How sensitive is the OTA tuner on the H10?

[lovswr]

I have a Sony 42" A10 HDTV that I just bought last Saturday. With a $9 RCA set of rabbit ears from Waly-World I can get 12 digital stations with the sets built in tuner. The H10 gets none. I got both the passive & amplified versions of the Terk indoor HDTV antennae. Again the H10 sees nothing.

So compared to other HDTV tuners how good is the H10? I would much rather get OTA via the H10 so that it is integated into the guide. Outside/roof atenna is a no-go. TIA

p.s both Terks are going back. It ought to be a crime to sell such junk.

 

[billbillw]

I haven't used the H10, but many others have reported that it has a very good OTA tuner. I'm surprised that you aren't having any luck.

 

[bigpro]

You might want to go through set-up and put in your zip code so that the H10 "looks" for the right stations, if you haven't. You can find this under "set-up", "antenna", "find local stations". The signal meter is also there, to see if you're getting any signal at all.
If you're getting them on your Sony (I have the 50" WEGA), you should get them through the H10.
I have rabbit ears connected to my H10 and get 2 of each network plus multiple weather channels and 5 PBS stations (I live 20 miles from Baltimore, 25 miles from D.C.) for a total of something like 20 digital local channels.

 

[Plywodstatebum]

My Voom receiver picked up allot more channels than the H-10 did. so if your not close to the source you may have to get a better antenna.
Just my observation.

 

[basshive]

More than likely the OTA input on your H10 is dead. Mine was. It worked fine and never moved and one day just died. The H10 is very good tuner wise so you should get atleast what you can get on your Sony, I have the 60inch WEGA and its more picky than the H10. When you try to tune something on the H10 what is the signal strength? If all the channels you think you should get are ZERO as if its not even attempting to see anything at all, then I am going to say the reciever is broken. Definitely something you should check into, I bet it happens to more people than we think and from my experiences seems like something that can easily happen.

 

[raymo721]

Damn, bigpro where do you live cause I'm in the same area and have been trying to do the same as you. Do you have to move the rabbit ears around alot to get all the channels or is it stationary?--Ray

 

[lovswr]

Thanks for all the replies. I can not check signal strength becasue I can not get to that option. Every time I scan for OTA it always lists 0 channels found. So the Signal Strength never can be "highlighted". Something occured to me earlier this evening (when I was scanning wtih no results). I do not have the triple LNB dish yet, so I don't have any HDTV channels in my H10 guide yet. The installer is supposed to come tomorrow between 8 & 12 (but since nobody has called yet, I'm getting mentally prepared for a marathon round of 'on hold wtih Directv!)
I'm not sure but I think I read once, that OTA would not show up until the ones from the Satty were there first.

 

[billbillw]

Let us know if that is the case. Seems kind of odd that the receiver would not pickup local stations just because the dish was not seeing the HD satellites.

 

[Jimbo]

billbillw,

I think lovswr is on the right track, the H10 is quite a bit different than the previous receiver I have used..
I too wanted to try the OTA BEFORE I purchased it, and you had to go thru all sorts of different stuff, but they were not able to get OTA without going thru all the set up garbage and if you did not have the dish set up the unit would not go any farther.

I do like the H-10 now that I've used it , but I am sure there should be better units in the near future.

BTW, I have a Sony XBR 60" with the built in tuner and love it,
FYI to lovswr, The OTA picture is better than the H-10, When you hook up your antenna, use a splitter and run it into the H-10 as well as the OTA antenna spot on the back of your TV, more flexability....

We had a very bad storm up here the other night (No not anything like a hurricane),,,, I lost my D* signal, but was able to use the Antenna for the networks still ...
Also, if you scan for your channels and the OTA is hooked up at the time, those channels WILL show up in the guide.

Jimbo

 

[lovswr]

I think basshive is on to something. This H10 is dead, as far as any HDTV is concered. Installer came yesterday & put up the triple LNB Oval dish. I'm getting good signal (90% & up) on all trasnponders on all sattelites, except for like 110/12 (I think it's 110). That one gets like 62% which is just barely in the green. The installer was unfamiliar with the H10 & I had to tell him how to get back to the transponder check/signal meter screen. As soon as he saw that I was now recieving all 3 birds he left. Well I let it go through the entire set up & 110 & 119 fail, even though under signal meter I see them good as described above. So now I'm thining no over the air HDTV nor from D*. This HDTV portion of the tuner must be Tango Uniform. So 58 minute call later with D* & still no-go I suggest to the D* help guy that I would just take this thing back to BB & exchange. However, they wanted to send somebody back this morning from 8 to noon. Which brings me to another point.

It seems like D* does not like to call ahead to confirm. I scheduled yesterday's shenanigans last Sunday evening, but the installer did not call until yesterday, aboaut 10 minutes before he got here. It's 0821 right now & I assume this new tech will do the same. I really wish they would call ahead at least one day, if nothing else to make sure that I (the customer) was legit, & more to the point, I wanted to arrange some wall phishing. Oh well C'est La Vie!

 

[nater]

Let us know how it goes. I am waiting for my HD-DVR it was ordered from D* just after Labor Day and the first install date I could get was Oct. 7. IT did not take nearly as long for it to appear on my bill, but the addition to the bill is the only confirmation I have for the order. My first HD experience was with Voom, they must have called or emailed 10 times before they actually arrived. Seems the D* process is very low touch.

I hope this OTA will work close to as well as the Voom did. The local offerings have improved a lot in the past year. (local is SW Washingtion near Portland OR)

nater

 

[lovswr]

Well the second D* tech just left. The verdict? Take it back to BB. I know that HD is out there, but I am starting to lose my faith, just a bit.

 

[lovswr]

Got the new H10. Still no HD... However, the HD channesl (70's) now show up in the guide. Talked to tier 2 support. They think possible bad multi-switch (which was left over from my original E* install from 3.5 years ago. The tech brought a new multi switch with him, but he did not use it) or the guy that put up my tripple LNB dish just did not know what he was doing. 3rd service call is this Monday. Also, I'm getting 4 OTA channels now. Put the rabbit ears up in the attic.

 

[lovswr]

Alright, the 3rd service tech just left. He replaced the tripple LNB's reterminated a cable coming inside my house & he replaced the big multi-switch outside my house (under the edge second story gutter). He did not replace the little mutliswitch, ZINWELL SAM-3402, that is inside my attic. We took the H10 to my bedroom, my son's & my daughters. It failed on 110 & 119 in my bedroom & in my son's room. It passed in my daughters!!!!

As an aside, the d-200's that are existing in my sons & daughters rooms both passed when I reran the setup & told it the dish type was 3 LNB,Oval.

My Tivo in my room also failed (did not see the 110 & 119) when I changed type to 3 LNB oval. Now having said that, all recievers in my house, including the H10, see 110 & 119 as having a signl strength of 88 or higher on any transponder. The failure is always at the confirmation screen where it tries to bring all 3 birds together.

Can anyone comfirm that the multi switch above is ok for DirecTV (that attic multiswitch ws provided by Dish almost 3 years ago) HD service with the 3 LNB, Oval dish? Also is this considered a "stacked" installation? The H10 always shows unstaked.

 

[lovswr]

Ok, I saw HDTV!!! . My Tivo & teh H10 are "fighting" each other over the control of the triple LNB dish. Actually, fighting is the wrong word.

I bought this house new 3.5 years ago. It was wired for cable, from the builder, for only two rooms. The master bedroom & the Family room. Thhe H10 is in the Family room & the Tivo is in my room. Outside my house, there is a green Adelphia cable pill box. The cabling that came with my house has one F-type input & there is a regular 3 dollar Wal-Mart special F-Type splitter, somewhere outside. The multi switch listed above was installed after we moved in, & serves the 3 other upstairs bedrooms that did not have cable outlets in them when the house was built.


To get the H10 working, I went outside & unplugged the cable that is going to my master bedroom. The H10 immediately picked up the HDTV channels (ESPN2 did not look as bad as I heard it was) & a soon as I plugged it back in, the HDTV channels went into 'searching for satellite.


Now, can someone tell me what type of mutil switch that I need to install, outside, that will let the H10 & the Tivo (note, at the present time only one cable is on the Tivo, but in the near future I would like to put the second line to it) using the triple LNB dish? If this can not be done, I will scrap the Tivo, & put the D10-200 back in my master bedroom. TIA.

 

[DTVSatman]

As I understand it, for up to four receivers, use the four outputs from the 3-LNB dish. For more than four receivers, feed the four outputs into a 4X8 multiswitch. I have been told not to use a 2X4 multi on a 3-LNB dish because a multi is already built into the LNB.

 

[lovswr]

I am not 100%, but I am pretty sure that the outside multi switch is 4x8 (from the size of it). Two cables from that feed my family room/bedroom & the other two cables go to the 2X4 (which has 3 rooms off of it).

 

[lovswr]

Well I think I finally found the problem. I bought a 24' ladder from Home Depot. Got up there & saw that I have a 3x4 switch outside. So I have one 3x4 outside feeding another 3x4 on the inside. 8 ports total but I don't think this can work this way. Called directv back, 4th tech is coming this Saturday wtih a 4x8. I'm gonna be an a*hole about having the 4x8 installed inside my attic, where I can easily reach it.

 

[grydlok]

Well I think I finally found the problem. I bought a 24' ladder from Home Depot. Got up there & saw that I have a 3x4 switch outside. So I have one 3x4 outside feeding another 3x4 on the inside. 8 ports total but I don't think this can work this way. Called directv back, 4th tech is coming this Saturday wtih a 4x8. I'm gonna be an a*hole about having the 4x8 installed inside my attic, where I can easily reach it.

A 4X8 in your attic will get really HOT. I think your install is jacked up, but no one will probaly really fix it at a service call price.

 

[bigpro]

Damn, bigpro where do you live cause I'm in the same area and have been trying to do the same as you. Do you have to move the rabbit ears around alot to get all the channels or is it stationary?--Ray

I live in Columbia off 175 between 108 and 32. I used a diplexer to feed the rabbit ears into and ran a cable along my fence to the back of my yard. Just by placing the rabbit ears on my fence and pointed per antennaweb.org, I can get near every channel. If I move them to the top of my shed (about 7 feet), I get more. I do have to re-orient the rabbit ears depending on if I'm trying to get DC or Baltimore. I've tried, but haven't found one position that gets them all perfectly.
I picked up one of those flat antennas at Radio Shack for 50 bucks with a built in amp. Can't even get above 20 on any one channel. My rabbit ears kick its a$$.
There are a lotta trees around me as well. I do think we're on one of the higher points in Columbia, for whatever that's worth.