[catfish48084]

I've got a rooftop mounted medium directional antenna w/pre-amp on a rotor, so my local OTA stations come in very nicely, at least when I connect directly to my TV, or to a VCR and then to the TV. However, when I route through the "antenna in" on my Satellite receiver, the reception is noticeably worse, so I don’t connect this way.


I'm switching from Dish Network to direct TV, and just got my Hughes E-86 HD receiver. New dish & service is not installed yet, but last night I connected my antenna signal to the HD receiver just to check out the OTA digital broadcasts.


Just like with my DishNetwork receiver, the OTA analog channels were noticeably worse, maybe even more. This is quite frustrating, since now I have to route the antenna signal through the SAT receiver if I want to see local digital channels, but I don’t want to ruin the reception on the many analog channels I still want to watch. I can probably split the antenna signal and connect one half direct to my TV & the other to the HD receiver, but splitting will probably diminish the quality of the picture anyway.


This doesn't make sense, particularly since routing the signals through VCRs doesn't seem to have the detrimental effects like on both Satellite receivers. I cant imagine the SAT receivers are made such that this is to be expected, so something must be wrong.


The only thing I can guess (a wild guess since I have no technical understanding that suggests this is the cause) is that maybe my SAT being ungrounded has something to do with it? The guys that did the Satellite installation several years ago never bothered to ground the dish or use a ground block where the coax enters my house, and I've always wondered what ill effects this might be producing? My SAT picture has always been quite nice, so you know - if it ain't broken don’t fix it.


I would really appreciate if anyone has any advice here, before I call DishNetwork or Direct TV and pray that I get a technician who knows something.


Thanks.

 

[raj2001]

Any device inserted in the signal line WILL cause signal loss. Get a signal amp at RatShack or one of those places. The best kinds are the ones that have 2 units, one at the antenna end (the amp itself) and one that plugs into the wall close to the receiver (the power supply). There are some with FM "traps" that block out the FM broadcast band and strong local stations that cause interference. Your mileage may vary. If a strong local station is "desensing" your receiver (the signal is so strong that the receiver frontend attenuates all signals coming in) you may want to get a a variable attenuator. This will allow you to adjust the signal strength coming into the receiver and reduce "desensing" effects.

 

[gsr]

When watching OTA stations with your antenna routed through the satellite receiver, do you have the satellite receiver on or off? If on, that would explain the problem as most satellite receivers output what they are currently receiving on channel 3 or 4 and essentially cut off the OTA antenna input (just like if you turn on your VCR and play a tape and then try switching your TV to another channel). So, turn your satellite receiver off and then try looking at your OTA channels again.

 

[D_Olds]

I run my direct anyways.....I use any output besides the RF on the satellite receiver whenever possible - even RCA composite is noticeably improved over RF....


So I run the antenna lead direct into the TV RF input and the satellite into one of the composite (or better if possible) TV inputs - this puts the satellite completely independent of the regular TV channels and making changing between the two simpler and of better quality....


This might solve your problem....


Dave

 

[restart88]

Previously, I had the same fits as you from an outdoor antenna and worse yet with indoor antenna. Then I ran the feed through the VCR and it cleared up most of the problems, except on the weakest signals -- even with the indoor antenna. So I would have to agree with the advice about the filter, as my VCR is using a type of filter.


More recently, I've been a getting strong, undetermined origin TV signal interfering from somewhere (two distinct channels found so far). All of a sudden. It even interfered with just the VCR alone! I was able to rule out any new OTA HD signals, which was my earlier suspicion. And it doesn't appear to be cable.


So I put a cheap surge suppressor on the power plug and that helped for all but a few channels. Oddly, the channel that is normally my strongest channel (44) and one that is fairly weak (22) are the most effected. So I may be headed for Radio Shack soon myself for a filter.


Never underestimate the value of a good surge suppressor! or even a cheap one in a pinch.

 

[Steve Mehs]

I run my antenna direct to my TV also, doing that and using RG6 coax always help improve PQ.

 

[restart88]

I had a thought -- run the receiver out lead to the A/V input of the VCR (or TV, if you have one on it). The bad part is a great difference in sound volume between DBS and OTA, so you need to turn the volume down before you flip to an OTA channel!!

 

[Steve Mehs]

I used to do that I first got E* and the volume difference is a pain, but not that much of one. It worked great, until I got my A/V reciever for video switching