Dish OTA ATSC Tuners

[Yes616]

Here are a couple of questions actually..

1. I have seen somewhere here or somewhere else that some have reported that they can get a reliable signal with their TV's OTA tuner but when they try to use the OTA tuner on their Dish receiver, it just isn't as good. I suppose I am asking a question about sensitivity.

I have two receivers. A ViP211 and a ViP722 that I want to use for OTA and I am a very rural area. I am about 85 miles from the NYC towers but high on a mountain and about 75 miles from Scranton, PA channels.

Of course I need one of the best antennas I can find along with a pre-amp booster and if I want both cities, I will need a rotator which brings me to question number..

2. Will I need to re-scan every time I change the direction of the antenna or is there some way for me to manually put in channels I am looking for? Another issue is both cities have a channel on channel 11 (once June 12th comes). Can the receivers remember the both channels 11? Of course I realize that if I am aimed at Scranton I will not receive WPIX from NYC and I will not get WBRE from Wilkes-Barre, PA when aimed at NYC.

The weakest channel I am trying to get shows up on TV Fool at NM(dB) -13.6 and Pwr(dBm) -104.4. The way I figure it, I need an antenna system that will give me a 15 dB gain across the board from channel 7 and up to get that NM(dB) value above zero. BTW.. this weak channel was very easy to get years ago when all I had was an OTA VHF antenna but now I need to play with UHF as well. Antenna system recommendations are welcome as well.

The signals must be received by the Dish receivers as my TV's are only "HD Ready" and do not have built in OTA ATSC tuners.

 

[DishSubLA]

Well, I can report that the Sharp Aquos (connected directly to the antenna), Tivo Series 3, 722, and 722K all get or fail to get the same channels and all are connected to the same antenna. In fact, I would venture to say that the Tivo Series 3 is a just a teeny-weeny bit weaker than the other devices. It will pixelate while the others are steady on a few channels that are hit and miss or not reliable. However, in the practical sense, I have experienced no operational difference among those devices connected to the same antenna at the same time. And in the case of the 722 and 722K, they each display the same signal strength number.

 

[gadgtfreek]

My panny tv's have pretty good tuners, but the TivoHD and the 622/722/722k all are close to the tv tuner, which has been good.

I dunno about sharp tuners, but I'd say the 622/722 internal is a pretty good unit compared to other boxes.

 

[Lifterguy]

I have found the tuner on my 622 to be better than or equal to the tuners on any of my TVs or converter boxes. I use an indoor "Double Bow-Tie" antenna and get very good reception, but then the stations I receive are less than 15-miles away. As you are clearly aware, your situation will be very challenging. Do you have any neighbors who are successfully pulling in any of the digital channels you hope to receive?
The VIP622 does allow you to manually add channels. Where I live, I have channels in different directions, and the receiver holds the channel, even if I have repositioned my antenna in a way that causes me to temporarily lose reception on that channel. But if you are able to receive Channel 11 from both New York and Wilkes Barre I think you may have an issue with that, since I'm guessing the receiver will only recognize one "Channel 11" at a time and could at very least show the wrong program guide information when switching back and forth.

 

[bhelms]

Both of my Sony TV tuners are better than the OTA tuners in their companion Dish receivers, one 622 and one 211. I know this by making side-by-side comparisons swapping the antenna connection between the units. In marginal situations (for me, almost all OTA channels are marginal!) the performance is better with the TV tuners doing the work vs. the sat. receiver tuners; fewer dropouts/less pixelation is the primary indicator. This may be less an issue with sensitivity as it is with selectivity. I believe my primary problem is not so much with absolute signal strength as it is with multipath interference where the reflected signals are almost as strong as the direct ones. In this case the tuner's ability to sort through the signals and select only the primary one and stay locked on it seems to be better with the TV tuners than with the sat. OTA tuners. (Increased sensitivity often comes at the cost of reduced selectivity. I may have created this problem by using a high-gain preamp in my OTA antenna system, possibly overkill for my situation.)

The tuners in the sat. receivers let you add individual channels. I don't know what will happen when you have 2 channels on b'cast channel 11. This is where selectivity comes in! You'll need a directional antenna pointed to only 1 at a time to increase that signal and suppress the other. Of course at the ranges you mentioned you'll need a high-gain directional antenna to receive anything! One consideration - you might want to experiment with a series of preamps, starting with none then working your way up in gain. So locate the preamp at a spot where you can easily access/swap it. Preamps are definitely situation where more is not necessarily better...!

 

[DishSubLA]

Both of my Sony TV tuners are better than the OTA tuners in their companion Dish receivers, one 622 and one 211. I know this by making side-by-side comparisons swapping the antenna connection between the units. In marginal situations (for me, almost all OTA channels are marginal!) the performance is better with the TV tuners doing the work vs. the sat. receiver tuners; fewer dropouts/less pixelation is the primary indicator. This may be less an issue with sensitivity as it is with selectivity. I believe my primary problem is not so much with absolute signal strength as it is with multipath interference where the reflected signals are almost as strong as the direct ones. In this case the tuner's ability to sort through the signals and select only the primary one and stay locked on it seems to be better with the TV tuners than with the sat. OTA tuners. (Increased sensitivity often comes at the cost of reduced selectivity. I may have created this problem by using a high-gain preamp in my OTA antenna system, possibly overkill for my situation.)

The tuners in the sat. receivers let you add individual channels. I don't know what will happen when you have 2 channels on b'cast channel 11. This is where selectivity comes in! You'll need a directional antenna pointed to only 1 at a time to increase that signal and suppress the other. Of course at the ranges you mentioned you'll need a high-gain directional antenna to receive anything! One consideration - you might want to experiment with a series of preamps, starting with none then working your way up in gain. So locate the preamp at a spot where you can easily access/swap it. Preamps are definitely situation where more is not necessarily better...!

I believe you because Sony is probably the only manufacturer who really does spend for quality electronics and all their tuners of the analog era were very noticeably superior to any other analog TV tuner.

 

[whatchel1]

LG

I believe you because Sony is probably the only manufacturer who really does spend for quality electronics and all their tuners of the analog era were very noticeably superior to any other analog TV tuner.

Then this must mean that LG has really good tuners. $ony builds almost nothing anymore. Most of the TV line up is made by LG for $ony. Oops my bad LG built all their plasmas. Samsung makes most of the parts for the LCD's.