Welcome to EV's Indoor Antenna Round-Up!
The Ultimate Internet Guide to Indoor Antennas!
Some introductory thoughts.
THIS GUIDE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS
These antennas are listed in no particular order. This list of antennas are all recommended and better than average.
There is no one best indoor antenna. Environmental factors present a plethora of situations that no one antenna can be best for all of them. In fact, most times the best indoor antenna is an antenna placed outdoors or an outdoor antenna placed indoors. Some may need VHF Hi and UHF, others only UHF, after the Feb2009 shutdown of analog broadcasts. Antennas are a strange brew, sometimes it's more of an art than a science, and while these are generally well regarded antennas for indoor use, Your Mileage May Vary.
Remember, outdoor placement is much preferred if you can swing it. Even if you get some of these outdoor antennas that are small, flat, and aesthetic and unobtrusive enough to go inside, they will do better outside on a patio or outside a window especially if facing the broadcast tower cluster. Some even put large antennas in attics.
These are some of my personal favorites and I have personal experience with many of these antennas. Most are highly recommended antennas by others on the net and other AVSforum members in this thread; and in reviews and tests that I researched on the net
The other end of the equation is tuner ability, sensitivity and selectivity. ATSC tuners have dramatically improved over the last couple of years. If you are on the fringe of reception even using the best antenna setups, you may want to consider improving your tuner with a set top box tuner. Both SD Coupon Elligible Converter Boxes and HDTV Tuner Boxes exist. LG and Samsung make great HDTV tuner boxes. LG makes some of the best tuners, and their CECB the Zenith DTT901 currently has one of the most sensitive tuners for those looking to keep using their old CRT NTSC analog sets. You can research tuners and converter boxes in the same subforum that you are now located in AVSforum.
Please feel free to add your comments, suggestions, observations, corrections, experiences, questions, etc. They are most welcome.
I am not an expert or highly trained and experienced technician, just an amateur enthusiast. I do not portend to be anything else. There are many other people on this site that are much more knowledgable and experienced than I.
Special thanks to Seatacboy, golinux, fajitamosaic, Rick313, Rammitinski, and deltaguy, for their encoragement, enthusiasm, guidance and contributions.....and to KenH for making this thread a sticky.
I hope this will be useful to others.
Please let me know if you like it.
Best regards
EV
Newbies start here! Read this first!
Sage advice from KenH.
Performance rankings.....based on EV's observations....Rough Guide....YMMV
These are rough guestimations, based on my personal observations. They have not been instrument tested yet. Just because something is at the top of the list, does not necessarily mean that it is the best antenna for you and your particular situation. You may be best served by an unamplified model or an omnidirectional model, and directional and amplified units tend to do better on net gain and distance measures. This list is also most certainly distorted by varying atmospheric conditions. I will address that by instrument testing these all on one day, so as to minimize human and atmospheric error.
Performance rankings so far.....based on EV's observations....Rough Guide....YMMV
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS and is changed and updated regularly as new and better testing data becomes available
Channel Master 4220 with CM 7777 amp on roof
DB2 with CM 7777 amp on roof
RS 1880
RS 1892 UFO
Antennas Direct ClearStream2
Channel Master 4220 unamped indoors
DB2 unamped indoors
Winegard SS-3000
Petra SuperPower 32db (Cornet 645A)
Terk HDTVa
RS Double Bow Tie
Philips MANT940
RS DA-5200
GE Futura Outdoor
Philips MANT950
RCA ANT806
Classic Single Bow Tie
Philips Silver Sensor
Godar Model 1
Terk TV-3
Philips MANT510
RS 1634
My First Attempt at the Coat Hanger Antenna, Youtube Video Specifications unamped
GE Futura Indoor
Terk TV-55
RS 1874 Budget
Picture Frame Antenna
RCA ANT1500
Channel Master 4030
Samsung Axession TV DA1000/GE Contempo
RCA ANT108 (very similar to the RCA ANT110 and others)
RS 1868 Delta
Terk TV-2
RCA ANT1020
Terk TV-5
RS 1870
Jensen TV 931
Terk TV-1 without Loop
RS FM Dipole
EV's Favorites....so far
RS 1880
RS 1892 UFO
RS DA-5200
RS Double Bow Tie
RS Single Classic BowTie
RS 1874 Budget
Petra SuperPower 32db(Cornet 645A)
Godar Model 1
Antennas Direc DB2
Antennas Direct ClearStream2
Channel Master 4149
Winegard SS-3000
Terk HDTVa
Terk TV-3
Terk TV-2
Philips Silver Sensor
Philips MANT510
Philips MANT940
Philips MANT950
RCA ANT806
RCA ANT108 (ANT110)
Here is a chart designed by wwong incorporating the data that I collected in regards to antenna performance using a Zenith 901 Converter Box. Note the first 2 entries were tested on a seperate day, I was testing the Clearstream2 and used the DB2 as a control to help integrate the information into the above lists.
.
The Ultimate Internet Guide to Indoor Antennas!
Some introductory thoughts.
THIS GUIDE IS A WORK IN PROGRESS
These antennas are listed in no particular order. This list of antennas are all recommended and better than average.
There is no one best indoor antenna. Environmental factors present a plethora of situations that no one antenna can be best for all of them. In fact, most times the best indoor antenna is an antenna placed outdoors or an outdoor antenna placed indoors. Some may need VHF Hi and UHF, others only UHF, after the Feb2009 shutdown of analog broadcasts. Antennas are a strange brew, sometimes it's more of an art than a science, and while these are generally well regarded antennas for indoor use, Your Mileage May Vary.
Remember, outdoor placement is much preferred if you can swing it. Even if you get some of these outdoor antennas that are small, flat, and aesthetic and unobtrusive enough to go inside, they will do better outside on a patio or outside a window especially if facing the broadcast tower cluster. Some even put large antennas in attics.
These are some of my personal favorites and I have personal experience with many of these antennas. Most are highly recommended antennas by others on the net and other AVSforum members in this thread; and in reviews and tests that I researched on the net
The other end of the equation is tuner ability, sensitivity and selectivity. ATSC tuners have dramatically improved over the last couple of years. If you are on the fringe of reception even using the best antenna setups, you may want to consider improving your tuner with a set top box tuner. Both SD Coupon Elligible Converter Boxes and HDTV Tuner Boxes exist. LG and Samsung make great HDTV tuner boxes. LG makes some of the best tuners, and their CECB the Zenith DTT901 currently has one of the most sensitive tuners for those looking to keep using their old CRT NTSC analog sets. You can research tuners and converter boxes in the same subforum that you are now located in AVSforum.
Please feel free to add your comments, suggestions, observations, corrections, experiences, questions, etc. They are most welcome.
I am not an expert or highly trained and experienced technician, just an amateur enthusiast. I do not portend to be anything else. There are many other people on this site that are much more knowledgable and experienced than I.
Special thanks to Seatacboy, golinux, fajitamosaic, Rick313, Rammitinski, and deltaguy, for their encoragement, enthusiasm, guidance and contributions.....and to KenH for making this thread a sticky.
I hope this will be useful to others.
Please let me know if you like it.
Best regards
EV
Newbies start here! Read this first!
Sage advice from KenH.
Performance rankings.....based on EV's observations....Rough Guide....YMMV
These are rough guestimations, based on my personal observations. They have not been instrument tested yet. Just because something is at the top of the list, does not necessarily mean that it is the best antenna for you and your particular situation. You may be best served by an unamplified model or an omnidirectional model, and directional and amplified units tend to do better on net gain and distance measures. This list is also most certainly distorted by varying atmospheric conditions. I will address that by instrument testing these all on one day, so as to minimize human and atmospheric error.
Performance rankings so far.....based on EV's observations....Rough Guide....YMMV
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS and is changed and updated regularly as new and better testing data becomes available
Channel Master 4220 with CM 7777 amp on roof
DB2 with CM 7777 amp on roof
RS 1880
RS 1892 UFO
Antennas Direct ClearStream2
Channel Master 4220 unamped indoors
DB2 unamped indoors
Winegard SS-3000
Petra SuperPower 32db (Cornet 645A)
Terk HDTVa
RS Double Bow Tie
Philips MANT940
RS DA-5200
GE Futura Outdoor
Philips MANT950
RCA ANT806
Classic Single Bow Tie
Philips Silver Sensor
Godar Model 1
Terk TV-3
Philips MANT510
RS 1634
My First Attempt at the Coat Hanger Antenna, Youtube Video Specifications unamped
GE Futura Indoor
Terk TV-55
RS 1874 Budget
Picture Frame Antenna
RCA ANT1500
Channel Master 4030
Samsung Axession TV DA1000/GE Contempo
RCA ANT108 (very similar to the RCA ANT110 and others)
RS 1868 Delta
Terk TV-2
RCA ANT1020
Terk TV-5
RS 1870
Jensen TV 931
Terk TV-1 without Loop
RS FM Dipole
EV's Favorites....so far
RS 1880
RS 1892 UFO
RS DA-5200
RS Double Bow Tie
RS Single Classic BowTie
RS 1874 Budget
Petra SuperPower 32db(Cornet 645A)
Godar Model 1
Antennas Direc DB2
Antennas Direct ClearStream2
Channel Master 4149
Winegard SS-3000
Terk HDTVa
Terk TV-3
Terk TV-2
Philips Silver Sensor
Philips MANT510
Philips MANT940
Philips MANT950
RCA ANT806
RCA ANT108 (ANT110)
Here is a chart designed by wwong incorporating the data that I collected in regards to antenna performance using a Zenith 901 Converter Box. Note the first 2 entries were tested on a seperate day, I was testing the Clearstream2 and used the DB2 as a control to help integrate the information into the above lists.
.