Side note about wireless-n.
Wireless-n 5GHz strong points are high thruput, and minimal frequency interference from other devices.
Wireless-n 2.4GHz and wireless-g 2.4GHz, are both lower thruput, but suffer from frequency interference from other devices, like microwave ovens, and older cordless phone systems.
However, the 2.4GHz signal travels thru physical objects more easily than 5GHz signal.
So, in the lab, 5GHz is much better.
In real life, okay, in my real life, 2.4GHz is much better for the more distant parts of my house.
We use wireless-n 5GHz for devices within 25 feet of the wireless router, with minimal physical objects between, and wireless-g 2.4GHz for devices beyond 25 feet, like a Roku 2 (2015) thatās 70 feet away, with 3 internal walls between.
You can say I downgraded my wireless network to get the best performance.
If you check AntennasDirect own specs on the ClearStream 4, itās sweep is 43 degrees. So it is multidirectional up to a point. Most antennas of this type have a 30 degree sweep. The ClearStream 4 was designed with a 25% broader sweep.
The stations you mention are outside the ClearStream window. That it picks them all up is a bonus but not necessarily an inherent feature. It may even be picking up that station off a reflection.
Check the specs here:
āBeamwidth (Horizontal Plane): 470 to 700 MHz: 43 degreesā
My guess is that with a second antenna plus the KT500 the Tablo would get that station perfectly.
My current Comcast Technicolor tc8305c doesnāt even have the 5Ghz band. Probably why it works so well anywhere up or down in our 2 story house with basement. Iām sure if I had a spectrum analyzer I would see signal storms all over the place with all the electronics running in this house. My point is, I donāt have any problem with my wireless. I can stream movies off my Plex anywhere in the house or watch anything on the Roku streaming apps without any issues. I do think the 1st Gen Roku stick was underpowered for the Tablo as I did not have very good results with it. The new Roku Stick is MUCH faster and much more responsive so I do think that was a worthy upgrade. I was just disappointed they didnāt add wireless AC to the new Stick. On a side note, Comcast did just upgrade their Routers to an Arris with Wireless AC that does have both the 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz bands. Iāll be installing that today.
I think itās the distance. Iām much closer to the Rockford Towers so even though itās outside of the sweep the signal is strong. I really canāt say enough about this antenna. 58 mi from Chicago Towers and the Stations are solid. There are days when I pull in a Milwaukee Station 93 mi away. My neighbor was so impressed he bought one. He was getting 23 Channels with his first antenna and that jumped to 54 after he bought one of these. Mine is mounted about 12ā up on the Porch Eve. Iām sure If I put it up on the Roof which would bring it to about 35ā Iād do even better. I do thank you for the recommendation on the KT-500, it Rocks. I was just watching that Rockford Station I had problems with before I put it in and noticed it started cutting in and out. I checked the KT-500 and saw the Overdrive led flashing and backed the Gain down. Perfect! Again, could I add another Antenna to accommodate the Tablo? Yes. Am I going to? Nope. The way it stands now, itās working perfectly just the way it is and the direction itās pointing. Can I watch that Channel without pixilation? Yes. Can I record it with the Tablo? No, not without a botched recording.
I get what you are saying and technically may be a little overstated, but based on the results Iām getting from towers in different directions Iād say itās relevant.
When you placed the KT ahead of the Tablo, there was pixelation. Could it have been from the amplification overdriving the signal to the Tablo this time? What if you lowered the gain on the KT and hooked up the Tablo?
Was the KT going into a splitter or directly into either the TV or Tablo?
How about antenna to KT to splitter to Tablo and TV. Playing around with the gain (up and down) to see if the Tablo ever shows that channel without breakup with splitter between KT and Tabloā¦
When I first hooked the KT to the Tablo, it was at Factory default about 1/3 up from 0 so it wasnāt overdriving it. When I hooked it to the TV I was experimenting with how much I could drive it. I do have it split now from KT to Tablo and TV. Gain is about 80%.
I have a similar situation to yours in that there is a station almost 180 degrees away from the others. While it comes in OK on my PC Hauppauge tuner, I can observe tons of errors occurring through the Hauppauge signal analyzer. In other words its signal strength is OK but the quality of the signal is suspect.
However my Samsung TV can handle the error rate but the Tablo cannot for this station. It appears that it isnāt the strength of the signal but the error rate that is disturbing the Tablo. So the Tablo does show green (100% signal strength) but the errors in the stream (which are continuous) disturb the Tablo.
The errors in this stream probably come from the station being outside the antennaās sweep, i.e. coming in through its side lobes in a multi-path interference pattern. Some tuners can handle multi-path interference better than others. This may be the Tabloās problem.
A preamp does not address a multi-path interference problem - a tuner can and does. In this sense āsignal strengthā can be misleading and a scope will show the error rate in the stream that destabilizes a tuner. A preamp may even wind up amplifying the errors.
Yep, I totally get that. Iāve scanned a lot of reviews on the Tablo and some discussed a discrepancy with the Tuners. Some said it was better results with the 2 Tuner as opposed to the 4 because of the number of splits. Others said they returned the product and got either a Channel Master or Tivo and did not experience the issue on those DVRs. I can only go by what I can see and that is bare bone Antenna to TV I get really good reception and with an amplifier I get even better results and a few more channels. As far as the Tablo goes and recording it appears to be more than 1 channel. I tried recording from a Chicago station today and was getting similar results with the recording pixelating and chopping all the while directly to the TV is was solid. At this point, I really donāt have the time to be spending much more time on it. I think what I have coming in on the wire is good now. At least thatās what the 4 TVs I have in the house tell me one by one. I havenāt tried pulling the drive and replacing it back in or power cycling the Tablo yet either so I donāt know if that will have any effect on it or not. I think Iāve only power cycled the Tablo once since I got it in almost 2 months and that was to move it to the basement.
I think the biggest factor in uncertainty when dealing with our signal is because of the lack of a simple indicator of signal quality. In the āolden daysā of analog you just knew immediately by looking at your picture. āSnowā, āinterference patternsā, āskewingā and āghostingā told you what was happening. Signal strength tells you nothing about how clean a signal you do/ do not have. With digital, it either works, is macroblocking, or you get nothing. (with the occasional back and forth between the three)
I wish Tablo had decided to compensate for their internal splitter with an internal low noise 7db preamp,
At least the preamp in my Omni-directional does a decent job, my only issues with Tablo have been on the rare times I watch remotely. (Although I feel empathy for those with daily issuesā¦)
Something you just said set off a spark in my mind. Your antenna is āomni-directional.ā The ClearStream4 is āmulti-directional.ā Yours has a 360 degree span. The ClearStream4 has one of 43 degrees. Should have noticed that multi-directional is not omni-directional. Subtle differenceā¦
BTW mine is a Gray-Hoverman - anyone else here have a GH?
fyi: mine is an āOKā omnidirectional, nothing spectacularā¦
And Iām sure if I checked it would just have more ālobesā than a āmultidirectionalā antennaā¦
Thatās very similar to what my neighbor had. He was only pulling 26 stations. He sent it back and bought the ClearStream 4V like I have and went to 54 Channels.
a lot depends on location-location-location. I manage to get stations 33mi away, and I went Omni due to needing to hit 3 different directions equally well. (I get 62 channels, but only watch 6-10)
It does. Some people have better experience with those than others. I need to figure out whatās going on with Recording now. Iāve tried a couple of Channels and theyāre getting garbled. Also, I canāt even launch a live Station in the Plex Tablo Channel now.
I have similar issues trying to use Tablo via Plex, but at least it works properly for me via the native app. I actually only use Tablo as my DVR, since my HDHR is far superior for live.
