OTA Smart Antenna & 622 ATSC/8VSB

[Allin4greeN]

I'm thinking about upgrading my indoor antenna, a little RS 15-1870, to a relatively unobtrusive outdoor model, and I'm looking at this Sylvania DT-5000 at Sam's Club to possibly do the job. I live in an apartment complex so, I need something that is not going to ruffle the complex management feathers and this seems to fit the bill...

After some research, however, I came up with this link which has the following disclaimer- PLEASE NOTE: This antenna can only be used with an ATSC Receiver that has a smart antenna feature (that conforms to the EIA/CEA-909 standard) or a television with a built-in ATSC Receiver.

Does anyone know if the 622's ATSC tuner conforms to this EIA/CEDA-909 standard and/or if I can use this antenna in my set-up. My Vizio P50HDTV10A has a built in ATSC tuner also but, I can't find any reference to the Smart Antenna feature in my documentation

Sylvania DT-5000 at Sam's Club http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?catg=535&item=170730&prDeTab=2#A
Sylvania DT-5000 at SummitSource.com http://www.summitsource.com/dx-ante...l-green-zone-instock-part-dta5000-p-6320.html

 

[navychop]

I doubt that the ViP622 supports this thing. I also doubt it works very well. Look at the StealthTenna by Channel Master, CM3010. This is larger, but works well. I had one at my townhouse and installed one at work, both with the internal amp. It is called the StealthTenna because it can be "stealthy" and mounted under eaves so it is less noticeable. It is in fact multidirectional, although it looks directional. I've seen articles written about it where it was clear the writer did not even read the literature, and called it directional based on it's appearance, and thought it was "StealthTenna" because it sorta looked like the stealth bomber. It was on the market before the bomber.

Works well, cheap.

 

[Allin4greeN]

Thanks navychop, I'll look into the CM3010!

 

[Hall]

It doesn't sound like this standard is brand new from Googling and that it's supported by the chipsets of digital set-top receivers. Dish doesn't use their own, crippled chipset either. In fact, I believe they use Broadcom.

The fact that the antenna is from Sam's Club and looks to be easily mountable even in a temporary setup, it can't hurt to try. It's easy to return.... Reading a review or two that turned up in the same Google search though, it doesn't appear that the antenna is very good. If you're 15 miles away or less, it will probably work... Then again, I used the $4.99 bowtie antenna from Radio Shack successfully !!

 

[Allin4greeN]

I ordered the Sylvania just to check it out. If it turns out to be un-usable all I have to do is drive 5 minutes down the road to return it for a full refund. Gotta love Sam's Club.

This post over at AVS seems to suggest that it's no slouch in reception but, I'm still not sure if the "smart" feature is going to be problematic. The Sam's Club reporting of specs just doesn't cut it, IMHO. It may even be a 3000 or 3500 series, as opposed to the 5000... I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

I hate to admit it but, the antenna just looks cool and has a realtively low profile. Given the experience I had with complex management over positioning of my two D500's, I'm anxious to avoid anything that draws attention

My RS 15-1870 was $15 on sale and works great for pulling in broadcasts from 10-15 miles away. At 20-30 miles, however, it's not the most reliable so...

AVS Thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7727812&&#post7727812

 

[navychop]

Doesn't look like a positive posting to me. Good luck.

 

[Allin4greeN]

Doesn't look like a positive posting to me. Good luck.

I know the general disposition of the poster was not overwhelmingly positive but, I delved a little deeper into his reviews (links within the the thread I posted) and was intrigued by this...

"THE GOOD NEWS:
For the past two weeks, I compared the On-Air DTV performance of the DTA-5000 Smart Antenna
to a 4-Bay Vertical Zig-Zag for two indoor and two outdoor locations chosen primarily for WAF.
The Smart Antenna consistently brought in the more difficult channels when the 4-Bay
required hunting around for the best location and still suffered varying degrees of signal dropout.
I was impressed the presumably low-gain, compact DTA-5000 outperformed a medium gain 4-Bay.

The DTA-5000 is probably best suited for short to medium ranges (under 30 miles),
and especially with difficult multipath conditions, such as indoors and perhaps in
urban concrete canyons (did not test)."

The last paragraph pretty much describes my needs to a "T". I might even try this thing indoors first and position it out of sight somewhere.

AVS Thread http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5979741&highlight=dta5000#post5979741

 

[Jim5506]

There are boo-koos of small outdoor antennas that can be used indoors that are 1/2 to 1/4 the price and will probably perform better.

 

[Allin4greeN]

Well, I got the "not-so-smart antenna" tonight and spent a couple of hours playing around with different locations and positions. Indoors, outdoors, up-side-down... As navychop and Jim5506 anticipated, this thing is pretty much useless in my set-up. It's reception was worse than my little indoor model, so back to Sam's it goes.

I should've taken your original advice and tried the CM3010, navychop Lesson learned, I'll be looking to pick one of these up. On a more positive note, at least now I have an additional RG6 run to the outside of my apartment

Many thanks for your valiant attempts to talk sense into me!

 

[boba]

Well, I got the "not-so-smart antenna" tonight and spent a couple of hours playing around with different locations and positions. Indoors, outdoors, up-side-down... As navychop and Jim5506 anticipated, this thing is pretty much useless in my set-up. It's reception was worse than my little indoor model, so back to Sam's it goes.

I should've taken your original advice and tried the CM3010, navychop Lesson learned, I'll be looking to pick one of these up. On a more positive note, at least now I have an additional RG6 run to the outside of my apartment

Many thanks for your valiant attempts to talk sense into me!

You might also try a Winegard sensar II these have been used in the RV antenna marketplace for at least 20 years.

 

[navychop]

Yes, to less than satisfactory results. I have one.