Terk HDTVa Indoor Amplified High-Definition Antenna for Off-Air HDTV Reception
by Terk
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Terk HDTVa Indoor Amplified High-Definition Antenna for Off-Air HDTV Reception
Customer Review: Decent Antenna
Summary: 4 Stars
The problem with antennas is:
1. people misuse them
2. They are advertised to do more than what they do.
How to solve both problems:
1. Go to www.antennaweb.org to pick your antenna and where you should point it
2. Borrow a similar antenna from your friend before buying.
With that in mind, I'll specify what this antenna can do.
I live in Costa Mesa, CA, on the 2nd floor. The northern skyline is mostly open, another 2 story apartment and a tree is basically the only obstruction. Antennaweb reports that the stations are 42 miles away, orientation 333 deg. It also states that if I have no obstructions, I should be able to use a small directional antenna (yeah right?!). If there are buildings near by, then I would need a medium amplified or some BS, basically, forget it.
Another place you can go is www.hdtvprimer.com. Read the section on Antennas. It will tell you that you need a different antenna for each different situation. In a city, the Sharpshooter, is probably better than this type. You also see the GAIN depending on frequency. Antenna web will tell you what frequencies you need, this help you with what gain on what frequencies. Also read the section on amplifiers. You don't want to amplify noise, introduce noise, or reflections.
With all that in mind, lets try small directional. I borrowed a Terk HDTVi, plugged it into a settop box in the bedroom. At first nothing. Then I pointed it north out the window. Amazingly, I received 60% of the digital channels. Then with the signal strength indicator on, I adjusted the positioning. Ended up NNW being the best, just as Antennaweb recommended, receiving most of the HD digital channels (I didn't count).
At this point, my Samsung TX-S3082WH was delivered, and I set it in the living room (note, different room, different window). My Terk HDTVa was also delivered. I purposely plugged it in without the amplifier. Again, I was able to receive some of the signals. I re-adjusted but still, somehow the signal was weaker. The settop box tuning seemed better than my TV. Then I plugged in and installed the inline amplifier. Very strong signal strength, probably ALL the channels. I am not sure about the quality of the Terk amplifier, since at rare occasions, I get macroblocks. However, it seems to be better than the HDTVi The weather also has not been a factor yet.
Conclusion:
The antenna works as advertised. It works because I am using it in the correct way. There are many factors in receiving the HDTV signal, be aware of all of them. I would give it 5 stars but it isn't hot or sexy in any way.
Customer Review: Excellent Antenna for my location
Summary: 5 Stars
To start off, I live in West Los Angeles, approximately 26 miles from the broadcast towers on Mt. Wilson. Anyone in a similar location may find my experience useful.
The evolution of my antenna use:
I recently purchased an LCD HDTV, and, not having cable, I wished to achieve the best over air HD possible. I started with my good old rabbit ears, which, while decent, had to be constantly adjusted and moved around when changing channels. Channel 7.1 was prone to signal loss, and 9.1 and 13.1 were non-existent. The rest of the channels came in OK. (Of course, the great thing about digital channels is that even when the signal is OK, the picture is generally perfect, with the occasional pixellation and low signal blank screen - definitely preferable to the analog snow).
Next, I tried the Terk TV5 - wrong choice. It was worse than the old rabbit ears. No amount of adjusting helped. Bye bye.
After doing some research on avsforums, i found that a directional UHF antenna would work best for me, as all the broadcast towers for LA are concentrated in the same area on Mr. Wilson. So, I picked up the Phillips Silver Sensor (basically the same as the HDTVA minus the amplification), which has received great reviews on various forums. Wow, the difference from the previous antennas was night and day. All i had to do was aim the antenna in the general direction of Mt. Wilson, and the signal strength on the digital channels was much better. I even picked up a few new channels (18.1, .2, .3 and 50.1, .2 and .3. More importantly, i was able to get 9.1, and as a Dodgers fan, this was of no small importance. The signal strength was average, but at least the picture was viewable most of the time. However, still no 13.1. In perusing antenna reviews and the av forums, i'd heard that if one lives over 25 miles from a broadcast tower, then an amplified antenna was a good idea. Well, I live about 26 miles from Mt. Wilson, and that leads me to...
the Terk HDTVA. My quest has finally ended. Basically the same as the Silver Sensor, but with a heavier base, amplification, and vhf dipoles (if you need analog vhf channels - since all digital channels are uhf, i find that i don't need vhf). The amplification is the key here - yes, i did finally get channel 13.1. Also, on every other channel, the signal strength increased by at least 10. There is hardly any signal loss. All in all an excellent choice. It may not be so useful if you live closer to the broadcast towers - in that situation it may not work any better than a cheaper unamplified antenna. But if you are in a situation similar to mine, I highly recommend this product.
Customer Review: Excellent indoor antenna but be careful to follow ALL installation instructions
Summary: 4 Stars
This antenna looked interesting, but I read an unfavorable review by Y. Chang. He purchased this antenna (Terk HDTVa) first, but could pick up NOTHING on it. Over a period of several weeks , he tried several other antennas, and ended up recommending the Philips MANT510 antenna which has very high (50DB) gain and worked best for his situation. That nearly convinced me to go with the Philips MANT510. However, when I checked the reviews on amazon for that antenna, I found that they were generally much worse than for the Terk HDTVa. The Terk HDTVa had mostly positive reviews except for a few negative ones like Y. Chang's. I unded up playing the percentages and ordering the Terk HDTVa from amazon with free shipping.
Well yesterday I received and installed the new Terk HDTVa antenna. At first, I got the exact same result as Y. Chang stated in his review. I could pick up absolutely no stations. This was a surprise since prior to purchasing the new Terk antenna, I tried using the normal rabbit ears antenna that came with our table model 14" analog TV. The TV antenna now feeds into one of the Digital to analog converter boxes that will be required in 2009, but should work now also. With the original rabbit ears I could get 3-4 stations, but not the one (channel 7 from Detroit) that we normally watch news on. We live in a western suburb of Detroit and are probably 30-40 miles from the Detroit towers. However, the fact that the new amplified Terk HDTVa antenna performed worse than rabbit ears on the same TV in the same location was suspicious. I checked all the coax wires and verified that everything appeared to be connected properly. Finally, I noticed a red tag stuck to the metal fishbone antenna which has to be pushed into the upright part of the antenna as part of the installation. The tag (in small print) said that the fishbone antanna must be pushed in passed a mark on the red tag. Mine was about a quarter inch shy of the mark on the tag, even though it was snug and appeared to bottom out when I pushed it on. The tag warned that to get it past the red tag mark would require lots of force. So I pushed REAL hard, and sure enough the fishbone moved another quarter inch into the upright part of the antenna. After that, I started receiving most of the Detroit UHF and VHF stations, including channel 7. I am very satisfied with the Terk HDTVa antenna, even though when I first tried it, it did not work and I thought I would have to return it to Amazon.com. I suspect that Y. Chang had the same problem with his Terk HDTVa antenna that I did. It took me over an hour to trouble shoot and fix this problem.
Customer Review: Was very impressed until the plugged-in amplifier stopped working
Summary: 3 Stars
As many people in the westside of Los Angeles I live in apartment surrounded by buildings and we are around 35 miles away from most TV antennas located on Mount Wilson. I easily installed this antenna on the window besides my Samsung HDTV. It instantly improved the strength of the signals and the quality of HDTV I have been watching on free over-the-air TV has been astounding.
My favorite HD channels here, ABC news 7, FOX, My 13, transmit in VHF but almost 90% of other digital channels go over UHF. I hate paying expensive cable TV and my landlord doesn't allow external antennas in the roof, so I needed the convenience of an indoor antenna with both VHF and UHF capabilities. Unfortunately, all of a sudden, I lost signal in almost all except 5 channels. After checking in, I realized the small in-line power supply that comes with the unit simply stopped working.
As most people will do with this antenna, I just left it plugged to the wall. It worked for good 6 months, maybe I should have turned it off when I didn't use the TV? I don't know but nowhere the manual advises so. I am contacting Terk in the hopes they will help. Unfortunately they close punctually at 5pm Eastern Time so I have to remember to call them here before 2pm (Pacific Time). I will update this when I get help from TERK. FYI, I found some similar $15 replacement inline adapters, 10-12 dB signal boosters, that can be bought cheaply and might work with this unit. If your indoor setup involves long cords or splitters you may need a more powerful signal 22dB booster like those from Motorola at around $36. If it doesn't work, you need an external antenna and this is not the right for you.
Amazon couldn't help as it's been over a month of my purchase. Now, I am left with an odd-looking antenna that performs similarly to my old rabbit antenna. If your favorite channels are VHF and UHF, and all you want is an inexpensive indoor solution I highly recommend this directional antenna provided you can point it to a single area from where TV signals come (for me Mt. Wilson), but check if it works better than your rabbit, if not you just might end stuck with a regular antenna once the amplifier of this unit stops working.
Finally, remember that there is not such thing as HDTV antenna, it is just a hype to get customer's interest as the UHF and VHF waves are exactly the same as used in the old times of analog TV. Any antenna (and wiring setup) that makes a good job in capturing and delivering a strong signal to your TV will make wonders to improve your watching experience.
Customer Review: Comparison of TerkHDTVa with AntennasDirectDB2
Summary: 4 Stars
Summary: the Antennas Direct model worked noticeably better than the Terk model. Plus, the fact that the Terk model needs to be plugged in to an electric outlet and you'll probably leave it on 24/7, burning up electricity, makes the Antennas Direct DB2 the better buy by far.
Living in Rockland County, N.Y., about 50 miles from New York, the signals are weak enough that a good antenna is required to get digital signals. I bought the two best-ranked on Amazon, hooked them up to a DigitalStream converter box (of the 3 boxes I have, I like DigitalStream best for its remote which will learn your TV's power on/off signal, and also has its own volume control). I carefully adjusted each antenna for maximum reception (takes time because signal strength fluctuates.)
The results of my mini-experiment: the Antennas Direct DB2 performed better than the Terk HDTVa. This, both from looking at "signal strength" readings, as well as a judgement made after living for about 2 weeks with it set up each way -- the Antennas Direct DB2 was the definite winner.
As to the negatives of the two items:
The Terk HDTVa requires you to plug it in to an electric outlet, and basically keep it plugged in. This means it is plugged in 24/7 and using electricity all the while. Who knows how much that'll cost in electric bills, wasted electricity, etc!
The Postive and Negative of the Antennas Direct DB2 model, is that it really is designed to be hung on a wall -- but if you really want to maximize reception, you must aim it carefully, through a trial-and-error process (same as the Terk, which you must aim). So, the final position that is best for you, might not end up being parallel to a wall! So in the end you'll have to stand this thing up on a flat surface anyway.
Note that the Terk and the Antennas Direct are both roughly the same size... not counting the Terk's two huge rabbit ears you can extend up to 4 feet (which I certainly extended and played with, in making the comparison.)
Also note, that the coaxial cable you use to connect to the Antennas Direct, should be the sort that has a little screw/nut at the end. The cheaper kind, that just slips on and off, might not stay well enough. So I had to go out and buy a $5 coaxial cable segment.
In summary: the Antennas Direct beat the Terk for performance, as well as the fact that it doesn't need to be plugged in and using electricity 24/7.