Never works right!

Perhaps a preamp might have worked for those marginal stations. A preamp such as the Winegard LNA-100 has overload capabilities so the strong stations don’t overload the tuner while bumping up the marginal ones.

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Sounds like you need a pre-amp … (Ill agree with the others above)…

also the single hardest thing is getting your antenna selection and location/orientation correct… most of us here (well folks that either live some distance away or do not have ideal line of sight to the broadcast towers (or sadly have both situations – like me + plus im on a hill {not on the best side} and 40+ miles away) … it can take some doing to get that sorted out… of all things id probably pay a professional to do the antenna stuff if I did things over again, its a one time cost thats easily recouped after a few months of no cable bills.

Thank You!

Did you mention your set up? Antenna? Distance from transmitters? Amplifiers if any?
Even the best of signal amplifiers may not help if your signal if inherently too weak to satisfy the threshold required for a DVR setup like Tablo. Only a more receptive antenna ideally placed (where possible) would help in that situation. I’m fortunate to have an outdoor (roof) antenna positioned to receive all available transmissions from the same direction. This enables me to use a unidirectional “yagi” antenna which also helps minimize extraneous RF emissions and multi-path distortion. At 40 miles from towers I’m receiving 100+ channels rock solid.
As a footnote I spent many hours going thru a slew of overpriced indoor antennas before calling it quits.

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There’s no free lunch with regard to signal reception. Inline RF amplifiers are not a “magic potion” many seem to believe. Good one’s may indeed have their place but only after exhausting all the “basics” of good OTA reception and verifying that you indeed have need to boost RF signals.

Start with elevation, elevation, elevation, good solid cable/connectors and a known “good” receiver such as a TV tuner for comparisons. Tablo tuner should come very close to most HDTV tuners using the same cable path/connections.

Have you opened a ticket so that a technician was able to verify signal strength? Even then, it could be an intermittent problem? Could be a bad Tablo? I experience very similar tuner reception across many HDTV tuners and Tablo. Lotsa splitters, no amplifiers but I do know good elevation, cable and connectors.

Make sure the unit has plenty of airflow available. Small fan is not a bad idea if stuffed inside an enclosure or equipment rack?

Use ethernet for Tablo to router. Good luck to all who row along the OTA river.

“There’s no free lunch with regard to signal reception. Inline RF amplifiers are not a “magic potion” many seem to believe.”

Amplifiers are NOT a “free lunch” regarding signal strengthening. They AMPLIFY a signal just as microphones AMPLIFY audio input signals. Both use electricity available through electrical wiring. So there is no “free lunch” since energy is fed into the system from the electrical grid. Are you saying devices such as microphones don’t amplify and are a “free lunch?” Why do you think amplifiers are named “amplifiers?” Quit spouting such garbage when people need help with their signals! Millions of homes using preamps and distribution amps get video BECAUSE of amplification. And that is no myth.

Who is this “many” that “seem to believe” in this “magic?” The millions througout the world that successfully use amps? The companies that manufacture amps? Really you’re the ignorant one!!! And less than helpful to people struggling with their reception. Where did you get your electronics knowledge? From reading other forums and mythmakers?

If you’re so smart about RF, why did Channel Master design the 777 preamp and Winegard the LNA-200? So they could snooker people?

I don’t think this guy understands how amplifiers and electricity work. “Free lunch” LOL. He also doesn’t understand the conservation of energy principle so you get these types of “free lunch” statements from pseudo antenna “experts.”

I’m a big fan of the SmartTenna (maybe not their naming, but the antenna is great). I live in between towers, but not very far. I needed an omnidirectional antenna and had the cabling infrastructure and dish mount from Dish. This was a perfect solution.

There are some great recommendations in this thread, and we’re happy to help any way we can. If/when you make some changes to the reception setup that you’re happy with (or if you’re still struggling) send us a note and we can provide a more in-depth analysis of the signals coming in.