Customer Reviews

Philips MANT940 UHF Digital and Analog Indoor/Outdoor Antenna

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

If you subscribe to satellite or cable you may be surprised to learn that in many area, over-the-air digital TV offers better picture quality and may offer some unique channels not found on your cable system. But getting great over-the-air TV requires a good antenna. Over the years I've tried the following:
-Traditional roof antenna with rotor: Works great but antenna must be turned to get stations in different directions.
-Simple indoor bow-tie or loop antennas: Very cheap to buy, but only pick up the strongest channels. Very prone to interference that can cause picture freezing and break-up.
-Indoor rabbit ears with UHF: a little better than the cheapies, but still difficult to adjust and prone to interference.
-Radio Shack Double Bow-Tie antenna: This one is no longer available, but it is legendary. It looks like a gold screen on legs, with two gold bow-ties mounted in the front. (Very '50's in appearance.) This is a very good indoor UHF antenna (and all the digital/HD channels in my area are UHF.) It provides good, stable reception on most of my local channels, but sometimes has problems with the handful that are in a different direction. It's not a very pretty antenna, but at about $16 it was pretty cheap.
Recently I got a new TV for the bedroom and after looking around, I decided to give the Philips MANT940 a try. It fit my criteria:
-Relatively inexpensive (I paid just under $40).
-Small and unobtrusive
-Can be used indoors or out.
-Got mostly good reviews from consumers in online reviews.
I put the antenna on the top shelf of the bedroom closet. The included 20 cable was plenty long enough to reach the TV.
So far I'm very pleased. This is the best antenna I've used so far. All of my local stations come in clear and stable without making any adjustments to the position of the antenna. I'm even getting a station from the next town over that previously only came in with a broken signal. I'm very pleased and would recommend this antenna to anyone living within 20-to-30 miles from the TV stations they want to receive. I'm not sure how well it would work at greater distances.

I have tried five or six compact antennas that can be used indoors, as I live in an apartment. The best performing of those models (a very basic UNpowered Philips model)could get four of the six strong stations in my town, and none of the four or five weaker stations. And, getting those stations required moving the "rabbit ears" back and forth whenever the signal went out.

This model was designed for OUTDOOR use, but I simply placed it on a window sill that faces in the direction of the six major stations in my community. After moving it left and right a few inches, I found a location on the window sill that locked in an absolutely perfect signal on all six of the strong stations and on two weak stations I had never been able to get before.

How good is the resulting picture? It is the sharpest, clearest picture I've ever seen on any TV, far sharper than the picture provided by cable television service. Because each channel offers multiple "sub-channels" (two, three or four programs per channel), the eight stations I am getting are showing a total of about sixteen programs at any given time.

So, for $50, I get a choice of sixteen programs with an ultra-clear digital picture without having to pay one dime to the cable company. People who have never seen a TV program from an "over the air" digital signal are always shocked by the quality of the picture...just amazingly sharp with zero ghosting or noise.

The included cable is short, but it works well, as my TV is just six feet from the window where the antenna is placed. To use the antenna mounted outdoors on a wall, as the directions suggest, would require buying an additional length of cable.

To use just ONE antenna with multiple televisions would require using a splitter and running cables from that splitter to each TV, which might weaken the quality of the signal.

I'm guessing that putting the antenna outdoors, high on an outside wall facing the broadcasting towers might bring in a few more of the weaker stations.

I purchased this for my sons' TV in his apartment. I tried it on my set first, because I was curious to see how it would perform against my DB8 Multi-Directional HDTV Antenna. I put it on my main set and did not mount or took the antenna outdoors. It perform great for just being in the house and not on a long cable run. On my other antenna I cannot receive my local PBS channels well due to where I live, but this unit brought it in well when I found the right spot in the house. I am curious now to see how well it will perform mounted on a mast outdoors.
Now in my sons' apartment I mounted the antenna on a speaker floor stand. It performed well and was able to find 7 digital and 5 analog after trying several places in the room.
I do recommend this antenna. Works well in an indoors setting, but keep in mind that where and how far from the stations transmitters you live will affect the receiving abilities from any antenna. If you are mounting in or outdoors with a long cable run, be sure to install a cable like RG6 or better.

UPDATE 8-13-08 - I had to return this unit. Stopped working. It would bring in channels then lose them again. Mounted outdoors also with no luck. Work great for a little while, but not a long term item.

Right off the bat, I'll tell you: this is the BEST antenna I've ever used! It's outstanding performance may result from being hooked up to the DTV converter box, my location and however close I may be to my local towers. So I`m not sure how the MANT940 works on its own. If you're interested, read further, and I'll give you the details of my experience with this antenna.

When I became totally disgusted with the ever-increasing cost of cable-tv, about 4 months ago, I decided to discontinue my service-- wish I'd done it sooner. I spent a couple of months prior searching the internet for online tv-viewing options-- found plenty.* While I didn't really miss having cable (except for a couple of shows that I had not been able find online), I did miss my local news shows. I was aware that February 09 would be the big switch-over, and knew I was not going to replace perfectly good (analog) TVs if I didn't have to. So, I ordered my converter box coupons from dtv2009.gov, and lived absolutely tv-free for a couple of months, perfectly content with online-viewing and my collection of VHS/DVD media. I even discovered that one of the local stations streamed live, daily. TV-life was great.

Finally, the "gu-ment" coupons, for $40 off, arrived, and I purchased my converter boxes. Well, I wasn't going to wait nine months to test them out, so I hooked up one. The converter box requires some type of antenna, so I dusted off a cheap pair of rabbit ears that I bought just to have on hand. To my surprise, my TV was picking up several HD channels. That started me to thinking, if the cheap rabbit ears were pulling in several channels pretty good, but the constant adjusting and repositioning of the antenna was getting old quick.

I began researching my antenna options. I live in an apartment, so I would need an indoor antenna. Initially, I was going to buy the regular type with dipoles/UHF loop. There were so many to choose from, in varying price ranges. The plan was to order one for every TV-- but which one. I didn't want a cheap one-- had that already-- but I didn't want to spend a small fortune. Still seething from my anti-cable tirades, and feeling that television is not as serious (and neither should it be as costly), the idea of dipoles and loops in every room seemed less-and-less compatible with my décor.

I waded through customer reviews-- I toggling back and forth between websites-- amazed at how the results of the same antenna ran the gamut from "outstanding" to "crap." I tried to make sense of the mumbo-jumbo on antennaweb.org. Was I in a red, blue, green, or yellow, or the psychedelic zone? Some looked like space ships, bowties, fish bones-- OMG!!! Then, somewhere in all of my searching, I came across the moderately priced Philips MANT940. Well, well-- could this be it? What if it doesn't work? What if it works as well as one guy claimed? Whew-- this was exhausting! This is television, not brain surgery, right? Too weak to read another review, wrong or right, MANT940 it is.

By now I'm hyped, with my brain in overdrive, then I suddenly channel an idea, no less than brilliant, from perhaps the outer realms of the Universe. I remembered that although I had discontinued my cable service, the main cable line leading from the outside to the inside of my apartment was still attached to a splitter (I think is called) in my linen closet, that was connected to every TV in my apartment. What if I disconnected the incoming line, and replaced it with the line from the MANT940? Could/Would this (then) $35 antenna pull in a signal strong enough to service my entire apartment? There had been much discussion in the reviews about the accompanying Philips cable not being a very good one. Would this work?

SWEET SUCCESS: I replaced my incoming cable line with the cable MANT940, leading to all my Tvs, connecting the cable extension lines to the dtv converter box, and the box to the TVs, and voila! I mounted the antenna to the wall, but quickly discovered I need the freedom of being able to move it around (if necessary). For now, it's working perfectly well just laying on top of the bookcase next to the television-- barely noticeable-- pulling in 15 area channels. My hope is that it will pick up even more after the Feb 09 kick-off. Plus, if I ever move to a location where an outside antenna is feasible, then I'll be good-to-go. If it works this well indoors, I can't imagine how well it would work if installed outdoors.

*NOTE: For those looking for FREE online-TV check out the websites of all major TV networks. Most offer replays of full-episodes of many shows.

SIX-MONTH UPDATE (Dec. 26, 2008): Antenna still working GREAT! Matter of fact, the closer we get to the conversion date, the more channels are starting to come in. Also, tvlisting.aol.com has already made the broadcast scheduling adjustments (for my area). Suspending my cable service was one of the best decisions I made in 2008.

THREE-YEAR UPDATE (July 8, 2011): Antenna still working GREAT! Long past the coversion of 2009, and very happy with the antenna's performance. Two days ago, began using the antenna with the Haire Digital LCD TV (Model HLT71), and getting great reception from the Philips MANT940. This antenna is still one of the best buys I have ever made. It has long since paid for itself.

I recently canceled my satellite subscription and with the digital TV age upon us ventured out to buy conversion boxes for my old TV so I could receive over the air transmissions. I connected 2 old sets of rabbit ears to my two TVs. One a newer HD TV.

I must preface my review with the fact that I live in the mountains of Western Pa. 40+ miles from all but one TV station which made good reception on a TV a challenge. Using the rabbit ears, the HD picture was great when I could receive a signal. On my old TV the picture was good, but again only when I had decent reception. I was able to pull in about 12 TV stations from the area.

I saw one of the RCA flat TV antennas in Walmart and bought that. I was now able to receive 14 stations, but again half of them on a not so regular basis. It was an improvement, but I wasn't satisfied.

I bought a new plasma HD TV for the bedroom and decided that I was going to look at outdoor antennas to see if I might improve my reception. After looking at the variety and reading the customer reviews on Amazon, I figured I would experiment with something inexpensive before investing in something that cost alot. So my choice was the Philips MANT940.

I figured if it didn't work outside, I could use it on my old TV indoors with a converter box, now relegated to my work room. I figured it had to be an improvement to rabbit ears at the very least.

So with my new Phillips MANT940 in hand, having read the customer reviews on Amazon and the directions that came with the antenna, up I went to the roof. I disconnected the satellite dish. attached the Phillips to the mast that the dish was on, and connected it to the cable that ran to my main HD TV in the living room.

I completed the station search on the TV and now receive 32 TV stations, from Pittsburgh, Altoona, West Viginia and Ohio. I must confess, 6 of them don't always come in perfectly, but still what a huge improvement. I found that by mounting the antenna sideways, I picked up more stations and less interference.

I then split the incoming cable from the antenna outside and ran a line to the bedroom TV. (Make sure you follow the directions that come with the antenna.) and again WOW. The HD picture is fantastic and on 24 of the stations the picture and signal is constant.

I expected some improvement, but not the improvement that actually occured. Now I do not plan to purchase one of those large outside antennas, as I doubt it wouldn't be any better. I am receiving more stations than one would expect where I live. I still can't beleive this small antenna can do such a big job.

I highly recommend this product.

Wow, this is a great antenna and believe I have been comparing between another three from Channel Master. I live in a first-floor appartment in north San Jose and this antenna receives more quality channels than any other I compared even it is NOT on the roof.

-Channel Master 4221
-Channel Master 3010A
-Channel Master 4220M

This little baby was able to catch a signal 35.9 miles far away (distance based on http://antennaweb.org).

This antenna did a fine job of bringing in the local digital broadcast channels expected using a "Yellow-UHF" antenna-type as per the Tytan-TV reference charts and the antenna sites that use their data. It picked up all 6 channels listed within 13 miles (at 180 degree opposite broadcast directions). It could not pull in a channel broadcast from 21 miles away, which I didn't expect anyway. It found one additional channel and increased the signal strength about 10% (not noticeable to me, only the built-in meter of my converter) once I moved it outside and hoisted it 5ft above my roof-line. As a side note, this antenna significantly increased the quality of my local analog broadcasts as well over the VHF/UHF combo antenna (set-top) I had been using (which is only useful information for another 7 months, but I thought I'd mention it). The kit comes with 20ft of RG9 cable for the antenna as well as wall & mast mount solutions, which makes this a good deal in the $40 range.

In late 2009 or 2010, Philips replaced this antenna with a newer redesignated model SDV2940/27. I purchase one at Walmart wondering if the newer model was better. It isn't. It's the same antenna with just a shorter one year warranty, instead of the Limited Lifetime Warranty for the MANT940. It's going back. If you can get both, I'd opt for the MANT940. Amazingly, it usually sells for less on Amazon.com.

I've always had a large multi-element TV antenna on the roof with of my own house with a powered amplifier. And, I've always recommended and installed them for my customers.

I've seen them in WalMart and RadioShack. Over the past 45 years, I've NEVER found them to be that good or even JUST adequate. I've wasted my money on them time and time again over the years, hoping that I would find a good one.

On a whim, I purchased this Philips MANT940 off of Amazon.com.

[...].

I hooked it up, when I got it in August 2009. It worked OK inside the second floor bonus room. But, I was not really impressed. So, I put it on the shelf.

A couple of days, ago, I had to take the big antenna off of the roof, because the roofers were coming next week to replace it due to hail damage covered by my homeowner's insurance.

So, I decided to set up the Philips antenna in the attic for temporary use.

I kwew that the signal was going to be degraded inside the attic. On that account I looked and found the octogonal gable vent on the side of the attic facing the direction of the majority of my signals. So, I fastened a 1x2 crossbar to the vertical 2x4 that always runs vertical everywhere these vents are installed. Using two long wire ties, the antenna is now permanently attached. Since the screen is fiberglass and the vents are made of thin vacuum formed vinyl sheeting, I kwew that the material was transparent to TV signals. Placing it in that location actually enhanced the antenna's performance, since multipaths are reduced, as they have to travel through the roof deck and wood sheathing.

To my amazement, this little gem received every channel I got with the big amplified behemouth that was outside on the roof and two more from Charlotte, NC, some 60 miles or more away. I even got a very strong good signal on my local CBS affiliate which went back to its original Channel 7 VHF actual frequency. This is supposed to be a UHF only antenna.

Now, I am impressed. In the attic, I'll not have to install masts, grounding wires or worry about weather damage. Customers would be thrilled with these, since they work almost as good as the outdoor ones.

Today, I spent a couple of hours taking down the ground wire and other remnants of the outside install. I'm sold on these NEW "Micro" amplified antennas.

Maybe it's not for multidirectional locations, but this appears to be an easy to install inexpensive option.

Although I live in New York City, I am behind a series of tall hills, all higher than 250 feet, so signal strength is generally poor here. I compared this unit to a "4 bay" antenna, and found it to be very superior. I am using approximately 125 feet of coax, with no issues. NOTE-- This antenna, since it is flat, does have a "figure 8" pattern of sensitivity. The flat sides are not as sensitive, aim the narrow side to the station. NY City has a total of 52 TV stations, but that is over a 190 degree arc. I have found that a rotor allows me the full spectrum of UHF stations. A bonus for me is it's small size. I live right off the ocean, so large antennas blow down or get damaged. Since this unit is only 1 foot high and some 4 inches deep by 2 inches wide, the wind is not causing me issues, which means that if you need to put this high to get a clear picture, it isn't a large heavy antenna which would require a tower. Regular pipe would do well for 10 feet unless you use a rotor, for higher add guy wires. 4 and 8 bay antennas act like kites or sails in high wind, and since this unit is much smaller, it doesn't provide as much surface to the wind.

I bought this antenna before I did any real research on the subject of getting HDTV over the air. Now, a little while later and a whole lot of time on the internet, I have a learned a few things (Please note I am not a guru when it comes to the subject of antennas and all the tech-talk that goes with them. This review is simply of my experience with this antenna as I have tried to maximise my OTA signal).

1. Make sure you know your needs before you buy this antenna, or any antenna for that matter. In my area, 3 of the 4 major networks are broadcast in UHF. NBC, however, is in VHF, on chanel 3. Because of this, I am not able to get NBC. A dual band, UHF/VHF antenna is needed.

2. This antenna is labled as indoor/outdoor. I tried indoors, and it didn't work. Once I took it outside, though, I now get ABC, CBS and FOX in crystal clear HD. Signal strength is 90% or more for all three stations.

3. Its important to know where your transmitter is located. For me I was able to get this information from [...]. Armed with this information and a compas and I was able to aim this antenna in the right direction. Line of sight is really important, and fortunately I am able to pretty much line it right up with very little margin of error.

While i still don't get all the tech-talk that goes along with these things, I do know this antenna works, outside, and although I was disappointed with it at first, I now know its limitations and see that it works reasonably well for what it is supposed to do.