Spectrum's HD-mini indoor HDTV antenna
By Evan Blass 
posted May 19th 2006 12:50PM
posted May 19th 2006 12:50PM
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FYI from someone who has and does build antennas... the design matters... gain/loss, and direction-ality (lol) matter...
most coax use for cable systems and is 75ohms... impedance matching is not a bad thing too
Go by your public LIB. and pick up the ARRL Antenna handbook for the most current year and look at the different antenna designs and etc...
Ah yes, the marketing machine that is the HD antenna. In the summer, I'll be marketing my new "HD" antenna with an innovative coathanger with tinfoil accents design.
I thought you could receive an over-the-air HD signal with any cheap antenna?
"I thought you could receive an over-the-air HD signal with any cheap antenna?"
You can. There's nothing special about "HD" antennas, really.
That said, there are still different grades of antenna, and some are omni-directional while others are uni-directional. You're not gonna get the same level performance from a $10 antenna as you probably would from a $100 antenna. But it depends on your specific situation, i.e. how far you are from the broadcasters, what's in between, etc. Some people might do just as well with a cheap antenna as with a good one; others would see a dramatic difference.
In my case, I use a $20 Radio Shack antenna for OTA broadcasts (which I don't watch much, I have cable). When I lived in NYC itself this thing would pick up pretty much everything, although I did need to adjust it a bit for one or two stations sometimes. Now I live literally 1 mile outside the city limits and I can hardly get anything. I need to turn it for every single channel; I'm constantly searching for signals.
But yeah, there's nothing that makes one antenna "HD" and another not. A TV antenna is a TV antenna (assuming it supports VHF/UHF), at least in this country. But there are still different quality antennas.
What if I have a DirectTV HD tuner, but am no longer using their service? Is there any HD antenna I can use, or any hack to use their tuner?
Yeah, yeah, any antenna can get HD so that's no big deal.
Look at the size of this thing though; that's the real selling point. Finally, an antenna that my wife won't hate because it doesn't match the decor and is so large that nothing allowed in the living room will hide it.
It would be nice if it received VHF signals though; the article says it is UHF only. If they did something about that, this might just be the perfect antenna for an HTPC.
The term "HD-Ready antennas" is just a marketing scheme. Like others have said, you can pick up digital channels with any ordinary antenna.
Well, pay for the design, pay for marketing and you have a nicely expensive product.
I just thought I would add my .02 here. Since I here this question on almost a daily basis. (As sad as it is to admit) I work at RadioShack, and I can tell you that springing for a $100 antenna cause it says HDTV or HD on it makes you a sap. Even though I work on commision, I don't like handing out misinformation and watching stupidity spread, so the long and the short of it is that HDTV is in the UHF spectrum, ANY UHF antenna works for HD OTA signals. The fact is that an HD antenna is just one that has been overpriced and usually wrapped in somekind of stupid areodynamic casing of plastic and spanked with a "HD" and/or "HDTV" logo.
Cheers.
Impending, kids. Im-pen-ding. "On the verge of happening."
Back in the day,my main supply houses carried Winegaurd and Channelmaster-first rate stuff.One I like now is Antenna Direct.Made here in the Midwest.Use these as reference.Then you'll have an idea what the hype about an over-priced,under-spec plastic coated thingie really is.Reminds me of the speakers that were touted as "digital ready"-a marketing joke!
I hope this one works better than the Terk indoor HDTVi. Maybe it's my location in a heavily populated urban area, but that thing gave me -0- channels. I actually got better over-air reception WITHOUT it.
By the way, I spotted Phoenix Wright for less than $60 on half.com. First time in a while!
http://product.half.ebay.com/Phoenix-Wright-Ace-Attorney_W0QQprZ46506498QQtgZvidetailsQQitemZ12682008758