Indoor TV Antennas for Over-the-Air HDTV Broadcasts

Indoor antennas do not perform as well as outdoor tv antennas. Not even close. An indoor TV antenna can pick only the closest stations and the strongest signals. For many of us though, that is enough. If you live in a big city, or close to the towers, you can get a lot of over-the-air HDTV channels with a simple indoor antenna.

Recommended Indoor HD Antennas

Terk has a nice assortiment of indoor hdtv antennas. HDTVi, and its amplified version - HDTVa, are tiny indoor log-periodic antennas, that can provide nice reception in the UHF band. Another popular terk indoor model is TV5, an amplified bow-tie antenna. Nice design that fits well into the room interior is another reason why many choose Terk indoor antennas. Nothing special can be said about HDTVi, HDTVo and TV5 reception capabilities. They are just OK.

If you are ready to sacrifice a little bit more room space for better performance, scatter plane Winegard SS-3000 antenna is the way to go. This model has exceptional performance for an indoor hd antenna,it is the best indoor hdtv antenna around. Not as popular as HDTVa, but IMHO is much better.

Here is a list of indoor HDTV antennas sorted by customer reviews rating from highest to lowest.

Antenna	Placement	Directivity	Amplifier	Band	Total Reviews	Average Rating
AntennasDirect DB2	Indoor/Outdoor	Directional	No	UHF	419	4.5	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
AntennasDirect C1C	Indoor/Outdoor	Multidirectional	No	UHF	15	4.5	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
AntennasDirect C1	Indoor/Outdoor	Multidirectional	No	UHF	12	4.5	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Jensen TV-640	Indoor	Multi	No	VHF/UHF	5	4	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Winegard SS-3000	Indoor	Directional	Yes	VHF/UHF	244	3.9	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Terk HDTVa	Indoor	Directional	Yes	VHF/UHF	1258	3.8	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Terk TV-1	Indoor	Multi	No	VHF/UHF	101	3.8	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Terk TV-3	Indoor	Multi	Yes	VHF/UHF	12	3.8	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Zenith ZHDTV1	Indoor	Directional	No	UHF	351	3.8	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
RCA ANT1020	Indoor	Multi	No	VHF/UHF	16	3.8	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Samsung TV5.4 SAX	Indoor	Directional	Yes	VHF/UHF	4	3.8	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Terk TV-5	Indoor	Multi	Yes	VHF/UHF	160	3.7	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Terk HDTVi	Indoor	Directional	No	VHF/UHF	263	3.6	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Terk HDTVlp	Indoor	Directional	Yes	VHF/UHF	45	3.6	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Terk TV-4	Indoor	Multi	No	VHF/UHF	14	3.6	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
RCA ANT121	Indoor	Multi	No	VHF/UHF	32	3.6	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Jensen TV-631	Indoor	Multi	Yes	VHF/UHF	5	3.6	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Jensen TV-611	Indoor	Multi	No	VHF/UHF	4	3.5	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Samsung TVDA1000	Indoor	Directional	Yes	VHF/UHF	2	3.5	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
AntennasDirect PF7	Indoor	Multi	No	UHF	19	3.5	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
PowerQ PowerHD-100	Indoor	Multidirectional	Yes	VHF/UHF	53	3.5	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Philips PM-HDTV1	Indoor	Directional	No	UHF	14	3.4	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
RCA ANT110	Indoor	Multi	No	VHF/UHF	14	3.4	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Jensen TV-931	Indoor	Multi	Yes	VHF/UHF	9	3.3	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices
Philips MANT950	Indoor/Outdoor	Multi	Yes	VHF/UHF	38	3.3	Read reviews	Write a review	Compare prices

See all HDTV antenna reviews ...

Indoor hdtv antenna issues

VHF indoor antennas

There are many different creative designs of UHF indoor antennas. Bow-ties, yagis, log-periodic antennas, etc. As long as VHF reception is considered, all indoor antennas are nearly the same. VHF band, occupying the larger wavelength portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, requires larger antenna elements. VHF antennas have to be much larger than their UHF counterparts for satisfactory reception. There is simply no enough space to deploy VHF log-periodics or bow-ties indoors. Hence, all indoor VHF antennas are some form of rabbit ears.

Spotty reception

Spotty reception, and a need to move an antenna around when switching channels, is a very common problem of indoor tv antennas. Especially, of directional indoor antennas. An indoor hd antenna almost never has a line of sight to the towers. It always receives an echo, a reflected signal that bounces off the surroundings and off the house walls. The path and strength of the reflected signal highly depends on weather, time of a day and frequency. You may have good reception of channel A in a particular spot, but not of channel B, because singnals of two different channels, being at different frequencies, do not follow the same path even if transmitted from the same site.

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