Customer Reviews

Philips SDV2710/27 Passive Enhanced Digital Performance Antenna

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've gone through a mess of indoor antennas, including some amplified models that cost as much as $100, this was the best of the breed (including the famous "silver sensor.") With it's rabbit ears it can do VHF, which many "hi def" antennas don't do.

In my experience, with digital TV, amplification is only for when you have long cable runs (if you install antenna in attic) or if you have splitters which weaken signal. If you don't get a good digital signal it doesn't matter whether you amplify it or not...it will still break up.

During the digital transition, most stations transmitted their digital on UHF. However, now some are switching back to VHF, as is the case in our area with WJBK. Make sure you get an antenna that supports both UHF and VHF if needed.

Step one, when buying and setting up any antenna is to check for your stations @ antennaweb dot org and tvfool dot com. Antennas are directional. Use the websites to determine where your towers are and face the antenna appropriately (unfolded flat side facing towers.) There is actually an ideal tuned antenna length for VHF. For my area the rabbit ears work best about 1/3rd extended and facing 180 degrees apart.

We pick up all the stations rated Yellow on antennaweb with this antenna. This was the only antenna I tested that did this consistently. Others were too directional so they had to be turned back and forth or they broke up on some stations and still others didn't pick up VHF at all.

The only negative I have for this antenna is that it does not sit up when unfolded flat. We had to support it against a wall in one case, and a cabinet, in another.

Here in the Cleveland metro area/burbs, I needed an inexpensive and compact, but still decent VHF/UHF antenna for my small HDTV kitchen set. I tried all kinds of antennas, including 'rabbit ears' and even some more expensive 'powered' antennas. Imagine my surprise when I hooked up this small PHILIPS, and pulled in 27 digital HD TV stations! Previously, I could not pull in the NBC and FOX affiliate, whereas now I can easily. Even the PBS station (that is split up into several sub-channels) comes in perfectly, with no signal dropouts. The key to success with ANY of these antennas is to try several different positions (position the unit in various different physical spots) with the unit itself, and with the telescoping elements. Then try your HDTV's 'automatic channel scan' a few times, and take note which position enables you to receive the most stations, and with the strongest reception. All in all, considering the low price, and the performance, this small HDTV antenna is a GREAT choice!

I bought this antenna to replace an older analog antenna on a TV in the master bath, not connected to cable. The reception in that room had never been clear, always showing some fuzziness, but with this antenna we immediately got an analog picture as clear as when this little flat screen TV was temporarily connected to cable in another room. Since then we have added a digital converter box, and now the TV picks up about four times as many channels as before, and most have a cable-quality picture. We are very happy with it.

I've tried 3 different antennas on my TV. First was an antenna from the dollar store. I thought I could do better, so I then bought a $9.95 RCA branded antenna from Best Buy. Still wanting more, I bought this Philips model. Bottom line: they all perform about the same. I think I got one more channel on the Philips than the others, but because radio waves are fickle, I can't always get a picture when tuned to that channel anyway. Since the antennas don't have any moving parts, I really wonder how different they could perform from each other.

Antenna placement within your dwelling is much more important than the brand or model of antenna that you use. Lesson learned: place the antenna in a window if possible for the best reception. I put my antenna in the bedroom window, and used a 15 foot coax cable to connect it to the TV.

The Philips antenna looks more attractive, so if aesthetics are important to you, you can get this one. However, you can get an antenna that works the same for only a dollar.

When digital TV became the "norm" I thought I had it made with my small rabbit ears. Although not all of the channels came through I could pick up the one I really wanted to see. My small digital TV was in our office and I only watched a couple of shows on it. Somehow the stations changed their signals and only one station came through -- not the one I really wanted to watch, of course.

I saw the Philips antenna on the Internet and decided it might do the job for me. We are about 17 miles from the towers (no hills or tall buildings in the way) and since most of the reviews were positive I put in an order. There is no comparison. I can get all of the major local stations and the picture quality is great. I would totally recommend it to anyone having picture breakup. Don't know what happened to the one person who had the negative review...maybe they have a bad TV or got a bad antenna. I'm happy!

August, 2010
While my daughter waited for her cable to be transferred over to another company I loaned her the antenna. She had just bought a new HDTV set and didn't expect much. Her reception was great - the HDTV picture came through sharp and clear - almost better than the picture she got with the cable company.

I am new to the whole OTA digital TV and wanted an antenna that needed little setup. I found this antenna at a local retail store and read the reviews here on Amazon for it, and decided this was the antenna for me.

I chose this antenna because:
-Very easy setup.
-Great reviews.
-Very reasonable price.
-Very easy to replace.
-Very compact

After unboxing the unit, I simply attached the supplied coax cable to my TV, which has a built in digital tuner, and ran the channel search function. To my surprise, I was able to connect to 30 channels. This was more than enough to make me decide to keep this unit. After scrolling through the channels, almost every channel came in crystal clear. I live just outside Orlando, FL.

Although this is the first antenna I have ever owned, it will probably be the only as I am perfectly happy with the amount of channels I am able to receive.

It pays to do the research and figure out what type of antenna will work in your area. A good way to figure out what antenna you need is to log onto [...].

Can't find anything worng with this product. The signal strength is very high, but then I'm only 10 miles from the transmitters. I picked one up at Wal-mart to try and it works great. Also matched my Plazma TV. I will order additional units here at Amazon.

This is a comparison of the SDV5122/27 (amplified) vs SDV2710/27 (passive and shown on this page) Philips antenna.

The amplified SDV5122/27 (means you have to plug into a 120V outlet) is not much better, if at all better than the passive (no power required) Philips SDV2710/27 antenna.

Comparison - same location (in a window), same TV, same day (15 min of each other),clear weather

Location - about 21 miles from transmitters, first floor window facing transmitters.

Function -

For UHF signals/stations, the SDV5122/27 is slightly better and pulls in a few more stations, but the SDV2710/27 pulls in all the major stations, just not a few fringe stations.

For VHF signals/stations, Actually, the single dipole (the stick antenna part used for some VHF channels, such as ABC in my area)on the SDV5122/27 is a disadvantage for this unit, requiring lots of tweaking to get some sort of picture, but still not good enough to be free of image issues. Holding the end of the dipole antenna gives you a great picture though :(

(go to [...] to see which stations in your area use VHF and UHF)

Appearance - the SDV5122/27 is the winner here, looking more sophisticated and compact, with a better stand. In both cases, the dipole antenna(s) have to be extended, which are not shown in the photos, adding a few feet to the height of the antennas.

Connection - both have a 6ft antenna cable, however, for the SDV5122/27 it is removable, making it easy to buy a longer cable to put it near a window. With the SDV2710/27 the antenna cable is permanently connected to the unit, so you need an adapter to add extra length (and looses some signal with the adapter addition)

Energy use - the SDV2710/27 is passive, meaning that there is no energy use, so it's use if free after your purchase price. The SDV5122/27 however, is amplified, which means it has a power adapter (white with white cord) that you have to plug into a 120V outlet for it to work. Power draw is only given in amps (0.2A)but if you do a rough calculation, that means it uses 24Watts, plus you have to plug it in and unplug it if you want to save energy. It is energy level V, which is the energy star level, however, that only applies to when the product the transformer is powering is "off" and since the antenna never turns off, the transformer is always supplying full power (even if the TV is off)to the Antenna

Stand - the SDV5122/27 has a better stand, the SDV2710/27 is not bad, but you have to either extend the foot on the bottom (if you do not know it is there, you will never see it, it folds out) or shape the antenna like a V to hold it up.

Price - when I bought the SDV2710/27 it was about $10 less than the SDV5122/27, but now the SDV5122/27 is less. (you can go to the manufacturer's site for a lower price on the SDV2710/27)


Other notes -

Digital Antenna are not as easy to use as the old analog ones, and what is good for one person may not work in your application due to distance from transmitters, tall buildings, tall trees, direction that your antenna faces, and if you have aluminum siding or not (aluminum siding can block signals from reaching the indoor antenna).

My experience with these two antenna and an old rabbit ears that I have is that the best location is right in front of a window, anywhere else it is hit or miss and hard to get all stations without having to move the antenna around.

Purchased this model due to high ratings and good pricing. We are indeed on the fringe of TV reception in our rural location and haven't had much success with indoor antennas. This one was no better than the other makes and models we've tried. Product may be OK for locations with better signal, but we'll never know. Bottom line - if you have bad reception with other antennas, you may very well have bad reception with this antenna, too.

We had basic cable for a couple years. We only got like 5 channels, because we didn't want to pay for the fancy stuff. This digital antenna worked very well. It took 5 minutes to install and the end result was 42 channels. If you live in a suburbs (no mountain region), you can get awesome reception! We have channels in foreign languages! All of the images are very sharp and clear. The antenna did all the analog to digital signal conversion for us. We didn't have to buy a separate signal converter box. All we did was follow the instructions in the short booklet. We took the antenna out of the box. We pulled up its rabbit ears. We partially folded the body (silver box), as instructed, so the antenna unit would stand. We faced a window. We plugged in the coaxial cable (basically the end of the antenna into the part that fit the TV). We set the TV to pick up antenna instead of cable signal. We let the TV auto tune analog and digital signal. Then, we enjoyed our new found channels! The picture clarity was great! I have never seen such good results from an antenna before. This certainly is NOT like any old school rabbit ears. I am very happy with my purchase.