Terk antennas - yay or nay?
 

Terk has a dish mount antenna for satellite TV that costs $50. It seems like a really good deal. I could get the local channels for free, plus if I get an HD reciever I can get the local channels in HD. The antenna is suppose to mount onto the dish, but I'm not sure whether its suppose to be connected to the reciever or not.

I remember awhile back in one thread(forgot which one) that someone was saying to stay away from Terk antennas. Does anyone else feel this way, and why?

I have no personal experience with Terk, but the general concensus at avsforum is that Terk is the Bose of antennas - the products are decent enough but overpriced.

Terk got this rep b/c of so many posts about how their $50 antennas worked worse than real cheapies like Rat Shack. It might be worth it to do some research to see if a more reputable company like Channelmaster or Wineguard makes a similar dish-mount antenna. It might be cheaper and better, making it an obviously better deal!

Radioshack has a dish-mount antenna for the exact same price. It looks nearly identical too.

I actually bought one of these thinking that I wouldn't have to have an unsightly set of rabbit ears on top of my set. Problem is, the Terk antenna actually made the picture WORSE. It was sent back the very next day. I have heard from others that it does improve the picture, but this was definitely not the case for me.

The best picture I got was from a $10 pair of RCA rabbit ears. Looks like poo, but at least I can see the local news...

We only sell Terk antennas....and they work great. If people experience troubles, its most likely from a powered antenna...which either work 100%, or make your picture worse. Its hit-or-miss with powered antennas....for instance, it made my reception worse.

I was gonna buy the Terk 55 (the long bar looking thing) to get OTA reception of the local digital channels. But everywhere i read, it was a general consensus that they don't work too well with OTA HD.

I tested out the HD antenna from radio shack (15-1890) and the Zenith Silver Sensor.

Silver Sensor hands down. Plus it was cheaper to boot. (39.99 vs 49.99)

Now that is only for Internal Antenna. For external ones, you should be looking into some channel master or wenngard Antenna's. I know some communities in CA won't allow much on their home (*cough irvine *cough) in that case, you might be stuck with an indoor.

anyways, I can now get all the major stations in HD and the public loop channels.

Also, regarding where to hook it up. If you have Direct TV, you would hook the Antenna to the receiver (because the receiver does the decoding of the HD signal)....but you must have the HD sat receiver.

If you have dish, you need to buy the 8VSB module (99.00) and then connect the antenna to that portion to receive HD.

good luck!

I just called Radioshack and they have the double bowtie antenna for $20. I'll try that one.

I'll also try the Silver Sensor if the double bowtie doesn't work well.

Has anyone here tried the dishmount antennas?

Yes. See my post above.

Looks really cool, easy top install, and in a perfect world, it would be a wonderful option. Unfortunately, it made ALL of my local channels look worse...

I guess rooftop antenna is the way to go. No worrying about reception because from what I hear the reception on rooftop antennas is so good that you can get channels from San Diego if you are in LA.

I tried a Terk powered antenna on my RPTV and it sucked. I tried it on my tube TV and it worked much better--the problem was it did an excellent job of bringing in several San Diego stations...but I live in the Long Beach (Los Angeles) area.