# OTA Reception fix



## bbweiners (Feb 4, 2013)

Hi,

For people having issues with poor OTA reception I found a fix that is easy and works. 

You want the central core of your coax cable to barely make a connection with the antenna connector on your Tivo. You can experiment with that and should see that it works. The problem is getting the cable to stay in place. There is an easy solution so that you can screw the coax cable in like normal and have a solid connection with good reception.

What I did was trim the central core (the pin that sticks out of the coax cable) of the coax cable down to about 25%. It is very easy and only requires a tin snip.

I was then able to fully screw the coax cable into the antenna connector for a secure connection and much much better reception. (I went from about 25-30 percent to about 70-75 percent).

This is very easy and takes about 10 seconds to do. I hope it helps since it solved my issue.


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## Time_Lord (Jun 4, 2012)

sounds like you have a bad antenna or feed from your antenna, what you have done is turn the shield of the coax wire into an antenna.

If it works for you great but I'd suggest finding the real problem with your antenna


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## bbweiners (Feb 4, 2013)

I actually have used the antenna with other tuner devices, a tv and a Hdhomerun, and I had zero issues with poor signal strength or signal quality. It was only when I started using the Tivo Premiere that I lost most of my signal strength and quality. 

There are a lot of people having the same issue of poor reception with the Tivo Premiere that have not had any issues with other devices. In fact, the couple of times I spoke with Tivo's support they said that the tuners in the Premieres are pretty weak.


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## mitchman333 (Dec 2, 2004)

bbweiners said:


> There are a lot of people having the same issue of poor reception with the Tivo Premiere that have not had any issues with other devices. In fact, the couple of times I spoke with Tivo's support they said that the tuners in the Premieres are pretty weak.


I can verify my experience as well, have had a number of OTA devices/dvr's for last 12 years work perfectly, then comes along the TIVO Premiere and the quality of the channel reception is very poor. Wish I read your "fix" a bit earlier, had to cancel within the 30 days. Good luck.

Bummed thought I had a solution in place.

-- Mitchman


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## bbweiners (Feb 4, 2013)

That stinks, Mitchman.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

My one OTA Premiere I have left still pulls in OTA as well as my TVs and PC OTA tuners.

The signal has been rock solid at a signal level higher than 30.


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

ive been wondering if something is wrong with tivo..been having glitches on some recordings from even strong stations. signals are high so it cant be that. ive had to download a few shows because just unwatchable with the dropouts


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

aaronwt said:


> My one OTA Premiere I have left still pulls in OTA as well as my TVs and PC OTA tuners.
> 
> The signal has been rock solid at a signal level higher than 30.


Curious. What unit of measure does signal level use? I understand SNR and AGC, but how is signal level computed and does it have a quantitative value I should look for? Mine is rock solid at 90 to 92 all the time and SNR is 37db.

I do have reception problems, but they have nothing to do with the TiVo.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

The Premiere does have a relatively weak OTA tuner compared to other devices, but it should be good enough to pull in most stations. I have a S3 and a Premiere and there's only one station near me (out of about a dozen) that the S3 can pull in that the Premiere cannot.


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## tenthplanet (Mar 5, 2004)

newsposter said:


> ive been wondering if something is wrong with tivo..been having glitches on some recordings from even strong stations. signals are high so it cant be that. ive had to download a few shows because just unwatchable with the dropouts


 It could be multipath and multipath can come and go. Are your OTA stations UHF or high VHF.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

newsposter said:


> ive been wondering if something is wrong with tivo..been having glitches on some recordings from even strong stations. signals are high so it cant be that. ive had to download a few shows because just unwatchable with the dropouts


Signals that are too strong can be just as bad as signals that are too weak. They can overload the tuner.


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

morac said:


> Signals that are too strong can be just as bad as signals that are too weak. They can overload the tuner.


i'm 50 miles out so no issues with overloading

my antenna is the DB8 which is UHF but since i got my premiere i've been picking up 6 just fine..which is great!

but i had issues with 26 which is very rare..thats in the 90s signal wise. it seemed to clear up this week though. maybe it's the sun interference (joke)

or i guess my CM amp could be dying. unsure if they go all at once or slowly?


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## JimPa (Oct 25, 2006)

morac said:


> The Premiere does have a relatively weak OTA tuner compared to other devices, but it should be good enough to pull in most stations. I have a S3 and a Premiere and there's only one station near me (out of about a dozen) that the S3 can pull in that the Premiere cannot.


Thanks for posting.

I have an S3 that's been acting up lately and was consider the Premiere as it's the only one that still has an OTA tuner.

Given that the Premiere is newer technology, I thought that the OTA tuner was probably better and looked forward to getting one. But from what you're saying, it doesn't sound like it is. Then you've got the noisy fan issue.

Kinda funny that here I am ready to upgrade and pay Tivo money and I've got these reasons to drop them altogether.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

JimPa said:


> Thanks for posting.
> 
> I have an S3 that's been acting up lately and was consider the Premiere as it's the only one that still has an OTA tuner.
> 
> Given that the Premiere is newer technology, I thought that the OTA tuner was probably better and looked forward to getting one. But from what you're saying, it doesn't sound like it is. Then you've got the noisy fan issue.


It may depend on your setup. I'm about 15 miles from most broadcast antennas and use a cheap indoor antenna. I could probably do much better with an attic or outside antenna, but I primarily use OTA as a backup for cable.

I haven't noticed a noisy fan on either my S3 or my Premiere, though my S3's case rattles unless I put something on it, My old S2 used to have a noisy fan. I replaced the fan on that before simply getting rid of it.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Trimming back the center conductor basically inserts a capacitor between that conductor and the tuner's input.

Which would reduce all signal strength but the reduction would be greater on lower frequencies.

The amount of "resistance" a capacitor presents to a signal goes down as the frequency goes up and goes up as the frequency goes down.

Instead of cutting and trying, one might try an inline co-ax attenuator to see if that improves things, or try one of those DC blocking doo-dads like you use with inline amps on co-ax. Radio Shack has those, or at least used to.


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## newsposter (Aug 18, 2002)

better tuner is a relative term.

for instance when i had my hr10 250 directv box i couldnt get ch 6 on it because i only had a UHF antenna. or so i thought. 

when i got the premiere the station comes in fine 99.9% of the time. so per my experience the premiere has a superb tuner unmatched by anything i'v ever had!


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## bbweiners (Feb 4, 2013)

Unitron,

Thanks for the technical explanation. I had no idea why it worked for me, but now it makes more sense.

People could do what you suggested, but that does require spending money. I was hoping for a fix that would be quick, easy, and basically free. However, having options is always a good thing. I would be curious to see if purchasing either of the items you suggested would also fix the problem.

Once again, thanks for the post.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

bbweiners said:


> Unitron,
> 
> Thanks for the technical explanation. I had no idea why it worked for me, but now it makes more sense.
> 
> ...


My suggestions are easily reversible, your method means having to cut off the F connector and install a new one if one cuts back the center conductor too far.


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## bbweiners (Feb 4, 2013)

According to another post using a Variable Anntenuator also has worked to fix the poor reception issue.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=446075&highlight=ota+reception&page=9

http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...n=GAN&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=k244266


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## Nortnarg (Feb 10, 2013)

The way I understand the problem is at least some times the dropout is caused by multi paths. Signal bouncing around and the antenna gets signal from two or more directions or sources. 
I was able to greatly improve my Premiere with attenuators. Tried a 20 db first and improved but not great. Added another 8 db and it has now been a long time since I have had pixelating recordings. 
BTW the signal always comes in crystal clear directly to the TV. Problem is only coming through the TiVo Premiere.


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