Just ordered this OTA STB from Amazon. Want to see if it receives stations better than my current Sony 11-year old TV, plus it has a signal meter.
Amazon product ASIN B01EW098XS
Amazon product ASIN B01EW098XS
Mediasonic HW130STB
- Thread starter spongella
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Your Sony probably has a meter,it's just not anywhere where you'd think it would be.Go into the menus,find Product Services(I think that's what it's called)and the meter should be in there.At least that's where it is on my 10? year old Sony.
I gave up on trying to find the dang meter on the Android powered Sony's. It's buried somewhere and I can never find it quickly when I want it
Funny thing is i have a 16 yr old vizio and a newer vizio. The old vizio mostly had signals at 100% but would drop off sharply too. The new Vizio has a bit better meter. And then i have the AM21 Directv reciever that registers lower signals but shows them locked in green. They are all very different signal meter set ups on the tv. Best bet go with what ever locks and stays. I have a amp on mine i just adjust till most channels lock. Better bet is to have one single run coax to antenna outside. No splitter or spices and you will have a good clean signal. Never use splitter.
Well after putting it through it's paces I am pleased. But, when you perform a scan it overwrites the previous scan's channels. If it had an "add digital channels" option that would be better. It picks up slightly fewer channels than my Sony Bravia but the MediaBox scans much faster, and having an EPG is great. Hey, for $30 can't complain.
In the autoscan it includes 700 -803 mHz, not necessary for the USA TV channels anymore.
In the autoscan it includes 700 -803 mHz, not necessary for the USA TV channels anymore.
Did you try direct entry of an actual RF channel to see if it will find the virtual channels without having to do a scan ?Your Bravia should do that,mine does.Of course you have to know the actual RF channel.
Yes, that is normal.
You can add a channel just like with your Sony.
I have a HW150. I looked at the manual for the 150 and the 130. They both have a Manual Search:
Menu > Channel Search > Manual Search
Enter the RF channel number or use left and right arrows:
If the channel is strong enough, the tuner will pick it up. If it isn't strong enough, the Quality reading will be blank.
I tested it on my 150 by doing a scan with no antenna which erased all channels. I then entered RF 16 in Manual Search and it picked up 3.1 CBS.
When I use the INFO button (press twice) to check Signal Quality of a channel that has already been picked up by the tuner, it usually has to be above 39 or 40% on my HW150 (and my Channel Master 7003 converter box) for the tuner to lock on to it.
When the tuner isn't able to pick up a channel during a scan, you don't know if it's too weak or not there. You would need a signal level meter or an SDR (Software Defined Radio/Receiver) to find out. An RTL-SDR.COM V3 dongle is only $25. The SDR# (SDRsharp) software is free.
Using free open-source software from GitHub, the dongle can be used as a spectrum analyzer. But, you have to assemble the DIY software in a folder, which isn't easy.
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Thank you for the excellent replies and suggestions. All very helpful. I do have a SDR dongle and an HP spectrum analyzer to look at the signals. Great idea.
