Recommend A Digital TV Antenna

Mulletude

Title says it. I am cable free and rely on Netflix and Hulu for my tv needs. But i would like to get whatever over the air channels are available.

Outdoor antennas seem to be the best but an indoor would be ideal since i am in a 2nd floor apartment.

I do have one window i could use to mount an outdoor antenna but dont wanna run cabling across rooms. Are there ways to have an antenna in one place but have it run wireless to a receiver in another room?

Many thanks for any and all advice and recommendations!

Jebus314

tv antennas are kind of a black magic. There are some overall ideas to keep in mind, but when it comes to specifics there is simply no way of knowing what's going to be best for you.

First things first, go to tvfool and antennaweb and use their location guides. They will tell you how far you are from the broadcast locations and what type of antenna you would need (outdoor roof mounted, small outdoor, indoor, ect.). If your in a large city chances are you can get away with an indoor antenna, but things are highly specific so go see what those sites say.

Picking an actual antenna is where the black magic comes in. Once you've narrowed it down to a specific category (say indoor), there's basically no realistic way to know which one will work best for you without just trying each one. I've seen reviews where the $15 radio shack rabbit ears worked as well as a $50 clearstream2. Some market themselves as better for different situations (like reducing echo from tall surrounding structures) but I have no idea how reliable that marketing is. Of all the research I've done the most recommended indoor antennas are the clearstream2 and the mohu leaf. Take that for what you will. I've also seen lots of reports of pretty good success just DIYing an antenna from like a small piece of wood and some coat hangers.

Wireless has only recently been able to sustain the throughput for a single video feed so I'm doubtful there is a way to go wireless with the coax, but I've been wrong before. If you've got coax in your walls already though, I'm pretty sure you can just plug your antenna into one of the connectors and get the signal from any of the other connectors. This may necessitate an amp to boost the signal, which you may or may not need anyway.

Finally, if you're getting cable internet there's a pretty decent chance they are sending you all of the local channels anyway. By law they have to be unencrypted and usually they are too lazy to turn them off because you could realistically get them OTA anyway.

illig

i use an outdoor antenna indoors - cheap (about $20) and works great:

http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Aspen-EASDTV2BUHF-Directv-Approved/dp/B000GIT002/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1378934707&sr=8-18&keywords=antenna

and i also have used Aereo in the past - pretty good antenna alternative if you happen to live in the New York metro area (~$8/month or so)

Mulletude

Thanks guys. I will read up reviews on the antennas you posted.

And @illig, where do you put that antenna? I would want to hide it and that one says it is directional. Maybe in a window behind a curtain?

illig

Mine is temporary, so I just hung it on the wall facing the direction with the best signal (that's important, by the way, don't just assume that a window location will give you best signal)

If appearance matters, they do sell flat panel antennas that can be glued to a wall and painted.