Antenna OTA Signal Strength with OTA Module

[rodin]

I'm kind of shocked on where the OTA module completely loses signal.. Any channels that I have that are 56% - 65% pixelate severely. Anything 55% and under just doesn't even come in - ie: doesn't even show up on the signal meter. My Sony Bravia TV will encode fine with a signal in the 40's.. I guess the low signals are to be expected though as I just have it sitting on the floor until I'm able to do a drop.. The good news is, once I get the antenna in my attic, I'll be pulling in much better signals between 80% to 100% on some other channels as I tested that tonight by just running a coax from the tv on the floor to my attic just to see what i got..

Either way, sure is nice to have "moved" and now picking up my locals via OTA, plus a LOT more than I ever had on dish or cable. Even though where I "moved" to, my signal strength is only 14-19%, it has been rock solid. Tomorrow will be a good test though, since we've not had any rain to see how quickly rain fade takes out the sat signal.

I picked up a Clearstream Long-Range Antenna from Best Buy, which certainly appears to work pretty good.

 

[bill42]

I don't use the Dish Equipment for OTA. Recovery from rain fades but faster thru other like the TV itself or in my case the Pansat 9200 HD

 

[SRF23]

I hate that you cannot change to an OTA channel if you lose the satellites during rain...

 

[eacalhoun]

I just recently upgraded to a 722k and I, too, have noticed that the OTA tuner (module) is not as sensitive as my Toshiba TV's tuner. Thankfully, it doesn't have an impact on the stations I really want and the upside is that the OTA channels now appear in the receiver's guide and that I can DVR my OTA channels.

 

[TheKrell]

I hate that you cannot change to an OTA channel if you lose the satellites during rain...

You can. Just hit the guide button and move to an OTA channel and voila.

 

[thomasjk]

I hate that you cannot change to an OTA channel if you lose the satellites during rain...

You can press Menu--->Guide and then slect your OTA channel. I do it all the time.

 

[SRF23]

Mine does not - it gets stuck at the "searching for satellite" screen

 

[thbjr]

It is amazing how many more locals you get OTA. I've always wondered why local cable companies don't inclued all of them. Do they have to pay any sort of fee to rebroadcast locals? If not, why don't they?

 

[redelephants]

It is amazing how many more locals you get OTA. I've always wondered why local cable companies don't inclued all of them. Do they have to pay any sort of fee to rebroadcast locals? If not, why don't they?

Yes, the providers pay the local affiliates. The end user ultimately pays for the channel in subscriber fees. It didn't always use to be this way though. Re-broadcasters would receive content OTA and retransmit to subs without paying. Those were the good ol days before everyone got caught up in greed and outrageous profit margins.

 

[Frank7004]

Mine does not - it gets stuck at the "searching for satellite" screen

Power the rcvr off via remote, turn it back on and press guide. Or put a splitter behind your tv and run one line to the tv directly and one to the ota. If u get rain fade just switch inputs on the tv.