OTA tuners in new TVs

All OTA HD channels are digital so no ATD conversion is required. There are a few low poser SD analog OTA but they will be gone by 2016. A 1080i OTA digital channel should have just as good if not better then its cable or satellite or BR disk counterpart.
I have not seen a comparison of HDTV internal tuners for a couple of years.

I think most modern tv's nowadays have good ATSC tuners. Back in the day before the digital conversion, when a lot of us were using HDTV STBs on their HDTV-ready sets for OTA television, LG probably made the best ATSC tuners around. When I finally bought my first HDTV, I bought an LG because my LG HDTV STB worked flawlessly for our OTA at a bit over 50 miles distance (a good antenna helps ). Reception has continued to be flawless with the LG but again, I think any LG, Panasonic, Samsung, or Sony would be fine.

I am ONLY OTA and use both an onboard tuner on my new HDTV and the tuners on the old DTVPal DVR for watching local antenna channels and I can not tell any difference between the onboard tuner and the two on the DTVPal DVR.

I work in the electronics dept. of a large retail store. Our demo feed is distributed to the sets via a hodgepodge of coax cables connected to the sets' antenna inputs. There are two signals with identical content--one is 480i sent out as ntsc (analog) channel 3, the other is 1080i over atsc (US OTA digital standard) channel 14.1. In some parts of the dept. the ntsc feed is virtually unwatchable--looks like trying to receive an ota signal from 70 miles away with $10 rabbit ears. Change the same set to digital channel 14.1 and we get flawless HD, regardless of make or model of set. this is the "cliff effect" inherent in digital ota--the picture is either perfect (down to a signal strength unwatchable in analog) or it's not there at all.

Btw, like Otto I experienced the era when HD tuners had to be bought separately and also found LG built boxes to be superior at receiving OTA over other brands. I attributed this to the fact that LG had bought out Zenith when that company went broke. Zenith did most of the R&D on the ATSC broadcast system and LG bought their technology when they bought Zenith, giving them a leg up on other companies. And just as Japan's adoption of ntsc back in the 50s helped Japanese companies crack the US market, South Korea adopted the atsc system for HD broadcast.
Edited by Steve S - 12/24/12 at 8:51am

I don't have cable or satellite either. I use OTA, Netflix and Blu-ray.

The tuner "can" in the TV which receives the analog signal -- yes, the digital signal is obviously contained within an analog signal (radio waves), these cans aren't built by the TV makers themselves. They're third-party products and a variety of companies make them. So it is very difficult to comment on quality in terms of TV maker brand, because these components are subject to change.

My experience is that the technology is so mature at this point that it doesn't matter. The TV antenna and its placement matters most of all.

I don't believe that the national broadcast standard of Korea makes their tuner quality better than Japan's. Sony's initial HDTV development was global, with a group in San Diego responsible for American localization and one in Barcelona which designed the TV's for Europe. More than that... hundreds of millions of ATSC and DVB sets have shipped. The issues of compatibility and quality are long-since resolved, although I'm sure that if you're determined to buy the cheapest China-built TV you can find, you may be disappointed.
Edited by Rebound - 12/24/12 at 9:54am

I don't have cable or sat either. In fact, I've never had cable or sat so we've been OTA for 30+ years.

Whatever. That's why I went with an LG for the very reasons that Steve S brought up. Whether LG contracts out their tuner builds now or not is a moot point. The builder still has to follow LG's specs which seems to be as tight now as they were before the digital switch. But, as I indicated, I think all the major mfrs now make good ATSC tuners. For OTA now, it's really about the antenna placement, LOS, etc.

Can you post the directions on how you made that please? I would love to make that my self.

That is SO COOL!!! I LOVE it!

We live almost 60 miles from the OTA Towers, in the middle of the woods(tall trees), and our Neighborhood Association won't allow us to put up a large tower and antenna without a legal fight... but after I got so peeved at Comcast/Xfinity that I quit, I took a large(approx 10'x5') conventional UHF/VHF directional antenna and used antenna web and a compass to aim the antenna from inside my attic roof. Since then been getting every local channel and others giving me about a dozen watchable channels. My HDTV and my OTA DVR also keeps seeing channels from far away but I just continually delete them since the signal is not up to my standard and they are usually another towns version of the local channels I already get perfectly. I also get an additional dozen or so channels which are religious oriented or non-english channels which I am able to delete via the setup on both my HDTV and OTA HD DVR. I also get a handful of music only channels being broadcast OTA which most folks don't even know existed.

That DIY antenna is really funky looking but it does have a sort of cool looking factor about it. Gotta love ingenuity!

Most of the poor performing tuners went the way of the dodo bird. There are half a dozen or so producers of ATSC 8VSB tuners. LG always made top notch tuners from the get go. Likewise Sanyo. There are others lessor known that are just as good though.

I dont know what tuner is in the Magnavox MDR 537 HDD & DVD Recorder DVR, but it is quite good (I suspect a Sanyo). I give the nod to the LG in the Vizio GV42LF, but not by much. Hair splitting really. I had a Zenith DTT900 (Sanyo Tuner) and a Zenith DTT901 (LG Tuner) CECBs and the Sanyo actually was a tad more sensitive, but the LG kept lock (avoided breakup on the digital cliff) a little bit better.

I live 45 - 50 miles from the towers and have this beauty up on the roof, chimney mounted with a nice Gemini Orbit 360 rotor.


Edited by EscapeVelocity - 12/26/12 at 5:15pm

oopps!.
Edited by EscapeVelocity - 12/26/12 at 5:12pm

oopps!
Edited by EscapeVelocity - 12/26/12 at 5:11pm

The reflector screen kind of does both. Kindof complicated to describe it more accurately. Basically it doubles gain in one direction while reducing gain from the backside.

The blocks are PVC which isolates the elements and transmission wires from the metal mast (which leads to ground) as this would short the electrical transmission of the signal, and seriously reduce the performance. It is also hydrophobic which is also advantageous on the electrical transmission side, when it gets wet from the rain.

It's pretty sweet, all Zinc Galvanized (screws and washers are plated) Steel with PVC blocks. Mounts to a mast with standard hardware...wall mounts, eaves mounts, the works. Screen is easily removed if you want a more bi-directional pattern.

It even has quick wingnut mounts for the matching transformer.
Edited by EscapeVelocity - 12/26/12 at 5:14pm