Excellent well articulated review! Thank you!! Sounds like an amazing product making an impact on the serious over the air terrestrial viewer who wants results, which will be worth the time, effort, and investment. Whenever possible, do it once and do it right. These are my sentiments, especially when the results are proven effective.
I think I have a bad unit: did the scan and only finds the massively strongest of 8 stations I get with antenna direct to TV. It also gets a "4" which makes no sense from a CM 4228 - I'm 25 miles east of Pittsburgh multiple ridges and multipath. I was planning to use the SmartKOM for each channel to choose which antenna to get from: the CM 4228 the old old monster long old school deep fringe "mile long" VHF/UHF both aimed at Pittsburgh. If I manually assign the stations with A Suite, the SmartKOM outputs a good signal TV can scan, however I don't have a way to test signal strength. Want spectrum analyzer to confirm and also to aim the antennas, TinySA is about all I can justify spending money on. In process contacting Televes Tech Support....
Ever since the digital switch over I've been plagued with break up on a several channels. Analog was more forgiving. A rotor would cure the problems, but that's a cumbersome route plus it doesn't lend itself to multiset usage. This unit looks impressive to say the least. One is on order!
Great video and helpful to see the SNR comparisons. I would just add that it is still very important to have plenty of separation between the antennas. The SmartKom cannot correct for mutual interference between the antennas because they are close together. Thanks
You need to buy commercial grade satellite dish actuators using a Diseq mover controller. That is what I did and I was able to pull signals from 200 miles away
Great, I got the Smartkom unit, inside/attic install. Got two Televes Dinova boss mix antenna. Both work fine pointed at different markets, antennas., using the native preamp that comes with each. I drop the per antenna preamps infavor of the Televes Smartkom hoping to get both antenna channels as promised, even thought my phone connects to the Smartkom... no reading any channels at all!? Do I need to add the Televes pre-amps, per antenna, backin prior to the Smartkom device here? I thought this would do both, but perhaps it's only a combiner not a pramp?
I had a similar experience with a new SmartKom not working. See above. The SmartKom is an AMP and should not require additional preamps - a rep at Televes told me that directly.
I lost channels with this item. One channel which was normally very strong kept flipping in and out with the signal fluctuating wildly. Televes was of no help. My tuner also registered signals that were showing a lot higher than they actually were with this product. This was one of Antenna Man’s recommendations that ended up not being a good product. I exchanged the item and had the same results with the replacement. I ended up returning and going back to my original two cable setup.
It is designed to work in parallel with the preamp in your Televes antenna if needed. For other amplified antennas it generally disables the preamp, but every antenna's going to behave differently. More to the point, this amplifier is so strong that you just don't need a secondary preamp.
I have a question not sure if anyone knows. Newer to the Smartkom. I am having a heck of a time. I have three antennas. It shows all the channels I want however some don't end up on my tvs. Anyone know why? Lol 😀
If the smartkom app shows all of the channels you want as listed, basically should be the role of your antenna pointing in the right direction to receive a good signal, and also make sure you do a channel rescan on your TVs. Some TVs have issues picking up new channels unless you disconnect the cable -> scan -> reconnect -> scan.
Here is a hand on review; DO NOT BUY. I tried this and lost at least 2 RF UHF channels that are very strong and reliable; could not tune no matter what setting/configuration; a total waste of time. Back to single antenna and returning this piece of junk and yes the lost channels are back.
How do you figure? OTA has literally digital code(0s & 1s) transmitted in packets of compressed data thus requiring less bandwidth. HDMI, optic, digital coax all transmit digital signal(code). You may have some roundabout way of nitpicking signal transmission/receiving but that won’t matter to the masses.
Excellent well articulated review! Thank you!! Sounds like an amazing product making an impact on the serious over the air terrestrial viewer who wants results, which will be worth the time, effort, and investment. Whenever possible, do it once and do it right. These are my sentiments, especially when the results are proven effective.
I think I have a bad unit: did the scan and only finds the massively strongest of 8 stations I get with antenna direct to TV. It also gets a "4" which makes no sense from a CM 4228 - I'm 25 miles east of Pittsburgh multiple ridges and multipath. I was planning to use the SmartKOM for each channel to choose which antenna to get from: the CM 4228 the old old monster long old school deep fringe "mile long" VHF/UHF both aimed at Pittsburgh. If I manually assign the stations with A Suite, the SmartKOM outputs a good signal TV can scan, however I don't have a way to test signal strength. Want spectrum analyzer to confirm and also to aim the antennas, TinySA is about all I can justify spending money on. In process contacting Televes Tech Support....
Ever since the digital switch over I've been plagued with break up on a several channels. Analog was more forgiving. A rotor would cure the problems, but that's a cumbersome route plus it doesn't lend itself to multiset usage. This unit looks impressive to say the least. One is on order!
Great video and helpful to see the SNR comparisons. I would just add that it is still very important to have plenty of separation between the antennas. The SmartKom cannot correct for mutual interference between the antennas because they are close together. Thanks
Do you have to have that outside
You need to buy commercial grade satellite dish actuators using a Diseq mover controller.
That is what I did and I was able to pull signals from 200 miles away
Great, I got the Smartkom unit, inside/attic install. Got two Televes Dinova boss mix antenna. Both work fine pointed at different markets, antennas., using the native preamp that comes with each. I drop the per antenna preamps infavor of the Televes Smartkom hoping to get both antenna channels as promised, even thought my phone connects to the Smartkom... no reading any channels at all!? Do I need to add the Televes pre-amps, per antenna, backin prior to the Smartkom device here? I thought this would do both, but perhaps it's only a combiner not a pramp?
I would try with the preamps - they will work together to give you the best results. But I am feeling like there's something else going on here.
I had a similar experience with a new SmartKom not working. See above. The SmartKom is an AMP and should not require additional preamps - a rep at Televes told me that directly.
I lost channels with this item. One channel which was normally very strong kept flipping in and out with the signal fluctuating wildly. Televes was of no help. My tuner also registered signals that were showing a lot higher than they actually were with this product. This was one of Antenna Man’s recommendations that ended up not being a good product. I exchanged the item and had the same results with the replacement. I ended up returning and going back to my original two cable setup.
1) Will this unit replace the preamp for my antenna?
2) Is it possible to use my existing antenna preamps and combine their output to the SmartKom?
It is designed to work in parallel with the preamp in your Televes antenna if needed. For other amplified antennas it generally disables the preamp, but every antenna's going to behave differently.
More to the point, this amplifier is so strong that you just don't need a secondary preamp.
The Best!!!
I have a question not sure if anyone knows. Newer to the Smartkom. I am having a heck of a time. I have three antennas. It shows all the channels I want however some don't end up on my tvs. Anyone know why? Lol 😀
If the smartkom app shows all of the channels you want as listed, basically should be the role of your antenna pointing in the right direction to receive a good signal, and also make sure you do a channel rescan on your TVs. Some TVs have issues picking up new channels unless you disconnect the cable -> scan -> reconnect -> scan.
Did you solve your problem - all ears!
What 3 antennas would you recommend?
It really depends on your area. Call us at 888-233-7563 for a recommendation.
You can get $ 1000.00 dollar and up rotators. You have to go with a hi gain, yaesu, or other ham radio unit.
Thx for the video but the history etc not needed. Just the how to.
Here is a hand on review; DO NOT BUY. I tried this and lost at least 2 RF UHF channels that are very strong and reliable; could not tune no matter what setting/configuration; a total waste of time. Back to single antenna and returning this piece of junk and yes the lost channels are back.
…"digital" signals… No such thing.
How do you figure? OTA has literally digital code(0s & 1s) transmitted in packets of compressed data thus requiring less bandwidth. HDMI, optic, digital coax all transmit digital signal(code). You may have some roundabout way of nitpicking signal transmission/receiving but that won’t matter to the masses.