dockmasterdave wrote:
We are talking about a simple over air TV signal and asking about tuners. Is this going a little sideways ?
OTA now days IS NOT "simple", that IS the problem, whether YOU like it or not.
ATSC or "digital" video does not have the distance NOR noise/interference resistance that the old analog NTSC had.
If you are only using ONE TV then WHY even worry about your issue, YOU INTENTIONALLY AND CONVENIENTLY LEFT OUT that little small piece of information.
Many things can affect TV reception, weather severely affects reception, leaves on the trees affects reception, wind affects reception, buildings affect reception, generators affect reception, vehicle engines affect reception and pretty much any other ELECTRONIC DEVICES affect reception.
DIRECTION of the antenna IS "critical", unlike analog, digital you MUST be pretty much dead on with the direction of the station.
Turn off your converter, LED lights, Laptop, cellphones, tablets, MP3 players, plug in USB chargers and anything else electronic INCLUDING ANY INVERTERS.
If you MUST have an inverter running, put it a LONG WAY away from your TV and antenna, like a 50ft extension cord.
Then retry your TVs.
It IS the nature of the beast, we were left with a pretty crappy "digital" broadcast standard and the pitfalls WERE well known before the standard was picked.
Most TVs now days have similar reception specs which is why they are not published and really has very little to do with how well it receives..
For BEST results, you NEED antenna height (as high as you can get it), BIGGER antenna (crappy little RV antennas have ZERO Gain), extremely low noise/high gain preamp, top quality RG-6 coax (RG-59 does not cut it at all)proper direction and least obstructions(buildings/hills/trees).
At my home, I run a 12ft long antenna with a 25 DB gain preamp plus 8way amplified coupler.. Before digital, I could receive most stations with a coat hanger.. After digital, a coat hanger gets me one station and that blocks and freezes and with my larger outdoor antenna system I still lost some stations that were outside of my TV market that I used to get.