Any way of improvong Car TV antenna reception?

BoyNextDoor · 10-30-2004, 08:51 PM

So i have this car tv antenna http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5714246448 in the backwindow. (pic coming tomorrow) ihave really crapy reception with it... does anyone have any idea on improving reception?

Thanx in advance for your help

Attila

BoyNextDoor · 10-30-2004, 09:40 PM

anyone?

BoyNextDoor · 11-01-2004, 07:02 PM

nobody?

good.

Don 944 LA · 11-01-2004, 07:13 PM

OH MAN !!!!! that sucks..
I just bought one of those from FRY's Electronics thinking it would work good...
so it's a piece of crap ???

mine does differ in one way, there is another small antenna that goes on the outside of the glass.

anyone else use one of these ????

Don

hijinks21 · 11-01-2004, 07:18 PM

ya those suck.. at least for reception while driving.. the only good one so i hear.. is one that like fits in the roof of your car. sorry i don't have a link .. i'll look

hd54321 · 11-01-2004, 07:19 PM

From what I heard, TV signals are not made for moving vehicles. You will almost always get a bad signal when you are driving. If you are stopped in a decent place, you will get a decent signal. There isn't a cheap way to get a good TV signal. I purchased one of those amplified antennas and I'm hoping it won't be terrible.

Some of the stand alone units employ a diversity antenna which is basically two antennas and the tuner automatically chooses which has better reception.

You would need a boomerang antenna (remember the 70's & 80's limos?) or one of those large KLH(?) globe antennas to get good reception.

Do a search and you will find a ton more info here.

-HD

Batmanatthenewb · 11-01-2004, 10:22 PM

Radio Shack has a nice (i believe 30db) booster. Its like $70, but does make a big difference. However, it is AC powered, so if you don't have an inverter, it won't work

Batman

Morgon · 11-02-2004, 07:15 AM

Since I'm nowhere near versed in this sort of thing, I'm curious:

Why wouldn't the normal external (radio) antenna work? I guess I always thought an antenna was an antenna was an antenna.. but it's outside, and usually fairly tall. I was thinking of maybe using the connection to it if I go for a computer radio, instead of buying another head unit (I have a Pontiac Sunbird, gonna end up ripping the dash out because of the non-standard-sized radio)..
Would the same not work for OTA TV signals?

BoyNextDoor · 11-02-2004, 07:22 AM

Thanks for all the responses ppl...

I was looking at a 10-15db amplifier from walmart that is $20. I have an inverter so that isn't a problem. (check out my install) i might just wait and gather some extra $$$...

bosstone74 · 11-02-2004, 03:49 PM

how bout this one...
http://www.rami.com/ram09.htm
sounds promising

or

http://www.salient-designs.com/RV74%20H-Antenna.htm

hd54321 · 11-02-2004, 03:58 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by bosstone74

how bout this one...
http://www.rami.com/ram09.htm
sounds promising

Yeah - that's nothing new. Do a google search for a headliner antenna. It's self-explanatory i guess - you install it in your headliner. I have a sunroof and didn't want to tear apart my headliner just to install this.

-HD

lifter · 11-20-2004, 09:30 PM

Has anyone tried to get digital TV reception, not analog, using an HDTV tuner card? I'm wondering if this would give better results.

BoyNextDoor · 11-20-2004, 09:35 PM

nice idea... there are some portable directtv "dishes" for the car, but way to expensive. bout 1300 or so. hdtv? don't really know. Do you guys think that a headliner antenna would be beter?

lifter · 11-20-2004, 09:48 PM

Satellite is totally impractical unless you have a VERY large truck or something- in which case there are special dishes meant for RVs. They're pretty cool. It's basically a dome with a movable dish inside of it. It uses GPS and a gyroscope to constantly point the dish at your specified coordinates and it will work with DirecTV or Dish Network. They cost somewhere in the thousands.

But for people with cars and normal sized trucks, this is totally impractical. Over-the-air digital TV however, is very practical if the reception on these car antennas is good enough.

Remember, you don't need a special antenna for over-the-air digital TV. It's just regular UHF. All you need is an HDTV tuner. Hauppauge and several others make them. Digitalconnection.com has quite a few. They're all PCI, except I know that one company makes a USB 2.0 tuner, which would be more suitable for most carputers. Here's the link:
http://www.usbhdtv.com/index.html

One thing to remember; decoding HDTV is similar to decoding DVDs (in fact regular MPEG2 decoders like WinDVD will work). Some of the more expensive PCI tuners have built in hardware decoding, but a USB model will surely require software decoding. While SD broadcasts should be fine, I'm not sure if these 1ghz EPIA systems people are using can handle HD broadcasts. FYI, most programs that were originally shot on film such as hour-long dramas like CSI, as well as movies and many sports, will be in HD. So unless you want shwag-only TV, a faster computer might be needed. Hopefully somebody will try it out.

frodobaggins · 11-21-2004, 12:55 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by BoyNextDoor

nice idea... there are some portable directtv "dishes" for the car, but way to expensive. bout 1300 or so. hdtv? don't really know. Do you guys think that a headliner antenna would be beter?

1300 won't even come close. Try 3000+