Terk Technology HDTVi VHF/UHF HDTV Indoor Antenna
by Terk
|
List Price: Our Price: $20.99 You Save: $29.00 (58%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $14.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Terk Technology HDTVi VHF/UHF HDTV Indoor Antenna
Customer Review: Terk Technology HDTVi Indoor Antenna
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently bought a new HDTV, and having had a falling out with Comcast a while back, do not have cable. I choose the Terk based on reviews at amazon as well as http://www.hdtvantennalabs.com/hdtv-antenna-reviews.php. Much like everything I buy, the people who review it poorly only do so after I make a purchase, which is why it is no longer rated as well as it had been. It looks like a lot of other reviews rate antennas poorly just because they can't get a signal with them, which may be more of a problem with where they live than the antenna itself.
This website allows you to find the stations that are broadcasting around you and what type of antenna is needed. I also want to point out that there is no need to get an "HDTV" antenna. A regular antenna will work just as well. While I was waiting for this to ship, I took an old coax cable I had and stripped about 3 inches of the insulation off of one of the ends. I was able to get several channels crystal clear, which is enough proof in my mind that the phrase "HDTV Antenna" is another marketing ploy. I paid about $27 for the HDTVi, while it is currently $23 at Amazon. I live about 30 miles south of Boston, MA and about 11 miles from the antenna cluster in my area, and decided not to get the more expensive HDTVa with an amplifier, which costs slightly more.
The HDTVi is a directional antenna, which means I have to move the antenna on occasion. Luckily for me, most of the broadcast towers in my area are all clustered in same spot, so I only need to change if I want to watch something from Providence.
I'm able to get CBS, two FOXs, two ABCs, NBC, two PBS, and several unaffiliated channels as well.
Other than being a directional antenna, I have had no issues with this. It's a bit bulky (for comparison, the TV in the above photo is a 37"), but it sits to the side of my TV and looks like a ray gun.
You can see I wrote which way to point it for differing channels, as well as my Guitar Hero controllers in the background.
I rarely buy and try out competing products, but I do want to pick up the Terk TV1, which is a multidirectional set of rabbit ears selling for $10 to see how those work. My suspicion is that they will work almost as well, as I get a very strong signal on almost all the channels the HDTVi can get.
http://wrjohnston.blogspot.com/2008/12/terk-technology-hdtvi-indoor-antenna.html
Customer Review: Great antenna
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently bought a Philips 50 inch plasma TV with built-in HDTV tuner for OTA reception of HD signals. This was my first venture into HD so I had much questions regarding how to get OTA HD signals. I found AVSforum most helpful regarding all my questions. However, I was told that if I live in a large city such as Los Angeles and my non-HD reception was adequate then I would not have to buy any special antenna to receive HD OTA. A coat hanger would suffice. So I hooked my new plasma to my old rabbit ear since I live in a condo complex and cannot put out an outdoor antenna. With it, I was able to pull down 4 HD signals but they were unstable. In fact, I was never able get ABC HD and a couple of the local HD stations. I had two other indoor antennae lying around and one was even amplified that I bought from Radio Shack recently. Even with the amplified one, I got no better result then my initial older rabbit ear.
I bought this plasma TV set hoping I would be able to watch "Super Bowl" HD but instead, I had to settle for a slightly doubled imaged analog "Super Bowl". After trying all three antennae in various positions in my condo and ultimately using a longer coaxial, I pulled it out unto my balcony - no difference. No better.
After reading this site and AVS forum and other reviews, I finally settled on trying Terk HDTVi, an un-amplifited antenna with some skepticism since I had no luck with all my rabbit ears.
The set up was so easy. Through antennaweb.org, I found out where all Los Angeles' TV towers are and I aimed this unit in that general direction and I repeat my new plasma's channel auto-detection programming function and watched as it tallied up all the digital and non-digital channels it was now able to receive. According to antennaweb.org, I should be able to receive 31 digital channels. Well, by the end of autoprogramming cycle, my TV tallied over 45 digital channels and more than 15 non-digitals. I was ecstatic, and for the first time, I was able to get ABC HD and KCOP HD and some other in the high VHF band channels that I never knew existed.
Of course each owners' result will vary from location to location but I am most amazed and pleased with this unit esp. given its very reasonable price. Try it and hopefully your get as good of result as I have. I am very happy.
Customer Review: No better than simple rabbit ears
Summary: 3 Stars
If you're looking for a plain old rabbit-ear type antenna with about the same performance, this model will work for you but it's nothing special. It didn't improve the picture over our cheap $10 rabbit ear set with UHF loop. It's large and unstable with such a small base. One advantage is that the VHF telescoping antennae are quite thick and stout, much more durable than your average cheapo antenna.
I am a cable TV professional and have the gear to make actual measurements. I took readings on all the local channels and compared them to my simple antenna. This one measured at most 10% higher in signal strength, not enough to make a difference in the picture.
Here's a couple tips on antennas in general:
Other posts are correct when they say there's nothing HD about any antenna. The HD channels your TV tunes in are simply UHF channels, though it tries to hide that from you. So as long as your antenna has UHF capability then it's already HD capable. Don't waste money replacing an existing antenna thinking you need a new one for HD. For those of you who don't get the lingo, VHF uses the long pole antenna and includes integer-numbered channels 2-13. Everything else is UHF (including the ones your TV calls decimal numbers like 5.1, 5.2, etc) which uses the loop antenna or t-cross type elements as in this model.
One more note, an "amplified antenna" will not improve reception. They are made for applications with long cable runs or where you need to split the signal to several locations--they boost the signal to overcome signal loss introduced by the cables and splitter. If you are connecting the antenna to a single device, then the amplifier will not help you, in fact it's more likely to make things worse. The antenna tunes in what is coming through the airwaves, and an amplifier can not improve the strength of that signal in the antenna. If you are getting a bad picture, an amplifier will not improve it, it will only increase the power of the bad signal resulting in a 'louder' bad signal. It's much like on a stereo when you're listening to the radio and you hear static, turning up the volume only makes the static louder, it does not improve reception.
Customer Review: Terk HDTVi non-amplified indoor antenna
Summary: 5 Stars
After buying a basic RCA rabbit ear/uhf loop antenna and getting it at home from Amazon and tapping out one of the unthreaded base fittings for the rabbit ears I got zilch performance with it. Than I went to [...] and got a listing of the stations supposedly receivable in my home with an external antenna, MOST IF NOT ALL such antenna web sites disclaim that they don't claim to give good ratings for indoor antennas due to all the physical/metal obstructions that can interfere with indoor units. This Terk unit does recommend using it near a window which if it gives access to the angles that antenna web sites will list (usually with a map with your address centered with sight lines radiating out from it at the proper compass angles and compass degrees listed) will make the visit to an antenna website worth while. I should have visited the antenna website BEFORE ordering the basic RCA unit as the website gave distance in miles to local broadcast towers which all the reviews for more capable directional indoor HDTV units like this Terk make clear its got the power for in the 10-30 mile range at my address. A graph on the outside of this Terk's box rates it as good to excellent at 0-36 in urban areas. When I rescanned my Haier HL7 portable I got for power failures I found it good for 17 channels with the "Info" button on its remote showing a "good" or "normal" rating on the signal strength area of the info. window on the screen. Most importantly for power out emergencies 4 of them are for the three major networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and one local that uses FOX local news services which satisfies my emergency needs. Set up was easy, I found the array in the horizontal position worked best for me but it wasn't hard to try it both ways. Yes it is a bit tippy but with the pretty much useless VHF dipoles folded & tucked away it was minimal. The coax stays tucked under better to the rear and that helps stability so do it that way if you can. I'm using it with a 12 ft. coax extension with a male/male connecter to extend the units own coax with no fall off in performance with or without the extension. Given the performance without an ac amplifier and the good quality of construction I'm giving this unit 5 stars.Customer Review: Reception great, but base is unstable. Here's how to fix it.
Summary: 4 Stars
Nearly all of my local towers are only about 2 miles away, but there are several tall buildings between them and my home. Other than a permanent external antenna on the roof, this is the only one that has worked for me. Reception is perfect.
However, the design is ridiculously unstable. It looks nice, but it falls over if you just look at it funny. I have solved this with an easy modification, but am disappointed that it was necessary to do anything at all.
Easy Fix:
- Small piece 1x10 or 1x12 stock, maybe 6 or 7 inches length to accommodate the base of the antenna front-to-back dimension.
(To look nicer, I used a piece of that particle board shelving with the white finish on it.)
- Three screws, 1-1/4" self-drilling drywall screws or similar.
(The black drywall screws are nice because the color makes them barely noticeable.)
The antenna is unstable side-to-side, not front-to-back so much. So, place the antenna on top of the board so that the long axis of the board (the 10" or 12" axis) extends out the sides. If using a finished product like the white shelving, this also has the advantage of presenting finished edges on the front and sides, with the cut edge hidden in the back.
The base of the antenna has a channel allowing you to run the cable to the front or to the rear of the antenna. Run the cable to the rear because we'll use that circular notch at the front center where the two halves of the case come together.
Drill one screw directly into the board, at the front of the antenna base, aligned with this notch, just tight enough to hold the base down.
At the rear of the antenna base, a black hard rubber piece extends out on both sides about a 1/2 inch.
Drill one screw on each side, through this rubber piece and into the board, just tight enough to start to deform the rubber.
With these three points, the base is now reasonably secure. You can still move it side to side a little bit due to the flexibility of the rubber part you drilled through, but it won't fall over.
Hope this helps!