OT- TV antenna question

[JK-NY]

I got a new flat screen smart TV . I don?t have cable or satellite dish, only using antenna. My old tv required a digital converter box and with a basic antenna I got all the local channels and generally good reception. With the new tv on the same antenna I don?t get a quarter of the channels that I would get with the old system. After re-scanning several times and trying the antenna in different positions no improvement. I guess I need a better antenna and wonder what other folks here are using that works for them? Currently I am using just ?rabbit ears ? on the old tv, wonder about those flat antennas or something else that works well. Thank you in advance.

 

[johnofnewhaven]

I use the flat antenna inside the house. Works good but I am within 15 miles of the tv towers. You can get and outside digital antenna. I would get an omnidirectional antenna.

 

[jimg.allentown]

There is no such thing as a "digital" antenna. The antenna that works the best is the one that is tuned to the frequencies that you want to receive.

The higher above the ground you place the antenna, the better your reception will be. A boost amplifier at the antenna will help to make a marginal signal more usable.

 

[ss55]

New digital TV signals seem to require more of a direct line of sight than the older signals. I've had good luck with "Antenna Direct ClearStream 4MAX" with any 20dB or higher pre-amplifier, like "Winegard LNA-200". Antenna height and a direct line of sight to the broadcast towers help a lot. Tall buildings and ridge lines can block the signals.

WWW.AntennasDirect.com

www.Winegard.com

It is best to first determine which TV stations you want to receive, then install an antenna that can do the job. There are several good websites that will identify the TV stations within your area:

www.AntennaWeb.org

www.TVFool.com

www.RabbitEars.org

This topic has been discussed many times, search the archives to see those discussions.

 

[TomIn]

In the old days most TV stations were broadcast over VHF frequencies. Now the vast majority of digital stations are broadcast over UHF frequencies. The really old TV's had "rabbit ears" for VHF reception and a "loop" antenna for UHF.

You can use one of the websites like tvfool.com to get a list of stations in your area. It will tell you the real and virtual frequencies, signal strength, distance to station, direction to point the antenna, etc.

I have tried various "flat" antenna's at my rural house and have not been impressed. I am currently using a decades old Radio Shack bowtie antenna with a signal amplifier and am happy with it.

In trying various antennas I have found several setup's that work very poorly to not at all. In playing with them I found that the root problem was poor connections. There are a lot of cheap coaxial cables (used to connect the antenna to the TV) that are pure junk. There are also a lot of junk amplifiers out there.

 

[Steve@Advance]

Go to this site that tells what signal is available in your area, and how strong it is.

Then look up TV antennas and the recommended mounting for optimal reception.

If you have a good signal in your area, you can get by with putting it in the attic. There it is protected from the sun, wind, ice, lightening, etc. They make them with electric rotators that are powered through the coax cable.

If a poor area it will need to go outside, high as practical, away from obstructions.
Signal Finder

 

[wfw]

you are better off with a uhf (/vhf also if you still have vhf stations) outdoor antenna with a amplifier. the flat antennas that go on the windows or are for inside do not work as well. also the higher the better. I have an old antenna system on our yadkinville home that we are not at. have had it for years and it does great. where we are in eastern nc I have an antenna from walmart.com. paid $35 dollars for and it works ok but the built in rotor cannot tell which direction the antenna is pointing and the buttons on the remote that point right and left do not tell you that if you push the same button twice it will reverse direction. I am planning to get a better antenna for here but will also have to get a rotor for it.

 

[onefarmer]

I use one of those frizbee antennas by Channel Master. it's amplified and suppose to be nondirectional but it is some. I need a nondirectional so I can get all stations on my DVR without being home to adjust. Just a few degrees can make a difference. I have it up 30ft on 3 sections of one inch pipe.

I run it thru a amplified splitter to send signal to several tv's and recording dvr's. I'm 10 miles sw of St Johns Mi and can get good signal from Lansing, Flint, Battle Creek, Most of the time from Bay City, Grand Rapids. Sometimes a few even further or lower powered stations.

Picture is of one I had in my attic. I replaced it with a new one when I put the one out on the pole.

 

[gene bender]

to get the best pic you nee an outside antenna they have some small ones cost around 30 and come with coax have a motor to turn them an work well on local stations up to 50 miles.

 

[Jim in NC]

I use our old technology. Our 1970s vhf, uhf, fm outdoor antenna was wired with coax for uhf use only. Our Alliance rotor still works. We added an amplifier and have multiple cables from it run to several rooms in the house. We can receive channels from Charlotte, Roanoke, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Winston Salem.

 

[jeffcat]

The magic question you said was new flat screen. Did you have didjital before or is this your first piece of digital equipment? The old stuff you could have weak signals, fuzzy, noisey, grainy and it would still work. Digital must have a full perfect signal or nothing works. You should have heard all of the complaints from my mom when they made the big digital switch around 10 plus years ago. The other guys are giving you some good advice but I have found the bigger the antenna the better with digital. Then cut tree branches off, boosters, rotors, pixey dust, cussing etc. Just my opinions.

 

[jeffcat]

The magic question you said was new flat screen. Did you have didjital before or is this your first piece of digital equipment? The old stuff you could have weak signals, fuzzy, noisey, grainy and it would still work. Digital must have a full perfect signal or nothing works. You should have heard all of the complaints from my mom when they made the big digital switch around 10 plus years ago. The other guys are giving you some good advice but I have found the bigger the antenna the better with digital. Then cut tree branches off, boosters, rotors, pixey dust, cussing etc. Just my opinions. Hey,found this on Utube. This guy covers things pretty well and simply.
Digital reception

 

[spacecadet9]

(quoted from post at 09:30:50 01/08/20) I got a new flat screen smart TV . My old tv required a digital converter box and with a basic antenna I got all the local channels and generally good reception. With the new tv on the same antenna I don?t get a quarter of the channels that I would get with the old system.

The only thing changed was removing the converter box and old tv and putting in the new tv in the same spot with the same 'rabbit ears'? If that's the case then the tuner in your new tv is inferior to the tuner in the converter box. If you moved it to a different location then try putting it back where the old one was.

 

[M-MAN]

I'm still using the same old antenna I put up thirty years ago. Coax cable to a splitter and then to two flat screen TV's. Just installed a 46 in. I did put a new end on the coax because of corrosion. I think I have forty channels now. Minimum 75 miles from any station and in the woods to boot. Check your cable.

 

[JMOR]

(quoted from post at 17:59:02 01/08/20)

(quoted from post at 09:30:50 01/08/20) I got a new flat screen smart TV . My old tv required a digital converter box and with a basic antenna I got all the local channels and generally good reception. With the new tv on the same antenna I don?t get a quarter of the channels that I would get with the old system.

The only thing changed was removing the converter box and old tv and putting in the new tv in the same spot with the same 'rabbit ears'? If that's the case then the tuner in your new tv is inferior to the tuner in the converter box. If you moved it to a different location then try putting it back where the old one was.

ry re-installing your converter box with new TV

 

[JMOR]

....or a decent antenna (8 to 10 feet long , with a boat load of elements), at height of 30 feet & all will be well!

 

[Geo-TH,In]

My place in the south is close to TV transmission towers. Rabbits ears work well. Netflix and Amazon prime for movies.

 

[Tony in SD]

Do you have a preamplifier on the antenna? If you do, it has to be powered. Usually there is a power inserter between the TV and antenna. You may have inadvertently removed Or unplugged the power inserter when you removed the digital converter box. It should be the first thing hooked to the antenna from the TV. It should also be labeled as to which end is to the antenna and which is to the TV.

 

[RedMF40]

Tried rabbit ears on a new flatscreen, didn't work. No reception. Bought a $50 antenna, small with two curved panels that face each other. Get a decent number of channels, probably do better with something a little more spendy.

 

[cowranch]

(quoted from post at 16:41:40 01/08/20) I'm still using the same old antenna I put up thirty years ago. Coax cable to a splitter and then to two flat screen TV's. Just installed a 46 in. I did put a new end on the coax because of corrosion. I think I have forty channels now. Minimum 75 miles from any station and in the woods to boot. Check your cable.

Possibly the cable, possibly the converter had "more power" to the antenna reception than the new tv.

"I think I have forty channels now. Minimum 75 miles from any station and in the woods to boot."
Location plays a big factor in the number of channels. There needs to be high power transmission antennas in range. As I said in the other thread, my area doesn't have them. I have a tall tower, and I used to use an antenna with a booster to get ABC and PBS (the only two), before the abc rebroadcast tower shut down. If I'd get the biggest antenna I could, I'd get PBS again, that's it. I put in the nearest large town, 70 miles away, about 20,000 people so pretty big. They get PBS, CBS, NBC, and Fox over the air, those are the only channels in range there (by more than one antenna locating site).

 

[Determined]

Growing up back in the day of analog black and white TV I can remember fighting with my cousins over who's turn it was to hold a finger on the end of the rabbit ears so we could watch cartoons on Saturday mornings.

Back then time of day, time of year, weather, storms, rain, wind, clouds, fluorescent lights and who knows how many other factors affected reception but one could usually still get at least some sound and a fuzzy image to watch.

When digital systems scan for a signal if a signal it comes across is not strong enough it will ignore it and move on.

Try scanning for channels at various times of the day as well on cloudy vs sunny weather and see if it does not pick up more channels.

 

[buickanddeere]

The new TV s have little money invested in the tuner section as few people use an antenna . The sensitivity and selectively is not there .
The channels 2-6 have little to no use now . The wide elements used for channels 2-6 on an antenna are nothing but trouble anyways . They catch ice and wind . Plus they are tuned closed to the FM radio band which inputs noise into the tuner .
Channels 52 and above have been re-assigned to cellular .
So.........the so called digital antenna is just an antenna that is sized and tuned to be resonate between channels 7-51 .
People do not what to hear it but a inside antenna is not going to work . The transmission towers are fewer , farther away , operate at lower power and on higher frequencies that do not reveal as far .
Cable has to be low loss RG-6 not that RG-59 garbage .
Here is the absolute minimum antenna that will work. Mounted OUTSIDE above the peak of the house.
https://winegard.com/products/hdtv-digital-antennas/outdoor-antennas/flatwave/flatwave-air

 

[Hay hay hay]

I have 3 flat screen TV's each attached to a "Clearstream" single figure 8 antenna. I think I paid about $40 each on ebay. 2 antennas are inside, 1 is outside on a 6 ft T post.
I am 30 miles from a TV station and get 30+ channels. It takes 10 minutes to install.

 

[1948CaseVAI]

Makes no sense at all that you would purchase a nice television then be too cheap to purchase a decent signal to feed it. SMH.

 

[docmirror]

(quoted from post at 07:22:00 01/09/20)
The new TV s have little money invested in the tuner section as few people use an antenna . The sensitivity and selectively is not there .
The channels 2-6 have little to no use now . The wide elements used for channels 2-6 on an antenna are nothing but trouble anyways . They catch ice and wind . Plus they are tuned closed to the FM radio band which inputs noise into the tuner .
Channels 52 and above have been re-assigned to cellular .
So.........the so called digital antenna is just an antenna that is sized and tuned to be resonate between channels 7-51 .
People do not what to hear it but a inside antenna is not going to work . The transmission towers are fewer , farther away , operate at lower power and on higher frequencies that do not reveal as far .
Cable has to be low loss RG-6 not that RG-59 garbage .
Here is the absolute minimum antenna that will work. Mounted OUTSIDE above the peak of the house.
https://winegard.com/products/hdtv-digital-antennas/outdoor-antennas/flatwave/flatwave-air

Follow this above. Make all your connections crimped properly, or buy pre-made RG-6 cable(yes, it's more expensive, harder to find). Note the pictures showing mounting to a flat surface, and not above the roofline. This is a mistake. Get the antenna above any structure, on a pedestal or mast above the roof. Note also, the instructions tell us it is a "directional" antenna. That means it has an anisotropic(electrically directional orientation) element, which would be good to be able to turn it.

If most/all of the signals will originate from a hill or antenna farm/cluster nearby, then rotation is less of a consideration. If signals will be widely scattered from multiple directions, prepare to be able to turn it with a rotator.

 

[buickanddeere]

(quoted from post at 10:30:50 01/08/20) I got a new flat screen smart TV . I don?t have cable or satellite dish, only using antenna. My old tv required a digital converter box and with a basic antenna I got all the local channels and generally good reception. With the new tv on the same antenna I don?t get a quarter of the channels that I would get with the old system. After re-scanning several times and trying the antenna in different positions no improvement. I guess I need a better antenna and wonder what other folks here are using that works for them? Currently I am using just ?rabbit ears ? on the old tv, wonder about those flat antennas or something else that works well. Thank you in advance.

We need your postal code in order to figure out what is required .

 

[JK-NY]

I was given the TV as a gift. I am looking into getting a decent
antenna,trying to find what would work best. that is the reason
for this post.Thanks anyway.

 

[David G]

I have a 10' antenna in my attic with distribution amp with 6 taps.

 

[buickanddeere]

(quoted from post at 18:55:38 01/11/20) I was given the TV as a gift. I am looking into getting a decent
antenna,trying to find what would work best. that is the reason
for this post.Thanks anyway.

Sharing your postal code would go a long way towards choosing the proper antenna
An inside the house antenna set by the window ain t gonna do it .