Customer Reviews

Philips MANT-410 Amplified Indoor Antenna

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

So far, so good. First the background:
I live in downtown Dallas, on the 6th floor of an 11 story apartment building with concrete/brick walls, and only two windows in my apartment. I have a Plasma HDTV, and my cable is horrible, with very bad reception, caused by thousands of feet of cable, snaked throughout my building. As far as stations in my area, FOX and ABC are in the downtown area (ABC is about 5 blocks away from me, FOX about 15 blocks), and NBC is a little further, while CBS is the furthest at around 30 miles away. I purchased the antenna in hopes of receiving over-the-air HD signals from these major stations.

I was not expecting much from this $25 antenna, especially since it would be placed inside my building, and the majority of folks on-line seem to think that indoor antennas are a waste of money. But, upon plugging it in, and having my TV search for the channels, I was AMAZED at the quality of reception that this thing brings in. The picture quality is amazing, and oddly enough, the best station that I get is CBS, which is transmitting from the furthest distance. Not only do I get the 4 MAJOR networks (CBS, ABC, FOX, and NBC) but I also get UPN, WB, PBS, and an abundance of Spanish language and religious programming, all in either HD, or high quality Digital Transmission.

Watching sports and quality shows on television is the reason that you get an HD television. This antenna works very well for me. However, be forewarned: this antenna will not work for everyone who buys it. I recommend purchasing from a retailer that will allow for an exchange or return without penalty (i.e. restocking fees, or shipping charges). Also, I have yet to use my antenna during bad weather, so I have yet to see if the signals will fail during storms, or hold up. I am not expecting every station to come through during a storm, but hoping for the best.

So, that being said, here is why I find this product Good, but misleading. The product comes with a "Built-in selector switch makes it easy to change between antenna reception and alternate video sources" which I took to mean that I could switch between the antenna reception and my regular cable source, with no problems. This is not possible, as if you plug the cable source in, it cancels all antenna reception. I am not sure if this is supposed to happen or not. If not, then I have a defective antenna. If it is supposed to happen, then I am not sure what the purpose of the switch is. Maybe it's to switch between a VCR and antenna, so that you don't have to run your antenna through your VCR, but the switch does not work with my cable.

There are other ways to get around having two separate video sources (antenna and cable) that you need to get to your TV. If your television has picture in picture, with dual tuner, then you can plug your cable into one, and your antenna into the other. Or, you can run your cable through your VCR, plug the VCR into an AV jack on your television, and change channels via your VCR.

Anyway, the MANT410 is capable of great reception, and it works beautifully for me. Good luck.

I got mine at Walmart for $19.00. It works very well with HD and analog signals. I found that some stations work better with the unit turned off. Channel 6 freaks out with the power on, but comes in clear with the power off.
I live under 10 miles from the local tv stations. So, I cannot say how well it would work if you lived a greater distance away.
Price verses performance makes this a winner. I had a Terk antenna that clips on the Direct TV dish that was a piece of junk, and cost well over $100.00. It was returned after a week due to its POOR performance. On the other hand, This unit is way much better!
The Good: Compact
Cheap
Easier to install than a clip on Satelite antenna
Works better than a clip on Satelite antenna
The Bad: Nothing
I think most people would be pleased with this product.

Let me qualify this review by first saying I am only using this antenna for HDTV, so I can't say anything useful about analog reception. What I can say about this antenna, is that it works well for me. After literally trying 6 (and returning 5) antennas, I am convinced that the percieved quality of the antenna has less to do with the antenna itself than with your individual situation/location. I'm sure all the antennas I returned work perfectly well, just not for my very specific location, so beware of any reviews that say 'this antenna is crap', because you need to try for yourself to be sure. This amplified antenna did slightly better than a standard rabbit ears I tried. Both could pull in every station within about 30 miles, but the amped antenna gave me a much more connsistent signal strength, with less drop-out, and no further per-station tweaking required once i got it situated in a good position. A word of warning, it does need to be turned on to work properly (and to use the very convenient a/b switch), so if you had plans to try it unpowered, think again. Also, out of all the antennas I tried, this was the only one that could even begin to lock on my more distant ABC station. The lock is far from solid, and is only watchable on rare occasions, but this antenna was the only one I tried that could even detect ABC was out there, so I think that says something too.

For the price it does a good job. I had more problems working with my TV getting
digital channels programmed in than I did working with the antenna. Out of 5
different stations within 30 miles of my house (based on data from antennaweb.org)
this antenna brought in 3 of them. There is still one more station I would really like
to get so I may try some other antenna's. I had tried to program the stations in
by hand for my TV but it didn't work until I let the TV do an autosearch. After that
it brought in 7 different digital channels (some stations have multiple channels).

In summary, if your looking to bring in stations from far away then this antenna
might not be for you. Otherwise it works good enough.

I tried PHDTV1 and PHDTV3 from Phillips, with average quality. However, when I tried MANT 410, the quality of HDTV channels were so crips and amazing that I am loving my TV more than ever. I cannot wait for the football season to begin.

NBA games look as if I am in the arena...simply WOW!

Note: The quality is so clear that some of the programs (ABC, NBC, CBS) show close up of women (for certain shows) and you could see makeup as well as yellow/white teeth (one doesn't have to look closer)...go figure now

I usually watch HD cable, but need to pick up some local over the air UHF digital channels. I have a Terk HDTVa antenna on one of my TVs that works pretty well, but needed another one that had a slightly more compact footprint. That is one of the reasons I decided to purchase the Philips MANT-410. The MANT-410 also had a built-in 45db amplifier, one of the stronger amplifiers available that comes with an antenna. After installing, the reception was pretty bad and I found out the amplifier was basically useless. I actually loss TV reception of UHF channels that I could receive when it was turned on and adjusting the gain levels didn't help. One of the rabbit ears also broke off at the base just above the swivel.

My old rabbit ears gave me more reception than this piece of junk. I could not get any channels at all after hooking the Philips MANT 400 to my TV.
Had to go back to the rabbit ears. I wasted money on this product. If your smart you won't buy.

I live in PA, 4 miles north of the West VA border, yet I'm able to pick up 12 Pittsburgh channels - likely over 60 miles away - plus 2 Morgantown, WV PBS channels with this antenna. Took a lot of fiddling - moving the TV a few inches and moving/adjusting the antenna - to get each of those 14 channels (17 counting duplicates)without additional antenna adjustments. Initially I was using it with an '80s Fisher TV and an RCA digital to analog converter. The sound had some mild static on some channels but now that I have a digital TV, the sound is as amazing as the cable-like picture. Would give it 5 stars if not for all those initial adjustments.

Unfortunately, product is an older version of model currently owned. In hindsight, would have checked on model year or initial year purchased. Turns out to be an average performer. No way compares to model version currently owned which was reason for second purchase. More of a good thing it turned out not to be.

If you live on the plains, as we do, you will be very happy with this item. We get good reception from up to 60 miles away. Consistently, it's 50+ miles. However, nothing can overcome thunderstorms; and, 70 mph winds make outside antennas untennable (meaning twisted and squished). Good solution for us.