Tuner or Antenna

[stanger89]

First off, I'm not a huge HD watcher, unfortunately there's very little in HD that appeals to me, so this has never been a huge issue, but it has been annoying and I've eliminated every issue I can easilly resolve.

So what I'm left with is intermittent "breakups" in my HD recordings. As I said, I've eliminated every issue I can, and I've narrowed it down to multipath, with probably 90% certainty.

My setup is thus:
1 station at 333/25 miles
3 stations at 325/25 miles
1 station at 279/25 miles

All of these are broadcasting on (or near) full power.

Antenna is a 120" boom type (I think it's a VU-120 XR or similar, it's pretty old).
Tuner is an Aver A180, and on the station I care about today, is reporting 100% strength.

So, that leads me to the conclusion that my problem is multipath, and thus to the question I pose to you.

Would a new antenna and/or a new tuner be the best next step to take?

For antennas I'm thinking something like a DB2/DB4 or or maybe something like a 42XG, as for tuners, I'm not really sure, but the Vbox ones sound promising.

So, thoughts?

[WeidnerJ]

I would go with HD Homerun. I got mine the other week and I love it. Only bad thing is that it can't do regular OTA or cable tuning so an additional tuner like PVR-150 is needed. I am close enough to the local stations to use OTA only but since I have Time Warner cable, I decided to use both HD Homerun tuners as QAM instead of OTA.

I get all of the OTA channels, plus a few others that are not advertised like Disney and HD NET, etc that way and don't have to worry about interference and bad HD recordings. Note: HD requires a lot of disk space! 9 gig for an hour show and no way to change that.

Now the carp shoot for you. What channels does your provider have unencrypted?

[paulbeers]

I have nothing constructive to add to this, other than I notice the same thing with my FusionLite and I am only about 5-6 miles from my towers here in Des Moines (although I am currently using "good" indoor antennae) and so I constantly show 90-100 percent recoring and still have an occassional studder. Surprisingly my wife has no problem with it (she just accepts the studder although it annoys the heck out of me!).

I am also planning to go with an HD Homerun, and I know my locals are unencrypted by Mediacom, however, I will still have the same problem with FOX (which is the worst) since Mediacom and Sinclair broadcasting are in a fight and we no longer have FOX on our cable system.

[hotwire]

Have you already checked http://www.antennaweb.org to see what type of antenna they recommend? I only ask because a VU-120 is a pretty big antenna. At my first place I used a VU-75 in the attic that worked great.

Hope this helps,
Kenny

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by WeidnerJ

Now the carp shoot for you. What channels does your provider have unencrypted?

Well:

1) My provider doesn't carry my HD locals
2) My provider doesn't use QAM (uses Turbo-coded 8psk for HD locals I believe)
3) None are unencrypted AFAIK
4) Oh yeah, it's Dish Network

Oh, and I'm lucky if there's two shows I watch in HD a week let alone at the same time, so dual-tuners don't really interest me. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Originally Posted by paulbeers

I have nothing constructive to add to this, other than I notice the same thing with my FusionLite and I am only about 5-6 miles from my towers here in Des Moines (although I am currently using "good" indoor antennae) and so I constantly show 90-100 percent recoring and still have an occassional studder. Surprisingly my wife has no problem with it (she just accepts the studder although it annoys the heck out of me!).

Just something to think about... My problem is breakups/errors in the recording, where the video goes "blocky" for a second or two. Just like when you've got marginal signal strength, it isn't studder.

What you describe might be more of a playback issue, to determine that, if you rewind, does it studder in the same place? If so, then you've got a recording/reception problem, if not, it's probably playback.

Originally Posted by hotwire

Have you already checked http://www.antennaweb.org to see what type of antenna they recommend?

That's where I got the distances/directions from, as for what they recommend, it's not a lot of help, depending on station they recommend anywhere from a Yellow to a Violet, Small Multi-Directional to a Large Directional w/Preamp.

I only ask because a VU-120 is a pretty big antenna.

Yeah, but it was free

I'd guess it qualifies as a "Large Directional". I'm pretty sure I don't need a preamp based on distance, and I tried an amp, and it made things worse (I presume overdriving the recievers).

So I guess I'm still unsure if it's better to go with a different better tuner, or a different antenna.

Anybody have thoughts on if the Vbox cards are better with multipath than the A180, or if there's another card out there that is?

[Fluffdaddy]

I feel your pain.

The TERK HD-TVS Slim Profile Outdoor HDTV Antenna did the trick for me. I'm now getting all my local HD channels.

Not the best at pulling in SD analog though. Channel 3 and 6 looks awful, but I'm not interested in analog now anyways.

I had some cheap Radio Shack outdoor antenna that I been HDTV happy with for about 4 years, even with 2 or 3 elements that blow away over the years. Then some of the channels in my area moved their towers and lowered their power output and I intermittently lost 2 channels and had major breakups when I could get them

In order to get then back I tired a

1)CHANNEL MASTER MAST MOUNTED PREAMPLIFIERS that worked "ok" as long as it was not raining or snowing. Then the preamp burnt out after only 3 weeks and the replacement died after only 2 months during a snow storm.

My last attempt ( getting to old to be going up 3 stories every other month) at getting all the HD channels in my area was a

2) TERK HD-TVS Slim Profile Outdoor HDTV Antenna
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...499055-0861451

The TERK HD-TVS Slim Profile Outdoor HDTV Antenna on a 8 foot mast did the trick. I'm now getting all my local HD channels with No intermittent "breakups" in my HD recordings

Not the best at pulling in SD analog though. Channel 3 and 6 looks awful, but I'm not interested in analog now anyways.

Using two Aver A180 HD cards

Fluff

[bcjenkins]

I have http://www.pctinternational.com/chan...tdoor_uhf.html

the 4221. Very good antenna, never have issues unless there is heavy weather, and then only with stations very far away.

B

EDIT - Running with Fusion5 Lite and Fusion5 RT

[teknubic]

Which tower is your antenna pointed at? My experience is that you can get 100% signal strength on a station but still not be pointed at it. You should be able to get the 4 at 333 and 325 at the same time but it's unlikely you'll get the 279 with any stability. If you have a clear shot at the tower 25mi away, you don't need an amplifier, IMHO.
GL

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by teknubic

Which tower is your antenna pointed at?

Honestly I'm not sure, I got it in roughly the right direction, and then just moved it around to optomize the signal. I'd say it's pointed at the 333 or 325 ones, definitely not at ~270 (it's pretty eas to figure that since the house runs N/S.

My experience is that you can get 100% signal strength on a station but still not be pointed at it. You should be able to get the 4 at 333 and 325 at the same time but it's unlikely you'll get the 279 with any stability.

Scarilly, the 270 has the highest strength, but none of them are perfect. Which kind of leads me to think it's multipath.

If you have a clear shot at the tower 25mi away, you don't need an amplifier, IMHO.

That's kind of what I figured.
GL [/quote]

[ldavis]

I am sure that everyone has considered the following relative to some of the studdering that everyone seems to get to varying degrees but in my case I do not think that any of the studdering is related to the tuner or sigal strength but rather the ability to read and write from the HD's quickly enough. I have two HD OTA tuners and nothing else. If I am only recording one show then I am pretty much unlimited in what I can do relative to playback on the sever and clients. If two show are recording then I have one problem. If I try to watch one of the shows time shifted them I get severe studdering, and the problem is not in the playback-the file itself contains the studder. Interestingly enough, watching the same show "live" does not produce any problems. Note also that the studdering does not start when you begin playback on the time shifted show. For example, if I start watching a show 15 minutes after it starts then initially playback is fine but once I get to the 15 minute mark the problems begin.

[stanger89]

As an update, I opted to try a Vbox 150 and so far I like it, haven't really had much of a chance to play with it though.

One thing I do really like is that it reports signal strength with much finer granularity (1%) than the A180 (25% or something). I was able (with the help of my laptop, wireless network, and TSReader) to more precicely adjust my antenna to get 100% on all channels, something that I think was impossible with the A180.

However I'm greedy, and one or two of my channels hover around or just below 0dBm, so I'm pondering getting a DB4 as well.