I get better OTA sensitivity from my TiVo Bolt than directly from my Sony TV, is this normal?

[edisonprime]

My OTA is on a splitter. When I rotate it, I've noticed that some distant channels coming directly from my TV occasionally comes in scrambley (not all the time) but from my TiVo Bolt it would come in perfect. This seems strange to me. You'd think the ACTUAL TV would have the best sensitivity. Weird.

P.S. I also have my OTA hooked up to a dual tuner adapter for my Dish Hopper 3, but I only use that for my main market, due to the fact you can't add channels with it.

 

[boba]

Different tuners have different capabilities. Tivo except the series 4 have had very sensitive tuners. DISH dual OTA dongle has a bad reputation for channel sensitivity.

 

[Larry1]

My OTA is on a splitter

Have you tried with no splitter. Also some splitters do not have the same signal level out on all ports. The db attenuation might be marked on your splitter ports. If it is an issue, a distribution amplifier can overcome splitter losses.

 

[edisonprime]

Have you tried with no splitter. Also some splitters do not have the same signal level out on all ports. The db attenuation might be marked on your splitter ports. If it is an issue, a distribution amplifier can overcome splitter losses.

It is connected to a distribution amp. My question was mostly out of curiosity anyways since my TiVo Bolt is my prime OTA device. I just thought above all else a TV tuner would be better than anything else, so I found it to be odd. I'm not saying that I get a bad signal directly through my TV, but my TiVo Bolt happens to be slightly better. As I said, directly to the TV one would assume would have the best signal if any. Just my thoughts.

 

[spongella]

Interesting discussion. Wonder if TV manufacturers publish sensitivity specifications for different models? Some radio hobbyists depend on sensitivity/selectivity and other parameters when choosing a rig. Have to check this out. Thanks for the food for thought.

 

[andy_horton]

Interesting discussion. Wonder if TV manufacturers publish sensitivity specifications for different models? Some radio hobbyists depend on sensitivity/selectivity and other parameters when choosing a rig. Have to check this out. Thanks for the food for thought.

Really depends on tuner from manufacturer according to a station engineer I talked with awhile back. I was told as most tv's if not all now are made with mostly foreign parts, each have their own specs. I own 2 tv's. An Emerson "dumb" flat 32 inch HD about 5 yrs old. Works perfect but tuner sucks compared to my Vizio smart tv less than 1 yr, tuner is very sensitive and tends actually to overkill the signal sometimes..I guess what I took from the conversation with the engineer was it's each individual tuner that the company uses

Sent from my LG-M322 using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[harshness]

If you're hooked to a DA, that may be your problem. If the Automatic Gain Control in the TV isn't very good, the DA may be overdriving it or masking the channel with added noise that it can't deal with if the signal is weak.