S3 OTA better than HR10-250

[btwyx]

It looks to me like the S3 has a better OTA tuner than the HR10-250.

One of my persistant problems with my HR10-250 has been to get reliable reception on one particular channel. (KTVU/2 on UHF56.) I just want to be able to watch 9ers games, but I continually get a few drop outs. I've got the best antenna/pre-amp setup I can, but I've always blamed the problems on the trees which are in exactly the wrong place for good OTA.

So now I've got the S3, before I've got cable card, I've got the OTA setup. Both machines are being fed from the same feed split to both of them, so this is a fair test of the tuner. I'm still getting occasional drop outs on the HR10-250, but when I replay the same sement on the S3, its perfect.

So I declare the S3 the winner.

The issue with this one channel is one of the main reasons I'm even looking at the S3 in the first place. I can't get this reliably OTA, so I was hoping D* could deliver it to me over the satellite. They can now, but not to a TiVo, just to their DVR. So the final option is to try an S3 and cable, Comcast will deliver this channel over the cable, but at this rate I might not even need it.

[vstone]

I would agree that the S3 has a kick butt OTA tuner. Could be a better chipset or a better signal path.

[gwsat]

I read somehwere here in the last day or two that OTA tuners have been dramatically improved over the past couple of years. Alas, I don't have a clue as to why that is so.

[bkdtv]

The ATSC (off-air) tuner on the Series3 is two generations newer than the one in the older HR10, so it should offer significantly improved reception.

[Bierboy]

I agree here. I split my CM4221 antenna signal to the TV and the S3. Where I used to have a problem with our CBS affil's DT (using the Sammy SIR-T151), I now have a solid lock on the S3.

[Craig S]

Glad to hear these experiences. I also have the Sammy SIR-T151, which is pretty good, but does experience occasional dropouts, and is often unstable with the audio. I was hoping the S3 would improve on that performance, and it sounds promising. I will know tonight!

[snathanb]

Glad to hear these experiences. I also have the Sammy SIR-T151, which is pretty good, but does experience occasional dropouts, and is often unstable with the audio. I was hoping the S3 would improve on that performance, and it sounds promising. I will know tonight!

Craig... I'm interested in your follow-up. I'm replacing my SIR-T151 with an S3, and interested in hearing your comparison.

[Bierboy]

Glad to hear these experiences. I also have the Sammy SIR-T151, which is pretty good, but does experience occasional dropouts, and is often unstable with the audio. I was hoping the S3 would improve on that performance, and it sounds promising. I will know tonight!
I think you'll find both the PQ and the tuner sensitivity to be an improvement over the Sammy. I've used the Sammy the past three years, so I have a lot of comparison to go on.

[Craig S]

One correction from my previous post - the Sammy STB I have is the SIR-T351. It's a couple of years old - I think it was the follow-on to the T151.

But anyway... btwyx & Bierboy are spot on. The ATSC tuners on the S3 are fantastic. My picture & sound are rock solid all around the dial. I watched all night, and there wasn't a hint of video breakup or audio droppage. It's the best picture I've ever gotten on my HDTV.

Sammy STB owners are going to be VERY happy with this upgrade!

[keenanSR]

I concur, I've used about 7-8 ATSC tuners over the years and the S3 is by far the best, it's more sensitive and it holds lower strength signals.

[gostan]

I concur. I hooked my new S3 up OTA (while waiting for Comcast to install Wednesday) and the OTA PQ and stability is a major upgrade over the HR10-250. I used to get fairly dropouts on Fox and NBC with the HR10-250, and I had only one minor dropout with the new S3. Now, I hope that the Comcast SD and HD cable PQ is acceptable.

Stan

[AbMagFab]

I agree. The picture quality also seems better, if that's possible? In any case, the tuner is much better, and much faster (although the speed could be related to the overall speed improvements with the S3).

I love the S3!

[snathanb]

Sammy STB owners are going to be VERY happy with this upgrade!

That's good to hear... like I mentioned, I have a T151, which occassionally drops audio. I bought a T351, but it had worse dolby problems than the T151, so I returned it. I had a dish network 811 for a while, but since I was only watching OTA HD anyway, I dumped the service.

[btwyx]

As a follow up, I've been getting rock solid OTA performance out of the S3 OTA, i'm very pleased. Its even better than cable, given the choice of cable or OTA I'm tending to pick OTA.

There was a Thursday 9ers game a couple of weeks ago, so it was carried on the NFL network on cable in HD, and one of the local stations relayed the NFL network broadcast OTA on their other station (KBCW/44). That's about my weakest station so I was recording both of them. The cable version immediatly had a dropout, I switched to the OTA version and it was perfect.