Anyone know of an ATSC tuner that has a good signal strength display? I just put up an antenna rotator and want to use it to seek out stations that the auto tuning misses. Right now I have one TV that will allow me to input an RF channel number and then display signal strength and quality for that channel, making it easy to tune the antenna to maximize signal. Unfortunately that TV is in the kitchen and the rotator control is in the living room so it gets tedious walking back and forth, turning the antenna 5 or 10 degrees at a time to seek out the best position. All my other ATSC tuners have only a "channel search" function so I cannot tune in one channel at a time - if the search function doesn't see it, there's no way to enter it. Looking at tuners on Amazon and other sites the descriptions don't provide info like this. Also it would be nice to know what tuners have the best chipsets in them, again info that is not easy to find. I suppose I could just order one tuner at a time, try it out and send it back if it doesn't do what I want but I'm hoping to find an easier way.
Standalone ATSC receiver with good signal strength display?
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Most of the tuners are going to want to scan first because everything uses virtual numbers, not the old-school TV channel numbers. Even the tuning meters don't seem to allow you to pick a channel.
It may be possible to do what you're trying to do with a computer-based TV tuner.
If it were me, I'd yard the TV out of the kitchen to "calibrate" your rotator.
Going forward, it seems likely that it will be increasingly difficult to effectively use rotators. DXing is already very iffy.
It may be possible to do what you're trying to do with a computer-based TV tuner.
If it were me, I'd yard the TV out of the kitchen to "calibrate" your rotator.
Going forward, it seems likely that it will be increasingly difficult to effectively use rotators. DXing is already very iffy.
DISH DTV PAL if you can find one I think has the option you want. You can put in the real RF channel and it will display the channel and signal strength.
Zenith makes a converter box that allows manual entry of a station. I know the DX'ers use those (based on pictures they have posted)
I have used a Mediasonic HW-150PVR: Amazon product ASIN B00I2ZBD1U It let's you manually select any real channel and then adjust your antenna to peak it. Sensitivity seems good and it responds very quickly.
Based on the movement towards many devices not supporting adding channels manually. My two newest televisions (both JVC brand) only allow you to pick channels from the most recent scan. They don't remember channels from previous scans and you can't configure them manually.
The meter on that receiver is real goofy (I have one) and doesn't lock signals as good. I remember when I lived in Minneapolis it showed the Ion affiliate at 2% but would be stable yet another station if the meter got down below 55% it would pixelate
My Zenith Bravia doesn't work that way nor does my wife's Samsung. Both will add new channels and leave existing ones alone as well as allow manually adding channels. It would be interesting to see if that's actually true as I haven't run into it.
some TV's you can enter the actual RF station and it will add if there is a signal there
That's strange? I used mine for around a year in one of our bedrooms and it never did that for me. In fact, the HW-150PVR would lock signals more readily and stable then either my Zenith and LG tv's which have built in digital tuners.
It's overly sensitive to TOO MUCH signal, so some people might have that issue and not realize they are overpowering it with an amp or something.
That makes sense - amp or not, there's never too much signal here at 41 and 57 miles from the towers and a hill between.
I ordered the Mediasonic HW-150PVR from Amazon - should be here today. I've been trying to use an old Samsung SIR-T-451 with a DVI to HDMI adapter - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - don't know why. The sensitivity is not very good on the Samsung, but the picture is good on the channels it does receive. I'll put that one back on the shelf in the closet. Will post results with the Mediasonic when I get a chance - might be a few weeks.
