Indoor TV Antennas Compared: Cheap vs Expensive 

I would to sèe it show me

This is far from scientific as to start with there's no such thing as an HD or digital antenna. You could use a paperclip as an antenna if you really wanted to.

@@Unknown_Ooh Is an antenna really just 100% metal? I thought there might be some internal electrics on them. There seem to be some on others.

It's just pieces of metal that picks up frequencies. Similar to a FM/AM radio.

You can even use a coax cable as an antenna. Remember mobile phones used to have FM radios in them? The headphone cable needs to be connected because the phone uses the headphone cable as an antenna.

Lol

lololol

LOL...that was a bit funny i must say all in the name of love fun and games😂🙌🙏

I heard that joke over 50 years ago!

They got divorced after he was caught watching cable.

@Wesley Hester: The Magic HDMI cable scam has to do with gold plates pins. The best antenna is the classic aerial. Basically all you need to do is toss a coat hanger in a tree with some wire connecting it to the TV .

@@gotsm9959 You have no clue what you're talking about.

@@carlosoliveira-rc2xt No it's true try it! If single is bad then then try it at higher elevation. Not that I watch TV anymore since I have everything I could ever want on my ipad.

@@gotsm9959 No I was referring to the HDMI cables. Gold plating was never a scam. Almost all exposed connectors on cables are flash plated gold merely so they don't tarnish, nothing more. Only teens fabricated nonsense as they always do. Monster was at the forefront of cable design when most people were using lamp cord. The cable industry has blown up since then. Some of Monster's gear was designed by very reputable people in the industry. In case you missed it HDMI cables carry audio as well as video and those $6 cables sound like shit. If you have reference quality audio/video worth as much as some homes, you would know what I mean.

@@carlosoliveira-rc2xt Well I know that people like to argue and disagree.

Yep the movie is definitely cheesy - but it's still kinda fun.

Thanks... just looked it up. Sounds cheesy.. but Jami Gertz is in it.. so I'll check it out Haha

Right crap movie Yor is a classic in comparison

Definitely cheesy and fun. Mad Max on rollerskates.

good to kno

Before playing Sarek (Spock's father) in The Next Generation, he first played Spock's father in the original series episode Journey to Babel as well as in the Star Trek films The Search for Spock, and The Voyage Home. He also played The Klingon commander in Star Trek The Motion Picture.

Still one of my favorites! That and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?"

@The Butcher I agree, what a turd!

he works his but off because he injoys doing it and gets paid for it by watchers... God bless him..hope he does well.

Ty

If the TV transmission antenna(s) are close to your home (ie, under 25 miles), most of the indoor antennas that come with a built-in power amplifier, will do worse... they can actually over power the antenna input on your TV, which means the channels won't be able to lock on/come in properly even if a scan is done without the power being turned on. The built-in USB powered amp (some will come with a local/distant switch on the little box), is only useful for transmission antennas that are more than 30 miles away, or the indoor antenna location you decide to use is located in an area of your home that has interference from thick walls (ie, steal, drywall/wood or concrete), and/or the powered antenna can't be easily pointed in the direction of the TV transmission towers; or you don't have any windows that are actually facing the towers.

@@CoroaEntertainment Like in a brick apartment building.

Definitely a change from his other vids where he has them just standing there as props. They're actually involved in this one.

♥️ I agree.

I second that

I bought a tape breaking knife so I wouldn't cut anything inside the boxes I open... it sucks so bad lol. Turns out amazon tape as well as packing tape both prefer a sharp blade to a "safety nub".

Box knifes are available at dollar stores

@@ebuff57 Right... Even a dang pair of scissors needs to always be at the ready...

Many years ago there was a clamshell package opener "as seen on TV." In addition to the opener there was both a flathead and a Phillips screwdrivers. There may have been a box cutter, too. The package opening scissors were fantastic! I wish I had grabbed them before we were thrown on the street.

I still use rabbit ears and I get channels that are hard to get.

ROBLOX Gaming Mastah I’m fixing to pull out my collection of rabbit ears! Y’all got me all nostalgic.

i have mine inside and the only channel I have problem with is Kare 11

@@Happy78704gal Rabbit ears are good for the VHF part of the spectrum. The round element in between is for the UHF. Thinking about going back to those myself. BTW, wondering if there are any functional elements at all inside those flat, rectangular sheets of plastic mounted on the window glass.

THAT'S WHY IT LOOKED FAMILIAR! I haven't seen that movie in decades and remember loving it when I was a kid.

One of my favorites as a kid. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who knew what it was lol

Thanks! I came to the comments just for this!

I love that movie. It wasn't the best but it was awesome.

I came here to see if anyone else remembered Solarbabies!

Which one?

The brand said Range Xperts. I looked up the old order and says it is currently unavailable.

What you use rabbit Ears. Tell me more please. Send me a pic please. Thank you friend

What’s up with Las Vegas and all the channels? I’m impressed! Cable Companies must be hurting there.

@@Happy78704gal Cable company's are hurting every where there's wifi.

Thanks James. Do u still use the "no expensive cable tv" way. I really wanna stop paying almost 100 dollars.

I'm in vegas also, switching to the flat antennas. Nothing to watch on direct tv but reruns and unreality shows. I get about 45 channels with it inside. I get the all the local channels and that's good enough.

No offense but I thought that was a dude. Because I haven't seen a girl with the name Noah.😂

A 12inch piece of WIRE will probably work as well as ANY of these "DIGITAL" (VERY important) antennas..

@Linda Holbrook - I picked one up at the 99 Cent Only store two days ago. Now I'm more excited out installing it. I have streaming services, just want to see what it can do. PS: "99 Cent" my butt. Those jerks price things at 99.99 cents, so it's really a dollar unless you buy 100 items. And so many things at $1.9999, $2.9999, $3.9999 and so on. Still good deals on some stuff, though! Why am I ranting this rant here?

@@FuzzyElf stay off the meth

Terry Turner AGREE!

@@FuzzyElf Rant all you want! Xx L

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHA

me too lol

same! ahahahahahag

Me too! 😂

I THOUGHT THE SAME THING!!!

Ty

Correct on the movie, but those are not Rollerblades. Those skates are Quads. When the movie was made, I'm not even sure if Rollerblades were available yet.

That's exactly what he did,he mentioned it like 20 times. what video did you see?

Freakin' Theater? Kind of like Mystery Science Theater 3000?

@@Crochet_kittyheck yeah I'd watch that!

Probably feel like a more casual version of Red Letter Media's Best of the Worst series

That would be awesome.

@@Crochet_kitty I like that title freaking theater.

I majored in technical electronics in high school over 50 years ago. One of the circuits we studied was an automatic volume adjuster for TVs and radios, so the sound level heard from the set was the same, no matter what the different stations were broadcasting. I sometimes ask myself why modern TVs don't have the feature.

@@mgbeheler Mine do. 2 are late model 1080s, and 2 are 4Ks.

@@mgbeheler these people that have videos on RU-vid get to choose from more than one choice of audio levels that RU-vid gives you

And if you really can't find a rabbit ear around the house, then a straightened out coat hanger bent in a V shape with some tin foil in between will do the job too. xD Not the best solution, but it will pull in some local channels.

You're so right I have some old rabbit ears and it picks up more channels than the new ones I bought so I switched them to my room and keep the new ones in the other rooms.

you are* / you're* Gosh, go to a school

@@AyAy008 I bet you have alot of friends...

Depending on where your located, rabbit ears from Walmart at about $10 will do it.

Well, yes, the signal changed, but the way it's broadcasted didn't. You should have been able to stay with the same antenna, there was no reason to change. Only the TV requires it to be digital (or converter box).

@@honolulublues5548 I had cable prior so I had no antennas. Indeed, tv's haven't come with antennas for quite some time, it's not as if rabbit ears and the UHF wire loop come by default with TV's since the 70's.

Yep. And the channels being quiet or loud were just based on what the channels were showing at the time, nothing to do with the antenna.

A RTL-SDR makes a cheap spectrum analyzer to get actual readings.

I know that some TVs you can find out the signal strength, though I think it's in 'number of bars', instead of db.

What @flagpoleeip said. With digital TVs and antennas, you either get enough signal (in Mbps) to display a picture and souond, or you don't. If you don't get enough signal, then the picture will either freeze, or contain artifacts. This isn't like Analog antennas where you can get static. The ClearTV rabbit ears have very little surface area, so they would pull in the least amount of signal. Hence why you scanned fewer channels with it. Channels that you DO receive enough signal for should all look identical regardless of antenna, as it's just a digital data stream.

Absolutely incorrect when you are receiving a poor signal you can have all kinds of bizarre digital effects happen on a digital TV.

No such thing as a digital antenna.

Xbox 360 1953 Me too. For some reason, it helped me fall asleep.😁

Thats me right now went through every season twice on my third now

Yeah my hubby and I got a good laugh at that too because we literally fell asleep to forensic files last night!

@@lindaholmes4166 omg. I always go to sleep to Forensic Files. I think it's that guy's voice. It's all deep and sedating.

Haven't watched that in a while. Even though I think it's a great show, will admit it often put me to sleep too.

The main guy that was showing at the moment he turned to this movie is Done DeLuise's son. He also got his start with a couple of other well know stars,now, on an 80's show called 21Jumpstreet.

@@jonlynch9089 Dom's son Peter!

@@FuzzyElf , I actually typed Dom but autocorrect changed it. Does Peter have a son who is acting? I've seen reruns of NYPD Blue and I swear one of the detectives, Cipawits-the heavier one, had a son that left the military and joined the force but was killed before he attended the academy. I swear that kid's name was Deluise!

Lol. Seriously the same

Me too, brother

I'm exactly the same. Sure most of the reviews aren't things I'd buy, but I like to watch anyway.

Me too.......

One thing I'm starting to think I DON'T need anymore is my video portion of my cable bill

Would be nice. I believe the FCC requires companies broadcast digital signals now. Analog is a thing of the past. If I recall, you need a converter between the antennae and TV to get a picture from digital signal. If you have a converter then should be no issue to hook up a wire hanger to that and it work. This is just a thought, no clue if it would.

@kevin no, that's not how it works. The antenna is just a wire, old antennas work fine on new tvs. All the decoding happens in the tv tuner, so you might need a conversion box to watch digital tv on a really old analog CRT. But if you have a flat screen you don't need anything special

@@SparkY0 diggydog018 thank you for clarifying. You're essentially agreeing with me. Need a converter/decoder between the antennae and TV for it to work, just so happens newer TVs have it built in. I know the signal can be captured by a wire antenna, new or old, that wasnt in question. I wasnt aware new TVs had the decoder built in is all. Good to know.

@@overyourheadtampa TV without a tuner is just a [computer] monitor. Prices of LED TVs have come way down. Recommend 55" diagonal, 4K resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate. That's about the best performance to price ratio today. No one is satisfied with a 60 Hz refresh rate. Specifically, there are so many different 55" models, that should run up the competition and push down the prices. Not 54", not 56". I use Newegg.com for a breakdown of how many models are available for each and every size. I'd choose a size with a lot of different available models. You'll be going from a CRT with 480 horizontal lines to an LED with 2160 lines, which also allows for the bigger display without the picture breaking up into individual dots. Going HDTV also means a 16:9 aspect ratio instead of the Standard Def 4:3, which provides a lower center of gravity. That's what I'd get if my 27" CRT stopped working. But it gave my brother a hernia setting it up, and I don't want to get a hernia disposing of it. I'd also get a Refurb, to keep the price under $500. You can save 10% getting LED 1st generation 1080 lines. but 4K (2160 lines) is so ubiquitous, and that's the direction the video world is going, it's not worth going 1080. Check online customer reviews for any particular model you're looking at. Newegg / Amazon. If you choose to purchase from a live salesman, beg their tolerance if you take minutes or hours to check out those online reviews and compare the possibilities. The on-screen menus on these TVs have a toggle between Antenna / Cable. Newfangled over-the-air broadcasts have the least digital compression for the best video quality. Worse are cable signals. Worst is satellite TV. Also, antenna signals are free, although who knows how big an antenna you'll need. But cable and satellite have the worst customer satisfaction anywhere in the Milky Way. Also, there is the "Smart TV" option. If you have WiFi around the house, a smart TV makes it easy to watch RU-vid and stuff on the TV. It's hard to find a new TV that isn't a smart TV.

you’re my kinda people.

I also purchased a new antenna specifically made for an RV highly recommended for a receiving radius of 40 miles marketed under the KIng brand ..something I wanted to point out with respect to James antenna reviews was that two were specifically geared to the uhf frequency spectrum and the clear tv appeared to receive vhf frequencies only ideally an antenna should be able to decode vhf and uhf however it seems that if the signal is strong enough whether it be vhf or uhf some degree of reception may be obtained . I am located in Waterloo Ontario Canada so roughly 110 miles from the Canada US border living in a region of roughly 400 thousand people the antenna is perched in my window facing east at roughly 100 feet off the ground and I able to receive on average 8 channels my antenna is optimized for uhf and vhf hi so essentially 9 thru 13 during tropospheric weather events I am able to snag 28 channels

i remember way back in 2003 when digital TV was mainstream and i had to buy a new ariel/antenna ,still was only £15 with an amplifier :)

Me too. Gave my daughter our non- smart tv, not hooked up to our Sattelite. Bought the more expensive antenna from Walmart good for 50 miles (I think). We live behind a hill. And orchards. We get 13 channels. Thinking it will be good enough for her until she leaves for college, because I don't want to put that dang 30 foot antenna back on the roof. And she is rarely home long enough to watch TV anyway. But yes I'll try the cheap one next time!

Live N Learn Folks.... Always, always ALWAYS ...READ OR WATCH REVIEWS BEFORE PURCHASING ANYTHING!! Word of mouth is best advertisements & reviews...ALWAYS.

@@debbierhode6291 she'll be on her phone most of the time anyway. 🤣

Ironically, a TV (the old CRT type) was a crucial part of the story line.

"Suddenly" is a great film from 1953, also stars Sterling Hayden..

Those teenagers are his kids?!... I didn't watch the video all the way through and I thought they were all friends or siblings... He doesn't look or act like a stereotypical Dad.

It helps tremendously. Thank you. As I am about to cut the cord, I have been tinkering with my old antennas around the house. The reception is actually okay for most of the major network channels, but I can't get ABC to come in at all. Both antennas are 25-30 years old. I will head to the dollar store and take my chances.

Yes! This litter box needs a Freakin' Reviews, review!

And if you don't have enough cats you can review places that adopt out cats.

THAT is totally creepy! You and Bill Cosby would be good cellmates!

I haven't had cable in a long time. The last time I saw cable TV was when I stayed in a hotel in Tampa 3 years ago. When I saw what cable was showing, I couldn't believe people actually pay for this stuff. I'm happy with the 24 channels I get off air plus the free channels Samsung TV+ gives me on my SmartTV.

Also... Cable TV is so bogged down with long, annoying, overkill commercials!! Which is worse, commercials or kardashian?!? Uggg, 🤢

@@desertflower5724 - Which is worse, stabbed in the eye or stabbed in the ear? :-)

ENP I would love a whole Series of this

I'd like to see this garbage up against a channel master 4221 antenna even a clone , guaranteed it would blow these away 24/7

Also, THANK YOU

2nd the motion!

They have special splitters for that purpose

Eric Kunz His son does movie trailers. Sounds like his father.

Thought I was the only one.

I like forensic files .. i also like the voice for New Detectives & FBI Files.. its all about the voice 😉

When you have problems with reception close to the towers, it's NOT signal strength, but MULTIPATH interference as the problems, analogous to "ghosting" that we had with the old analog TVs. Reflecting signals from buildings, hills, etc, cause phase cancellation (dropped data bit stream) which the "error correction" circuitry in the TV tuner has trouble correcting. Some TVs also has a "quality of signal" meter which shows how much "multipath" there is so you can adjust the position of the antenna for BEST signal quality. FYI, IF you want the BEST image CONSISTENTLY on that fancy flat panel TV, your best bet is a DIRECTIONAL roof antenna WITH a rotor!

ms_enj ... I’ve used proactiv with great results. You really have to play around with it to see what works for you. For me, every other day was what worked best. Every day was to much and would dry out my face and lead to more problems. I didn’t have a huge problem to begin with but Proactiv, took care of it.

Cool. I was just quoting his daughter. I’ve never used it.

Maxamillionaire I came to the comments looking for exactly this piece of information, thank you.

Dude, thank you so much. I HAVE to see it.

We do too!

Same. Peter Thomas voice is just that soothing.

I thought I was the only one who went to sleep to that show.

Buncha damn psychos overhear...

@@metalmoth6608 I'll take that as a compliment.

Do you get any PBS channels?

Felicia K Yeah. I get all of them in my area. Come in very clear.

Which GE model did you get from Walmart?

Which GE model from Walmart?

I built a "coat-hanger" antenna, using some stripped 12 gauge "Romex" wire intended for house wiring. It outperformed every store bought antenna I've purchased. It worked even better when I added an amplifier. Ugly though. Really ugly. New husband hated looks of wire one, so I bought the best pretty antenna I could find after I got married. Only lost a few channels, and Roku has brought those back.