I Watch Digital TV For The First Time! Reviewing ANTOP TV Antennas (AT-406BV & AT-400B)

[@mokomothman5713]

When Analog tv died, I actually just stopped watching TV in general, save for the occasional weather report when there's a Tornado around. Other than that, I'm disinterested in current media besides your channel and a select few others. IDK. the more technologically advanced we get, it seems like we just get further and further away from cognitive relevance to the world around us.

[@saveitforparts]

I mostly watch streaming stuff these days. I find it more convenient to choose what and when to watch, but I can see how live news and weather can be useful!

[@M.TTT.]

you're right, most of whats on cable is all junk or disinteresting.

[@gamerjorts]

I grew up poor as dirt on a small farm on the prairies in Canada. If it wasn't for broadcast TV giving me 1 TV channel to watch 30 minutes of The Simpsons 5 days a week, I might have gone insane. Now that everything has gone digital, my area gets 0 free TV channels.

[@saveitforparts]

We used to have one channel on a big satellite dish on an island in Alaska! There are still a few free public satellite channels like PBS in the US, I'm not sure what Canada has.

[@dagmarsuarez3033]

Too bad the 400B was not in the black variant. You could have played the theme from 2001 as you pulled the Monolith out of the box....

[@mercster]

These actually work pretty good if you can get your antenna in a decent spot! I've had it in locations where it got most everything local. Unfortunately current apartment is a huge old brick and steel building and I'm only on one side of it, and 3/4ths of the good channel are on the other side... I get nothin'. Kinda sucks.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

I made an antenna out of literal trash. Interesting how my chinese special (walmart onn roku tv) has a somewhat deaf tuner. The pre-smart tv lg downstairs seems to have the BIGGEST ears, and both the samsung and vizio upstairs are plenty good performers. Not that you'd WANT to use the samsung, as that thing is a software experience NIGHTMARE. Fuck that tv to HELL. I still like that roku tv though!

[@BrandEver117]

Digital TV is better in a lot of ways, but the old analog was a lot better for remote/bad signal locations. With analog, if the signal wasn't the best, you could still watch through the static basically until the signal was completely gone. With digital, when the signal drops even a little bit, you instantly lose sound and the picture freezes and/or turns into a blocky mess lol. I live on the Oregon coast and according to the FCC signal map, I can get one weak channel signal. I didn't live here before digital, but I would bet there were at least a few channel signals then...I grew up in a much more remote location and we still had the main four channels.

[@saveitforparts]

That's kind of how I feel about the new-fangled 1860-whatever batteries in flashlights. In the old days you'd get a slowly dimming light and you could still see. Now you get down to 2 bars and it just turns off 😥

[@droolerdork]

What do they look like inside? I think it would have been neat to open them up.

[@M.TTT.]

nice profile pic

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

@@M.TTT. "He will know suffering beyond his darkest fears. I have PLANS for you American!"

[@asn413]

"power injector" im not familiar with that phrase. is it a common one?

[@saveitforparts]

That might not be the correct term, but it's a gizmo that feeds DC power into the coax cable (ideally only one-way, to the antenna, and not back to the receiver). On the little software defined radios it's called a Bias-T. They're intended to power something in the antenna (like a rotor, heater, amplifier, etc), or with the SDRs it can power a filter or other add-on device.

[@asn413]

@@saveitforparts ah! i get it now. didnt know such a thing existed. certainly makes sense. less cabling.

[@qwertykeyboard5901]

@@saveitforparts Oh, so like power over ethernet!

[@jamesparker2337]

Testing question you should address. Are they directional or uni directional systems? If you rotate them, do they show the same results or have to be directed/facing towards the station/city locations?

[@saveitforparts]

I tried a couple different orientations on the roof with the larger one, and got the same number of channels.

[@veganguy74]

My house had a 40+ year-old (just guessing about the age, as it states it receives B&W and Color(!) on it) Winegard antenna in the attic when I moved in and it works just fine pulling in digital TV since I installed powered amplifier.

[@saveitforparts]

Neat, I didn't realize they'd been around that long!

[@M.TTT.]

I remember when they were switching it all to digital, I'm surprised there's much left to watch out there, interesting. Its nice to have when camping sometimes, at least before we all had smartphones with weather apps lol.

[@Grim0954]

I haven't watched broadcast TV in 2022 either. lol

[@rogergrimsby5805]

You're a rampant experimenter with all your satellite antennas, going where hardly any people have gone before. You're overflowing with energy, curiosity, and experimentation. Are you an Amateur Radio Extra Class licensee? Now that you have Broadcast TV -- the brain liquifier, all that virtue and zest-for-life will melt into a puddle on your couch and you'll put on 30 pounds, which won't be a problem because you'll stop going anywhere, anymore. If you can't order it from Amazon, you'll decide you don't need it, because going to the brick-and-mortar store means that you'll have to get off your couch and miss something on TV. To try to minimize the brain liquification, at least try to find TV-content that's commercial-free. Maybe get a PBS schedule. Time shift, so you're not stuck with Sesame Street if you wanted to watch some entertainment in the morning. And even PBS has degraded into pushing seemingly endless corporate sponsorship announcements, especially at the beginning of their shows. It's hard to escape. TCM Turner Classic Movies plays movies, old, very old, and only a little bit old, uncut, without commercial interruption, without a station-stamp stuck in the lower-right corner of the picture. But my internet search has concluded TCM is only available from cable-TV services. Gold star to anyone that can find any other source. Certainly, its satellite downlink is encrypted more securely than Fort Knox.

[@saveitforparts]

Honestly I still don't watch much TV, it's kind of there as an emergency if the internet goes down (since I can power all my receivers and stuff from batteries if I need to).

[@rogergrimsby5805]

@@saveitforparts I can't help thinking that although the encryption for TCM is more secure than Fort Knox, the system's weakness is that the stream runs continuously, so if it takes a few days or a few weeks to break the code, then you'd have some good quality, commercial-free entertainment. Let me know when you getter done. Roger TV for emergencies. Looking forward to seeing what strange RF / microwave devices you bring to life next.

[@mercster]

MeTV is a smaller network that is FTA on many digital substations (our local one is an NBC substation, dunno about other places)... it has commercials but plays classic TV sitcoms, has weekend classic movie nights, it's pretty good.

[@kingpoopra6084]

Fun Fact: Alaska is not an Island.

[@saveitforparts]

Ha, I didn't say it was... it has a lot of islands though 🙂

[@kingpoopra6084]

@@saveitforparts I meant some maps have it next to Hawaii and some might assume it was. I used to live on an island in Alaska too. Your content rulz!

[@Offgridhomestead77]

You need to get a motorized fta satellite dish so you can get in many channels I currently get several hundred channels with both my ku and c band satellite dishes. So don't give up on fta satellite for there plenty up there if you put effort into it.

[@saveitforparts]

I'm going to go after C-band next, I have the dish lying around, just need to make a motor system for it.

[@Offgridhomestead77]

@@saveitforparts make sure you buy a digital lbnf for c band for the one on that dish will most likely be analog yet from the 1980s. You will also need a fta satellite receiver. I recommend the gt media v8x or higher receiver.

[@saveitforparts]

I've got a GTMedia V8 finder, it works sometimes but reboots a lot. Also have a KoQuit something or other hooked to a weird internet dish that gets Montana PBS. I have a whole pile of little RV dome dishes that I keep meaning to hack into radio telescopes, they're too small to get anything but the commercial sats.

[@Offgridhomestead77]

@@saveitforparts you need a receiver that you use with your TV for those sat finders are just for finding signal and to test with for the receiver you use in the house has better processing of certain signals that freeze up the sat finder .

[@Offgridhomestead77]

@@saveitforparts those dome dishes are too small for FTAsatellite for you should have at least a 32 inch dish for ku band to get all the feeds and 10 to 12 ft dish for c band FTAsatellite. I been in the fta satellite hobby for few years and I tried subscription dishes like dish network and direct TV but you will need to put a linear lnb on the dish for the ones on those dishes don't work. C band will have more to offer than ku band.

[@theopoliswaters2405]

Were you able to receive local channels?

[@saveitforparts]

Yep, seems like TV is still a thing!