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Terk TV-55 Indoor/Outdoor Amplified Antenna

Terk TV-55 Indoor/Outdoor Amplified Antenna

List Price: $99.99
Your Price: $67.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: HDTV compatible Outdoor Antenna
Review: It is a perfect match with my Viewsonic nextvision 5 TV tuner. It doesn't work well indoors. I put it outdoors and point it to the direction of the stations map provided by Antennaweb.org. I rotate the antenna 360 degreees to get the perfect reception for all the local stations. To my surprise, the antenna facing toward my home instead of facing outward gives the better pictures.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Be warned!
Review: Like other reviewers, found this was a bad antenna. Signal strength was 2 notches above weak. Much happier with the Radio Shack 15-1880 amplified HDTV antenna. That was half the price!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great TV
Review: Living in the NY Metro region, I lost most of my TV reception back in September. Relying on Rabbit ears got me the basics, but with lousy quality. I recently installed the TV55, and now have all the local broadcast channels with great picture quality.

I recommend it highly.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Didn't work.
Review: Maybe I was too much of an optimist to believe that this would improve reception in the skyscraper canyons of New York City, but even from an 18th floor window this antenna could not pull in a single channel.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Strongly advise against
Review: Performance is horrible for HDTV; at best, picks up half of channels; very frustrating to use; it's collecting dust right now. For a fraction of the Terk's cost, currently using a large unamplified outdoor antenna mounted in the attic which picks up all of the HDTV channels in my area; PBS has intermittent audio hiccups; all other channels seem fine. Might want to check out the reviews on "Gemini ZHDTV1 HDTV-UHF Digital Indoor Antenna" on this site as an alternative if you cannot use a large outdoor antenna. Good luck :)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: OK, but rabbit ears are better
Review: Purchased this unit (mounted indoors) because I got tired of adjusting rabbit ears (I refuse to pay $50/month for cable). Unfortunately the reception quality is mediocre, if not subpar for its price. I get cleaner pictures with my old amplified rabbit ear set.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Poor Performance, get a traditional UHF antenna instead
Review: The TV55 performed very poorly pulling in only 2 digital stations. Using unamplified rabbit ears, I got 6 digital stations. I really cannot understand why it performed so poorly.

Instead, I purchased a traditional UHF antenna (Radio Shack #15-2160 $24 with transformer #15-1140 $3.50) and got 14 stations with the antenna in my attic.

I think the real problem is not lack of signal strength, it is a problem of multi-path interference. The TV55 is not a very directional antenna. So I think it was getting a signal directly from the TV tower and a second signal that was bounced off of something. The second signal is delayed and conflicts with the first. The result is the the Samsung SIR-T351 HDTV receiver does not know what to do with this signal. In other words, good signal strength, but bad signal quality.

The RadioShack antenna is more directional. So it doesn't get this bounced seond signal. The result is a solid signal and good image on the TV set.
I am only 7 miles from the broadcast towers, so perhaps I am especially prone to multipath problems. Your experience might be different.
However, I cannot recommend this antenna. Try a traditional UHF antenna to receive HDTV.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Your paying for that cool plastic case.
Review: This antenna is not so bad, it just cost twice what a good antenna cost. I actually got better reception on some stations with a cheep set of rabit ears. This antenna might work great for VHF, but I bought it for HDTV on UHF. Your 99 bucks gets you a very pretty antenna that works as well as some 25 dollar antennas. IF your location gives you great UHF reception, then a cheap set of rabbit ears is all you need. If your locations gives you poor UHF reception, the TERK TV55 won't help. Even with the high price, you still won't get better than light green reception (as measured on antennaweb.org). Save your money, or try a cheaper antenna first.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gives me very good analog and good HDTV reception
Review: When I bought it (I got it at a store, easier to return), the sales person warned me that he got 6 returns out of 7 sales. Well, I did not return it. Having tried several rabbit ears, this antenna finally gives me snow-free reception of the local PBS channel and most of the others too. Also gives me 5 of the 7 local HDTV channels (no PBS :-().

Certainly worth a try, but be prepared to find the best position and potentially return it if it does not improve.

I found that placing it facing the broadcast towers gives the best receptions (ASCII art): Tower | (Antenna) and not Tower -


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