Customer Reviews

Winegard MS-2002 HDTV Antenna without Cable

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I live in a suburb with some stations broadcasting from 17 miles north and some from 22 miles south. Directional antennas won't work for me without a rotor and constant hassle. The Metrostar works great. It pulls in every station listed on Antennaweb with great signal strength, and it does so while hiding in my attic.

I chose this over a Channel Master CM3000A antenna because one station in my area is broadcasting digitally on VHF channel 7, and at least one site I checked said the CM3000A was only designed to pick up UHF frequencies. I'm definitely happy with the results I'm getting.

I live about 19 miles north of Cincinnati and 40 miles south of Dayton. I was using a small roof mount GE HDTV antenna with limited success. I received all of the Cinci stations most of the time and some of the Dayton stations. I installed the Winegard this past weekend and now I receive a total of 47 stations. I mounted the antenna on a 5' antenna pole mounted to the peek of my house, about 30' in the air. I have quite a few trees but they don't seem to interfere with reception. The only problem I have is with the local ABC affiliate, WCPO. The Digital reception is spotty at best which I understand is a problem most people in the local area are experiencing. If I unplug the amplifier, the reception actually improves. This is a very good investment considering my Satellite service wants to charge a monthly fee for HD.

This is a really nice looking antenna. At first, I thought it was not as good as the traditional antenna. This antenna comes with a little amplifier. It won't work without it. This means it requires power. Lucky, I have a power outline in the backyard. Once I powered up the amplifier, the converter box scanned 41 channels. The picture quality is like DVD. That's it. I canceled my cable today. I love this nice looking antenna.

The antenna is marginal in its reception ( 23 miles from the transmitter). I can not blame it all on the antenna. I do live in a fringe reception area. I can move the antenna to a neighbors house and get good reception. Then to another house up higher on a hill and you have to move or cherry pick a sweet spot around trees and other houses. This antenna may work better in a city enviroment but you may have to find a sweet spot for reception.

I live in an area surrounded by trees and this antenna transmits as if they are not there. I set this antenna up in my backyard on a pole about 18' in the air. The bracket that comes with the antenna fits great around the 10 foot section of pole that goes with the chain link fence assembly you can find in Home Depot or Lowes(garden dept.), and only costs $12. So I went and bought my pole and attached the antenna to the top. Reception was OK (I had a ten foot pole buried into the ground two feet deep so my antenna was 8 feet up) but I thought it could be better. So I went out and bought another ten foot pole and fit it onto my other one already in place(the ends of the poles are tapered to fit into one another), moved the pole to what I thought was the best location in my backyard and the reception was great! I pick up around 15 channels locally and they all come in clear as ever.
The ONLY issue that I have with this antenna is that when it is windy the reception breaks up just slightly, but that is to be expected with most outdoor antennas unless you have a satellite dish. If I were to bury it deeper I may not even have that problem. I have gone through several indoor and outdoor antennas(Terk, RCA, Phillips, Radio Shack - I tried every one that they had!) and this one is definitely the best! I highly recommend this product!
Remember, I live in what may be one the worst antenna friendly environments(at the beach[east coast-VA Beach], surrounded by trees) and this antenna does what is expected of an antenna - it transmits a great picture!

Update November 21, 2010:

The antenna is still working great after going on two years. This product has turned out to be a great investment.

Update October 18, 2011:

Antenna is still working great. I have even picked up more channels and reception seems better. Tip: I reset the auto channel finder feature every few months and most of the time pick up more channels each time I do this. I also have been told by friends/relatives that have seen the picture on my TV that the picture is better than cable HD! The kicker: I have not yet converted to an HD television. I have done research into the HD "world" and have found that if the channel that you are watching is not transmitting in HD (ie 1080, 720) then regardless of your TV being HD it will not be shown in HD on your "HD" TV.

I was thinking about getting the SS-3000 or the HD-1080(attic mount) so I fired off an e-mail to Winegard support. The tech guy actually suggested the MS-2000 to me. I didn't know too much about it because most people seem to be buying the other antennas. I ordered the MS-2002 as I didn't need the coaxial cable. Now the beauty of the MS-2000 is that it is not directional at all. I took off the rabbit ears I had been using and plugged it in, right on my coffee table. Wow, clear steady signals on 28 channels with none of that annoying fade in and out anymore. I got another 2 stations that had weak signals but those were 30+ miles out ant I didn't watch them anyway. Quite a change over the 20 I was getting with the rabbits which also had to be turned depending on what I was wanting to watch. Since there were no other stations in my area to pick up, I decided that a mount outside the house wasn't necessary. I put it on top of a bookshelf next to the TV and drilled a hole through the top of the bookshelf to run the cable thru. Presto, no mount needed and the antenna is almost invisible in the living room(wife like it that way). Only thing is you need a large bookshelf to do what I did cause the MS-2000 is about 2 feet in diameter.

This Antenna is the one to buy if you live in an urban
area and stations are within 30 miles. I used it
to get stations from 35 miles (San Francisco to Saratoga)
and the reception would drop out at times until I rotated
it so that it's sweet spot was facing the most distant stations.
It is doing the job and driving 100 feet of RG-6 coaxial wire
and two TV's using a 2-way splitter. The 1080i HDTV stations are
just fantastic and razor sharp. Broadcast digital is a revolution
for people looking to eliminate their satellite or cable bill.
Note that most old style roof antennas in this neighborhood are on
at least 10 foot masts and this antenna is on short 18 inch mast
and producing super pictures.

Works Great, tested from my coffee table and got loads of channels. Once I get this up on the roof, should have all the channels I need.

We live in Caledonia, Mi and have tried several "HD" rabbit ear style antennas and one rooftop antenna (Terk TV55) The Terk offered ok reception, but still faded in and out at times. I received the antenna and spent about two hours on the rooftop installation. This included the j mast nounting. Plugged in the supplied power booster and rescanned the in set HD tuner. Amazing results. Gained 8 new HD/digital channels and cleared up all other channels already being received. We even picked up HD/Digital channels WCMU broadcasted from Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant ( about 65 miles away ) Very good antenna. No distortion or breaking up any more. No disapointments.

This TV Antenna is easy to install and works great. I was planning to install it on the roof, but I have it just placed on a box in my attic and the signal quality is good.

Because it is still in attic, and my TV stations are about 23 miles away, there is some pixelation/ image freeze. Also, I have my TV connected to my sony receiver with optical cable so I get 5.1 surround sound. When signal quality is poor, the digial sound stutters - stops and starts - suggesting poor signal. I also have the analog stereo output from TV connected to the same recevier on a separate input and that sound never has a problem. I plan to put it up on the roof this summer, and I am sure at that time this will work flawlessly. The Antenna is omnidirectional, however I found that I needed to rotate is to get good signal on some channels. So you may need to correctly position the antenna if you are not getting good signal. The antenna is a powered antenna so make sure you connect the wires correctly through the power inserter. The good part is that all wiring uses coaxial cable, including the wire from AC transformer to the power inserter. In general I am happy with its results.