside when I was testing it out and works terribly now that it's mounted outside I'm suspecting I've miswired it somehow.

I'm assuming I installed it correctly according to the connectors on the antenna even though the pictures in the manual do not match. I have it configured as follows:

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

Connectors 1, 5, 3, 7 are labelled "IN" and are connected to my Dish.
Connectors 2, 4, 6, 8 are labelled "OUT" and are connected to my
receiver.

The picture in the manual make it look like the 4 leftmost connectors are "IN" and the 4 rightmost are "OUT," but that is clearly not how they are labelled.

When I was playing I only connected one cable directly from 8 to the HD receiver and I believe that is still the one that is connected, although it's through a diplexer (checked and rechecked the correct connections there).

Any suggestions on what I may be doing wrong?

TIA,

Reid

Nevermind....I eMailed this same basic question to Terk Tech Support and they responded. Apparently the newer TV44s are configured as I described but some were packaged with older instructions. He was kind enough to send me a pdf of the new installation guide and suggested "you can rotate the antenna around the dish to try to improve reception." This is also stated in the new instructions, so I tried it. It turns out that rotating the antenna about 30 degrees gives me awesome reception for all the digital channels in my area. After 4 days of experimenting with inside antennas and almost resigning myself to installing a new antenna on my roof, I am completely satisfied with the TV44. Go figger.

Mourad34 · 04-01-2005, 04:26 AM

I'm living in Oakland, CA 94609, and here is all OTA channels that I can receive when I do a digital scan using JVC Dish 6000 HD receiver :

2-01 FOX - KTVUHD
2-02 FOX - KTVU-DT
4-01 IND - KRON-SD
4-02 IND - KRON-HD
5-01 CBS - KPIX DT
7-01 ABC - KGO-DT
7-02 ABC - KGO-DT
9-01 PBS - KQED-HD
9-02 PBS - ENCORE
9-03 PBS - WORLD
9-04 PBS - LIFE
9-05 PBS - KIDS
20-01 WB - KBWB-HD
20-02 WB - KBWB-SD
26-01 IND - KTSF D1
26-02 IND - KTSF D2
32-01 PBS - KMTP-DT
38-01 SAH - KCNS
43-01 PBS - KCSM
43-02 PBS - JazzTV
44-01 UPN - KBHK-DT
65-01 PAX - KKPX-DT
65-02 PAX - PaxEast
65-03 PAX - Worship
65-04 PAX - Faith
66-01 TFA - KFSF

But when I'm zapping throu the channels and when I reach whatever channel is closed it displays it's signal strengh bar (about 80%) and than freez and remove those channels from the listing and jump to any existing channel, To watch those channels again I have to do a scan, So actualy I'm doing a scan each time I turn on the receiver to start watching TV, Any explanation ??

RSawdey · 04-01-2005, 02:08 PM

Sounds like a 'feature' that wasn't well thought out... perhaps it just needs to ASK if it should be deleted, so you can say no with channels temporarily off the air. Or just rip it out... anyway, it's a firmware bug you should report to JVC, maybe they've already got a fix in a firmware update for you...

Mourad34 · 04-02-2005, 01:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RSawdey

Sounds like a 'feature' that wasn't well thought out... perhaps it just needs to ASK if it should be deleted, so you can say no with channels temporarily off the air. Or just rip it out... anyway, it's a firmware bug you should report to JVC, maybe they've already got a fix in a firmware update for you...

I guess they stop updating firmwares for that model, I even looked at DishNetwork website there is no software update at the moment, it has the latest version which is 7.84

feijoel · 10-27-2005, 02:49 PM

great essay. I'll stop bugging everyone now

RobStl · 11-04-2005, 12:50 PM

I live in a suburb of St. Louis (O'Fallon, MO). I have my antenna in the attic and have spent much time positioning it.

The problem I have, mainly on CBS, is that sometimes I can watch a show without a hitch but other times (even during clear weather) the picture will freeze or pixelate, which may or may not go away by itself. The signal strength is typically 100 or higher but sometimes it drops to 0.

I have the RG-6 running from the antenna to the basement (two stories) into an amplifier. Fox is always around 125, NBC is usually over 100 but occasionally drops out. PBS is strong, ABC and UPN are always typically strong. Only sometimes does WB come in at all.

What could be the reason for the occasional dropouts on CBS?

**rbinck** · 11-04-2005, 01:09 PM

Probably multipath from reflected signals due to metal objects (ducts, pipes) in the attic. Suggestion would be to move the antenna outside.

bjones029 · 11-21-2005, 08:21 AM

I got an OTA indoor antenna (as recommended by ww.checkhd.com). I tried to hook it to my Comcast SA3250HD box as input. No luck. I went through the settings and could find a way to make it work. Since my Samsung DLP does not have a tuner, do I need to buy a HD turner. My goal is to punt Comcast all together. I cant get local channels in HD.

HD N ME · 11-28-2005, 09:28 AM

I live in a mobile home park where outdoor antennas are not allowed, so I tried several indoor antennas to get my local channels in HD (since my Direct TV HD package does not include them, and I was denied access by the networks themselves). After all the antennas I tried, by far the best one that got all the channels (and several I wasn't expecting) was an old rabbit ears/UHF loop combo antenna. The pictures were incredible and everything was great, until the secondary signals (bouncing off all the mobile homes around me?) started happening about every thirty seconds or so, making watching anything from the antenna not worth watching. Here is my question: Recently I tried the famed silver sensor. It didn't pull in much at all, but gave me an idea. Since the old loop antenna is pulling in everything (towers are about 30 miles away) including secondary signals, would it be possible to hook it up with the silver sensor in tandem, to filter out the secondary signals?

RSawdey · 11-29-2005, 05:34 PM

Cable boxes don't have OTA tuners built in, only Sat boxes do this. But most local stations are usually retransmitted as cable channels, your digital locals need the HD digital cable STB to receive. For local digital OTA, you'll need an external ATSC tuner box.

xjcx · 12-04-2005, 06:18 AM

hello!! i finally found a great forum site for this HDTV discussion!!

i'm not sure whether i'm in the right thread of posting my question here, please forgive me if i'm not!

well, i wonder will it be a difference when connect the antenna(OTA) to the HDTV set top box?? because i'm living in the apartment, the normal anolog TV often receive "snowy" pictures from the free-to-air channels. when connected to the digital HDTV ready LCD TV 32", the appearance of those "snowy" pictures become worst. so i thought if i got the HDTV set top box, will it make any differences?? do i need additional antenna?? i'm getting quite confuse whether it's the antenna problem or i just need the set top box.

i hope someone here can reply me! thanx heaps!!

hdtv4prs · 12-04-2005, 11:53 AM

I live about 40 miles from a HD low band vhf and 50 miles from a HD uhf station which are north of my area (zip 44646) towards Cleveland
. Recently bought the Sony 42" A10 and the Directv R-10/DVR combo. I have an old ratshack antenna and pre-amp mounted on a 30' tower with a rotor. Am very well pleased with my overall reception except for the fringe stations mentioned above. Sometimes I get a weak signal and at times get a reasonable signal. I get the following HD pics from channels: vhf 3.1, 5.1 uhf 19.1, 43.1 50.2. Would like to replace everything on the tower (rotor,antenna,pre-amp , coax , rotor wires ; all over 20 yrs. old).

Want to get a fringe uhf/vhf combo antenna. In the far future ,reading that some stations may go down to the low and hi vhf bands.
Looking at getting the following items:

Channel Master 3679 uhf/vhf antenna
Channel Master 9521A automatic remote control rotor
Channel Master 7777 Titan 2 pre-amp
All new RG-6 coax cables and 3 wire rotor wires

Antennaweb.org has antenna color violet for the most distant HD stations as follows: for 19.1 (RF assigment 10) vhf at 39 miles
47.2 miles for channel 41 uhf

Any suggestions for the above combo's. As noted I would like to keep antenna's down to one combo if possible. I would go to separate uhf and vhf antenna's if I really needed them. I don't know in my case what would work reasonably. Help !

03-05-2005, 04:34 PM	#16
oblioman OTIS,,me hero Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Someville TN Posts: 4,558	In response to Conroe Stay away from the square shooter. It's nothing but a glorified bowtie for twice the price and half the reception. I read an article (I wish I could remember the url) that compared the squareshooter against Channel Master and the CM blew the SS away. I'll look for the article and if I find it I'll post.

03-21-2005, 02:55 PM	#17
rbuyaky A couch and an HDTV to go please. Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Worthington, Ohio Age: 58 Posts: 10	Odd Experience? I'm a DirecTV subscriber who finally took the HD plunge. When I bought the new TV and HD receiver they sold me the Terk TV44 antenna for off air HDTV. I couldn't stand waiting for the installation so connected my existing dish to the new receiver and set the TV44 on top of my component cabinet and plugged it directly into the receiver. After fiddling with it I was able to pull in all my local digital channels (Zip = 43085 so I got ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and PBS). After installation on my dish I only get ABC and flaky signal on FOX; NBC is gone completely and CBS and PBS are unwatchable. Since the antenna worked well inside when I was testing it out and works terribly now that it's mounted outside I'm suspecting I've miswired it somehow. I'm assuming I installed it correctly according to the connectors on the antenna even though the pictures in the manual do not match. I have it configured as follows: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Connectors 1, 5, 3, 7 are labelled "IN" and are connected to my Dish. Connectors 2, 4, 6, 8 are labelled "OUT" and are connected to my receiver. The picture in the manual make it look like the 4 leftmost connectors are "IN" and the 4 rightmost are "OUT," but that is clearly not how they are labelled. When I was playing I only connected one cable directly from 8 to the HD receiver and I believe that is still the one that is connected, although it's through a diplexer (checked and rechecked the correct connections there). Any suggestions on what I may be doing wrong? TIA, Reid

03-21-2005, 08:44 PM	#18
dels28 Hoosier Man Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: NW Indiana Posts: 687	Need good indoor or outdoor antenna I recently bought the KDF-55WF655 thinking I could pull digital broadcast from the aparment cable i was receiving, Wrong. I then went to CC, and was recommended the Jensen 911, I pulled in all broadcast networks from Chicago(ABC,NBC,FOX,UPN, and WB),. unfortunately, Channel 2, CBS, has not been picked up in digital, it comes in poor from analog, as does NBC 5, but no amount of moving will change it. I receive PBS, and other local digital channels in Spanish. The Jensen signal on these stations fluctute between 75-90% in strength. Thinking and reading the reveiws on how well the TERK 5 worked, I gave it a try, it was terrible, I could only receive two stations ABC 7, and WGN/WB at 72%. Does anyone know of an indoor antenna as I'm stuck in my aparment until the first of May, (moving to a new house), and can anyone recommend an excellent outdoor antenna I can mount either in an attic or outside. I'm around 35 miles from downtown Chicago in Merrillville.

10-27-2005, 02:49 PM	#23
feijoel HDaddy Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 12	thanks great essay. I'll stop bugging everyone now

11-04-2005, 12:50 PM	#24
RobStl HD is outstanding Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: St. Louis Posts: 3	HD OTA signal drops I live in a suburb of St. Louis (O'Fallon, MO). I have my antenna in the attic and have spent much time positioning it. The problem I have, mainly on CBS, is that sometimes I can watch a show without a hitch but other times (even during clear weather) the picture will freeze or pixelate, which may or may not go away by itself. The signal strength is typically 100 or higher but sometimes it drops to 0. I have the RG-6 running from the antenna to the basement (two stories) into an amplifier. Fox is always around 125, NBC is usually over 100 but occasionally drops out. PBS is strong, ABC and UPN are always typically strong. Only sometimes does WB come in at all. What could be the reason for the occasional dropouts on CBS?

04-01-2005, 04:26 AM	#20
Mourad34 How can anyone watch standard def? Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 26	I'm living in Oakland, CA 94609, and here is all OTA channels that I can receive when I do a digital scan using JVC Dish 6000 HD receiver : 2-01 FOX - KTVUHD 2-02 FOX - KTVU-DT 4-01 IND - KRON-SD 4-02 IND - KRON-HD 5-01 CBS - KPIX DT 7-01 ABC - KGO-DT 7-02 ABC - KGO-DT 9-01 PBS - KQED-HD 9-02 PBS - ENCORE 9-03 PBS - WORLD 9-04 PBS - LIFE 9-05 PBS - KIDS 20-01 WB - KBWB-HD 20-02 WB - KBWB-SD 26-01 IND - KTSF D1 26-02 IND - KTSF D2 32-01 PBS - KMTP-DT 38-01 SAH - KCNS 43-01 PBS - KCSM 43-02 PBS - JazzTV 44-01 UPN - KBHK-DT 65-01 PAX - KKPX-DT 65-02 PAX - PaxEast 65-03 PAX - Worship 65-04 PAX - Faith 66-01 TFA - KFSF But when I'm zapping throu the channels and when I reach whatever channel is closed it displays it's signal strengh bar (about 80%) and than freez and remove those channels from the listing and jump to any existing channel, To watch those channels again I have to do a scan, So actualy I'm doing a scan each time I turn on the receiver to start watching TV, Any explanation ??

04-01-2005, 02:08 PM	#21
RSawdey Mr. Wizard Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Ferndale, Michigan Age: 61 Posts: 5,981	Sounds like a 'feature' that wasn't well thought out... perhaps it just needs to ASK if it should be deleted, so you can say no with channels temporarily off the air. Or just rip it out... anyway, it's a firmware bug you should report to JVC, maybe they've already got a fix in a firmware update for you...

11-04-2005, 01:09 PM	#25
rbinck Administrator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Katy, Texas Posts: 12,337	Probably multipath from reflected signals due to metal objects (ducts, pipes) in the attic. Suggestion would be to move the antenna outside. __________________ www.highdefinitionblog.com www.BlogOfHawaii.com

11-21-2005, 08:21 AM	#26
bjones029 What is HD? Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 2	How about a tuner? I got an OTA indoor antenna (as recommended by ww.checkhd.com). I tried to hook it to my Comcast SA3250HD box as input. No luck. I went through the settings and could find a way to make it work. Since my Samsung DLP does not have a tuner, do I need to buy a HD turner. My goal is to punt Comcast all together. I cant get local channels in HD.

11-28-2005, 09:28 AM	#27
HD N ME My plasma is High Def. Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 6	Help!!!!! I live in a mobile home park where outdoor antennas are not allowed, so I tried several indoor antennas to get my local channels in HD (since my Direct TV HD package does not include them, and I was denied access by the networks themselves). After all the antennas I tried, by far the best one that got all the channels (and several I wasn't expecting) was an old rabbit ears/UHF loop combo antenna. The pictures were incredible and everything was great, until the secondary signals (bouncing off all the mobile homes around me?) started happening about every thirty seconds or so, making watching anything from the antenna not worth watching. Here is my question: Recently I tried the famed silver sensor. It didn't pull in much at all, but gave me an idea. Since the old loop antenna is pulling in everything (towers are about 30 miles away) including secondary signals, would it be possible to hook it up with the silver sensor in tandem, to filter out the secondary signals?

11-29-2005, 05:34 PM	#28
RSawdey Mr. Wizard Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Ferndale, Michigan Age: 61 Posts: 5,981	Cable boxes don't have OTA tuners built in, only Sat boxes do this. But most local stations are usually retransmitted as cable channels, your digital locals need the HD digital cable STB to receive. For local digital OTA, you'll need an external ATSC tuner box.

12-04-2005, 06:18 AM	#29
xjcx What is HD? Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 2	Confuse....... :( hello!! i finally found a great forum site for this HDTV discussion!! i'm not sure whether i'm in the right thread of posting my question here, please forgive me if i'm not! well, i wonder will it be a difference when connect the antenna(OTA) to the HDTV set top box?? because i'm living in the apartment, the normal anolog TV often receive "snowy" pictures from the free-to-air channels. when connected to the digital HDTV ready LCD TV 32", the appearance of those "snowy" pictures become worst. so i thought if i got the HDTV set top box, will it make any differences?? do i need additional antenna?? i'm getting quite confuse whether it's the antenna problem or i just need the set top box. i hope someone here can reply me! thanx heaps!! __________________ --==-- Your words living in my heart --==--

12-04-2005, 11:53 AM	#30
hdtv4prs OldTimer Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Ohio Age: 78 Posts: 28	HD UHF/VHF Antenna ?? I live about 40 miles from a HD low band vhf and 50 miles from a HD uhf station which are north of my area (zip 44646) towards Cleveland . Recently bought the Sony 42" A10 and the Directv R-10/DVR combo. I have an old ratshack antenna and pre-amp mounted on a 30' tower with a rotor. Am very well pleased with my overall reception except for the fringe stations mentioned above. Sometimes I get a weak signal and at times get a reasonable signal. I get the following HD pics from channels: vhf 3.1, 5.1 uhf 19.1, 43.1 50.2. Would like to replace everything on the tower (rotor,antenna,pre-amp , coax , rotor wires ; all over 20 yrs. old). Want to get a fringe uhf/vhf combo antenna. In the far future ,reading that some stations may go down to the low and hi vhf bands. Looking at getting the following items: Channel Master 3679 uhf/vhf antenna Channel Master 9521A automatic remote control rotor Channel Master 7777 Titan 2 pre-amp All new RG-6 coax cables and 3 wire rotor wires Antennaweb.org has antenna color violet for the most distant HD stations as follows: for 19.1 (RF assigment 10) vhf at 39 miles 47.2 miles for channel 41 uhf Any suggestions for the above combo's. As noted I would like to keep antenna's down to one combo if possible. I would go to separate uhf and vhf antenna's if I really needed them. I don't know in my case what would work reasonably. Help ! __________________ Sony KDF-E42A10 DirecTV DVR R10 (Tivo) Zvox 315 HTIB Koss Progressive Scan DVD OTA Antenna, on 30' tower w/rotor Toshiba laptop (Video 7-PC)

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