What TV Antenna Gets The Most Channels

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While the price point is low on this antenna, it was a flop for our review team. It didnt pick up as many channels as other antennas. Plus, a non-detachable, short coaxial cable tethers this antenna close to the TV, a major drawback if you can get better reception and pick up more channels by placing your antenna by a window.

Pros:

• A small antenna with a minimalist design is mostly unobtrusive, despite the rabbit ears. It can stand up on your media console.
• Somewhat easy assembly, though the directions werent compatible with one of our reviewers smart TVs.
• Low price point.

Cons:

• Picture quality and glitching were a problem for our review team.
• Picked up fewer channels compared to other antennas. One reviewer noted that even some of the channels marked yellow on antennaweb.org which indicates they should be accessible via a small, multi-directional antenna were glitchy or wouldnt load with this antenna.
• A non-removable, short coaxial cable doesnt allow you to move this antenna very far from the TV.

Get More Channels With Samsung TV Plus

If you’re already bored of all the channels that come with cable or an antenna – or maybe you don’t have either set up – you can get free TV using Samsung TV Plus! This service is complimentary on all newer Samsung smart TVs and streams channelsover the internet directly to your TV.To access this feature, you simply need to press the Home button on your remote and then select Samsung TV Plus. You can learn more about the service by checking out our complete Samsung TV Plus guide.

How Do You Set Up Your Hdtv Antenna

The good news is that there’s no complicated setup software to worry about. Today’s TVs all include digital tuners: Plug in an antenna and go to the tuner/antenna section of your TV menu that’s about it. Your TV should automatically search and save any available channels with a strong enough signal: Refer to your TV manual for more specific instructions. If the number of channels picked up seems low to you, you will have an option to search again with a different placement.

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Q: Why Is It Better To Install My Antenna Outdoors Or In An Attic

A: For the best performance, we typically recommend placement of your TV antenna at the highest point available to you and with a clear line of sight to the broadcast towers to minimize the possibility of obstructions between your antenna and the broadcast towers it is receiving signals from. Of course, many people still choose to install their TV antenna in the attic for aesthetic reasons or to comply with neighborhood guidelines. Where installation is possible, an outdoor TV antenna will offer the best opportunity for receiving TV signals. Outdoor TV antennas are traditionally mounted on a rooftop and have a distinct advantage over indoor and attic antennas, with better line-of-sight to the broadcast towers and fewer obstructions such as trees, buildings, walls, or roofing materials. If you live a far distance from the broadcast towers, a long-range outdoor antenna is the best option for receiving the available TV signals. Outdoor antennas can also be mounted onto the side of ones house, decks, or on a tripod from the ground if rooftop access is not available.

Remove Electrical Interference From Your Homes Interior And Exterior

Heaters, refrigerators, and even LED and fluorescent lights in your home can cause interference. Therefore, position your antenna as far away from that interference as you can. However, it will not be easy if you have many electrical devices in your house. In this case, I suggest you purchase a power conditioner. It can assist in cleaning dirty power, reducing EM and RF interference in your home, and protecting your antenna from power surges.

You should also consider 4G signal interference, which can cause your TV signal to be distorted or broken. With that, check your antenna if it has signal filters. You can buy products like an LTE Filter for TV antennas if it doesnt. It blocks signal interference by filtering out radio signals outside the standard television broadcast band. Also, you wont have to worry about the filter affecting your phones or tablets because it only affects signals traveling between your antenna and the TV.

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How To Get The Most Free TV Channels With An Hdtv Antenna

Here’s Smith’s advice for getting the most out of your antenna.

• Many indoor antennas are designed to sit behind a TV or attach to a wall behind the TV, but you should experiment with placement. Many times putting the antenna higher on the wall or near a window improves the reception.
• Buyers need to consider whether they need an amplified antenna or a passive antenna. An amplified HDTV antenna typically costs a little more and you need to plug the antenna into power, but it can dramatically improve the reception if you are dealing with medium to low signals.
• If you know where you want to place the antenna, pay attention to the style. HDTV antennas range from flat stick-on designs, some of which are paintable, to figure-eight style antennas, blades, and even some options that look a bit like modern art.

Indoor antennas are super easy to set up, with no professional help needed. If you’re inclined to install an outdoor TV antenna yourself, then Gavin D. J. Harper, author of several books about technology and electronics, says, “It’s important to select the right kind of aerial for your location. Check out the DTV coverage maps at the FCC for details on transmitters. This will also give you important guidance on the direction of transmitters for mounting external antennas and the direction you will need to point them in.”

The Best TV Antenna In 2022

Heres how to choose the best TV antenna for UHF and VHF reception based on hands-on testing over 19 months in three states across the U.S.

The best TV antenna gets you local channels such as ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS. You can also watch popular sub-channels such as MeTV and Court TV that are on cable and live TV streaming services.

You should start using a TV antenna if you are about to cut the cord and get rid of cable TV. But choosing the correct TV antenna for the best reception requires a little bit of know-how.

This review has everything you need to know before buying the best TV antenna for your home or apartment.

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Q: How Is Reception In Distant Or Fringe Areas Will I Get A Fuzzy Picture

A: When it comes to digital television, it’s an “all or nothing at all” proposition. Once the signal is acquired, a steady stream of data assures you’ll get a perfect picture and great audio. If that bitstream is interrupted, however, there will be nothing – just a blank screen. In areas with lots of buildings or obstacles, multi-path distortion can cause a “cliff effect” to kick in. The fix is to use a higher-gain antenna assuming the multi-path can be tamed. Work is being done to determine the optimal designs for improving error correction in set-top receivers.

As far as distance is concerned, getting reliable UHF DTV reception beyond the curvature of the earth is difficult. Terrain has a major impact on reception. Going over water is the best-case-scenario since water is generally flat and has positive impacts on temperature for sending the signal along. That being said, beyond 70 miles, unless you can get direct line-of-sight to the transmitters, obstacles which impact reception negatively are inevitable.

What Are The Best TV Antennas

Our pick of the best TV antennas, based on our testing, is the Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro. It combines that basic flat mudflap design with an extra-wide profile and a built-in amplifier to boost the number of watchable channels. An integrated signal strength meter even helps you find the spot for the best reception.

However, for the very best reception you can get, you’ll want to upgrade to an outdoor antenna, and our favorite is the Winegard Elite 7550 Outdoor HDTV Antenna. With a 70-mile range, it’s perfect for pulling in channels that are harder to get with smaller indoor antennas.

Our budget pick is the 1byone Amplified HDTV Antenna. At just $12, it’s a great option for folks who don’t need a lot of range and the low price is great.

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Other TV Antennas We Tested

The U Must Have Amplified HD Digital TV Antenna.

• 1byOne Indoor Amplified HDTV Antenna: The 1byOne is one of two antennas in this list with a nonremovable coax cable, and at only 10 feet long, it may not work in some rooms where it cannot pick up a very weak signal. The black plastic feels a little cheap compared with the others, though the HD antenna model does come with a powered gain amplifier. It was toward the bottom of the pack in terms of signal performance, but this indoor HDTV antenna was the only television antenna to pick up CBS from a TV tower at our Manhattan location . It is a long-range antenna that receives TV signals up to 200 miles. The current price is cheaper than the others, but in our book the Channel Master Flatenna is the better bet.
• U Must Have Amplified HD Digital TV Antenna: The U Must Have amplified antenna comes with a sticky pad on the back and a relatively long, though nonremovable, lead at 18 feet. The included amplifier gives the antenna some flexibility and the product feels more solidly made overall than the 1byOne, though they performed similarly.

How We Test Cheap TV Antennas

All of the TV antennas we review â in any price range â are put through the same testing process to determine how many channels they will receive and how many of those channels are watchable.

All of our testing is done in the same location in New York City, an apartment that receives dozens of channels from a variety of broadcasters. Every individual antenna is connected to the same Samsung 4K TV and built-in TV tuner, and each one is placed in the same position to eliminate variables of environmental interference and to produce comparable results.

The Manhattan testing environment has more than 100 over-the-air channels available in the area, making it an ideal testing location for antenna reception of any range, with more sensitive, long-range antennas pulling in a higher number of channels. It also gives us a chance to determine the reception quality, by seeing whether or not those channels are clear and watchable. The best antennas will pull in more channels and a higher number of watchable results.

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How Can You Figure Out What Hdtv Antenna Works Best For Your Needs

That depends a lot on your location and your specific entertainment space. Antennas come in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit next to TVs, on top of them, on nearby windows, or even outside on the roof. Generally, larger antennas get better reception, although placement is also important look for range numbers when buying. Other features simply aren’t as important.

Of course, if this is your first antenna you may not know how good your range should be to pick up as many nearby signals as possible. For that, you can turn to the FCC’s DTV reception map, which is the most accurate look at the available channels in your region. Areas with good reception generally don’t need to worry as much about range.

The Benefits Of Owning An Antenna

Despite some shortcomings, there are many good reasons to own a TV antenna.

For one, a TV antenna helps you break away from the onerous service agreements you have with cable and satellite providers and can help you save money. Sure, you won’t get as many channels included, but if you combine the antenna with third-party streaming services, you’ll get awfully close to all you want. And who can really argue with the idea of saving hundreds of dollars a year by cutting the cord and using an antenna to get free programming?

Beyond that, antennas can deliver better picture quality than what you’re experiencing on cable or satellite. Since 2009, over-the-air broadcasts are often delivered in 1080p resolution. In order to save on bandwidth, cable and satellite companies compress those broadcasts and deliver them in lower-quality HD.

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In my experience with the Mohu antennas, the picture quality difference was significant, and made me not want to go back to the cable box.

Finally, and this is something that should not be overlooked, there is a good chance you’re not going to miss the stuff you really care about even if you don’t want to spend any money on streaming services.

In fact, most of the programming you watch now, including live events, are already available over the air.

“Ninety-four of the top 100 television programs are broadcast free over the air,” Buff says.

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Let’s Talk About Placement

Antenna placement is critical to getting the best picture quality.

If you chose an outdoor antenna because you live far away from a tower, you should place it on your roof or in the attic. Outdoor antennas work best when they’re higher up and have a clear line-of-sight to the sky. And since they’re bigger than indoor antenna, they’ll need a little extra room.

Whichever option you pick, be sure you don’t have any metal or other obstructions around that might prevent you from getting the best signal. Ultimately, mounting the antenna shouldn’t be too difficult, but be sure to follow instructions.

Indoor antenna positioning can be a little trickier. Since it won’t be on top of your house with few barriers, you’ll need to be a bit more strategic about where you place it.

“Positioning your antenna inside your home is all about finding the ‘sweet spot’ which typically means placing your antenna near a window and as high up as possible,” Mark Buff, CEO at Mohu, told Tom’s Guide in an interview. “It can take a little trial and error, so test placing the antenna in multiple locations, running a channel scan with each new placement, to find your home’s sweet spot.”

Dont worry about variances in placement with an amplified antenna compared to a nonamplified antenna. They both need to be placed in the right spot to get you the best signal.

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Install An Antenna Preamplifier

An antenna-mounted preamplifier compensates for signal loss in the coaxial cable that connects the antenna to the television. It is essential to overcome signal loss if your location is far away from the TV transmitter towers. But pre-amplifier can be counterproductive in areas where the TV transmitters are relatively close because they can cause signal levels to be too high and distorted.

In addition, a professional field strength meter is the most accurate way to measure the level of the received signal. However, if it is a one-time installation, it may be overkill. Alternatively, you can use a TV station locator tool to see what antenna channels are available near you.

Note: Make sure your antenna isnt already amplified, as a pre-amplifier wont work with amplified antennas.

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Best Indoor TV Antennas Of 2022 In Full:

For a mid-price antenna that delivers rock-solid HD channels within its 50-mile radius, your search stops here. The trade-off is that it’s not exactly a small unit â that big, thin panel could cover most of a window â but if that’s not a problem then it’s great value.

In our testing, we found that it pulled in 48 channels, where more expensive and powerful antennas could receive 54 channels. But in terms of the picture quality and stability of the channels it did receive, including the HD ones, many of them were in just as good quality as more powerful options provide.

That’s helped partly by the in-line amplifier, which you can switch on and off at will. The 12-foot coaxial cable is a decent length â you can get a bit longer out of the box from some other options, but this will probably cover most people.

Setup is easy, partly thanks to the free Antenna Point app, which tells you where cable stations are located, so you can point your antenna in the right direction to pick up the most stations.

Read the full review:Antennas Direct ClearStream Flex

Mohuâs Arc indoor antenna is easy to set up, fairly compact, and nice-looking enough to blend with a range of decors. Its clip-on bracket allows wall-mounting or tabletop use â though the latter arrangement is a bit tippy.

Read the full review:Mohu Arc

Read the full review: Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro

Q: How Do I Resolve A Channel That Keeps Cutting Out And/or Im Having Issues With Reception What Can I Do

A: This could be due to several different issues. Click here to consult our dedicated Troubleshooting Reception page. Give our Connection Crew a call or chat with us right here on our website for an evaluation of your location and/or installation or for more tips on how to receive the best TV signals from your local towers. We are available 7 days a week.

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