HDTV Forum

So Heres the situation. I have an HD integrated TV and a analog TV both connected to the same outsite UHF VHF antenna. The antenna was in the Attic and I was getting good reception on the HD tv but poor reception on the Analog tv. I moved it on top of the roof with a rotor. Now the Analog tv is getting great reception but the hdtv is having a problem with the audio. Every minute or two the audio cuts out for about two seconds. I've rotated the antenna back and forth but I'm stiill having the same problem with the audio. It also looks like the video is pixeling some what. Any thoughts or suggestions(other than moving it back into the attic) ?

Thanks, Mark

Since your signal to the analog TV is good, it may be in your splitter or cable from the splitter to the HDTV. Your HD signal should be better, like the analog. Try removing the splitter and connect the antenna directly to your HDTV. If it is still bad, connect an analog TV to the same cable. I have a 30 year old antenna in the attic with a 4-way splitter and both analog and HDTV looks great.
OneNetTech

Don't forget that the analog and DTV stations are actually broadcasting on different channels - so just because you can get one doesn't mean you can automatically get the other. Analog may be VHF 5 and DTV might be UHF 37 e.g. You need to check the signal strength on the DTV channel you're having problems with and see if it's due to a low signal. If the signal is strong normally but drops out intermittently then that might be a multipath problem. Sometimes just moving the antenna a few feet can solve it.

akirby, You mentioned checking the signal strenght. Where can I get a signal strength meter? Also If I decide to go with a seperate antenna for the HDtv, do you have a recomendation for an antenna? I'm about 25-30 miles from the signal.

Thanks, Mark

It should be built into the TV, but that's not guaranteed. Look in the TV menu for signal strength meter or something similar.

A channel master 4228 works well (7777 pre-amp may be required) for UHF channels and VHF down to channel 10 - can't guarantee anything below that.

Mark,

This won't help you with your problem, but when I read your comments it reminded me exactly of a problem I had/have since day one of watching HDTV OTA.

After digging around for quite some time, I discovered that the 2 second dropout was only heard when I was listening to the audio through my AVR by means of my digital coax output from my HDTV tuner (integrated into my TV set).

When listening to the audio on the TV's built in speakers, the dropouts were almost unnoticeable. Apparently when the digital stream to the AVR loses even a very brief amount of data, the stream must "resync" and this causes the 1-2 second drop out you describe.

I was never able to completely solve my problem, but if you are seeing the same thing, at least you can realize that the whole problem is not just the reception itself. The best you can do is try to get the best signal as possible and then it becomes a matter of living with the results! :) I do think the dropouts were less frequent for other HD tuners that I eventually started using more frequently than the one built in... IMO it is probably multipath related and how it is handled depends on the "generation" of your OTA tuner.

Good luck and let me know if your problem is also AVR related.

AaronS