Customer Reviews

Terk HD-TVS Slim-Profile Outdoor HDTV Antenna

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I had previously purchased the Terk Amplified Indoor HDTV antenna, somehow believing the word "amplified" meant that I would have better reception. It worked well when you could get it arranged well, usually this meant getting it as near the ceiling as I could manage and pointing it out a window, which worked great . . . when you could hold it there. It would not pick up many channels without reorienting, at one point it was even used with a cable running to another room just to get better reception. After purchasing a new LG 42" HDTV for the living room, I knew I'd need something more capable.

I was immediately interested in the Terk HD-TVS Slim Profile antenna just for its looks--it literally looks like no other antenna I've seen. Still, I was of a mind to be cautious after the previous experience with a Terk product and kept looking. Most of the higher rated outdoor antennas I saw were from Terk, so I came back to look it over once more. Other more typical antennas cost a lot less, but with my location and yard, I really wanted to get something mounted on the house; the roof at my home was still in the process of being renovated, and I didn't want to mar the fresh work by mounting it there when it was done either, that meant that I would likely be mounting it high on an outer wall. Once I had decided that, I have to be honest that I had decided upon the HD-TVS just for its looks alone. I could only envision the larger, forked antennas as looking tacky on the side of my home.

When it arrived I decided to try a quick test by replacing the indoor amplified antenna that had required so much waving around. Just setting this thing on the floor of the bedroom, I immediately managed to tune every local channel. The antenna is actually very light, probably a lot lighter than you think. It is roughly the same size as a DirecTV dish but about half the weight. Like many other users here, I consulted antennaweb.org for a good location, and now the antenna sits just beside a chimney under an awning. It took a couple of additional tilts in order to lock in a strong signal on two stations which are at the same angle from my house, as a bit unexpectedly, when adjusting for one, the other dropped just under 50% strength, but as of this writing I'm pulling in every local station at excellent strength. My place is in a rural area with LOTS of trees so I had been concerned about this after reading another review here, but with local stations between 20.7 and 28.3 miles away I'm thrilled with the reception. Best of all I don't look like a kook with a short wave radio in my house. I may never notice when analogue stations get pulled from the air, just because the DTV signal is so excellent with this antenna, highly recommended.

Like another who reviewed this product, I live in Chicago. All of the major networks and many indepents broadcast from one of the two tallest buildings in a city of many tall buildings. All but one of the digital transmissions in Chicago are UHF. The one exception, the CBS affiliate, WBBM, transmits in low-band VHF. I live approximately 8 miles from the two towers. I hooked my HDTV up to our 25+ years old outdoor antenna and recieved all the channels, most with 80-95% signal strength. CBS was the one exception. Its strength was down around 50 over the summer and recently we would lose it altogether. After much research, I decided to replace the old antenna with the TERK HDTs. When it arrived and I read the owners manual, I found one piece of information not on this or other websites that might have caused me to buy something else. This antenna is weakest in the low-band VHF range. suffice to say my sudden fear proved right. After must hassle in mounting the unit, I flipped on the TV and found that I was getting all the UHF signals just fine, but now instead of getting CBS some of the time, I was getting that station none of the time. I was better off with my 25+ old antenna and the money I spent on the TERK is a total waste.

I live in Chicago, and want to pull in OTA HD broadcasts. The first antenna I tried, a regular VHF/UHF indoor unit, pulled in a few of the channels, with some adjusting. But ABC was spotty, and I got no PBS or CBS. So I bought a Radio Shak Omnidirectional antenna, which brought in everything but CBS quite well.

Apparently, CBS is extremely problematic in Chicago because of its very low VHF frequency - and CBS doesn't care to change this for the, oh, 8 million viewers in the 'Chicagoland' area. I only live 5 miles away from their tower, and couldn't get squat. I can only imagine what suburban viewers have to go through.

Well, the Terk was my final try. It is identical as far as I can tell to the very well reviewed Wineguard 'Squareshooter.' In fact, it says "technology by Wineguard" on the box.

Indoors in my closet, and outdoors at my 2nd floor elevation, the Terk equalled the Radioshak. However, when I brought it up to the top floor of my outdoor balcony, it finally pulled in the elusive CBS signal at about 75-85% strength, which the Radioshak could not (enough for the signal to "lock" and come in crystal clear - OTA HD is an 'all or nothing' affair). All other channels come in at 95-100%. The Terk costs $20 more, but this ability to tune in low-band VHF makes up for it. Also, the included adjustable mounting bracket helps to add value.

So, to sum up: Screw You, CBS, for making something so obvious so difficult... Thanks Terk for putting out a relatively affordable solution which doesn't require climbing onto roofs and installing huge aerials. Recommended for people in tough urban areas - it worked for me.

About a month a go, I bought the Terk-HDTVs antenna at a mall. I paid about $50 higher than what it is offered for on Internet Stores like Amazon. This is the same product as Winegard Square Shooter HDTV antenna.
Given the up/down terrain of our subdivision in suburban Atlanta, I was bit skeptic about the performance of this antenna at my house, which is on the lower plain. I mounted the antenna on the patio railing. The cable length was within 50 feet from TV. After mounting (which was pretty straightforward) it took me less than 20 minutes to adjust the antenna orientation and tilt to get good picture on all the channels that the TV tuner found.The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)web site www.antennaweb.org was great help in finding out available channels and orientation.
The TV menu recommended adjusting the antenna for strength of 60 or better. On most of the channels it was between 70 and 80. On couple of VHF channels it was between 40 and 50, but that did not seem to affect picture quality. No dropping out of signal.

What I have noticed is that the signal strength jumps up and down significantly during gusty and stormy weather and results in dropping out of signal. But, I guess that is given with all broadcast signals.
The antenna mounting hardware is very sturdy; performance is very good for both SD and HD programs. Sometimes the color saturation adjustment and color temperature adjustments need change between two stations - but that is not because of antenna. It is because of how the signal is transmitted by different stations.
So, you can rely on the performance of this antenna, but buy it from internet and save some money!!!

I've tried half a dozen indoor ATSC/HDTV antenna models, including 2 Christmas tree types, and none even come close to the Terk HDTV-S (or Winegard SquareShooter, which is identical). With those indoor models, I often had to adjust and re-arrange their orientations. But this Terk/Wingard antenna...even just sitting on the floor in my living room, it picked up all the worthwhile ATSC channels in my Silicon Valley/San Jose suburb area, as listed in antennaweb.org . After I finally mounted it on my roof and pointed it in the appropriate direction as shown at antennaweb.org, the signals was even stronger and more consistent. I don't want much TV, and having all the major network channels (AND the subchannels...the local PBS station has FIVE subchannels) makes me want to cancel my cable subscription. And almost all the HD stations broadcast in Dolby Digital, often 5.1 surround. It's heavenly in my home theater system. I thank this antenna. For under $100, this is true value.

I don't have much basis for a comparison, as my only other HD antenna was the unamplified plastic & metal 8" triangle jobbie that came with my receiver. I researched heavily before settling on the Terk-SP. It works great, but not as perfect as I might of hoped. I live in a major city where every station has an HD version, and I've always been able to get them all, but the signal was typically so weak on some stations, they would constantly cut out on me. Having a strong outdoor antenna has solved that problem almost completely.

The cheap indoor antenna I had before picked up all the same channels, but with sporadic connectivity. I was constantly moving it around to improve the weak signal. A real pain.

When I got the Terk-SP, the first thing I noticed was that it was pretty light. A plastic cover with plastic backing that even has a pear-shaped picture-hook eyehole on the back for hanging the antenna on the wall. Pretty unique idea. It is an "amplified" antenna, but that refers to the design. It doesn't plug into a wall socket or anything or use any extra power.

One thing I really like about this antenna is the way it looks... like a square satellite dish. I live in an apartment among a sea of dishes, so the unique Terk-SP really stands out (at 16", it's about the same size too). The package includes a mounting arm with adjustable bracket. It does NOT include a Grounding Rod or Grounding Block (get both at Radio Shack for $14 and $5 respectively). If you are mounting this antenna outdoors, you WILL need them. Static electricity builds up inside the coax cable (this is true of ALL antennas) and can fry your TV (I discovered this the hard way, accidentally touching the cable with my hand after a few days use and shocking the living daylights out of my thumb!) Your coax antenna cable needs to go from the Terk to a "mounting block" that you place on a Grounding Rod that you sink in the ground, then run a second wire from the other side of the block to your TV. This will protect your expensive equipment. If you keep the Terk indoors without mounting it, you probably don't need to ground it, so I don't blame AudioVox for not including them.

Reception wise, as a quick test, I disconnected my cheapo antenna to the Terk as soon as it arrived and tuned in my worst station. I saw an immediate 30% signal boost than before on that one station! Great. Unfortunately, don't expect a 30% boost on *every* channel. More than likely, any station you could get before (even really badly), you'll get a good steady signal from with the Terk-SP. But any channel whose signal often drops to 0% for any reason, you're probably not going to get with the Terk because 0 times 30% is still 0. When I first installed the Terk-SP, I even (intermittently) picked up an entirely new (obscure out-of-town) station that I never got before, but for some reason, I haven't been able to pick it up again in weeks.

Mounting time took about 45 minutes. Screw the mounting arm to a post or rooftop (brackets/clamps for mounting the Terk to a round post come with it), and the antenna to the arm. Then run your cable inside to your TV. That's it.

Short answer: this is a great antenna that should work great as long as you can already receive a *steady* signal (for at least a minute or two) from your local stations. The Terk-SP's flat-face design works best in areas where it can pick up "reflected" signals off neighboring buildings and such. I suspect the benefits of the Terk-SP might be lost if you live in the middle of nowhere with no place for signals to bounce off of. Also, HD signals are VERY directional, so it helps not to live in a location where you are surrounded by stations coming at you from different directions. You need to point your antenna in a direction that is "generally" the right direction for all stations. It took two people to properly adjust my Terk for best possible reception ("A little to the left. No, the signal was stronger back to the right."). Positioning options are left/right, tilt and twist (low number stations have taller signals that like an antenna whose face is more *parallel* to the ground). The Terk-SP works great and I highly recommend it, but I don't really know how it compares to other antennas since I've never tried them, but I can tell you I am now getting strong steady signals from stations I received only intermittently before.

I received the antenna from Amazon in very good time. I mounted the antenna using the supplied mast on the side of my home about 15' high. I pointed the antenna towards the broadcast towers which are about 35 miles from my home. I could only receive one station, which was a disapointment. So, I would try one more location before giving up on this small antenna. I then mounted it on the very top of the roof with a 15 degree tilt up. To my surprise, my signal meter on my tv jumped up to around 85% for six HD stations. Please take some time for proper location and you will be very happy you did. Also, very easy to mount.

I purchased this antenna to replace my Terk HDtv amplified antenna, which is garbage! Upon replacing my old, Terk garbage HDtv antenna, all my problems went away!! This antenna picks up everthing my old Terk couldn't, and with great signal strength. I diplexed in this antenna into one of my Directv's LNB out lines, and then split the signal into my Directv receiver. There was enough gain that the signal, over the air, came in spectacular! This antenna rates 5 stars with me.

I purchased the TERK HDTVs on line and installed it yesterday.
I live in Orange County California about 28 miles from the broadcast site. HD reception is outstanding, and I am getting every available channel. SD reception is not as good, especially on channels 2 - 7, but I bought the antenna to receive HD and it does that well.

When I saw how much per month I was paying with DirecTV, I decided see how I could cut that bill. Living close to New York, I saw this antenna and great reviews (thank you reviewers!)

Well, I cancelled DirecTV and used their dish mount to mount this antenna and orient it to about 80 degrees (thank you antennaweb). I have Windows 7 on an old Dell Dimension 4550 with 1MB RAM... but this brought that back to life with an EyeTV hybrid tweaked to appear as a Hauppauge HVR USB.

Seeing that I get 43 channels now.. some I don't care for, some I love like CW, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS all in HD plus my affiliates in NJ and NY... this rocks. All are in very clear (I mean digital cable good since they fall into 11.1, 7.1, 4.1, etc on ATSC lineup).

Easy to install... just when connecting the backplate onto the dish... use a power driver not a hand screwdriver!