RCA - Indoor HDTV Antenna - White

Unfortunately, due to the room layout, this antenna could not be placed on an outer wall or into a window, where it might actually have worked better. Placing the antenna higher on the wall did not seem to improve results. Moving the antenna around as needed for a particular station (including, strangely, laying it flat on the floor) was very helpful (so attaching it to the wall may not be one of your better choices). Digital over-the-air TV (DTV) IS a strange creature (this is my first foray into "cutting the cord" from satellite and cable) - in North Portland, OR, DTV signals come from ALL directions, but principally from north and south and it helped to bring the antenna around the corner from the wall it is up against for stations originating in Vancouver, WA. I am fuzzy as to whether it is an issue with DTV or just because there is a taller building across the street to the south, but reception seemed to "drift" into the evening, requiring the antenna to be re-oriented. And in what is likely to be an issue with the particular TV I have, the channels need to be re-scanned fairly regularly (for some reason, the TV drops channels if it doesn't get a good signal, so the antenna needs to be re-oriented and channels re-scanned). All these issues seem to be common among ALL small antennas and other ratings suggest this antenna was the best among them. It did better at receiving channels than the short wire antenna that came with a DTV computer attachment, so it got to keep its job :-) If you lived in a house, I would probably recommend one of the larger in-attic or roof-top antennas. If you don't like doing a little work to get your "free" DTV signal, I would stick with satellite (and if you like those fun older TV shows you find on MyTV, MeTV, and AntennaTV, you will need to do cable). But if you don't watch a lot of TV to begin with, like the "side-channels" like My, Me, and ANT for "late-night black-and-white," have spouse/cohabitants that don't mind you uttering the occasional "bad word," AND don't mind a little exercise getting up and sitting down from the chair to move the antenna around, this antenna is good for the job.

I bought this antenna when my cable went out for a few days. It let me explore cutting the cord as well. Reception in the Metro DC area is good: I got some 30 stations, depending on antenna orientation. This was a significant improvement over the $10 rabbit ears I had tried earlier. All in all, I could receive the major networks, PBS, ION. I found that placement and orientation had dramatic effects on signal reception. Placing the antenna high up on a wall usually gave better results. Orienting the antenna on an azimuth toward the transmitter (using the compass app on my iPhone) was very important. Orienting the antenna either parallel to the wall or parallel to the floor had an effect on reception. Some stations worked best when the antenna was against the wall; some when it was lying on a table. Experimenting with antenna placement and orientation to get the best reception will take a while, it took me around 30 minutes before I was happy. There are times when you will be able to get prefect reception on one station and no reception on another. It took me considerable fiddling to get acceptable reception on all the stations I wanted. This antenna was the runner up among the three antennas I bought to try out. It was good value for money. The best antenna of the three cost twice what this one did. If you are considering cutting the cord and live in reasonable proximity to TV transmitters, this antenna probably will work for you. In any event, it is cheap insurance against losing your cable feed the day before the big game -- as happened to me.

I'm in an area that has a lot of over-the-air stations available, so with the rising cost of cable and dish, streaming internet along with local stations gives me more viewing available than I can handle in a day. I used my rooftop antennae until the cable from it separated under the house. After purchasing a fancy a/c powered indoor antennae with remote (to rotate something inside) I thought that I had all that I could get from an antennae, yet formerly strong stations were dropped or broke up. When I saw the RCA, I figured what the heck! The cost was low enough (less that 1/4 of the a/c model) and with Best Buy's return policy I really couldn't lose much. To my surprise, this antennae worked better than anything that I formerly used, including the rooftop.unit. (Which I left on the roof in case a Major Studio wants to shoot a 1950's film using my house and pay me generously for it). The RCA brings in an incredible number of stations that I didn't even know existed in addition to my old favorites. The only drawback, if you want to call it that, is that occasionally I have to get up off the couch and move the antennae around a bit to bring in a station. The good news is that it comes with a nice long cable so moving it and findind an appropriate spot to lay it down - the flat profile helps - is easy. After a while, I got to know which stations needed an adjustment, so finding the spot to put it was a breeze.

When TV made the big digital switch, I got a hold of the government $40 coupon and went and got my digital tuner box at a local big box store. (We didn't have a Best Buy yet.) I asked the salesperson if I needed a special antenna, and was told I could get a better one, but that I could hook my old rabbit ears and UHF loop combo to it and it would work. I was pretty tight on cash at the time, so I stuck with what I had. And it sucked! We were only using it in the kitchen at the time, we had cable hooked up to our main TV, so we didn't worry about it to much, but I do remember the kitchen TV rarely got turned on anymore, because it was more frustrating than helpful. We ditched cable for Netflix and Hulu a few months back, and suddenly broadcast TV was a bit more important again. Again, it sucked. I finally went into Best Buy and asked what we could do about it, and the helpful salesperson explained to me that the antenna I was using wouldn't even receive a lot of the broadcast channels, and that the wimpy little metal UHF loop was the only thing that was pulling anything in at all. I silently cursed myself for all the time I'd spent tweaking the rabbit ears that were completely non-functional! I took home the cool, small, flat, RCA - Indoor HDTV Antenna, hung it on the wall (where it nearly disappeared against the white wall), attached it to the back of our HDTV, ran the channel scan, and broadcast TV is now actually enjoyable and viable again! Thanks, Best Buy!

This RCA antenna, encased in a thin, white plastic housing, works better than I thought it would. The reception is clearly superior to the powered antenna it replaced. Using the signal strength indicator on the TV for comparison, channels that used to score in the 70s to 80s now come in at around 90. The best channels get 97-98, which wasn't possible on my old antenna, no matter where I moved it. The coax cable is built into the base of the antenna, so you're stuck with the length of cable provided, but this hasn't been an issue for me, since most channels require nothing more than a slight shift in the orientation of the housing. I live close to the broadcast antennas, however, so I can imagine others may wish they could reposition the antenna much further from the TV than the cable will allow. And even with the relatively strong signals, permanently mounting the antenna to a wall is out of the question, since it does require the occasional tweak in position. Of course, OTA TV signals vary greatly by location and market, so don't expect this thing to work miracles. It's just an antenna, and if you didn't get reception with your old model, don't expect to get reception with this one. The housing is very lightweight and thin, and there is no anti-slip material on the bottom, so a slight tug on the cable (or gentle tap from a cat) would pull the antenna down quickly. It should survive a fall or two, and I suspect it would work fine even with a cracked housing. Basically, it does what it's supposed to, and watching over-the-air HD is an awesome way to stick it to The Man.

I have only had this antenna for about a week now, but so far I am extremely pleased. I bought this unit with low expectations based on the reviews I read here and the knowledge of where it would be used. Both of these turned out to be non-issues. Unpackaging and setup was incredibly easy since there is really nothing to do. The device comes fully assembled with the coax cable permanently attached/built in. It does come with screws to wallmount if you desired, but due to being in an apartment, this wasn't an option for me. From here I attached this cable to the TV and scanned for channels. The first try yielded 20 channels and that was laying flat on the dresser beside the TV away from a window with trees blocking my line of sight out of the window. I did move the antenna into different locations (make sure to rescan after moving!) a few times only to settle on having it as high on the wall as possible which gave me 26 channels. Granted some of these were duplicates that needed removed, but this was still better variety than I received from Verizon. I highly recommend visiting antennaweb.org to learn about the different types of antenna's and what kind you would have the best experience with in your specific geographic location.

A few years ago, my husband and I realized we spent way too much time in front of the TV and not enough time enjoying the outdoors and life. So, we cut back to basic cable, which consisted of about 10 stations not in HD for $20+ per month. When we moved this year, our new rental house was not yet equipped with TV cables so we thought we'd try just using Hulu. However, my husband missed football too much. For a total cost of about $30 total we now get the same, if not a few more stations then we were getting last year at $20/mo. The stations are also in high def. Occasionally (maybe once a week) the service isn't great and the stations will freeze or skip (I haven't correlated this to weather; it seems to happen mostly when I try to watch the Today show so may be related to station and time of day). Obviously this can be annoying, but what do you expect for free basic cable? The other thing that may matter to some is that, our house is small (900 sq ft) and we are only using this on our living room TV that is located by both a door and windows, so this may play a role in how strong our signal is. Overall, very pleased with this purchase and I think my husband may count this as one of his all time best purchases. I'm thrilled we are saving money every month. I personally would give this item 5 stars for our households needs, but it does have some slight imperfections as mentioned above that may make it less then ideal for other households, hence the 4 stars.

I have satellite as a main provider and despite their 99% reliability claim, here in Florida during the rainy season it's only about 90%. Because this was going to be out in the main living area, I wanted an antenna that was hidden rather than the amplified rabbit ears I already have. From the previous experience I have with antennas in my area, I knew that I would have to place it high to get the signals, higher than the built in cord would allow. I added an in line coaxial coupler and an extra 6 ft of coax and placed that antenna approx. 7.5 ft above the floor, atop a speaker that is on top of my entertainment center. I was warned by the sales associate that I might only receive 2 channels, but from previous experience with other antennas and the placement of this antenna I receive all of the broadcast channels available. I am located about 27 miles from those stations, so I can't vouch for the reception beyond that distance, but if you are within the stated 40 miles go ahead and try it. Don't be afraid to add another short length of cable to it to get the height necessary to get reception.