I want to find a good HD antenna for my tv

July 11, 2013 5:45 AM

I have cable for the internet and a basic cable package. I want to just keep my internet but get rid of the cable tv and go with an antenna package for HDTV. I have Roku and Tivo, now to tie this in with a cool antenna and associated hardware to save a few bucks! Any tips or suggestions for an antenna novice would be appreciated,thanks.
posted by Upon Further Review to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Go to Antenna Web to get a vague sense of how strong signals are where you live--to know if you can get by with a smallish UHF antenna or you need something like I have, a DB4-size. As a comparison, I can easily get all channels they list as "Blue" and some that are "Violet" with an Antennas Direct DB4 plus pre-amp since I have my antenna in my 2nd floor with a coax running to my basement (the current model, DB4e, has also good reviews on Amazon.)

As another note, most "HD" antennas are only UHF since the majority of HD channels are now broadcast at actual channel 14 and above (the channel your TV shows and TV stations advertise might not be what their RF channel is). So, if you see, on Antenna Web or similar, lots of channels with "RF Channel" at 13 or below, you may need to buy an additional VHF antenna depending on the HD antenna you buy and their signal strength.

It's not as bad as audiophile stuff, but there's a lot of snake oil about TV reception out there. But it is still worth reading around. Amps can't really help too much--they can just make it possible to do longer cable runs or help if your TV has a crappy tuner. A bigger antenna, better placement (higher/not behind metal bars/etc), and more accurate orientations are things that actually help.
posted by skynxnex at 6:28 AM on July 11, 2013

Also checkout TV Fool for an alternate determination of how strong the signals are near you, and which direction you have to point an antenna.

VHF Real (RF) channels 2-13 (not the virtual channel numbers) are further split into VHF LO 2-6 and VHF HI 7-13. If you have the misfortune to live somewhere(like philly) that uses VHF LO you need to double check that an antenna supports it. Most are UHF only (14+), more are VHF HI + UHF, and usually only old style large roof antennas handle VHF-LO. Rabbit ears might work for VHF, but they never worked well for me.
posted by TheAdamist at 6:35 AM on July 11, 2013

I live in a large city and with a $10 Radio Shack set of rabbit ears I get all of the OTA channels. So it will depend on where you live.

However something I didn't know when I cut my cable TV service that they let me keep the HD channels offered over the air without a box. So my other TV without an antenna gets the same channels via cable on different channel numbers (they also let me have the spans and some government public access channels). This will depend on your cable company.
posted by birdherder at 6:48 AM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

2nding birdherder - I live in Arlington, MA, which puts me about 8 miles from most of the Boston broadcast towers, and I get all the local stations just fine with a pretty junky rabbit-ears-style setup. The thing about digital signals is, if you get them at all, you pretty much get them perfectly - there are no ghosts or other artifacts. So a "good enough" antenna is ... good enough.
posted by mr vino at 8:53 AM on July 11, 2013

Check out instructables.com, and search for HDTV antenna--there are some really simple DIY HDTV antennas, if you like that kind of thing.
posted by hanoixan at 10:55 AM on July 11, 2013

I just did this. I have a Mohu Leaf. I live in Brooklyn on a third floor apartment. When I first taped it to the wall like they instructed I got about 6 channels. When I went to move it to see if I could get better reception in another location, I accidentally dropped it behind the dresser where the tv is located and thought, eh, let's see what that does. I got 47 channels. Works fine.
posted by rdnnyc at 10:59 AM on July 11, 2013

The Wirecutter likes the C2 Clearstream
posted by mcstayinskool at 1:44 PM on July 11, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the advice, I appreciate it!
posted by Upon Further Review at 6:35 AM on July 13, 2013

Before I went back to cable I tried all kinds antennas, both store-bought and DIY and this homemade version was the best one by far. Bonus: I bought the balun adapter at the 99-cent store, bringing the total cost to...99 cents.
posted by Room 641-A at 8:30 AM on July 13, 2013