Antenna TV reception

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Pugapooh

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 7, 2016
Posts
832
Location
Montgomery Co,MD
Or lack there of.  Two Tvs,one in bedroom,one in living room.  We did auto programming on them and did not get the same channels on both.  What we did get would usually freeze up,pixelate or lose signal.  Any thoughts on why the channel discrepancy?  Any ideas to improving reception?  Thanks in advance!
 
The freeze up and pixelating is why you got different channels on the two tvs. As each was searching, one would skip a bad signal, but when the other tried that channel, it worked.

The only ways I know of improving over-the-air reception is hight and aiming.
 
Are the TVs identical? If not they are simply using different algorithms to determine if the signal is strong enough to be included in the channel line up.
 
What kind of antenna do you have? If it's the common batwing, you may need to rotate it to get better reception. Of course I'm assuming you've got it raised.

But Stephen gave an excellent answer on why different channels, and I agree that height and aim are important factors. You must also keep in mind that not every location will get good reception, even from local channels, so sometimes moving the antenna (thus your rig, I expect) just a couple of feet can sometimes improve things (or make it worse).

More details about your setup might trigger some additional thoughts.
 
This usually indicates that the antenna is not pointed at the station towers.

Check the App Store for an app called "TV Towers" from Generally Helpful Software. It will show you where the closest TV towers are so you can point the antenna at the stations. Most TV antennas are directional and must be aimed at the stations.
 
Thanks for all the replies!  I don't think they are the same brand.  We were in a bad spot mostly.  At home they work fine.  It just seemed odd,the discrepancy between tvs.  Thanks again.
 
Every coax connection, splitter, foot of coax, etc, causes a small signal loss. If one TV has more connections or even a longer cable run than another identical TV, the scan may not see some stations as strong enough to lock in while the other TV does see them as strong enough.
 
Any thoughts on the channel discrepency... YES

You also mentioned weak signal syndrom (Pixleated, freezing, drop outs and the like)

Most Digital TV (These days) is on the UHF band. true there are still quite a few on VHF High, and even a few on VHF LOW but most are on UHF.

The coax used in RV's is often "Lowest Bidder" RG-59.. this is a high loss cable so the longer cable to the REMOTE has far greater signal loss than the shorter cable to the MAIN TV.

Second differences in the televisions

And finally...  This is an old story ..  Airstream had that complaint back in the ANALOG days, One TV got good reception on some channels, the other on other channels, NEITHER got good reception on ALL channels.. What's UP?

Well as it happens a friend of mine is an engineer for the company that made the antennas for those RV's back then (Today it's a THOR brand and they use one of the big name antennas,, Jack or Winegard)

Well, turns out the tv cable was installed by electricians,, back then it was 300 ohm flat line,, they used good ELECTRICAL practice and spliced the 2nd lead in like you would ROMEX to a second outlet.. They did not use a proper SPLITTER which isolates the two lines.

Ken put in a splitter and all was good.


Finally.. UPGRADES to your system
I added the WINGMAN to my Winegard Sensar antenna
And the SENSAR PRO which is a multi-function box
Power supply for the mast head amplifier
Splitter (2 way)
Switch
Variable gain amplifier
Signal meter and scanner  beats the diodes off the King Controls device.
 
I've had the same problem. The signal to the rear tv is weak, yielding fewer usable channels and poor quality on those that it does accept. The rear tv may be  on a splitter that weakens the signal, or simply has a longer run of coax.  Or maybe a poor connector on the coax.

If you can't find any cabling problems, the simplest fix is to put an amplifier somewhere, preferably closer to the antenna coax so that it amplifies the source signal to both tvs.

Does your RV have a video switch that chooses which signal source (Ant, Cable, DVD, etc) to send to which tv? Or does the tv coax just go into a splitter that feed both tvs?
 

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