Antennas Direct DB4 Multi-Directional HDTV Antenna
by Antennas Direct
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List Price: Our Price: $194.95 You Save: $155.04 (44%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Speakers See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Antennas Direct DB4 Multi-Directional HDTV Antenna
Customer Review: It really works, but it takes some patience.
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me start off by saying that I am very new to the OTA HDTV world. Neither my local cable company, Dish Network, nor DirectTV carry our locals in HD (yet). I wanted the 'big 4' in HD, and so an OTA antenna was my only choice. I live in a small town, 30-miles away from the nearest broadcast towers (FOX & ABC). The next nearest towers are 75 (NBC) and 95 (CBS) miles away, though all in the same direction - to the east. They are all UHF channels. I live in Illinois, and there are basically no hills between my house and these towers. I thought there would be little hope of being able to get all four networks without a NASA-inspired antenna array on the roof.
I started my quest for the 'big four' channels with an old set of UHF/VHF rabbit-ears from the closet. It would get FOX & ABC with about 65% signal when sitting in my den. Nothing else. I moved up to a Terk, the HDTVa. It improved the FOX & ABC signals to near 85%. I put it in the attic and the signal levels increased to around 95% and it could occasionally pick up the NBC station when conditions were perfect, but otherwise it was unwatchable.
Then I moved up to this DB4, based on the good reviews here and elsewhere. I bought the DB4 over the DB8 specifically because the DB4's measurements meant that it would fit nicely in a window and wouldn't even need a mount. I wanted to try something 'manageable' as an inside antenna first, before resorting to an outside one.
It took me several hours of 'tinkering' with placement to find the ideal spot. Be very careful as you aim this antenna, because it does matter. It is directional. From many places, I would get LESS signal than I had with the Terk. Far less sometimes. I wasn't too discouraged because I know that UHF signals are tricky. But after a few hours I found a 'sweet spot' in my house. It's currently in a 2nd floor attic window, behind the glass, pointed east towards all of the towers.
From this spot, unamplified, it was pulling in the ABC & FOX stations in at 90%+, and the 75-mile away NBC station at about 70%. I then bought a ChannelMaster 7777 preamp for it. Now it's pulling in the ABC & Fox at a solid 100%, the NBC station near 80-85%, and the 96-mile away CBS station at about 60-65%. The HD feeds are perfect at anything above 58%, according to my tuner (Dish 722), and so they all look fantastic. The CBS feed does occasionally break up, but it's usually watchable. In the early morning, when the atmosphere is the most stable, I've seen all of those stations pegged near 100% with perfect feeds. I was even able to get a signal from another network who's tower is about 110 miles away. Incredibly, I also found another feed from an antenna that's **140** miles away from my home. Both were essentially unwatchable, but I would occasionally get a 10-15 seconds of stable HD before the picture would break up for a second or two. Not that these channels really count, but the signal was there. Again, this is just from an attic window. Incredible.
I don't think I'm even going to bother mounting it on the roof, since being inside I don't have to worry about any weather damage and it's easy to tinker with. I might though, and I'd expect that I'd be able to pull in those 70+ mile stations in with perfect clarity almost all the time.
So it's a worthwhile investment. Everyone's home and location is so different that it's hard to say that it's universally a perfect antenna. But for me, I'm pretty impressed with it. It's working quite well. If you live in a fringe area and need all the UHF help you can get, definitely check out the DB4 + ChannelMaster combo. Thumbs up!
Customer Review: This UHF antenna works!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this DB4 from a different seller (DB4 is a type of antenna NOT a certain model made by one company.) I decided to dump the local stations from my DISH subscription. They were charging more and more to carry them so I figured getting an antenna for over the air (OTA) reception would pay for itself in less than a year. I was not disappointed with the DB4! I recently put this on my roof after having on a coat rack in my living room for more than a year. Even inside behind some METAL blinds it had no problem pulling in most of my local stations! Now that it's up on the roof I'm getting everything offered in my area. The major hi-powered stations are all coming in at 90% - 100% signal strength according to my DISH receiver even though the antenna is aimed 20 degrees off of ideal position for them! I'm even getting fuzzy reception from a station 61 miles away. The low power stations are at about 65% - 70% because there is a hill in the way. I'm also getting some of the low power repeater stations for the small towns in my area. I've got the antenna aimed between two hills where the transmitters are so I'm not getting the strongest possible signal for either group as this was compromise to bring as many channels as possible. The high power stations are about 46 - 50 miles away (clear LOS) and the low power group are about 7 - 8 miles away (behind a hill.)
The antenna itself is well built and not very large. You could easily put it in a room or attic with little fuss. It is fairly directional due to the amount of gain it has. If your stations are more than 60 degrees apart on the compass you will have difficulty pulling in more than one set at a time. You might consider multiple antennas pointing in different directions or a remote rotator. Obviously having the antenna mounted outside and as high as possible will be helpful. I gained about 20% - 30% on the signal when I put it on the roof.
One VERY IMPORTANT note: This is a UHF antenna (real channels 14 - 69)! It's not made to receive "real" VHF channels 2 - 13! Go look at TVFOOL to see if this is going to work for you. See what the "real" frequencies for your stations are. Bear in mind that some of the old VHF stations kept their numbers and changed their transmissions to UHF frequencies, but some didn't. For example, my area channels 2 and 6 are actually transmitting on UHF now, but still call themselves 2 and 6, however channels 8, 10, 12 are still using their old VHF frequencies. I'm pretty sure many of the people that are complaining about this antenna either don't know where to point it or are expecting to receive VHF channels with it. I have two antennas, this one and one designed for VHF 7 - 13. Using this combo I get awesome reception for all the channels in my area. Also, if you are close to the transmitters this antenna may actually overpower your TV and you might not receive some stations.
One other thing, the seller claims the antenna is, "multi-directional", take that with a grain of salt. It definitely works best when aimed directly at the transmitter(s). The laws of physics dictate that DB4 design has a 90 degree reception arc (45 degrees to each side of the mid-line.) That's pretty wide as far as most high gain antennas go, but it's not "multi-directional" in my book. From the side and back the reception is very poor. Maybe if you are very close to all your stations you can receive from all directions, but in that situation a metal coat hanger would probably work too!
Customer Review: Buy this one, works as advertised.
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this over a weekend from Amazon along with the 30 inch J-mount. Both were delivered free shipping to my door on Wednesday afternoon. Of course we have a Amazon warehouse in our town, but it was shipped from somewhere in Pennsylvania, to my place in Kentucky. I had build a home-made db4, but it was beginning to fall apart. I decided to buy this. In Lexington, KY I now get 18, 27, 36, 46, 56 and 67, with all of their respective subsidiaries. A total of 16 channels. 18 - 56 are 10 - 15 miles from my house. Signal strength is between 90% and 100% for these. 67.1 - 67.4 is 51 miles from my house. This group of channels comes in at 70 - 75% signal strength. I aimed this DB4 according to the government run antenna website (search for it). I mounted the DB4 on my chimney, all the way at the top. My chimney is approximately 25 - 35 feet above the ground. I live in a suburban area mostly flat. The channel group that is 51 miles away has a small hill range between my house and said town, about 700 - 1000 foot high mountain range (Daniel Boone National Forest). Wiring: Coax from the DB4, down/inside the siding down the side of the chimney and routed to my cable box, a run of about 40 feet I'd say. I then spit the signal. One coax to my family room, about a 10-15 foot run. The other line goes upstairs to master bedroom, approx 50 ft - 75ft run. The line into my family room splits to my tv, and then the computer (tv tuner in the computer for dvr purposes). The line into the computer is split, one to the computer, and one into my a/v receiver for fm radio. So total of 3 splitters. Great signal strength, even after the long runs, and 3 splitters. I am not using any sort of pre-amp. Hardware: It looks like they improved the Balun, it is roundish, encased in plastic, pretty sturdy. Only complaint is that the DB4's aluminum bends very easily when tightening the nuts/bolts, be very careful. They have to make it lightweight, I don't see an alternative. The J-Mount is very strong, made of steel. FYI this antenna is made by "Terrestrial Digital" and sold by Antennas Direct. Think of it as a Honda Dealer selling Hondas and providing "Dealer Installed" equipment such as running boards, emblems, etc. The DB4 has the nice Balun installed by antennas direct, installation/manual is by Terrestrial Digital, and the assembly is sold by Antennas Direct. Well thats about it. I am very satisfied. ...Almost forgot the most important caution: All the broadcast dtv channels in my area are between a heading of 72 degrees and 125 degrees, from 10 - 51 miles away. This means I only have to point my antenna in the middle of the 53 degree spread, somewhere around a compass heading of 98 degrees. If you are purchasing this antenna and have stations in front of the antenna and in back of the antenna, then this review would not apply for your application as I cannot speak for this antenna as a "multi direction" antenna, but perhaps there are other reviews on here that may address such an application.Customer Review: Perfect for my needs
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently purchased a new Samsung LN46A550 LCD TV and upgraded my DirecTV service to HD. I'm about 25 miles from Milwaukee and 65 miles from Chicago, so between the two there are well over 30 over-the-air stations (plus their extra digital channels) available to me. DirecTV (I love them) however, only offers me 9 Milwaukee locals. I have no roof antenna anymore, having had it removed after some storm damage, so I decided to purchase this antenna to try to pull in all of the Chicago area stations and the few Milwaukee stations that DirecTV doesn't include in their "locals" package. After reading reviews and doing some research. I couldn't be happier with the DB4.
To tell everyone how well this antenna performs, at least in my area, I actually have this antenna set up INSIDE, on the ground floor, about 3 feet from the set. I will say that it's next to an outside wall, which I'm sure helps reception. Still, I receive almost every Chicago station, some with transmitters up to 70 miles away, and the few remaining Milwaukee stations I was missing, plus all their extra digital channels. I know that when it comes to antennas, the direction it's pointed and location, location, location are prime factors in performance. My point is that this antenna has shown me that it is CAPABLE of pulling in strong, and a few not-so-strong, stations from as far as 70 miles away. From INSIDE the house. I also find that when comparing the same HD channel from over-the-air v. satellite, the over-the-air HD is noticeably better because of signal compression by the satellite provider. Cable also compresses their HD signals, an this does degrade the picture slightly. Given the choice, I almost always flip to the over-the-air broadcast of network program offered in HD rather than the DirecTV signal.
Bottom line, for me, is that if you're looking for an antenna, if it works this good for me INSIDE, I can imagine it's even better if it's mounted outside and coupled with a rotor.
Unfortunately, I had to knock one star off my rating due to the fact that after screwing the coax connection to the antenna about a dozen times while playing with position and location, the solder connection that holds the female coax connection let loose. The solder connection is located in a 2"x2" black box on the antenna, and upon removing the cover of the box and looking at it, I don't think they could have used LESS solder originally and still have had it hold. It was just a simple matter for me to resolder the connection using the proper amount of solder and I should have no problem. As I said, I did connect and reconnect the coax many time, sometimes not too gently. If you intend to just place this outside and leave it, or be gentler with it than I was, you shouldn't really have any worries.
Bottom line is that for the money, I find this to be an excellent antenna and does exactly what I purchased it for.
Customer Review: Presearch + This Antenae = HDTV
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I begin, the reader should know that I am in no way a tech-spert. I'm a middle school assistant principal who canceled his satellite service and needed a digital antenna to get a signal. All I did was read stuff from the internet while trying to figure out how to chose the right antenna and install it correctly.
The product is GREAT. But you have to do some presearch to make sure you get the right antennae. The DB2 DB4 & DB8 all are designed according to the distance from broadcast towers in your area. I actually could have gotten by with the DB2 being that I am only 7 - 12 miles from the broadcast towers in my area. I live in SW Houston TX. But I purchased the antenna prior to doing my presearch... My mistake...
1. Begin your presearch at [...]. Fill out the form and you will find a list that gives you the distance and directions to the broadcast towers in your area. The farther you are from towers will determine which antenna you need. ALSO make note of the tower directions from your home. This will enable you to point the antenna in the correct direction when you install.
2. Go to [...] and choose the antenna you need according to distance you are from the broadcast towers.
3. The DB2, DB4 and DB8 antennas are all directional. If you don't own a compass, buy one. Using the directional information found at [...] find the average compass direction towards the broadcast towers in your area. NOTE all of the broadcast towers in my area fell within 9 degrees of each other. If you have towers all over the place, Im not sure what to tell you. But if you do some reading on the internet, you should be able to figure it out.
4. Read the installation instructions that are available on the manufacturer website in PDF format. There is a lot of valuable information there that was not available in the box instructions. The most valuable piece of information I found was, if you are using coaxial cable previously installed by either a cable or satellite company you must remove any inline diplexers. As Ive told you before Im not a tech-spert. I didnt have any idea what a diplexer was. I typed diplexer into google images. Looked at the pictures and said, "Oh! That thing." I took it out, replaced it with a splitter and that was it.
The image is great, all of the time, regardless of the weather.
SO do some presearch by going to antennaweb.org, buy the right antenna, use a compass to aim your antenna, use the manufacturers online instructions to trouble shoot and enjoy a great picture.
Hope this was helpful...
T in Houston