How to buy an Indoor HDTV Antenna

You've got your HDTV and checked the signal strength and you've figured out that rather than hook up an outdoor antenna, you can make do with an internal HDTV antenna for those off-air HDTV broadcasts.

Alternatively, you live in an apartment block, or have an unfriendly landlord and can't install an outdoor antenna. Either way, you're all-set to buy an indoor antenna. But which one to choose?

Good question, I'm glad you asked. The first thing to note is that you may not need an HDTV antenna at all. An antenna is an antenna is an antenna. Yes, modern indoor antennae do include features like noise-reduction and high gain amplifiers, but other than that, they are just antennae. So, the first thing you should so is plug in your existing set-top antenna, if you have one, and see what happens. If you live in a strong signal area, that may be all you need to do to get perfect HDTV reception.

If you don't have an antenna, or if you're existing one doesn't work, it's time to get a new one.

The first thing to check when buying an indoor HDTV antenna is that it covers both the VHF and UHF spectra: this is important because after the US digital switchover in February 2009, many channels currently boradcasting in UHF will move to VHF frequencies.

It's also important to decide how much money you wantto spend, after all you can't get better than a perfect picture, and if you can get that with a relatively cheap antenna, what's the point in spending more?

If you live in an area where signal strength is a problem, you'll need to consier the range of the antenna and the power of its amplifier. Reading customer reviews on Amazon is a good way to research this.

Finally, don't discount aesthetics. This thing is going to sit in your living room on, or near, your beautiful flat-screen HDTV, it should look the part. The Philips HDTV antenna pictured below, looks pretty good to me.

More info: Denny's Antenna Service