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Old 7-Mar-2015, 7:50 PM   #5
GroundUrMast
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Greater Seattle Area
Posts: 4,773
Quote:
Are All Tuners Created Equal?
No.

That said... manufacturers are not known to offer any information re. the performance of their tuners.

I'm only able to compare the TV's and Set Top Box tuners that I've got... Based on that, I can say my newest TV, a Samsung 50UE5300, slightly out performs my older Toshiba and Visio TVs.


As far as differences between indoor antennas: You'll only find slight differences because they are all limited to roughly the same size, with limited performance in terms of gain and directivity. Some will have UHF only capability so there ability to receive VHF signals will be noticeably worse than antennas intentionally designed to cover both the UHF and VHF bands. Amplifying the output of a small antenna does not improve the antennas performance. Usually, the amplifier is more gimmick than anything else. Amplifiers are for overcoming losses from signal splitting and long cable runs. The short cable on a the typical indoor antenna has no significant amount of loss, so the amplifier has no real purpose than to fool the consumer into spending more money.

Indoor reception is often plagued with problems of building penetration losses, signal reflections, and interference from the electronics and appliances in the typical indoor setting. An outdoor antenna design may help overcome these factors, but some indoor settings are simply black holes of reception.
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If the well is dry and you don't see rain on the horizon, you'll need to dig the hole deeper. (If the antenna can't get the job done, an amp won't fix it.)

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Last edited by GroundUrMast; 7-Mar-2015 at 7:54 PM.
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