Poor TV

[stevekk]

Well... here we are sitting in a Walmart Parking lot.
I have the Jensen 12 vdc TV on and the 12 vdc Booster on.
The standard bat wing crank up Antenna.
I have the TV Antenna pointed directly towards a mountain I can see in the distance.
I can see the antennas and other misc. equipment on the peak of the Mountain. I can see..Clear line of sight and Clear as a bell... no trees.
No obstructions.
Pretty close, that I can Count the equipment on the hill.

Yet some of the channels still freeze up.
Whats going on?
I would say it sure is a Rinky Dink TV System!
Any ideas?

The antenna sits at an angle, installed on the sloping portion of the roof.
Should it be flat?
Would it help?

[wa8yxm]

The simple question is this: IS IT THE RIGHT MOUNTAIN?

Seriously, there is such a thing as TOO MUCH signal.

[Old-Biscuit]

rockhillmanor wrote:
I fought that whole digital freeze thing too, frustrating. I'd much rather have the ole analog that just got fuzzy but the sound always worked so you didn't miss who dun-it at the end of a mystery movie from it freezing up!!

I found out by pure accident that it CAN be the TV.

I have a pretty big screen Sylvania and a small screen Vizio. Both are brand new.

The Sylvania freezes up all the time. I unplugged the Slyvania one day and plugged in the Vizio. Didn't touch the antenna, still parked in the same spot......the Vizio did NOT freeze up AND it got 10 more channels.

When the signal is not real strong the 2 TV's reception is vastly different.
When the signal IS real good both TV's work the same.

I strongly suggest that if you are always fighting digital freeze, borrow a friends TV and plug it into your MH to see if it's your TV.

On my Slyvania? I took it to a TV repair shop to have them look at it.
The cable board was bad. They replaced it for $65.00 AND when I went to pick it up they handed me a quick connect and STRONGLY suggested I buy it!!!

They said they see this a lot with RV'ers TV's. We hook up and un hook up that cable connection tens of times more than a residential TV that sits in one place never gets moved and never gets unhooked. The constant pushing and pulling it on it loosens the cheaply made board and connections.

Btw even repaired the little Vizio STILL gets more channels than the Slyvania.:R

All TV digital tuners are not equal.
Have the same thing with the two different brands in our 5'vr.
19" Panasonic in bedroom is year older than 32" Vizio in living room.
The bedroom one never gets as many channels as living room set BUT occasionally it will get different channel that the other doesn't.

I don't understand the comparison between residential TV and RV TV.
Ours don't get unhooked ever. One is mounted on an articulating arm and just gets strapped for travel. The large one is 'wall mounted' and that's how it travels.
No unhooking/hooking up required.

[rockhillmanor]

powderman426 wrote:

K Charles wrote:
If your camping at Walmart why do you need the TV on? Just injoy your camping experience and the view.

I find that amusing. You gotta love camping at Walmart.

OMG I over looked that. :R
Edit: My advice was for people who camp in real CG's.:B:B

[powderman426]

K Charles wrote:
If your camping at Walmart why do you need the TV on? Just injoy your camping experience and the view.

I find that amusing. You gotta love camping at Walmart.

[K_Charles]

If your camping at Walmart why do you need the TV on? Just injoy your camping experience and the view.

[rockhillmanor]

I fought that whole digital freeze thing too, frustrating. I'd much rather have the ole analog that just got fuzzy but the sound always worked so you didn't miss who dun-it at the end of a mystery movie from it freezing up!!

I found out by pure accident that it CAN be the TV.

I have a pretty big screen Sylvania and a small screen Vizio. Both are brand new.

The Sylvania freezes up all the time. I unplugged the Slyvania one day and plugged in the Vizio. Didn't touch the antenna, still parked in the same spot......the Vizio did NOT freeze up AND it got 10 more channels.

When the signal is not real strong the 2 TV's reception is vastly different.
When the signal IS real good both TV's work the same.

I strongly suggest that if you are always fighting digital freeze, borrow a friends TV and plug it into your MH to see if it's your TV.

On my Slyvania? I took it to a TV repair shop to have them look at it.
The cable board was bad. They replaced it for $65.00 AND when I went to pick it up they handed me a quick connect and STRONGLY suggested I buy it!!!

They said they see this a lot with RV'ers TV's. We hook up and un hook up that cable connection tens of times more than a residential TV that sits in one place never gets moved and never gets unhooked. The constant pushing and pulling it on it loosens the cheaply made board and connections.

Btw even repaired the little Vizio STILL gets more channels than the Slyvania.:R

[SCVJeff]

Unless you have actually checked (via TVFool.com, Etc.) if that hill contains TV transmitters on it, don't assume it does just because you see antennas.

What Walmart was this and roughly what direction are/ were you pointing?

[HappyKayakers]

Did you try rotating your antenna 180 degrees? Maybe you have the wrong face pointing toward the mountain.

[Eycom]

If you have access to the Internet and a compass, go online to here and enter the local zip code. You'll find the various channels available in the area and from which direction their signals are emanating. You may need to individually home in on the channel locations that are freezing up to improve reception. Not the best conditions to channel surf, but that's life in a Walmart PL with OTA TV.

[CincyGus]

Check and make sure your signal is maxed out.

One way to do this, if your TV has it, is a meter in the menu or info screens. My old Jensen, if I hit the INFO button, while on a channel, had a little signal strength bar across the bottom and I could rotate the antenna a little to see if the signal improved when I turned it.

Some TV's don't have this in the info and you have to dig a little into the menu or sometimes in the setup section to find the signal strength meter.

Also, some people by an add on meter such as THIS or THIS ONE.

If your able to see it and it is truly the right antenna, you should be maxing out the signal. You don't say what type antenna you have but either the Winegard or the Jack antenna, which are the two most used brands, are more than strong enough to pull in signals 20-30 miles away, when properly aimed.

May be the antenna your looking at is for a different channel. Many times the antenna's for different stations in a city are in different directions until you get well away from the city.

[donn0128]

Not sure where you are sitting, but if your near Portland the antennas are on different spots on the hill. You probably need to rotate the antenna a bit. I know inEast county when I actually used OTA that was a big problem. Add to the fact that many OTA antenna systems built into RV's today are just simply put, junk. Its not hard to figure out why your reception is so poor. Add the cheap TV into the mix and your lucky to get anything.