this Low Production, is by far the Best Production review I've seen and I have seen many on this subject. majority of the so called high production reviewers, have 90 percent of the review video is a selfie of themselves and 10 percent of actual usage of subject.
Thank you for posting this video. It is better than the one put up by the Televes marketing wiesels. Your production value was just fine. Let the haters put up a better video themselves. You answered some questions I had. I am in Columbus Ohio so the transmitters are closer to me but I still see the value in the Smartkom. I only recommend Televes equipment when offering advice. I am a retired TV broadcast engineer and have only over-the-air tv service in my home because I am too cheap for "cable TV".
DOES the channel master have a 180 degree field of view Guy ?? What is the signal strength when you use the TV ?? I like your logic about using the rotor Sir.
Sorry I missed your question until now! Yes, surprisingly it has the claimed 180 coverage. Because it is so wide it's picking up 3 markets for me with the Televes pinpointed to Chicago which is the furthest away. The Televes is definitely the better antenna but is, of course, directional. I cover this @6:42
Great video! Before I moved homes, I had the same situation living between the Detroit, Lansing and Flint/Saginaw, MI markets and yes, rotors are a pain!
Back in the day, prior to the digital change, I used to live in Rockford. The antenna I had I was able to get the locals as well as Madison, some Milwaukee, and if things were just right a handful of the Chicago stations. May have to look into one of these setups as the small town I live in now kind of sits down in a valley and it is hard to pick up channels from 30 miles away, however I am still experimenting with antenna height, direction, etc. Thank you for posting this.
LOL that is my poor friend "The Doc" who at nearly 80 still wants to mow his own lawn once a month or so whether it needs it or not. Takes him 3 days usually. :P
that's pretty awesome. the smartkomm is an absolutely amazing piece of technology. it made all the difference in my attic installation. I'm 30 miles from the towers, down a hill and through the forest. All the towers are out one side of my house, it just happens to have the chimney in the middle of it. I have one antenna in the far left corner to pick up ABC, and another antenna to the left of the chimney in the middle to pick up all the other UHF stations. Then, just because I had it, I added a fringe VHF antenna for PBS and the local NBC affiliate to the right of the chimney where all the trees start. Before, I was using a Televes pre-amp. The main line went to the Air TV, and the second line went to the TV itself. The Air TV split the signal two ways and would often pixelate. Now, with the Smartkomm, I am splitting the signal four ways and sending it to my TV, the AirTV, and a HDHomerunFlex4K (for ATSC 3), and the signal is almost always 100%. Nice video. I'm sure more peopel would find it very helpful!
A signal power reading from your TV as 100% is a useless metric, any preamp can boost even a weak and barely functioning signal to show at that level. What matters is the quality of the signal (SNR ratio) caught at your antenna.
@@patrickbodine1300 people who say "there is nothing to watch on broadcast TV" crack me up. I find plenty to watch on ABC, primarily because that is my preferred local news source.
Bluetooth app works but is not easy to connect to the antenna selector until you understand app was poorly written. Just turn off antenna preamp at power unit and then back on. Play with app buttons until it works. Some buttons are hidden in plain sight so just press ( "connect" ) at top of screen. Good luck it does work. Bluetooth is located inside of power unit and automatically turns off after a short period of time and automatically turns back on if power is turned off and back on.
Yeah, UI is clarity are not a strong suit in the app, it probably needs the most work of anything. It works though but it definitely has a bit of a learning curve.
The bowtie array and yagi are cool but what i keep looking at is the B type vent for the furnace or water heater without a cap on top !!! Doesn't that let rain right into whatever gas fired thing is on the other end???
We are in a similar situation with panels but I'd love to just use my 16 bay and a rotor of some sort my signals I am grabbing across lake ontario so 70 miles no prob with a pre amp !!!!
What brand rotor did you have? I have seen rotors last for at least two decades. Smart individuals bought rotors that were designed for Ham radio use designed to handle some serious wing loads. HyGain (now owned by MFJ Enterprises) make decent rotors that will provide years of service. Parts are readily available and they do now have digital rotor controls Thant have memories that can be programmed for you our favorite directions.
It was a Channel Master. Even a new rotor doesn't eliminate the problem of the tuner not knowing what channels it's supposed to be on. A combiner like this solves that problem.
Very nice video. I live not far from you. But I like the Packers games 😂 I was told that the cables that come from each antenna should be the same length to the mm. It is supposed to move signals at the same rate and not cancel each other out. Comments welcomed !
What is on the tower I saw in the video? I have had rotors go bad and I have seen some last longer than others. I never had the actual motor go bad. All I did was find one of the exact models on eBay and connected it and it worked.
A very ancient antenna. The tower was probably in a great placement when the black walnuts and Norwegian maples were young, the tower pretty much puts the antenna in amongst its branches now. It's not really a feasible location especially if you're fat and old.
So long as the signal to noise ratio is above 20 dB, you're good. There's not point in concerning yourself with this. Just make your coax routes as short as possible and the average household is not going to run into any limits imposed by too much amplification.
Just curious how many of these are labeled as Tropo channels? I’m from Canada and I want to stabilize some channels that I can receive from Michigan that I receive almost 100miles away. Do you think this could help?
There's no such thing as a stable tropo channel. If the signal doesn't reach your antenna in the first place due to changing weather conditions, no device you put after your antenna will fix that.
The one I got must be defective because I lost 3 channels with it. I can get those channels all day with a splitter as a combiner and an preamp. I know I had it connected right as I did get my closest channels.
I have seen reviews of people who said they basically got no channels after an install, then they had the unit replaced and it worked perfectly. So yeah probably some bad units out there.
I have the same issue you do with getting two different stations on the same channel. But they come in good just when you change channels the station changes. This happens in two different directions. Crazy but it works on my XBR. Sir, would you benefit from Mr. Hop To It hoolahoop double antenna with reflector ?? Worth a try since the build is so simple and cheap, omni directional to... Check out his channel and be surprised and amazed too. Happy building GF.. vf 😀😀😀😀
I took great interest in your antenna situation and that you had several cities to choose from and combine. I lost interest when you made such a big deal about football and forgot the antenna topic which I was very interested in. I skipped forward to where you no longer were talking about football and you got back to the antennas and the combiner.
I bought a televes amp and didn't get as many channels as with an RCA amp I already had. Televes cost 80 RCA cost 25. Lucky I got a full refund for the televes
You do not buy this device if you need a preamp. The purpose of this device is primarily to combine the signals from multiple antennas together without causing an interference pattern (that happens when using a dumb splitter). It also equalizes the power level of all channels so you don't have channels that overload a TV tuner or are too weak.
I still trust a rotor overall! This display has nearly 800 bucks with the antennas & Smartkom device. My Winegard antenna & RCA rotor with my old Antennacraft Preamp didnt cost me half of all this & I get channels 100 miles away in different directions!. BTW antennasdirect makes a combiner that works with seperate UHF/ VHF inputs! The VHF input will pass UHF channels so you can use a Uhf/Vhf combo antenna & UHF input only passes UHF So you have ability to have antennas pointed in different directions
NEXTGEN-TV is the new 15 minute city model for OTA tv broadcasters. NEXTGEN-TV can do long range with fewer tv sub channels or more sub channels with higher resolution with shorter range. Local advertisers want local tv viewers not viewers that live far away. This means ( NO OTA NEXTGEN-TV for anyone that is not close to the 15 minute city or town ). Advertisers will be given your name and what tv shows you watch. Welcome to the book "1984" in 2023. TV Corporations are trying to take total control over everyone with OTA NEXTGEN-TV. Keep Longer Range, No Spyware, Old School OTA version 1.0 TV forever.
@@bonelifer Yes you are correct but it is worst because NEXTGEN-TV can be modified in the future by more OTA DRM updates and OTA TV blackouts without notice. It is all about money and total control of information.
@@AAa-qd8hb been watching the process over on Lon.TV's channel and he said they are most likely encrypting them now, so that when it goes "LIVE" they'll just leave them that way and hope the FCC won't complain. So sickening.
For combining channels from different antennas, hdhomerun requires you to be using special software on a computer or smart TV. This device directly modulates the RF signal to a coax cable, so if you have a bunch of dumb TVs and existing coax routing installed in your house, this smartkom is the best solution.
You blacked out the location on your printed copy of the Rabbit Ears report but you left the "shareable link" visible, which shows your location. If you're really concerned about people knowing where you live then you might want to take this video down and maybe post an edited version.
Also, you could triangulate using the distance from each tower if you really wanted to find out his exact location unless he used the location shifting function. If someone wanted to go though all of that trouble just to find out where he lives.
* NEXTGEN-TV is a failure if people outside of cities have no tv. * 35 MILES OUT = the new NO TV for you "NEAR DEEP FRINGE". * I currently get all ota DC 1.0 tv channels and nextgen-tv does not work at my location. * I own the first officially approved Nextgen-tv ADTH tuner box and I am only 35 miles from the DC nextgen-tv LIGHTHOUSE antenna on RF channel 33 located at Howard University in DC and I only get very short clips with 95 percent nothing. * I am on the new nextgen-tv NO TV FOR YOU fringe. * I have the best outside yagi directional antennas with built-in preamps with RG6 solid copper quad shielded coax cables that are pointed correctly at WHUT NEXTGEN-TV antenna. * Thank you for your time helping the people keep free ota TV.
this Low Production, is by far the Best Production review I've seen and I have seen many on this subject.
majority of the so called high production reviewers, have 90 percent of the review video is a selfie of themselves and 10 percent of actual usage of subject.
Thank you for posting this video. It is better than the one put up by the Televes marketing wiesels. Your production value was just fine. Let the haters put up a better video themselves.
You answered some questions I had. I am in Columbus Ohio so the transmitters are closer to me but I still see the value in the Smartkom. I only recommend Televes equipment when offering advice. I am a retired TV broadcast engineer and have only over-the-air tv service in my home because I am too cheap for "cable TV".
Great video. This helps me with cutting the cord, all the major TV stations are 60 to 70 miles away. Thanks!
Cheers from another Bears fan.
DOES the channel master have a 180 degree field of view Guy ?? What is the signal strength when you use the TV ??
I like your logic about using the rotor Sir.
Sorry I missed your question until now! Yes, surprisingly it has the claimed 180 coverage. Because it is so wide it's picking up 3 markets for me with the Televes pinpointed to Chicago which is the furthest away. The Televes is definitely the better antenna but is, of course, directional. I cover this @6:42
@@wtg-guy Thanks for the answers Sir. Peace v ....
Great video! Before I moved homes, I had the same situation living between the Detroit, Lansing and Flint/Saginaw, MI markets and yes, rotors are a pain!
impressive video....
Wow, this is a great proof of performance for this setup. Thank you for sharing!
Back in the day, prior to the digital change, I used to live in Rockford. The antenna I had I was able to get the locals as well as Madison, some Milwaukee, and if things were just right a handful of the Chicago stations. May have to look into one of these setups as the small town I live in now kind of sits down in a valley and it is hard to pick up channels from 30 miles away, however I am still experimenting with antenna height, direction, etc. Thank you for posting this.
Your neighbor's yard looked really good with the stripes
prob done with a simplicity
LOL that is my poor friend "The Doc" who at nearly 80 still wants to mow his own lawn once a month or so whether it needs it or not. Takes him 3 days usually. :P
Great video! WBBM has always been a pain, even in the old analog days.
Definitely! Always been horrid! When I could pick it up after putting this in I was amazed.
yes had issues with wbbm out in sugar grove il
that's pretty awesome. the smartkomm is an absolutely amazing piece of technology. it made all the difference in my attic installation. I'm 30 miles from the towers, down a hill and through the forest. All the towers are out one side of my house, it just happens to have the chimney in the middle of it. I have one antenna in the far left corner to pick up ABC, and another antenna to the left of the chimney in the middle to pick up all the other UHF stations. Then, just because I had it, I added a fringe VHF antenna for PBS and the local NBC affiliate to the right of the chimney where all the trees start. Before, I was using a Televes pre-amp. The main line went to the Air TV, and the second line went to the TV itself. The Air TV split the signal two ways and would often pixelate. Now, with the Smartkomm, I am splitting the signal four ways and sending it to my TV, the AirTV, and a HDHomerunFlex4K (for ATSC 3), and the signal is almost always 100%. Nice video. I'm sure more peopel would find it very helpful!
There is nothing on ABC worth watching, imho.
A signal power reading from your TV as 100% is a useless metric, any preamp can boost even a weak and barely functioning signal to show at that level. What matters is the quality of the signal (SNR ratio) caught at your antenna.
@@gamechannel1271 right. I should have specified quality.
@@patrickbodine1300 people who say "there is nothing to watch on broadcast TV" crack me up. I find plenty to watch on ABC, primarily because that is my preferred local news source.
N.B.A Finals are on ABC
EXCELLENT VIDEO!! THANK YOU!
Bluetooth app works but is not easy to connect to the antenna selector until you understand app was poorly written. Just turn off antenna preamp at power unit and then back on. Play with app buttons until it works. Some buttons are hidden in plain sight so just press ( "connect" ) at top of screen. Good luck it does work. Bluetooth is located inside of power unit and automatically turns off after a short period of time and automatically turns back on if power is turned off and back on.
Yeah, UI is clarity are not a strong suit in the app, it probably needs the most work of anything. It works though but it definitely has a bit of a learning curve.
The bowtie array and yagi are cool but what i keep looking at is the B type vent for the furnace or water heater without a cap on top !!! Doesn't that let rain right into whatever gas fired thing is on the other end???
That's a sewer vent I believe.
How does the signal compare to what you had with the built in preamp on the LR mix?
We are in a similar situation with panels but I'd love to just use my 16 bay and a rotor of some sort my signals I am grabbing across lake ontario so 70 miles no prob with a pre amp !!!!
What brand rotor did you have? I have seen rotors last for at least two decades. Smart individuals bought rotors that were designed for Ham radio use designed to handle some serious wing loads. HyGain (now owned by MFJ Enterprises) make decent rotors that will provide years of service. Parts are readily available and they do now have digital rotor controls Thant have memories that can be programmed for you our favorite directions.
It was a Channel Master. Even a new rotor doesn't eliminate the problem of the tuner not knowing what channels it's supposed to be on. A combiner like this solves that problem.
Do you have problems with temperature inversion like I do on the Texas coast? I get complete dropout sometimes depending on the time of evening.
Very nice video. I live not far from you. But I like the Packers games 😂
I was told that the cables that come from each antenna should be the same length to the mm.
It is supposed to move signals at the same rate and not cancel each other out. Comments welcomed !
Good video. Thanks.
that cool, in the 1990s I installed MATV systems, and that device replaces a rack full of equipment.
What is on the tower I saw in the video? I have had rotors go bad and I have seen some last longer than others. I never had the actual motor go bad. All I did was find one of the exact models on eBay and connected it and it worked.
A very ancient antenna. The tower was probably in a great placement when the black walnuts and Norwegian maples were young, the tower pretty much puts the antenna in amongst its branches now. It's not really a feasible location especially if you're fat and old.
Peavey! Wondering if the added wire to replace the burned trace is solid or strand? And is one preferred? Thanks again!
Consider: As you increase signal with any amplifier, you will also be amplifying noise.
So long as the signal to noise ratio is above 20 dB, you're good. There's not point in concerning yourself with this. Just make your coax routes as short as possible and the average household is not going to run into any limits imposed by too much amplification.
Just curious how many of these are labeled as Tropo channels?
I’m from Canada and I want to stabilize some channels that I can receive from Michigan that I receive almost 100miles away.
Do you think this could help?
There's no such thing as a stable tropo channel. If the signal doesn't reach your antenna in the first place due to changing weather conditions, no device you put after your antenna will fix that.
@@gamechannel1271but we still love to chase those wild signals😁🤷 why I don't know
The one I got must be defective because I lost 3 channels with it. I can get those channels all day with a splitter as a combiner and an preamp. I know I had it connected right as I did get my closest channels.
I have seen reviews of people who said they basically got no channels after an install, then they had the unit replaced and it worked perfectly. So yeah probably some bad units out there.
It shows a Rohn25 G tower in your video.
Why aren’t you using it for additional height and gain?
This would solve alot of problems.
Why not use Diseq switches and a selector box
Because I'd rather get ALL of the channels that I can pick up going to the tuner and not have to constantly retune.
How was the cost for all of it😊
Televes smartkom device is $200
I have the same issue you do with getting two different stations on the same channel. But they come in good just when you change channels the station changes. This happens in two different directions. Crazy but it works on my XBR.
Sir, would you benefit from Mr. Hop To It hoolahoop double antenna with reflector ?? Worth a try since the build is so simple and cheap, omni directional to... Check out his channel and be surprised and amazed too. Happy building GF.. vf
😀😀😀😀
Sweet....
What's on top of that tower a Beamer ?
Ancient antenna, I believe it picks up transmissions from alien civilizations.
@@wtg-guy Looking to get a tower that slide insde each other ..10 ft sections and set it up a 4 element Beamer
What speakers are those? ❤
Good eye, Mission 767s, made a single year in 1990.
I took great interest in your antenna situation and that you had several cities to choose from and combine. I lost interest when you made such a big deal about football and forgot the antenna topic which I was very interested in. I skipped forward to where you no longer were talking about football and you got back to the antennas and the combiner.
Go Pack Go
I bought a televes amp and didn't get as many channels as with an RCA amp I already had. Televes cost 80 RCA cost 25. Lucky I got a full refund for the televes
At 9:38 I cover in detail how this isn't just an amp and how I removed my distribution amp with this setup.
You do not buy this device if you need a preamp. The purpose of this device is primarily to combine the signals from multiple antennas together without causing an interference pattern (that happens when using a dumb splitter). It also equalizes the power level of all channels so you don't have channels that overload a TV tuner or are too weak.
I still trust a rotor overall! This display has nearly 800 bucks with the antennas & Smartkom device. My Winegard antenna & RCA rotor with my old Antennacraft Preamp didnt cost me half of all this & I get channels 100 miles away in different directions!. BTW antennasdirect makes a combiner that works with seperate UHF/ VHF inputs! The VHF input will pass UHF channels so you can use a Uhf/Vhf combo antenna & UHF input only passes UHF So you have ability to have antennas pointed in different directions
Just use the internet lol
NEXTGEN-TV is the new 15 minute city model for OTA tv broadcasters. NEXTGEN-TV can do long range with fewer tv sub channels or more sub channels with higher resolution with shorter range. Local advertisers want local tv viewers not viewers that live far away. This means ( NO OTA NEXTGEN-TV for anyone that is not close to the 15 minute city or town ). Advertisers will be given your name and what tv shows you watch. Welcome to the book "1984" in 2023. TV Corporations are trying to take total control over everyone with OTA NEXTGEN-TV. Keep Longer Range, No Spyware, Old School OTA version 1.0 TV forever.
Don't forget DRM is baked into ATSC 3, users are saying most of the test sites have already enabled the DRM.
@@bonelifer Yes you are correct but it is worst because NEXTGEN-TV can be modified in the future by more OTA DRM updates and OTA TV blackouts without notice. It is all about money and total control of information.
@@AAa-qd8hb been watching the process over on Lon.TV's channel and he said they are most likely encrypting them now, so that when it goes "LIVE" they'll just leave them that way and hope the FCC won't complain. So sickening.
@@bonelifer The corrupt FCC is totally controlled by big money for corporations and not for what best for the people.
Ya need hdhomerun dont need all theses leads
For combining channels from different antennas, hdhomerun requires you to be using special software on a computer or smart TV. This device directly modulates the RF signal to a coax cable, so if you have a bunch of dumb TVs and existing coax routing installed in your house, this smartkom is the best solution.
@@gamechannel1271
After you combined all to one lead, then lead to the router to broadcast to all your devices.
You blacked out the location on your printed copy of the Rabbit Ears report but you left the "shareable link" visible, which shows your location. If you're really concerned about people knowing where you live then you might want to take this video down and maybe post an edited version.
Right? I think he should be a Raiders fan!
Also, you could triangulate using the distance from each tower if you really wanted to find out his exact location unless he used the location shifting function. If someone wanted to go though all of that trouble just to find out where he lives.
Too wordy. Get to the point.
Magic box makes it so you see lots of different people living inside rectangular box.
* NEXTGEN-TV is a failure if people outside of cities have no tv.
* 35 MILES OUT = the new NO TV for you "NEAR DEEP FRINGE".
* I currently get all ota DC 1.0 tv channels and nextgen-tv does not work at my location.
* I own the first officially approved Nextgen-tv ADTH tuner box and I am only 35 miles from the DC nextgen-tv LIGHTHOUSE antenna on RF channel 33 located at Howard University in DC and I only get very short clips with 95 percent nothing.
* I am on the new nextgen-tv NO TV FOR YOU fringe.
* I have the best outside yagi directional antennas with built-in preamps with RG6 solid copper quad shielded coax cables that are pointed correctly at WHUT NEXTGEN-TV antenna.
* Thank you for your time helping the people keep free ota TV.