Customer Ratings & Reviews

This antenna works very good to pick up our locals. Instead of investing money in another streaming service, I bought this antenna to pick up my football games and other programs that I could not get with the streaming service that I bought into. It also receives other programs that I enjoy. I have it located behind my TV and it works exceptionally well.

Works Great with our new 75in Samsung tv, excellent quality and reasonably priced. Highly recommend!!! We love bestbuy, its our new favorite store! Awesome Customer Service!!! Thanks!

Now I Can Watch Football games and i don’t have to pay for subscription

Great reception! With this antenna, I will be purchasing another one for my other tv.

Im honestly about to return it. Was told it was the best one they had. Powered indoor antennae. Well the $3.50 one from menards works as well with far less chaos. I still can't get CBS. Im really dissapointed. I really thought this would change my quality of veiwing local channels without paying for cable or streaming. NOPE

Love that we stream and are able to get more channels locally it makes watching tv more enjoyable!!!

Works great. Picked up a bunch of free channels. Wanted it for abc it comes in well in my area.

Easy to set up & able to watch all my local channels.

This RCA antenna has been exactly what I needed to watch local tv.

This antenna has allowed us to cancel cable TV and enjoy all our favorite networks

This $35 amplified antenna MIGHT be what cord-cutters need to bring in FREE OTR (Over the Air) TV signals, or it might not. Let me explain. How far away and what are the natural barriers between the user and the broadcast towers? Under the right conditions, this 5-1/2” x 8-1/2” digital antenna will do a fine job. The higher it can be located indoors and the fewer barriers between the antenna and direct line-of-sight, the better. At its best, users will enjoy beautiful HDTV today with an antenna. That picture usually looks far better than broadcast TV channels over cable or satellite. OTA signals and images are pure and uncompressed. Cable and satellite providers do not provide these raw signals. In the newest iteration of TV technology that has been approved by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), there are provisions for 4K, HDR and better sound, but don’t expect to see it anytime soon in all new TVs. The ATSC 3.0 technology is in a few high-end TVs now, with more set to roll out with newly-capable tuners later this year and into 2022. To learn if this antenna might work for you, there is a free and handy RCA app for iOS and Android phones that points the way from YOUR location to the broadcast towers serving your address. Download and launch the FREE “RCA Signal Finder” app from the app store. It points the way to success, showing the distance from and direction pointing to the towers. Now, let’s take a look at what amplification is all about. Ideally, the use of amplification is to be avoided. Why? Because amplifying a weak signal also introduces signal “noise” or artifacts that can degrade the picture. At best, it is a double-edged sword. At worst, amplification makes the image worse. When digital TV began and analog TV went away, everything changed. If you are old enough to remember using “rabbit ears”, those collapsible rods ideally in a “V” shape, you will also remember that rotating the V to reorient the antenna towards better picture was effective. Poor signal, poor aim resulted in pictures with what was referred to as snow. The picture quality could range from snowy to acceptable to wonderful. Often, slight reorientation of the rabbit ears was all that was needed. Now, all of that has changed in the era of digital TV. Like all things digital, the signal consists of one and zeros as interpreted by the TV tuner. Snow is gone. A lesser amount of signal artifacts and a finer aim will make all the difference between picture and no picture. The rabbit ears on this antenna are a throwback to a design when TV transmission was analog. Analog is mostly a thing of the past and gone from all major TV markets. The rabbit ears on this antenna are ineffectual and of no use except for the few markets with what is called LPTV (Low Powered TV) broadcast. These are generally NOT the broadcast stations most users want, but can still be found in some rural areas and still in some urban areas. As soon as these remaining stations have upgraded their equipment, the new channels will be available only as conventional DTV (Digital TV) stations and that will be that. A final note about OTA stations vs. cable TV stations. Antennas can only bring in network and other locally-available stations. They are not capable of bringing in stations available only via cable and satellite. Common examples include, CNN, MSNBC, HBO, Showtime, A&E, History Channel and more than can be conveniently listed here. Search on “cable vs broadcast stations” for more information. OTA broadcast stations are FREE with an antenna, if it works where you are. The rest are not available without a digital means to acquire them, including cable and satellite providers and the growing list of streaming providers. Manual aim of this kind of antenna’s flat plane is the only method of signal gathering, along with amplification. The size of a flat antenna as well as its technology will determine its ability to bring in OTA TV signal and deliver a usable picture to your eyes. This is a small device. Therefore its ability to collect signals from greater distances is limited. There are larger amplified and unpowered indoor/outdoor digital antennas on the market. Some feature a metal grid that helps gather and direct the signal to the flat area of the antenna. In addition, some antennas can be attached to a roof-mounted mast along with a motorized rotator operated by a mobile app or self-contained remote control. Rotation is a handy method of dialing in the precise aim needed to capture signals regardless of their direction. In some cases, moving a degree or two in one direction or the other can bring in stations that the more broadly aimed antenna will not easily acquire. With the above understanding of the technology, it was time to give it a try. As with any antenna connected to a TV that has its own digital tuner, there is a setting whereby the digital channels range is scanned and any that are received are held in memory for later recall. Most TVs allow customization of the channel names and most receivers also show the station flag, such as ABC, NBC, Independent, PBS in addition to such indications as 2.1, 2.2, and more. The first number generally followed by a decimal and “1” usually in an indicator of the station’s main programming. The sub-numbers, .2, .3, etc. indicate alternate programming from that main station, often including old-time TV shows, shopping, and other alternate programming. First, the app. I learned that broadcast towers are about 50 miles away. Unfortunately, there are mountainous areas in the path. The diminutive size of this RCA antenna suggests its best use is in areas where the broadcasts come from up to about 35 miles, so I knew it was going to be a stretch for this antenna. Using the RCA app as guidance, I connected the supplied coaxial cable, one end to the antenna and the other to the coaxial, or cable antenna connector on the TV. I plugged in the power adapter to the wall and the other end of the wire to the power port on the back of the antenna. In TV settings, I selected the TV’s antenna input, aimed this device in the direction of the signal source, which is through a window, not a wall, and clicked to scan the signal range to see what could be found. I first tried it with amplification in the bypass position. In this mode, the tell-tale blue light is off. Nothing was found. Once again with the amplification ON. Still nothing. In my evaluation, it was revealed that THIS product was not going to work. What was revealed what that a more powerful, larger antenna would be required if there is any hope of bringing in OTA channels in my location. It might even be necessary to deploy a roof-mounted digital antenna, or even one with a motorized rotator for even more precise aim and signal gathering. I know this and other similar antennas can work effectively. I have proven this time and again from other locations and with a few different antennas. At its $40 price point, this one is going to perform at its best for stations up to a maximum of about 35 miles away. Do a search on Best Buy for “HDTV ANTENNA” to see additional options. While this was not a good solution in my location, it might work for you. Do not be afraid to use available tools, whether the above-mentioned app or other tools provided by the US Government by searching “DTV Reception Maps” for the link to the fcc.gov site where the info is available. Is this RCA Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna worth a try? Do your homework and decide. Fortunately, Best Buy is consumer-oriented and will accept returns if it doesn’t work, so be mindful of maintaining packaging integrity and all the parts and pieces in the event of a return.

Works great for getting local channels and some extra ones

We bought two after our cable went out during the storm we had a couple of weeks ago. We were able to watch tv until the cable people came out and fixed the cable lines.

Wonderful antenna. You can see all channels. Powerful. It took me a long time to find something this good. I recommend it 100%.

The antenna did what it was supposed to do. I’ve got more channels than I expected.

App was useful in finding the direction to point the antenna

It was very great worked perfectly, so did they antenna. Thank you.

Great antennas to use with the fire tv and also Great payment plan

Antenna for over the air signal when you don’t have cable services.

We have a few TV’s that are streaming only so exploring a digital TV antenna was on our list to try out. The RCA Amplified HDTV Antenna accomplishes exactly what we were hoping for, we live in a heavily wooded area with some elevation and using the RCA app we were able to determine the sight lines for certain programming which was extremely helpful. The app was easy to use and allowed me to point the antenna in the right direction to receive a handful of channels. Our programming is limited, but we knew that ahead of time. Out of the box it was an easy setup and connect, less than 5 minutes. I did not realize this antenna included dipoles for better reception, that being said, you do need some room to angle the dipoles for better signal. The antenna stands on its own with no option for wall mounting if that is something you are looking for. For me this was not necessary so having the antenna sitting behind the TV on the stand works just fine. Once I had this setup it was just a simple channel search on our Toshiba Fire TV and we were up and running. The picture quality for the stations were watch only broadcasts in HD 1080p which was again expected, these are local news stations etc. The picture quality is easily comparable to any cable provider and extremely clear with excellent sound output. The Toshiba Fire TV also allows me to pause what I am watching over the antenna which is a nice added feature I was unaware of. Overall, the RCA Amplified HDTV Antenna does exactly what I was hoping for at a reasonable price – I am all about keeping money in my pocket when possible and avoiding paying fees to the big bad cable company! Highly satisfied with this product and definitely recommended to anyone looking to get free local programming that is actually FREE!