ATSC And Hughes HTL-HD

[Alan Gordon]

I decided to take the plunge and get the Hughes HTL-HD receiver for the $299 price tag (more on that later). I also bought a 22db Booster for my Omni-Directional antenna (the only antenna I can get, we have problems with lightning) to make sure I could pick up my local DT channels. Long story short, I can't get the Booster to work, due to my stupidity, I accidentally fried my old 10db booster. I didn't get the digital channels on my old booster, and when I do a signal test with my rabbit ears, I get nothing from my local NBC affiliate, and I get a bad signal on my FOX affiliate and no picture on either of them. Occasionally, when I do a system test, the receiver tells me that the ATSC tuner fails, and other times it tells me it pass(ed). Is that because sometimes it doesn't pick up any signal at all, so it failed, or did it fail because I got a bad unit?


Also, if it helps, I'm 7.9 miles from the digital transmitting facility of my FOX affiliate, and 8.1 miles from my NBC affiliate.


~Alan

 

[Alan Gordon]

If somebody out there can help me, please do, because if the receiver's ATSC tuner is broken, I'm going to have to return it, if it's not, and it's something else's fault, I'm going to go ahead and activate it.



Thanks!
~Alan

 

[GaryPen]

If somebody out there can help me, please do, because if the receiver's ATSC tuner is broken, I'm going to have to return it, if it's not, and it's something else's fault, I'm going to go ahead and activate it.

Thanks!
~Alan

You might want to try a better indoor antenna for the test. Most people consider the Zenith Silver Sensor to be one of, if not THE, best indoor antenna for OTA HD reception.

I use it, and it kicks butt, especially for what looks like a cheap piece of plastic and aluminum crap. It can take a while to figure out the best location and position for it. But, once it's set, it's great. Go to www.antennaweb.org to get a map of your home in relation to your local transmitters.

You should be able to buy it at the same Best Buy/Circuit City/Big Box store you bought the Hughes receiver from. It's $30-40.

If you can't get a decent signal with the SS pointed at stations 8 miles away, there may be something wrong with your receiver. (Try it first with the little cable that comes with the antenna, to rule out a bad cable you may have at home.)

 

[Alan Gordon]

You might want to try a better indoor antenna for the test. Most people consider the Zenith Silver Sensor to be one of, if not THE, best indoor antenna for OTA HD reception.

I use it, and it kicks butt, especially for what looks like a cheap piece of plastic and aluminum crap. It can take a while to figure out the best location and position for it. But, once it's set, it's great. Go to www.antennaweb.org to get a map of your home in relation to your local transmitters.

You should be able to buy it at the same Best Buy/Circuit City/Big Box store you bought the Hughes receiver from. It's $30-40.

If you can't get a decent signal with the SS pointed at stations 8 miles away, there may be something wrong with your receiver. (Try it first with the little cable that comes with the antenna, to rule out a bad cable you may have at home.)

A little update. After getting paranoid regarding the receiver, I ended up packing it back up and returning it to Circuit City, and while at Sears, I picked up a Zenith Silver Sensor antenna. I get home, hook up my receiver and tried it with the ZSS, and I still can't pick anything up, although when I do a system test, it tells me "pass" on the ATSC tuner with the ZSS hooked up, so it must be my location or the affiliates' fault. I can't use my signal test on the affiliates with my "current" HTL-HD receiver as this one has an older software version, so I don't know WHAT kind of signal I am getting now, I just know I'm not getting a picture yet.

There are no other downsides to the two-month older receiver than just the older, soon to be updated software is there?!


~Alan<~~~~~~~~~~Who had bad luck today....