As I was unpacking Mohu Sky HDTV Antenna for review my daughter commented - Wow! It looks like a Klingon design from the Sci-Fi Series Star Trek. She is right. It does look like a Klingon Axe of some kind. With that family introduction out of the way let me share my experiences on testing the Mohu SKY HDTV antenna product.
We have all been there, Most of us had subscribed to cableTV at one point or the other in life and some like me had even ventured with a clunky Satellite Dish in the efforts of getting better quality picture. CableTV has evolved and now certain places like here in the Silicon Valley Bay area you can get Hi-Def HDTV via your telephone line! AT&T calls this U-Verse TV. But all that technology does not come cheap. CableTV providers do charge you arms and legs to give you basic cable and adds additional fees for HDTV and more if you want local channels etc.
Getting clear "over the air" (OTA) free DTV / HDTV signals is always quite a challenge. In DTV there is no concept of "Snow" or images with ghosts. It is either there as crystal clear image with sound or blank screen. It is frustrating at times to deal with Digital DTV signals as they tend to vary in reception depending on time of day or how the weather or how windy it is outside even-though you might be using a indoor antenna. I personally over the years have tried so many different types of antennas. Some work quite good in UHF (Easy to receive) but very few are able to capture weak VHF (Hard to get) signals. After Analog to DTV cut-over some Local television stations opted to stick to their VHF frequencies (BTW, VHF frequencies have lower range of transmission) and those are the ones most of the current HDTV antennas fail to capture faithfully.
The only good alternative is to have a roof top antenna preferably with a large 'dipole' with reflectors in the back and array of 'directors' in the front to capture these low frequency signals. But having such contraption generally means the UHF signals would get degraded or you have to point it to the TV tower by adjusting the antenna periodically for different stations. It is always difficult to design an antenna which performs well in all the VHF and UHF frequency range of spectrum. I did like the "Silver Sensor" Zenith(ZHDTV1 HDTV-UHF) and it performed amicably well in UHF ranges indoors but had some issues with Multi-pathing (you can call it 'Ghosts' in the digital world) in the apartment where I lived before.
I finally got lucky when I inherited myself a Quantum 1162A antenna when I bought a house which had this antenna installed by the previous owner and I was in heaven. No more signal dropouts. No more pixelations or loss of signal hands down the best if you do not mind having this huge antenna on your roof.
Then came this tiny (when compared to the huge Quantum 1162A) Mohu SKY and as I tested it I find myself humbled by its performance. This thing rocks! This amplified High gain antenna has the full 'VHF' and 'UHF' frequency spectrum covered even in deep fringe reception locations. This antenna was able to capture all the channels my roof top mounted delivers that too by merely just by holding the antenna in my hands! - I am nearly 45+ miles from the nearest TV transmission tower (Sutro tower)
This prompted me to install it on top of the roof alongside with my Quantum 1162A and test it further. After conducting some tests I see that I am getting similar or better signal gain performance when compared to my Quantum 1162A when checked side by side.
Side note: Unlike what the manufacture claims, this antenna is somewhat 'directional' in fringe reception areas (Actually that is good in my opinion) you may have to point this antenna facing the towers for better signal strength. For extended tests, I left this Mohu SKY connected to my HTPC and ran some test OTA HDTV show recordings for past couple of days and I reviewed the recordings and did not find any loss of signals for the 72hour period. This tells me the Mohu Sky Antenna performs very well.
The Build Quality and construction is top notch. The Antenna is completely weather proof. Lightweight and will not topple in high winds. All the needed hardware is included in the package and the instructions are well written. Just make sure that you install the antenna as high as you possible can on your house roof or attic and point it in the direction of the TV towers in your area and you will be good to go.
Based on this experience I can safely recommend this Mohu SKY HDTV antenna to anyone who has plans to cut the cord from the greedy CableTV companies or merely to get stable 'high' quality free HDTV Local TV channels.
Kudos! to the designers of this amazing product - Full five stars from me! -
We have all been there, Most of us had subscribed to cableTV at one point or the other in life and some like me had even ventured with a clunky Satellite Dish in the efforts of getting better quality picture. CableTV has evolved and now certain places like here in the Silicon Valley Bay area you can get Hi-Def HDTV via your telephone line! AT&T calls this U-Verse TV. But all that technology does not come cheap. CableTV providers do charge you arms and legs to give you basic cable and adds additional fees for HDTV and more if you want local channels etc.
Getting clear "over the air" (OTA) free DTV / HDTV signals is always quite a challenge. In DTV there is no concept of "Snow" or images with ghosts. It is either there as crystal clear image with sound or blank screen. It is frustrating at times to deal with Digital DTV signals as they tend to vary in reception depending on time of day or how the weather or how windy it is outside even-though you might be using a indoor antenna. I personally over the years have tried so many different types of antennas. Some work quite good in UHF (Easy to receive) but very few are able to capture weak VHF (Hard to get) signals. After Analog to DTV cut-over some Local television stations opted to stick to their VHF frequencies (BTW, VHF frequencies have lower range of transmission) and those are the ones most of the current HDTV antennas fail to capture faithfully.
The only good alternative is to have a roof top antenna preferably with a large 'dipole' with reflectors in the back and array of 'directors' in the front to capture these low frequency signals. But having such contraption generally means the UHF signals would get degraded or you have to point it to the TV tower by adjusting the antenna periodically for different stations. It is always difficult to design an antenna which performs well in all the VHF and UHF frequency range of spectrum. I did like the "Silver Sensor" Zenith(ZHDTV1 HDTV-UHF) and it performed amicably well in UHF ranges indoors but had some issues with Multi-pathing (you can call it 'Ghosts' in the digital world) in the apartment where I lived before.
 |
| Quantum 1162A |
Then came this tiny (when compared to the huge Quantum 1162A) Mohu SKY and as I tested it I find myself humbled by its performance. This thing rocks! This amplified High gain antenna has the full 'VHF' and 'UHF' frequency spectrum covered even in deep fringe reception locations. This antenna was able to capture all the channels my roof top mounted delivers that too by merely just by holding the antenna in my hands! - I am nearly 45+ miles from the nearest TV transmission tower (Sutro tower)
This prompted me to install it on top of the roof alongside with my Quantum 1162A and test it further. After conducting some tests I see that I am getting similar or better signal gain performance when compared to my Quantum 1162A when checked side by side.
Side note: Unlike what the manufacture claims, this antenna is somewhat 'directional' in fringe reception areas (Actually that is good in my opinion) you may have to point this antenna facing the towers for better signal strength. For extended tests, I left this Mohu SKY connected to my HTPC and ran some test OTA HDTV show recordings for past couple of days and I reviewed the recordings and did not find any loss of signals for the 72hour period. This tells me the Mohu Sky Antenna performs very well.
The Build Quality and construction is top notch. The Antenna is completely weather proof. Lightweight and will not topple in high winds. All the needed hardware is included in the package and the instructions are well written. Just make sure that you install the antenna as high as you possible can on your house roof or attic and point it in the direction of the TV towers in your area and you will be good to go.
Based on this experience I can safely recommend this Mohu SKY HDTV antenna to anyone who has plans to cut the cord from the greedy CableTV companies or merely to get stable 'high' quality free HDTV Local TV channels.
Kudos! to the designers of this amazing product - Full five stars from me! -
You can get this from Amazon by using the link below:
No comments:
Post a Comment