Customer Reviews

Philips MANT950 Indoor/Outdoor Amplified UHF/VHF/HDTV Antenna

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I installed this antenna for a friend on a existing roof mast. The range on the mant 950 is listed at 40 miles from transmitter tower. We are 50 miles from Chicago and this antenna pulled in every HD and anolog channel clear as a bell. I am buying one now!

I tried 6 different indoor antennas for digitial HD reception. A Phillips rabbit ear model worked pretty well out of all of them but I had to constantly adjust the ears for each channel to obtain optimal reception. I finally decided to get an exterior antenna but the homeowners association prohibits them mounted on the roof. All the satellite dishes are mounted on a post in the ground so I bought a post, mounted the antenna, pointed it, and voila! I now have 17 digital channels when I previously had only 5! I even picked up a couple analog channels from over 75 miles away. It is supposed to be multidirectional but aiming it helps. I used a nifty feature on the www.antennaweb.org website to determine the best direction. The antenna is mounted only five feet above the ground and dosen't look half bad although I have had a couple curious comments. The reception is better than a friends digital cable on the very same TV. Perhaps the other antennas would have worked good outside as well, but the rabbit ears would have continued to be a pain. From the research I have done, exterior mounting is the best way to go. BONUS! For kicks I hooked up my FM radio receiver to the same antenna and now I get more quality stereo stations than I need. Then I decided to add another spliter and hooked up a basement TV that I had relegated to DVD use only due to poor reception. The antenna powers all three devices with no noticable reduction in picture quality on the big screen. For less than $60 this is a must buy for a low profile outdoor antenna. Three friends have purchased it on my advice and have thanked me profusely for the suggestion.

I used this antenna because no other amplified would pull in all the channels in San Jose. It is very light, was able to wall mount using only two push pins, and brought in all the channels. Definitely buy if you live in a poor reception area.

This antenna works great. I can only assume those giving it a negative review didn't install it properly. I live 40 miles from most of the Dallas broadcast towers and I get all of my area's stations perfectly both on my HDTV with built in tuner and on my older TVs which use a digital converter box. What's more, I get 3 Texoma stations perfectly and their towers are about 65 miles away!

I'd recommend trying the antenna in at least 2-3 different locations and trying several different orientations at each location before making a final decision on where to install it though. I'd heard installing inside the attic reduced signal strength 30% and wanted to avoid it. So I initially tried mine outside on a pole beside my house and got good results - 34 channels (all the Dallas ones coming from the south). I had just about decided to tighten the screws and leave it there when, just for comparison purposes, I figured I'd try it inside the attic. Waddya know... 37 channels, 3 more than the outdoor location. From the attic, the antenna can now "see" north as well as south, thus the 3 extra channels coming all the way from Texoma. Lesson: ya never know. Don't just tack it to the wall and complain it doesn't work. You need to try it in a few different locations and face it different directions to find the best one.

BTW, I tried 2 other antennas before deciding on this one. The Philips MANT940 worked pretty good (33 channels) but I decided to upgrade to this one because I wanted something a little bigger along with the VHF capability. The other antenna was a brand that rhymes with Shadio Rack, also UHF only but didn't work as well as the MANT940.

I highly recommend this antenna.

Running a pcHDTV card on Linux - picked this antenna as it supports UHF & VHF. Before the antenna we received zero stations - with the antenna, we get 15 channels with the antenna mounted on the wall indoors. We live in a really wooded area many miles away from some of the stations. Works well.

I really enjoy this antenna, it is much less expensive than the super strong models, but works quite well. I am able to use it for reception on 2 tv's and I get recption for nbc, abc, cbs, fox, cw, pbs, rtn, and ion really well.

Considering where my barn is located, I was concerned I'd never get a decent signal. I just propted the antenna on top of a metal box (not having the time to install it properly), and surprise, surprise...I'm getting more stations than I started with! Just imagine how awesome it would be if installed properly.

I went out and bought this antenna after reading a few of the reviews. I live about 10 miles from the TV stations and have had some trouble with rabbit ears picking up all the DTV signals. I got this one home hooked it up and got every one of them but one. I changed the location and nailed them all on the next try. Signal strength is good and I even picked up some DTV stations I didn't know were out there. It's definately worth a shot. It is rather directional so you may have some trouble in that regard, but make sure you don't just hook it up in one spot then gripe that it doesn't work. You've got to find the best place for it.

I use this for all of the new digital channels coming in my area. We get 24 channels now and hope to see more as the digital switch deadline approaches. I have it stuck in my attic.

The basics:
~Located in a suburban area
~5 to 8 miles from multiple broadcast towers
~Towers located to the SE and SW
~Antenna mounted on a rooftop mast
~Several large brick buildings and many mature trees nearby

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I put up with this antenna for about 6 months before I finally replaced it with an Aspen Air Dtv2Buhf. This Phillips (which costs nearly 3 times as much) is EXTREMELY directional and since I live 5-8 miles away from 3 different broadcast towers, I never could get a good signal on the various channels.

In frustration, I bought the Eagle Aspen. I put that up on my rooftop mast, pointed it in the general direction of the different towers and came down to check the signal strength. I had "maxed out" HDTV signal on nearly ever one of the 2 dozen channels! I didn't have to screw around with rotating the antenna's direction and there was no signal amplifier/pad switches to mess with.

If you're 20+ miles from the broadcast towers, this Phillips antenna might work well for you. But if you're less than 10, I wouldn't even consider it.