I’m having a lot of issues receiving KETV (ABC/Omaha, NE). The audio and video is so bad that it makes watching the channel or its recordings next to impossible. Even the closed captioning is coming in bad.
I have occasionally had this issue with other channels here in Omaha, but it’s usually for a second of less and the Tablo can easily recover and I go on my way.
I have installed an LTE Filter and MoCA filter on my lines and am using a Mohu Sky 60 in my attic and an PCT PCT-MA2-8PN amplifier.
I took some time to relocate the antenna (Mohu Sky 60) in my attic and in the process had to lengthen the cable (now a 50 ft quad shield RG6 cable, old cable seemed rather skinny compared to this one).
All of the channels in my area (except KETV/ABC) are coming in with good signal strength.
I did look up and it appears KETV has a 700 kW transmitter at the same site as WOWT, but WOWT has a 1000 kW transmitter. Is this my problem? TVFool claims I am 13 miles from the transmitter.
Is there any way to tweak this setup to increase my reception?
It’s not unusual to have multiple TV stations broadcasting in close proximity to each other.
I don’t remember if I have ever seen someone post that they were using an 8-way splitter (PCT-MA2-8PN). They tablo also has an internal splitter that services it’s tuners.
I have an original Sky 60. I never had much luck with it unless it was placed in a window(inside mounting). It also seemed to be very touchy about pointing in exactly the correct direction.
Of course directly connecting the coax to a TV with a good signal meter might give you some information about signal quality
Why do you have a Moca filter inline? Are you using Moca?
Where is your LTE filter? It should be BEFORE any amplification.
An 8-way splitter is made up of a combination of SEVEN 2-way splitters. The result is approximately 10.5bB of loss at each port. A 4.5dB “boost” isn’t even making up the signal loss of the splitter.
Are all 8 ports of that splitter in use? If not, are the unused ones capped (terminated)?
I have towers at 8 miles and towers at nearly 40 miles. 45 degrees apart. My antenna has a 45 degree beam width. I have an older Clearstream 4 aimed toward the distant towers and kind of catching the near ones off the side with a 16dB preamp at the antenna. NOT aiming at the near towers is keeping me from over driving tuners with that amp in there. I’m split to 6 devices in the house with no distribution amp currently. If your antenna is amped, AND you have that distribution amp in there, you have to be conscious of the possible consequences of amping an already amped signal. If they’re more than 50 cable feet apart, it’s probably less of an issue (at least that’s been my experience). The point is, if you want to use OTA, that antenna, whichever one you use, is a critical component.
And as simple as some OTA proponents make this sound, it can be anything BUT simple.
I don’t personally have much faith in the so-called “multidirectional” antennas for TV. I see them as kind of like the fax/scanner/copier combinations that don’t seem to be very good at any of those 3 things. At 13 miles, though, you should get decent reception with a coat hanger (kidding).
I found that even though the antenna is in the attic, without any amplification, I couldn’t pick up much. The amplifier helps a lot since my runs are long (all but a few are easily in excess of 50’). The 8-way splitter/amplifier was left over by the previous owner (might have been the satellite dish or cable provider’s, I wasn’t sure since it was in a box). The antenna in my setup is not amplified, the eight way splitter does all the amplification.
The filters are both located on the line from the antenna. I do use MoCA with my OTA lines.
It may be that this setup is as good as I can get it without swapping the amplifiers and/or moving to a directional antenna.
Sky 60 comes with a separate power injector(amplifier) and LTE filter. Mine wouldn’t pick up anything without one and I’m 12 miles from the towers with LOS. But notice the 15dB. I don’t think you are getting that with an 8-way splitter. And there are many other antennas that might work that are not directional antennas.
“Mohu Sky comes with an amplifier that can be powered via USB or power cube delivering 15dB of gain for optimal performance. The amplifier also includes CleanPeak™ RF filtering technology, which removes interference from cellular and FM signals in the area.”
did you ever get any resolution? My issue is similar. One station(ABC) station gets blocky and audio goes out temporarily. I suspect the Tablo but Tablo support says no. I have about 20 feet of coax connected to my Yagi style outdoor antenna which is 8 feet off the ground and pointed at the area recommended. The other end goes into the Tablo. So at most is about 22 feet of Coax. I tested this the other day. i connected a second TV to an older outdoor bow tie style antenna with about 4 feet of coax directly to the TV and located inside the house, so a potentially worse location for the antenna. I watched both TV’s at the same time. The Tablo one broke up and the second one was solid. I sent my results to Tablo and all they said was that the blocking is usually reception from the station. I think i have proven that the station did not send out a bad signal as both antennas received the same signal at the same time and the one running through the Tablo Blocked. I am not happy with their response especially since i took the time to test and show them the difference.
I get your frustration. I think multiple people have encountered similar results. Having said that, it could be “bad” or insufficient signal for the Tablo tuners specifically. I get that doesn’t solve your problem, but I think there have been several examples where direct connection to a TV results in better signal, which is a bit apples and oranges since this doesn’t mirror the Tablo situation which is an integrated splitter/amp. The Tablo tuners may simply be more sensitive to signal for your specific situation.
Also keep in mind that 2 antennas in different locations can and very likely WILL have different results in terms of signal. Heck you can take an antenna and walk around on the roof and within a radius of 10 or 12 feet find pretty dramatic variations in signal strength. Also by changing antenna height a few feet up or down. I have my antenna in a “pretty good” location, but it was like -16F when I installed it. Once the weather is a bit more conducive, I’ll be up there moving it around to see if I can find a “sweet spot”.
Unless you’re very lucky, this whole idea of “want free TV? Just put up an antenna!” is a bit over simplified. It can take some work. I have, so far, had my antenna in 3 different locations on my house.
I have towers at 38 miles and towers at 8 miles. And about a 95 degree spread between them.
I never did get resolution on this issue…it’s frustrating.
I did reach out to mohu support and they had me reorient my Sky 60 a little bit, but it didn’t really help and in fact caused more problems. Their final suggestion was to get a separate antenna and try using a combiner. I’m only ~13 miles from the transmitter and this seems like an extreme solution to get this working.
If the station I was struggling with was not a major network, I may have just let it slide, but because it’s our local ABC affiliate and carries a lot of sitcoms we watch, I would like to get it fixed.
I am starting to worry this project is becoming a money pit. I’m scoping out antennas and I’m thinking if I am going to do a different antenna, it’ll be a Antennas Direct antenna.
Unless you’re very lucky, this whole idea of “want free TV? Just put up an antenna!” is a bit over simplified. It can take some work. I have, so far, had my antenna in 3 different locations on my house.
I have towers at 38 miles and towers at 8 miles. And about a 95 degree spread between them.
Concur. I thought this wasn’t going to be a huge issue to get going (and thought getting the antenna into the attic would have set me up nicely). I did not expect to run into these issues and I am not sure how to get it fixed. Like I said earlier, the only thing left I haven’t looked at replacing is the antenna. I wish @TabloTV had some other ideas or diagnostic information I could look at on my device to see what’s going on with this.
Antennas Direct is a good company and extremely helpful in helping straighten out not only what antenna to use, but will work with you with a google maps satellite image to even help nail down placement.
I know this from experience. There are a lot of “gimmicky” antennas out there trying to jump on the OTA bandwagon. Antennas Direct are pros at this. If you need help, ask.
And no, I have no affiliation with them other than as a customer.
When we moved, I actually hired a local company for my antenna placement/install (something gaining in popularity due to cable pricing insanity). It might have cost more, but at the end of the day, I have really good reception.
Except I also used the same antenna. One test sent into the Tablo, it was blocky. I took the end of that and went into the TV and no blocking. Same antenna, same location the only difference is the Tablo. I am convinced the Tablo tuner is weak compared to a TV tuner.
And that’s the point I was making. The Tablo is flawed. Why have 4 tuners if they wont work clearly. As a matter of fact my first Tablo was a 2 tuner, it never blocked like this 4 tuner model.
If this problem is really due to the split, adding an amplifier might be “the fix”.
Tablo has said that they compensate for the split (not sure how we can prove that).
Flawed? Well, not sure about that. It is also possible that the tuner in the Tablo is not as good as the proprietary one in your TV (it’s very possible).
Not sure if there can ever be a fix for that (well, apart from technology theft… not recommended).
Give a simply amp a try and see (my recommendation).
