It’s not a matter of “reception”. If I receive a marginal signal, the marginal signal gets passed to Tablo and Tablo says “there is no channel”. If the signal is amplified, Tablo sees it and voila! A station!
In the “old school” pre-digital days, you might see amplification of “noise”. In the digital age it could mean the difference between perceived “reception” or not. Not saying it won’t amplify “noise”… just saying it’s a bit different in the ATSC age.
The converse is also true. In the old days, a marginal station came in snowy but viewable on the “rabbit ears”… now it won’t come in at all. Just the way it is.
Well regardless of the technicalities, the new antenna definitely helped. Channels came through much quicker and smoother last night. Still no WFAA despite the supposed capability, but we’re on the right track. I have some recordings setup so we’ll get to test this thing out nicely over the next couple of days and see how it goes.
Good to hear. Did you return the old antenna?
Position is Everything… I change it and stations come and go. I have 1 VHF and the rest are uhf. Look at tvfool.com to see direction.
Good to hear. Did you return the old antenna?
Not yet, will pack it up tonight, though.
Position is Everything… I change it and stations come and go. I have 1 VHF and the rest are uhf. Look at tvfool.com to see direction.
Supposedly the model I got is multi directional? Either way I’m limited by spousal aesthetic judgment, but so far it’s working out in its current position. 
Well no matter what I try it seems a lot of the channels won’t work well unless I move the antenna onto a window. Recordings didn’t happen yesterday, I’m assuming for that reason. And live TV only works on a handful of the channels unless I move the antenna. I guess maybe it’s just where we’re living now, or the split that Tablo does to the signal. Where we lived before (same general area / DFW) had great antenna signal, though the TV in that house was a little closer to a window. We’ll see… I want to make this work b/c it’ll save us $70-80/month and have everything we’ll need. Still tryin’…
Despite the fact that we do split the signal, we do compensate for that within the box so you shouldn’t lose too much power.
On a nice day, can you try sticking the antenna outside on the window ledge?
Oh I’m sure it’ll work great if I do that - it works significantly better just by sticking it on a window (on the outside of the blinds obviously).
Would it be possible to do an attic or roof mounted antenna? Just moving mine to my attic helped significantly.
It’s really about “position” and not much else. Some antennae designs and cable may perform better but for basic reception performance you MUST find elevation and line-of-sight. If that means installing a long distance form the 1st splitter, an amplifier may be required but 1st thing is to find the “position” needed for the antennae to do what it’s meant to do.
Splitters drop about 3dB per split. Obviously, Tablo knows this and most likely adds an amplifier inside the box, post split.
One “cheap trick” I’ve gotten results from is to add several antennae using splitters and place them in various locations. Sometimes this catches enough quality signal to improve spotty channels. I don’t know exactly why but if you’ve got extra antennae, it can be worth a try?
Best bet is rooftop or at least attic.
I’ve tested several antennas at my home in North Fort Worth and the one I’ve kept going back to is this one, available in local Walmarts for $35-45: http://reviews.walmart.com/1336/20976617/ge-attic-mount-antenna-reviews/reviews.htm
I have it mounted to a mic stand in the corner of a large second-floor closet pointed SE to the DFW tower farm (there are no obstructions to the towers from where it’s pointing besides being indoors). About 6 feet of coax to the four-tuner Tablo and no amplifier. At more than 30 miles away from the towers, WFAA has come in rock-solid along with all other major stations since getting the Tablo last July.
Anyone try this antenna? http://www.meritline.com/lava-rvhd-2015-omnipro-rv-and-marine-hdtv-antenna---p-116664.aspx?source=fghdac&gclid=CjwKEAjw9uypBRD5pMDYtsKxvXcSJACcb9AY1tk5L0KwTisJkrFqgliYdM1hiP7bgUt9iUDrqyafuRoCawLw_wcB
I've tested several antennas at my home in North Fort Worth and the one I've kept going back to is this one, available in local Walmarts for $35-45: http://reviews.walmart.com/1336/20976617/ge-attic-mount-antenna-reviews/reviews.htm I have it mounted to a mic stand in the corner of a large second-floor closet pointed SE to the DFW tower farm (there are no obstructions to the towers from where it's pointing besides being indoors). About 6 feet of coax to the four-tuner Tablo and no amplifier. At more than 30 miles away from the towers, WFAA has come in rock-solid along with all other major stations since getting the Tablo last July.
Awesome - we’re also in North Fort Worth, just west of 377 north of 820 a few miles. I might have to break down and try that and just move my Tablo away from the router.
@dynatot - Sounds like we’re practically neighbors. Maybe try it on Wifi and if all channels come in well, you might want to consider adding two to four Powerline Ethernet adapters into the mix. We use three adapters for router > wall, Tablo in the closet, and Roku 3 on our main TV. I hope everything works out! We’ve been using Tablo everyday for almost a year and love it!
@dynatot - Sounds like we're practically neighbors. Maybe try it on Wifi and if all channels come in well, you might want to consider adding two to four Powerline Ethernet adapters into the mix. We use three adapters for router > wall, Tablo in the closet, and Roku 3 on our main TV. I hope everything works out! We've been using Tablo everyday for almost a year and love it!
@byoungfnfw - yeah sounds like it… we just moved to the area and love it so far. And thank you for your suggestion. I grabbed that antenna at Walmart, and took the time/effort this weekend to run a coax line from my attic down to where our Tablo is, then mounted the antenna in my attic on a collar tie right by the outside wall that happens to face south already, then turned it southeast. When I re-did my Tablo, it was like night and day compared to before. It picked up WFAA perfectly, as well as all the other channels. So far that’s made all the difference as the Tablo is recording smoothly and watching smoothly as well. Thanks again.
And to anybody else that picks up on this thread, as others have stated, if you’re having antenna problems and should be getting a good signal, it’s worth the effort to get the placement right.
All this antenna stuff is voodoo, imho. I’m 28 miles from the towers and none of the indoor antennas work well for me. I went with a Mohu Sky outdoors and it seems to work well (but NO WAY would it ever pick up from 60 miles away). Someone should investigate these mileage claims, as your ‘mileage’ definitely will vary (to the negative).
Another bit of info. As indicated, metal blinds will interfere. If you live in the Southwest where stucco is common, they use a metal grid all over your house exterior to hold the stucco. That also interferes with the signal.
@VegasSteve It depends entirely on the topography around your location and the construction of your home. I have the Mohu Sky 60 mounted in the attic at the peak facing the towers. I am 59.5 miles away and pickup all the networks as well as the other secondary stations with 5 green dots.
Saw a guy on Reddit a few weeks ago who had his Mohu Leaf stuck to the ceiling. It worked better than in the window. Weird but true.