Can anyone recommend a good antenna for TV?

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

We still have digital cable but decided to keep it only in one room.

I want to get an antenna for the bedroom TV.

Can anyone recommend a good one that isn’t too highly priced?

Looking for one in the $25-$30 range.

I looked on Amazon and I’m not sure which one to get.

Thanks for any help.

Stumpy Joe · **Joined:** 29 Apr 2014 **Posts:** 1539

We had one around here somewhere--if memory serves, my wife found it about 6-7 years ago on a clearance rack. I don't think she paid anything close to $25 for it.

ted262 · 22 Aug 2004

Depends on how close you are to the transmitters. There are some good apps and websites that will tell you how far you are and then recommend antennas.

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

ted262 wrote:

Depends on how close you are to the transmitters. There are some good apps and websites that will tell you how far you are and then recommend antennas.

Yes, it was confusing because I looked up where we are on the FCC map but I’m not sure what direction the towers are in from Philly.

There are $10 ones with little range and the $25-$30 seem fairly good and then there’s $50-$80 and I’m not going there.

Just looking to see if anyone has a brand they’ve had success with.

Dr. Jack · 18 Sep 2009

At the very beginning of the lockdown we cut the cord and dumped our insane $180/mo Directv bill in favor of $35/mo Sling TV streaming. But we needed an OTA antenna for our local channels. It was scary cause how are you supposed to know which one to get. For $100 we got one that has like a 200 mile radius. It worked immediately and we ended up with 23 crystal clear HD OTA channels. Then we bought this “Airtv” device that hooked all the local channels into the Sling app channel guide. (Also a $100 device) For $40 more we got a 2 TB hard drive that hooks to the Airtv unit. That gives us a 170 hour DVR for the OTA antenna. I know it sounds like a lot of money, but for a $240 investment we are saving $1,800 a year every year and get all the channels we had before. It also can wirelessly send the OTA channels to any TV in the house that has a Roku device. We’ll never go back.

Renny · 26 Jun 2006

Dr. Jack wrote:

At the very beginning of the lockdown we cut the cord and dumped our insane $180/mo Directv bill in favor of a$35/mo Sling TV streaming. But we needed an OTA antenna for our local channels. It was scary cause how are you supposed to know which one to get. For $100 we got one that has like a 200 mile radius. It worked immediately and we ended up with 23 crystal clear HD OTA channels. Then we bought this “Airtv” device that hooked all the local channels into the Sling app channel guide. (Also a $100 device) For $40 more we got a 2 TB hard drive that hooks to the Airtv unit. That gives us a 170 hour DVR for the OTA antenna. I know it sounds like a lot of money, but for a $240 investment we are saving $1,800 a year every year and get all the channels we had before. It also can wirelessly send the OTA channels to any TV in the house that has a Roku device. We’ll never go back.

if i may ask, what do you do for internet and hard phone line?

Renny · 26 Jun 2006

Invisible Pedestrian wrote:

We still have digital cable but decided to keep it only in one room.

I want to get an antenna for the bedroom TV.

Can anyone recommend a good one that isn’t too highly priced?

Looking for one in the $25-$30 range.

I looked on Amazon and I’m not sure which one to get.

Thanks for any help.

i bought a cheapy antenna at rite-aid on clearance for $8 (regular price $30+, it was 75 % off) anyway, i hooked it up to our lower level (not really a basement,w e have a bi-level) and i get all the local broadcast channels just fine, i think there are like 19 with all the junk channels they add on now.

we are about 35 miles or less form all the stations. i do not get any cleveland channels, we are about 60 miles from those.

spectrum was charging $8 month for a device to get the their line-up and we very rarely used that TV. saved $96 a year and it is just fine.

also, roku works quite well with spectrum too, you get every channel. a roku at wal-mart is around $30.

Dr. Jack · 18 Sep 2009

Renny wrote:

Dr. Jack wrote:

At the very beginning of the lockdown we cut the cord and dumped our insane $180/mo Directv bill in favor of a$35/mo Sling TV streaming. But we needed an OTA antenna for our local channels. It was scary cause how are you supposed to know which one to get. For $100 we got one that has like a 200 mile radius. It worked immediately and we ended up with 23 crystal clear HD OTA channels. Then we bought this “Airtv” device that hooked all the local channels into the Sling app channel guide. (Also a $100 device) For $40 more we got a 2 TB hard drive that hooks to the Airtv unit. That gives us a 170 hour DVR for the OTA antenna. I know it sounds like a lot of money, but for a $240 investment we are saving $1,800 a year every year and get all the channels we had before. It also can wirelessly send the OTA channels to any TV in the house that has a Roku device. We’ll never go back.

if i may ask, what do you do for internet and hard phone line?

Yeah Renny, we have the Comcast Xfinity. We only really needed the phone and the high speed Internet, and both work great. Of course they say that it’s cheaper to get the package with all three, so they hooked up the cable tv as well. Comcast tv is notoriously horrible in this area. Unusable from my previous experience with full snow storms full of static on all channels. We wouldn’t use it at all for tv. We mostly need it for the broadband for working from home and to use the cell phones in the house as we would have no cell service where we live without internet calling.

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

Pete, I bought a Mohu antenna that worked pretty well for me. Bought another one for my ex-wife (because my kids wanted to watch TV at her place, not because I'm just altruistic like that. :lol:

). I got the 25 mile one but they have longer ranges available. We just put it in a window and that was that.

https://store.gomohu.com/HD-TV-antennas.html

Invisible Pedestrian · **Joined:** 24 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 26163

Jeff wrote:

Pete, I bought a Mohu antenna that worked pretty well for me. Bought another one for my ex-wife (because my kids wanted to watch TV at her place, not because I'm just altruistic like that. :lol:

). I got the 25 mile one but they have longer ranges available. We just put it in a window and that was that.

https://store.gomohu.com/HD-TV-antennas.html

I’ve heard good things about the Mohu.

We might go with that.

Our rabbit ears can’t get CBS and NBC anymore for some reason.

The kids are always playing video games on our downstairs TV and I just want to be able to watch sports in the bedroom.

I can on ABC and FOX but not the others.

I’m sure location of towers plays a role but I’d risk getting a better antenna to see and Mohu might do it.

Jeff · 05 Oct 2006

That was exactly my use case. I put the Mohu in my bedroom window and got all the local channels, including some I didn't know we had! It actually worked better than my old rooftop antenna I'd used in the past, because it's more omnidirectional.

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

Invisible Pedestrian wrote:

Our rabbit ears can’t get CBS and NBC anymore for some reason.

Have you tried rescanning the channels? With the FCC auctioning off some of that spectrum, some channels had to change frequencies multiple times.

Can anyone recommend a good antenna for TV?

Who is WANline