Finding the perfect HDTV antenna

An important first step in selecting an HDTV antenna is learning what signals you can receive at your home, and how strong those are. To help with that, there are a few websites that can analyze virtually any address in the U.S., using factors such as distance to the transmitter and local topography to give a fairly reliable prediction about what you should expect as far as reception and how powerful an antenna you will need.

Among such sites, TVFool.com and AntennaWeb.org do an excellent job. We slightly prefer AntennaWeb.org. For one thing, AntennaWeb.org produces a color-coded chart that matches the Consumer Electronics Association's color rating scheme for antennas, which makes picking one -- particularly for outdoor use -- easier. TVFool.com deals a little more directly with indoor TV antennas than AntennaWeb.Org, but uses its own color scheme instead of the one developed by the CEA.

Some complain that AntennaWeb.org is too conservative in its predictions of what stations you can receive -- and that's something the site itself admits to. However, that also means avoiding disappointment as there are many factors that can negatively impact TV reception beyond those that these sites can account for. If AntennaWeb.org says you can receive a certain channel with an antenna of a certain power, the odds are excellent that will be correct. Any additional channels you receive should be considered a welcome bonus.

In addition to considering available signals, you should consider the directions they come from (that information is also provided by AntennaWeb.org, TVFool.com and similar sites). In most places, most of the signals will come from the same general direction. But there could also be signals from other directions that are receivable and desirable. In some locales, because of topography (hills, etc., in the way), your best signals might come from a completely unexpected direction, such as transmitters in towns or cities that are farther away. That's important because some antennas are highly directional while others receive equally well -- or acceptably well -- in multiple directions.

As part of the now-concluded digital transition, most broadcasters shifted their frequencies to a section of what used to be the UHF TV band. In addition, most antennas marketed as HDTV antennas are designed to work best at those frequencies. The only problem is that Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has allowed some broadcaster requests to remain on their previously assigned VHF frequencies (the familiar channels 2 to 13). As it turns out, that's caused some problems for both broadcasters and viewers. Regardless, for the purposes of picking the right HDTV antenna, it means that if you still have VHF broadcasters you want to receive in your area, you'll need to find an HDTV antenna that also provides good performance over those frequencies.

Just as it is important to pick an HDTV antenna that's powerful enough to pick up all the signals you want, you should also avoid getting more antenna than you need. Aesthetics is one concern. Gain is how the strength of an antenna is measured. It's a matter of physics that increased gain and increased size go hand-in-hand. Additionally, a too-powerful television antenna can overwhelm a digital tuner if you are in an area with high signal strength.

If you already have an indoor or outdoor TV antenna that provides good reception for channels 2 through 51 (higher UHF channels have been reassigned by the FCC for other services), it might also do the trick as an HDTV antenna. That said, because of reduced power levels (for VHF broadcasters), the more limited range of UHF signals, and the nature of digital signals, viewers located some distance from TV transmitters will generally need a stronger television antenna than before for best results. On the other hand, for some viewers, reception quality has actually increased since the digital transition. In any event, there's no harm in trying your old antenna before shopping for a new one -- and you might be in for a pleasant surprise.

Here are some other things that experts say you should consider:

  • Use a directional TV antenna if your location suffers from multipath interference. In the old analog system, multipath interference -- weaker echoes of the original signal that are caused by reflections off of buildings or other obstacles -- showed up as ghosts. In digital broadcasting, multipath interference can render a signal completely unusable, even in areas where signal strength is very high.
  • You don't need a digital or an HDTV television antenna to receive digital signals. Though the range of frequencies has been reduced, all fall in the bands used by the old analog broadcasting system. Because of that, the best antennas are still based on tried-and-true designs developed over decades for receiving analog TV signals. That means if you already have a high-quality analog antenna (either indoor or outdoor), you might not need a new antenna at all for digital TV.
  • Be realistic about what you can receive at your location. In analog broadcasting, weaker stations were sometime received with acceptable picture quality as long as the viewer was willing to put up with a touch of static. That won't work in digital TV. Because of the nature of digital signals, you'll either see a terrific picture, a picture that cuts in and out with annoying regularity, or nothing at all.
  • Consider an outdoor TV antenna. Though more costly and difficult to install, in virtually every case an outdoor antenna, mounted as high as you can, will outperform an indoor one. For viewers located some distance from the transmitters (more than 50 miles or so), an outdoor antenna is essentially a necessity.

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