Televes Dat Boss Mix LR review: This is a great outdoor antenna

At a look

Expert’s Ranking

Professionals

• Solid, sensitive reception
• Designed-in 5G filter
• Built-in amplifier and indoor distribution amp

Drawbacks

• Huge bodily dimension
• Assembly can be puzzling

Our Verdict

The Televes Dat Manager Mix LR (model 149884) is the ideal outside Television antenna we’ve analyzed. It sent an outstanding general performance, pulling in robust indicators from area and distant Television towers. It is a good alternative in areas with medium to reduced reception stages.

The Televes Dat Manager Combine LR is wonderful outside Tv antenna. It is massive, but its dimensions is a single of the causes its performance is so remarkable.

The antenna is intended to work on the large-VHF and UHF bands, which are those used by most main Tv set stations in the U.S. We analyzed design quantity 149884, which doesn’t pull in reduced-VHF channels. If you want reduced-VHF, opt for design amount 148383 rather.

If you’re unsure of the channels in use the place you live, examine out the Rabbit Ears web site and appear for your town and the “Physical Channel” quantity. This antenna will function with stations on channels 7 by way of 36. Recall, the channel variety introduced on air, “CBS 2,” for illustration, is no for a longer period necessarily the physical channel in use, so check out the site.

This evaluate is component of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the greatest Television antennas.

Martyn Williams/Foundry

The UHF portion of the antenna is peaked for the new, scaled-down Television spectrum which is been in use because some Television frequencies have been given to 5G wi-fi carriers in 2020. That design and a created-in 5G filter should offer a superior opportunity at filtering out any solid, local cellphone indicators that could hamper reception.

The antenna also has an run amplifier, which also can help reception. Boosting alerts at the selection place avoids the inescapable decline that takes place when the sign travels via the coax cable to your residing place and can make the distinction in between watchable and unwatchable stations. The amplifier is powered by an indoor unit that also doubles as a splitter with two outputs. You will need to plug the indoor unit into an AC outlet.

Tests the Televes Dat Manager Combine LR

To exam the antenna, I to start with scanned broadcast Television stations utilizing my existing antenna, a Channel Master CM-5018 put in with an amplifier. Nothing I have examined has crushed this for reception, so it is stayed on my dwelling for the last 6 decades.

Following scanning and recording sign concentrations, I took down the current antenna and set up the Televes Dat Manager Combine LR in the identical position. The results were being instantly amazing.

Martyn Williams/Foundry

I dwell in the Washington, D.C., television market but an outdoor antenna pulls in quite a few stations from the Baltimore sector, which is about 40 miles absent. Reception of all the big D.C. stations and some of the Baltimore stations is reputable, but there are complications obtaining some very low-electrical power D.C. stations as very well as some of the Baltimore stations.

With the Dat Manager Combine LR antenna, a large amount of these complications disappeared.

Lots of of the marginal alerts have been boosted to be secure and cost-free of photo breakup, and it managed to decide up two new stations. One particular is a area station that suffers from interference from a distant channel on the similar frequency but this antenna managed to type out that mess and provide the nearby a person.

The other alerts both stayed as potent as they were being or ended up enhanced. This is similarly essential, due to the fact occasionally a massive antenna can deliver way too a great deal signal, ensuing in reduction of photo due to overload. That didn’t transpire in this circumstance.

Martyn Williams/Foundry

It appeared to be a very little more directional than my present antenna, which is a person cause it may possibly have been extra prosperous. The built-in amplifier also assists, but most of the heavy lifting was possibly accomplished by the antenna’s layout. It has a unique appear with three UHF director bars extending out of its front. These emphasis reception to the location right in front of the antenna, and that assists boost sensitivity.

For the reason that reception can fluctuate from day to day, I also performed an extended test over a 7 days and did not come across any problems.

The Televes Dat Boss Blend LR is a big antenna

The antenna comes in a fairly big box and involves some time to assemble, but assembly is rather straightforward. It can be achieved with a screwdriver and an incorporated wrench placing the full thing alongside one another took about an hour. The recommendations are illustrated with couple terms, so you want to spend interest, especially to the applying the appropriate bolts in the accurate destinations.

Some parts bolt alongside one another and some others snap into spot, and it’s not constantly completely crystal clear how to do that. I invested a couple of minutes hoping to jam 1 of the reflectors into place in advance of recognizing I experienced it the wrong way close to. It was very simple when flipped.

This is a substantial-quality antenna, and I have no problems about it keeping on my roof by means of the wintertime.

Really should you obtain the Televes Dat Boss Blend LR?

The Televes Dat Manager Combine LR is the greatest outdoor antenna we have examined. The inclusion of a developed-in amplifier and two-way distribution amplifier in the house helps make it even much more helpful. It will operate properly in spots of medium to lower signal strength, but it’s overkill for places with strong indicators.