rickyp816
28-Mar-2011, 4:50 PM
Hello,
A few months ago I set up a HTPC with a Hauppagage dual tuner (2250), with a Winegard HD-1080 antenna mounted to a mast on the 2nd story of my house. The signal is split to also drive a basement TV, which works just fine with those stations as well. Everything seemed fine and I was getting PBS, Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS very well. NBC would pixelate and occasionally cut out a bit, but it was acceptable.
Fast forward to now, we've been having more and more problems with NBC, to the point where it dropped completely for almost a week. Other channels were also starting to come in a little worse. Looking into the specs of my antenna further and realizing I'm splitting it 3 times (basement, each tuner for HTPC), I thought I'd try a better antenna.
I bought a Winegard HD7694P as it has higher overall gain. Hooked that up and all the channels are coming in much stronger (back into the 4-6 of 6 bar range on the PC and 70-90 on the basement TV). The odd thing is, PBS, which is closest and strongest, is now very weak (1-2 bars on PC, 9-35 on the basement). Even if I aim the antenna directly at PBS, it's very weak (and the other stations suffer). I did notice on the basement TV the signal would bounce from almost 0 to 35-40 (out of 100) quickly - it was all over the place.
I'm confused - if it were multipath, wouldn't it improve if it were pointed right at the station? Could it be too strong vs. the other channels? Would I be better off keeping the old antenna and adding a preamplifier (such as Winegard AP-8700)?
I'm at the bottom of a slight hill, the area is suburban with a fair amount of tall trees. I appreciate any advice!
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d8d17f3cac9a4f1
A few months ago I set up a HTPC with a Hauppagage dual tuner (2250), with a Winegard HD-1080 antenna mounted to a mast on the 2nd story of my house. The signal is split to also drive a basement TV, which works just fine with those stations as well. Everything seemed fine and I was getting PBS, Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS very well. NBC would pixelate and occasionally cut out a bit, but it was acceptable.
Fast forward to now, we've been having more and more problems with NBC, to the point where it dropped completely for almost a week. Other channels were also starting to come in a little worse. Looking into the specs of my antenna further and realizing I'm splitting it 3 times (basement, each tuner for HTPC), I thought I'd try a better antenna.
I bought a Winegard HD7694P as it has higher overall gain. Hooked that up and all the channels are coming in much stronger (back into the 4-6 of 6 bar range on the PC and 70-90 on the basement TV). The odd thing is, PBS, which is closest and strongest, is now very weak (1-2 bars on PC, 9-35 on the basement). Even if I aim the antenna directly at PBS, it's very weak (and the other stations suffer). I did notice on the basement TV the signal would bounce from almost 0 to 35-40 (out of 100) quickly - it was all over the place.
I'm confused - if it were multipath, wouldn't it improve if it were pointed right at the station? Could it be too strong vs. the other channels? Would I be better off keeping the old antenna and adding a preamplifier (such as Winegard AP-8700)?
I'm at the bottom of a slight hill, the area is suburban with a fair amount of tall trees. I appreciate any advice!
http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29&q=id%3d8d17f3cac9a4f1