HDTV Antenna Review

Terk FDTV1A Flat Digital Omni Directional Amplified Indoor Antenna (Black)

Over-the-air (OTA) HDTV becomes more and more popular. For someone who is used to noisy analog TV pictures, it is hard to believe how amazing a quality of HDTV broadcasts can be. In fact, HDTV channels received over the air free of charge often have better quality than the same channels received through a paid satellite HDTV subscription. All you need to enjoy OTA HDTV is a HD television with a built-in HDTV tuner and an HDTV antenna.

Huh? Which kind of antenna?! If you have Ph.D in Electrical Engineering and have never heard about the antenna type called "HDTV antenna", it's not because you were a bad student. HDTV antenna has nothing to do with physics and engineering. It was invented in marketing departments. Marketing found an effective trick to boost TV antenna sales. HDTV is a hot thing these days. Call essentially the same device HDTV antenna, and it sells better. It makes people to believe they must buy an HDTV model or HDTV optimized antenna to watch HDTV broadcasts. This is very far from truth.

HDTV antenna hype created a huge misconception with regard to TV antennas used for HDTV reception. This article is an attempt to clarify this issue.

Do you know what a regular antenna is? Antenna is a piece of metal designed to resonate at a specific frequency and to be responsive over a certain range of frequencies. TV antennas are designed to work either in the range of Ultra High Frequencies (UHF), Very High Frequencies (VHF) or both. Any station transmitting in the VHF/UHF frequency bands, can be picked up by a VHF/UHF antenna and transferred to the TV set.

All television broadcasts, digital and analog, are in the VHF and UHF bands. Over 90% of the HDTV broadcasts are in the UHF, and less than 10% in the VHF band. What is important from the antenna perspective is that HDTV falls in the bandwidth of a regular VHF/UHF antenna. Not HDTV antenna, not HDTV optimized antenna, just a normal regular TV antenna. What makes a signal to be HD is its content, the way a signal is modulated, and not the carrier frequency it is transmitted on. On the contrary, the antenna knows nothing about the signal modulation and content. Hence, you don't need an HDTV antenna to pick up the HD signal. An antenna has absolutely no idea what the signal resolution is. It can be HDTV, SDTV, NTSC, whatever. It is the job of a HDTV tuner and HD television set to demodulate the signal and to present the actual content on the screen.

Well, the antenna bandwidth and frequency response are not the only parameters that are important for clear TV reception. An antenna has other important electrical and spatial properties, such as antenna gain (directivity) and high front-to-back (F/B) ratio. One might assume that an HDTV antenna should be more powerful in terms of F/B and gain parameters. Does HDTV reception impose more stringent requirements on antenna gain and F/B ratio?

There is a wrong, yet widespread belief that you need more antenna gain to receive digital television. I don't know where the hell this belief comes from, cause the situation is exactly the opposite. HDTV has much better noise and interference immunity than the analog television and can produce high quality video at significantly lower signal-to-noise ratios.

Another important specification, F/B ratio, has to do with the antenna ability to cope with a multi-path signal propagation from the towers to the receiving antenna. The higher F/B ratio is, the better is multi-path rejection (also known as ghost suppression). Without going into technical details, we must say that HDTV signal is a bit more sensitive to multi-path cause it has slightly larger bandwidth. Multi-path causes dips in the signal spectrum, whereas we want to keep the spectrum as flat as possible. When signal content is spread over a larger portion of spectrum it is more likely to be distorted by multi-path. Basically, what TV equipment manufacturers are trying to do in the so called HDTV optimization is to keep the spectrum flat in the whole frequency band. It is important for HDTV antenna to have a high F/B ratio in some areas where ghosts may be a problem. The point is, however, that most directional, old fashioned and cheap TV antennas have F/B ratio good enough to handle multi-path propagation of HDTV signal and keep spectrum distortion at minimum. If an antenna can handle an analog signal, it can handle a digital signal as well.

There is nothing specific about a TV antenna that is used to receive HDTV. When choosing an HDTV antenna, check the really important parameters such as directivity, gain, F/B ratio. These specifications are important for reception of both, digital and analog broadcasts. The HDTV optimization is probably the least important factor you should take into account.

HDTV Antenna Labs features step-by-step antenna selection guide and reviews. For more information visit http://www.HDTvAntennaLabs.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eric_Gov

Terk HDTVa Indoor Amplified High-Definition Antenna for Off-Air HDTV Reception

Since HD technology is so new, most people don't realize that you don't have to go buy a whole bunch of new technology to get HD, including the best HDTV antenna. You don't even have to be a cable or satellite TV subscriber to get the best local shows that are shown in HD by broadcast networks. All you need to do is figure out the best HDTV antenna for your area, and with a HD-ready television, you'll be ready to go.

So, how do you know what is the best HDTV antenna? There is a nifty website set up to answer that question for you. It is called antennaweb.com, and it serves as a one stop shop for all of your HDTV antenna needs. The way it works is, you visit the site and there is a search engine set up for your particular area. You enter in your address, what floor you live on and if there are any blockages in your way, and it will tell you the best way for you to get HDTV with an antenna.

For some people, a simple indoor, TV-top antenna will work just fine. The Philips USA PM-HDTV1 HDTV/UHF Digital Indoor Antenna is a good example of a high-quality indoor HDTV antenna. This model sells on Amazon.com for as little as $20.00. There are many more models of antennas out there, but this is a quality model.

Using Orlando, Florida as a test area, Antenna Web suggests that a medium directional antenna will get you almost every digital signal in the area. The site is very useful and extremely customizable to take things like trees, the floor you live on and buildings that might be in the way into consideration.

There is also a comprehensive breakdown of the channels you can get with each different kind of antenna. If there is only one particular channel you're looking to get with your HDTV antenna, then you can simply look to see what type of antenna you'll need for that one station, instead of getting a larger and more expensive antenna to get all of them. If you do want to get all of them and you live in a crowded area, you might need an outdoor antenna model, many of which are made by RCA.

Figuring out the best antenna to get HDTV can be tough, but with this great guide, finding out how to get HDTV without cable or satellite is easy as pie.

Dean Iggo is the webmaster of a hdtv reviews website where you can find reviews of the most popular brands including the Panasonic hdtv, Pioneer, Sony, LG and more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Mathews

Philips SDV2940/27 UHF Digital and Analog Indoor/Outdoor TV Antenna

"Buyer Beware" We all have heard this a thousand times, yet many consumers continue to purchase products with false or misleading information. One case in point is HDTV antennas. Lets separate the facts from the fiction.

FICTION; Special antennas are necessary to receive the new HDTV/Digital signal.

FACT; HDTV is and will broadcast on many of the same channel frequencies that traditional analog television has been broadcasting on for years.

FICTION; All HDTV/Digital signals will be broadcast on the UHF(14-69) frequency band.

FACT; Nearly every television broadcasting market in the U.S. will have at least one or more VHF(2-13) and UHF(14-69) HDTV channels.

FICTION; I will need to replace my current TV antenna to receive HDTV.

FACT; If your current antenna can receive both VHF(CH.2-13) and UHF(Ch.14-69) TV signals, and is in proper working order, it is unlikely a change will be necessary.

Because of widespread misunderstanding many people will purchase two TV antennas. The first antenna will be purchased as an HDTV antenna. This antenna will be a UHF TV antenna. The well meaning dealer who sold the antenna thought all HDTV/Digital signals would be broadcast on the UHF band.

I believe for the most part this is an honest mistake. All broadcasters are required to broadcast their traditional analog signal until February 2009. At the same time they are broadcasting their new HDTV signal. Because of the limits in channel space allotted for television broadcasting, most HDTV channels are temporarily assigned to UHF channels, and will permanently be assigned in February 2009. At this time many of the HDTV channels currently broadcast on the UHF(Ch.14-69) will return to the VHF(Ch.2-13) frequency.

The fact of the matter is, there is no difference between a traditional TV antenna and a HDTV antenna. Although some people would like you to think there is, this simply isn't true.

When choosing your HDTV antenna, use the same guide lines used for selecting a traditional antenna. Consider the antennas Quality, size, range, and how much money you are willing to spend and in most cases be sure it's VHF/UHF capable. Remember if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

Denny is considered to be an expert in his field. His website TV Antenna Source at http://www.dennysantennaservice.com is full of helpful tips and useful information for the do-it-yourself TV antenna installer.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dennis_Duplessis

Samsung LN40C630 40-Inch 1080p 120 Hz LCD HDTV (Black)

LG 32LD350 32-Inch 720p 60 Hz LCD HDTV

Panasonic TC-L32X2 32-Inch 720p LCD HDTV with iPod Dock

Basic Indoor Antenna

RCA ANT1650 Flat Digital Amplified Indoor TV Antenna

RCA ANT1450M Multi-Directional Digital Flat Amplified HDTV Antenna (White)