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: Your results may vary...
Summary: 3 Stars
The bottom line is that antennas, no matter how good, only give you as good reception as your local environment allows. This is particularly true with indoor antennas.
I live in a major city, less than a mile from the transmitter tower, but this city is notorious for bad over-the-air reception because of all the buildings. The Terk HDTVa pulls in most analog (non-HDTV) channels with decent reception, but nobody would be fooled into thinking I have cable, and I have to reposition and reconfigure the dipoles when I switch from a low VHF channel to a high VHF channel -- as you'd expect because of the differing frequencies.
As for HDTV, I pick up one channel almost perfectly, another channel only if I stick the antenna outside on top of my air conditioner (where it can't really stay), a third channel on and off, and the other half-dozen available channels not at all no matter which way I point the antenna -- even though they're all being transmitted from the same tower. As expected, when a digital channel comes through, it comes through absolutely perfectly -- indeed, better than non-HDTV cable -- but when the signal drops below a certain threshhold, the picture first pixelates, then freezes, then drops completely.
One tricky part for me was knowing where to connect the antenna on my TV. My TV has three inputs: "Analog," "Digital Cable," and "Digital Air." To pick up regular and HDTV channels, I need to use a splitter (not included) to connect the antenna to both the "Analog" and "Digital Air" inputs. Of course, splitting causes the signal power to drop, so I get better HDTV performance if I connect it only to the latter, but then I don't get any non-HDTV channels at all.
The included amplifier doesn't seem to make much of a difference overall. It works -- I can tell from the built-in power meter on my TV that there is a small boost in the signal strength when I switch the amplifier on -- but the difference is quite minimal, especially when I split the signal.
The antenna unit is also quite wobbly on its small base. It's a bit more stable when the fan-like UHF vane is positioned vertically instead of horizontally as shown in the picture, but the unit still tends to fall over whenever I reposition the dipoles. It needs a larger base.
So the Terk HDTVa is okay, but at least in my urban environment, the reception with this or any other indoor antenna not quite what I had hoped for.
Customer Review: In my NJ area, this works much better than others I have tried.
Summary: 5 Stars
I already had an amplified indoor HDTV antenna and it worked OK but I only received 15 channels and they all suffered from rain fade and even went out for a few seconds on coludy days. ie... almost daily short outages and I had to adjust the antenna for most channels. This became a pain as if I wanted to watch 3, 10, 17, 29 it was one way and 23, 61 and others another.
I was looking around and this Terk went on sale for cheap so I figured I would give it a try. I had used other indoor antennas before and was not expecting a big difference. Boy was I wrong. I hooked up this antenna and spent about 10 minutes adjusting it and after a little trial and error, the number of channels I received almost doubled to 28. I cant believe I receive channel 6 now as I have never received it before with any antenna I ever tried. 28 crisp clear channels and all for free and much much less rain fade and I have not had to adjust it at all after my initial adjustment.
READ the instructions as the two bipole antennas that come on it make a huge difference. I probably did what most do and extended them all the way and pointed them up in the air. This is not the best for the lower channels and you might not get many. I didnt get many channels until I read in the manual to shorten the antennas and dont point them up or in a "V" shape, point them horizontal. This made a HUGE difference and what got me channel 6.
I was so impressed, I ran a splitter and some cable and hooked this one antenna to three TV's and am seriously thinking of getting rid of my expensive Verizon Fios service. I dont watch a lot of TV, mostly local news in the morning and at night and then some shows like CSI, Survivor and after thinking aboout my TV watching habits, probably 90% of what I like to watch I can still watch but now for free.
I do want to add though that any like every antenna, it depends on YOUR area. You might not get 28 channels like I do and it might not make much of a difference like it did for me here in NJ. I am about 40 miles from Phila and 60-80 from NY. Also fool with the bipole rod adjustment, it can make a huge difference. Don't just pull them out and thats it. Pull them out, look at the TV, shorten them, look at the TV, position them horiizontally, look at the TV, and so on. Without spending the time doing this, I would probably be posting a review this didnt make much of a difference from my old antenna.
Customer Review: Better than expected
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this antenna a little afraid of what the result might be. It's always a hit a miss with antennas and it depends largely on where you are located, no matter how good the antenna, if you don't get good reception in your area there isn't much you can do. I live in Utah and there are mountains every where, so I was hoping this wouldn't be an issue.
So to avoid this problem (paying too much and finding out I don't get any reception) I started out by purchasing some simple $3 rabbit ear antennas. I was able to pull in several channels but only about 2 (CBS and ABC)of them came in clear (with digital broadcasts it's either coming in clear or it isn't, none of the fuzzyness you used to have to deal with), but it was enough for me to see that the signal was there on several channels so maybe with a better antenna I would be able to pull all of them in clearly.
I tried hooking up 2 rabbit ear antennas with a 2-way combiner which did improve the signal slightly, I got a 3rd channel (FOX) to come in clearly with out much problem, but to get specific channels it often required adjustment which would then cause the other channels to lose reception.
Finally I decided to purchase the Terk HDTV amplified antenna. The product arrived very quickly (Amazon Prime) and was extremely easy to assemble. I had done some research ([...]) to find where the nearest broadcast towers were and I aimed my antenna at my rough estimate and turned the TV on. To my surprise ALL of the major channels that I was hoping to receive came in perfectly and several others that I wasn't receiving before.
The UHF channels work the best with this antenna. The VHF channels come in as well, but you need to use the Di-poles which are kind of an eye sore, fortunately for me most channels come in on UHF. I have the antenna pointed directly at a wall towards the broadcast towers and this doesn't cause any problem. My TV antenna meter is showing about a 60db signal strength on most channels.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the antenna worked as well as I'd hoped. I know some areas may not receive the same results so I suggest you try a cheaper alternative first, do you're research, find the towers and determine which type of antenna (directional or not, UHF/VHF etc) will work best for you. This worked very well for me.
Customer Review: I live on the fringe and it worked for me.
Summary: 5 Stars
I haven't tried other antennas to compare this to, but I'm pleased with the Terk HDTVa. I live in Princeton, NJ, which is about halfway between Philly and NYC, 40 miles-ish from any broadcast towers. So basically, I'm beyond range for most indoor antennas and the reception websites say I probably need an outdoor antenna, but I can't do that since I live in an apartment.
Local stores had a very limited selection or were sold out, and most antennas were clearly insufficient. For instance, the Phillips models said they had a 20 mile range. The Terk says it works for 45 miles (without obstacles, but I have many large trees in my area). I read enough positive reviews of this antenna to justify taking a gamble on it.
It was simple to set up. Only came in two pieces, and was easy to connect to my converter box/TV. As expected, due to my distance, I got signals on many channels but some weren't strong enough to play reliably. They flickered on and off. But after some adjustment raising the piece higher and putting it at a window (aiming it towards Philly), with the amplifier on, I got CBS, NBC and FOX all clear, as well as numerous others (like NJ networks). I could also get some NY stations by facing it at NYC, though I didn't investigate how many or how reliable they are since I only cared about the Philly ones.
A few comments:
-The amplifier makes a big difference. If you don't think it's working, you probably have the antenna, converter box and TV connected in the wrong order (as I first did). Note that there's an "HDTVi" model without an amplifier. Be careful not to buy that by accident since it's a few dollars cheaper.
-The fishbone part of the antenna is for UHF channels, but it also contains rabbit ears on the sides for the VHF channels, though I didn't experiment with them.
-My main point here is that this antenna would be a good choice to try if you're unsure whether you're out of range for indoor antennas, and of course would work great for anyone closer to the towers. I live on a ground floor, with tall trees nearby, 40 miles from towers, and first tried it on a cloudy day, so unless your situation is worse than that, I'd predict this to work for you.
-You'll need some patience moving it around and trying to find the optimum position.
Customer Review: not perfect, but perhaps the best for indoor digital reception
Summary: 4 Stars
In brief, this was the best of four indoor antennae I tried. It picks up every station it should with just a little effort. I may still try an outdoor unit though.
Before any antenna review I should let you know the environment in which I tried it.
tuner: built into a new Philips 42" plasma, model 42PF7320A/37
building: tall single story on a high basement on a hill, plaster/lathe, wood siding
location: residential neighborhood, mostly single family homes, lots of large tall trees
terrain: Urbana, IL - flat, only a few tall buildings 1.5 miles away on campus
transmitters: check antennaweb.org for details, but in summary I have close stations in multiple directions and the furthest reception desired was from Decatur, about 35 miles west.
This was the fourth antenna I tried after buying a new television with built-in digital tuner. First I tried the passive Radio Shack I'd been using for analog. This gave me only one digital station. Online research led me to want an amplified unit. Thanks to reviews here and elsewhere I wanted to buy a Terk, but found only a Jensen at first. This was worse than the RS; I returned it and got both the TV5 and the HDTVa. I really wanted to like the 5; I liked the appearance and so many people online say it works for them. It was the first to give me all stations if I worked at it hard enough. I could not repeat the results though. I had to move it for every single station. I don't just mean rotate it; I mean find a new place in the room.
In contrast, it takes only two different positions for me to get everything reliably with the HDTVa. This definitely applies to the amplified HDTVa only; I couldn't get a single digital station without the power injector. Be prepared to play around; results can be counterintuitive. One of the best and most stable results I get is with it pointing right into a south wall for a station northeast of me.
Quality seems decent enough - good weight to everything. The thick coaxial cable comes out the bottom so it can face forward or backward. This cable is stiff, and until it settles a bit can render the antenna a little tip-prone. It fell off a coffee table once and seems fine. I wouldn't want one to drop six feet though.