Philips SDV2740-27 HDTV-UHF-VHF-FM Digital Indoor TV Antenna
January 4, 2010 | Posted by admin 
- Amplified indoor antenna
- Receives both analog and digital reception; UHF, VHF, FM and HDTV reception
- Horizontal and vertical positioning for UHF reception
- Adjustable gain control
- Various mounting options ¿ place on flat surface or mount to the wall
Product Description
The SDV2740 amplified indoor antenna is designed to provide reception of both analog and digital broadcasts. The reception elements are optimized for digital broadcasts and ensure better reception of ATSC/HDTV signals over a conventional loop antenna. The 2-way positioning allows you to adjust the antenna to receive the strongest signal vertically or horizontally. Together with the adjustable amplification, the low noise amplification – up to 18db – ensures you of a… More >>
Categories: Indoor Antenna | 
Tags: Antenna, Digital, HDTV/UHF/VHF/FM, Indoor, Philips, SDV2740/27 | 
5 Comments »
I’ve tried a good deal of antennas to pick up digital signals in my area and this one is one of the better ones. It is very compact and less obtrusive than most, but works very well. It really doesn’t look like an antenna at all. It will pick up both UHF and VHF signals, which many antennas won’t. This antenna includes a mounting kit to stand it up on a flat surface or mount it to the wall. It is also amplified to boost signal strength. I also own a Terk HDTVa antenna, which is about twice the cost of this one. I would say the Phillips is almost as good in terms of the number of stations it will pick up. It can be turned up horizontally or lay flat. This made a big difference for me in the number of channels it picked up. After performing various channel scans with the antenna in different places/positions, I was able to pick up 51 digital channels. I can get 55 with the Terk. I live in Anaheim about 30 miles from the nearest towers and on the first floor of an apartment, so that’s not bad!
Rating: 5 / 5
On a whim, I bought this Philips antenna the day before the first NFL Sunday (2009). My intention was to create a Tivo-like setup using my laptop (connected to my TV), a digital USB tuner, and this Philips antenna. The USB tuner came with an antenna — a very simple, short, telescopic kind. I live between two major cities (Ft. Lauderdale & West Palm Beach, FL), so all the HDTV stations are 20+ miles away, either to the north or south. You can’t goof up the positioning of an HDTV antenna where I live — either point it to the north or south. The antenna that came with the USB tuner picks up a few stations, but not very well. Hence, I bought this Philips because it’s got 18db amplification. That means it’ll do a better job at picking up stations, right?
Wrong.
I did side-by-side comparisons between the telescopic antenna that came with the USB tuner, and this Philips amplified antenna. After spending an hour or more, I concluded that there was no discernible difference between the Philips and my little telescopic antenna. The signal strength on every station was the same. If it was weak on the telescopic antenna, it was just as weak with this Philips. Stronger signals weren’t improved by the Philips, either. What a disappointment!
I was none to pleased with the design of the Philips antenna, either. First off, I placed it on top of my armoire in which I stow our TV. But the Philips power supply is too short to reach from the wall socket to the top of the armoire. Is it hard to imagine someone placing the antenna high up off the ground? Was it too costly to add another 2 feet of wire to the electric cord?
The chintzy plastic stand to keep the antenna upright has to be screwed into the antenna (not snapped on, which would have been easier), and the antenna is so light, that it’s easily displaced if any slight tug is made to either the power cord leading to the antenna, or to the 75-ohm cable connected to the antenna. A little weight would certainly be appreciated here.
The antenna user manual was abysmal. It talks about being able to use the antenna in either a horizontal or vertical position. Huh?? If you look at this antenna, you naturally think horizontal means laying down flat, and vertical means standing up on one of its sides (as is shown in the picture). But you can’t lay the antenna down flat because the power cord and cable are fed into the backside of the antenna. So what they mean is that you can point those two dipole antennas you see in the picture either straight up or out to the side. And the owner’s manual makes this more confusing by describing the horizontal position when it refers to a diagram that has the antenna in a vertical position (and the manual describes the vertical position when it refers to the diagram showing the antenna in a horizontal position). The diagrams are awful, so it’s easy to see why the editor didn’t catch this mistake. When the manual talks about turning on the amplifier, don’t expect to find a power switch on the antenna; there isn’t one. What the manual means is to turn the amplifier gain to the maximum setting. I hope your antenna power supply is working, by the way. If it’s not, you’ll never know that your amplifier isn’t getting any electricity because the antenna lacks a power-on LED light. Stupid!
In short, there isn’t anything to like about this antenna since it doesn’t perform better than a $3 telescopic antenna, and the design just begs for the thing to fall over. This one gets packed up and returned to the store from whence it came.
After tomorrow’s game.
Rating: 1 / 5
This antenna works well for analog reception but is just about useless for digital reception. We’re slightly over 6 miles from major network transmitters, no obstructions in the way, west side in Portland, OR. I am only able to get NBC and PBS, rather badly.
Rating: 2 / 5
I bought the SDV2740 to replace a Radio Shack model I bought which was unable to pick up one particular channel without some gymnastics. The Phillips model failed me in two ways:
1. Half the channels I previously received now reported “no signal” no matter how I adjusted the antenna.
2. Despite the box stating that wall-mounting is an “option,” I consider it the only option. A small piece of plastic doubles as the wall-mounting assembly and as a tabletop stand. When placed on top of my TV set it would easily tip over when I adjusted the antenna. Sorry, but TV stations in my area don’t all transmit from the same spot. Some movement of the antenna is needed to pick up certain channels. In my opinion, you should be able to adjust the antenna and not worry about the entire unit falling over.
Rating: 1 / 5
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!
Rating: 1 / 5