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OTA and guide data on integrated tv tuner

jmagg

jmagg

Platinum Member
We've dumped cable TV a few yrs ago, and the ota signals are quite good, about 40 channels with minimal pixilation on a few. Tv guide data is fair but unreliable, populating and dropping at random. I realize garbage in garbage out, but video and audio come in reliably while data is sketch. I wonder if the 50 ft coax could be losing data. I've posted the same on redd and got a response that the data is minor compared to AV, so I surmise that an amplifier wont help, but i've ordered one for the sake of science. Apparently this is a widespread prob since already 2500 views in a couple days.Any suggestions?
 
I installed the amp at the tv, which from what i've read is the wrong spot, which makes sense, since any loss in the 50 ft coax will be what is amplified. I noticed that signal strength is higher than signal quality which is a sign of bad placement. The amp should be at the antenna, so I pulled it. Ironically, after culling weak channels, and shutting the tv down instead of suspending, the guide populates much more reliably. As a matter of fact, it continues to populate after suspend. Strange. So ill install the amp at the antenna in the attic and chk signal strength vs signal quality and report for science sake. I am somewhat skeptical because attic temps get very hot in summer etc. I will say that after 14 months this cheap Hisense U7 is performing well for OTA and streaming albeit intrusive google add to cart click hijinks.
 
OTA-received guide data is updated only on the channel you're currently on, and only for a few days at most. I think a lot of smart TVs want you to plug them into the Internet for guide data among other things, so they drop OTA-received guide data quickly.

As for reception, most of the time it seems like the limit is not signal strength but signal quality. I got an LTE signal filter that seemed to help my reception minimally, but more than any amplifier. The main problem is multipath interference, which can only be fixed by moving the antenna.
 
I put the amp at the antenna and the signal was worse, so the experiment is over. My OTA signals are better (mostly) or equal to cable. I can deal with slow guide data. Thanks for your reply.
 
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