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Original thread:
Post 1 made on Monday December 5, 2011 at 14:24
purtypitcher
Lurking Member
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December 2011
5
Recently had a new Panasonic TC-P50S30 plasma delivered. My over the air reception is terrible with it, and that's what I wanted it for. It is replacing a 30 year old 27" TV with a Digital Stream converter box that has great reception of all local channels.
 
The Panasonic only gets four of the six local channels, and only one is good, the others, iffy. If I move my (indoor) antenna around, I can usually get these four to work, but I have to move the antenna each time I change the channel. It is a small Philips omni-directional antenna, I don't have the model number handy, it is not powered. All six channels are UHF true frequency.
 
If the signal strength meter on the Panasonic shows 80% I will get a choppy picture. If the signal strength meter shows 85% the picture is "mostly" fine with almost no glitches. 90% or above- totally glitch free. If the signal is 75 or below, I get nothing but digital junk, or it goes to black. The four channels that I can receive have varied all around those numbers in my testing. The other two local channels show no signal at all when I tune to their channel.

I am less than four LOS miles from three of the towers, NBC, CBS, ABC affiliates. CBS scores 70-80% on the TV's meter but I only get pixel junk. According to TV Fool, this one should be my strongest signal. ABC shows 90-100 on the meter and is great. NBC runs around 80-85 and has numerous pixel hiccups.

TV Fool shows five of the six local channels in their "green" (easiest to receive) category based on my location information. The sixth one is actually 46 miles away (so actually not local), and is rated "yellow", but the old TV/converter box gets it fine with the Philips indoor antenna.

I'm perfectly willing to look at better antennas, but I'm wondering about those signal strengths on the Panasonic meter. It seems to me that a 70% or above meter reading ought to be plenty to get over the cliff. It seems to me that a CBS affiliate at 3.3 miles from my house ought to come in fine with a coathanger and aluminum foil. The cheapo digital-analog converter works fine with my old TV on all channels with no antenna adjustment, even the one that is 46 miles away.

I've got an email into Panasonic but was hoping to get some expert opinions here as well. Thanks.


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