Customer Reviews

Philips SDV2740/27 HDTV/UHF/VHF/FM Digital Indoor TV Antenna

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

With all the choices and reviews, it can get confusing what antenna to pick. My stations are between 20-35 miles, and I picked this with the expectation that I would end up returning it and have to go with one of the outdoor antennas.

My 15 year old rabbit years gave me about 4-8 channels, but it was inconvenient and a hassle to adjust.

This one gives me around 45. There are a couple channels that I could receive with my older antenna with some fiddling that have gone missing, but I don't miss them and have not tried adjusting the direction.

A couple things to watch out for:

- the amplifier needs to be plugged in, without it, I do worse than my older antenna
- the power cord for the amp could have been longer - it is only around 4 feet.

All in all, I am going to keep this. I rate this at 3.5 stars - it serves the purpose.

I live about 30 miles from any station. I found that this antenna doesn't "boost", it amplifies. What that means is the stations you get already are going to be more stable. So when a phone rings, microwave is in use, car goes by, people walk in and out you are not going to lose signal. Also I found laying the unit flat with the antennas on top works better then the unit standing up.

First my place: second floor, no high-rise buildings in the vicinity. 3 miles from the tower. All [digital] channels are in one direction. So theoretically I shouldn't need amplification.

Performance: I put two pieces of wire to built a semi-antenna and it can receive all channels but not at the same time and at the same direction. I'd need to modify the direction to receive the other channels. It is quite annoying so looking for an antenna being able to receive all channels without changing direction and all time modification, I ended up with this amplified antenna. But even this amplified antenna can't receive all channels at the same time. The good thing is, because of that little booster, you don't loose signal time to time. The gain is 60-82, but minimum doesn't fall below 30 resulting in fade out. On the other hand, my home-made wire antenna could sometimes get up to 85, but a small disturbance (a walking person even a few yards away) could result in a 0 gain and black-out. Recommended but for short distances to the tower.

The Philips SDV2740/27 is presently operating with an Insignia converter and doing a good job. The two are a happy marriage and we are completely satisfied with the reception of all the existing TV channels, including the ones we rarely watch. Extending the rabbit ears is the most important part of successful reception and only on rare occasions do we have to adjust them or pivot the antenna slightly if the signal grows weak at certain times of the day. The performance of this model did not achieve a five star rating only because of the special tuning dial housed at the top center of the antenna between the two rabbit ears. For the most part, we found the gadget ineffective and a slight turn of the antenna was the best way to insure a better picture and one that seemed long lasting.

We live in a rural, heavily wooded area of northern Florida. After doing extensive research I concluded I'd probably need an outdoor antenna to pick up the channels we were used to getting via analog signal. I went ahead and decided to try an amplified indoor antenna on the off chance we could avoid the hassle of outdoor antenna installation. Wow! the Phillips antenna pulled in every channel we were projected to get with a top-rated outdoor model PLUS two channels were we not forecast to receive. The signal is steady and strong on 8 of 10 channels we receive and the other two suffer only occasional, brief, and very tolerable signal break-up. At $27 this antenna was a phenomenal buy.

The reception quality is plain horrible. Bought this to replace a cheaper unamplified antenna I bought with my HDTV two years ago, but plan to return it ASAP. Using my Tivo's signal strength meter I found that I was getting on average 40% lower signal strength with this product compared to my old cheap-o antenna.

Please don't buy this item if you want something that actually works! I live about 8 miles from the broadcast towers, so I thought maybe it would actually work! I get way WORSE reception with this than I did with my 4 year old rabbit ears. Plus everytime my cell phone would ring or I got a text message the TV would freak out like my work computer does when my phone rings! I am now using my old setup again and it works MUCh better than this piece of junk did!

This thing sucks! You have to constantly play with the antenna, and flip it over, and upside down to get different channels. Watch channel 4 one way, if you want 5, get up flip the antenna around, set it upside down, and you might get a channel. Uuuugh, I'd rather have no cable, then hassle with this crap! Save your money!

In my area, being in the desert and 50 miles away from the TV stations, it worked reasonably well. The times when it does not work is when the wind blows. It has to be positioned in front of a window which is hard to do and the walls of my home does not help it work since they are adobe. The fact that the TV stations are on top of a mountain and behind mountains does not help either. In a town it would probably be better, but for the money it does fine.

I live in a big city, and according to a DTV site ([...]), should be getting a dozen + channels via antenna. I am getting only 7 on our brand new HDTV. 5 are Spanish channels, one is the religious network, and the last is PBS. I read the instructions front to back, and am completely disgusted with this product. You absolutely have to get the converter with this for older TV's to make it work. Like previous buyer mentioned, it amplifies the signal only.

Also, it shows the picture as a nice small, compact device. Got it out of the box and realized you have to pull out the antenna like the old bunny ears to get it to work. Maybe my mistake, but I was assuming it had only the small antennas and would be more "discrete."