I purchased this antenna at Walmart because of its small foot print and low price. I had previously used a Winegard ss-3000, which is probably the best indoor HDTV antenna around, but it measures 27 inches across. The Phillips antenna does OK with analog signals, but does require careful use of the gain and amplifier to receive digital signals. In fact, I had to use the low amplifier settings and near the lowest gain on the UHF signals (HDTV) to recieve all of my local channels that were digital signals. Also, I found moving the UHF head to a horizontal position, not the verticle position shown in the product photographs, gave the strongest signals. You may also want to retract and push down the rabbit ears when watch HDTV, as they seem to lessen reception. If you TV has a digital strength meter, that is a big help in the fine tuning the Phillips antenna. The Winegard and this antenna are both directional, so you must direct it at the transmission source for best reception.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comment

The #1 thing about this antenna is: the UHF part (the flat panel) can be turned up to 90 degree left and right. This is a must adjustment to get all digital stations 40 miles away.

Of course the 24GB amplification really helps a lot. There are two gain controls; one for VHF and one for UHF. There is also a switch for high gain and low gain. There is a power switch too. Seems Philips was trying to make this a high-end unit with full of controls.

The black rabbit ears look and feel superb, love them, much better than chrome. I don’t pull them out though (what a pity), because I’ll lose some channels.

In comparison, the Philips MANT510 sold in kmart is a crap. Although claimed to be 50dB amplified, it gets no station.

I’ve tried several antennas, this one is the only one gets all my stations, all at “good” signal level out of excellent, good, fair and bad. I use it with my newly purchased Haier HLT71 7″ TV, love both of them.

Cable and dish companies will be in trouble. With such a good antenna to get all the digital channels in superb image, why people still want to pay for watching? My local stores are all running out antennas as the digital transition is approaching.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comment

I’m an OTA person, feeling its simply not in my makeup to pay for tv I have been using rabbit ears and a bowtie for the past many years (I live in a metro area (Col’s OH) and the fartherest station I wish to receive is about 30 miles away. (all this info can be obtained at tvfool.com) and I could get a pretty good preview of what was to come for the “digital revolution”.

It is of note that I also moved to an apartment from a house (located about 3 blocks apart) It’s clear that this apartment (one among several 4 families in the area and all 2-3 story cinderblock, brick, and plaster construction. It is pretty clear that reception here is poorer than it was at the house. A large power substation is also about 3 blocks away.

Since I have purchased a converter box for my old 20 yr old tv set , I am now viewing digital tv (Zenith DTT901 apparently no longer available). While browsing Walmart I bought this (Philips) on a lark since it was the only one they had in stock, and I had noted that tv reception was mediocre at best since my “going digital”. I get all the stations I want with just the rabbit ear/bowtie setup, but they are highly variable.. coming and going .. and high humidity or precipitation causes lots of problems. When they are good, they are great (digital is much improved picture.. but its very unforgiving of “marginal” reception.. while the old analog was quite viewable even if reception was poor)

I expect that these issues are not the fault of this antenna rather than my situation (but I expect I am quite representative of urban dwellers). So the best I can say is to research your situation as best you can before spending your money (or expect to try a few solutions)

This unit did absolutely nothing to help in my reception. I played with it all ways (location, with/without amp, direction, etc). I got the same variable and unpredictable reception as I got from my old setup. I believe most of my issues are related to severe ghosting and reflection issues rather than absolute signal strength (all confirmed by data for tvfool)

Its also noteworthy that the AMPLIFICATION does absolutely nothing to get better reception. You need the ANTENNAE GAIN (a function of its design, not the amp), not a “booster”. The booster only overcomes losses from the antenna to your set(s) caused by cable run distance, splitters, intervening equipment, etc. In fact it injects even MORE NOISE that MAY make your reception worse.

followup edit(Apr ’11): Over months of exposure to the OTA signals, I am certain that digital broadcast simply IS NOT equivalent to the old analog in practical application .. the received signal must be higher power and cleaner signal than analog to be usable in a given location.. Since this only applies to OTA users, it won’t be addressed since we are a minority.. I could be paranoid and say its a conspiracy to promote cable tv, but I won’t go that far.. but just be aware that after digital, you will never be as happy as you were with analog. It can be very frustrating to have a “strong” signal strength and yet still get dropped sound and frozen or broken pictures. And weather plays a significant role in the “receivability” of a station.. this was not at all true with the old analog broadcasts. This may be just my setup, but until I get a full digital tv, I won’t know.. but this is my current thoughts

A solution MAY be an OMNIDIRECTIONAL antennae such as a Channel Master CM 3000 or similar (I am only speculating as I have not tried this). This CM3000 is meant to be mounted outdoors, but I see folk mounting it indoors or on patios as well. I want an omnidirectinal solution to avoid having to “repoint” the antenna everytime I change stations. Since I have decent basic signal strength, I don’t need the kind of gains offered by highly directional antennaes. In fact the directionality is a negative to me as stations are all around me.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comments (2)