Reviews Philips Sdv9201a27 Hd Contour Passive Tv Antenna
The research
- Why you should trust us
- Who this is for
- How nosotros picked
- UHF vs. VHF
- How we tested
- Our pick: Antennas Direct ClearStream Flex
- Flaws only non dealbreakers
- Runner-up: RCA ANT3ME1
- Upgrade pick: Winegard Flatwave Amped Pro
- Budget pick: 1byone Digital Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna
- What to look forward to
- The competition
Why you should trust us
I've been writing most TVs since I was senior editor of Video magazine in the early on 1990s, where I covered the transition to loftier-definition and digital TV and was ane of the first ten people certified for video scale by the Imaging Scientific discipline Foundation. I've been an editor or writer for numerous tech-related publications, including Dwelling house Theater, Dwelling house Amusement, and Sound & Vision magazines, and for websites such as Wirecutter, Lifewire, Mashable, and SoundStage. I've conducted three previous multi-production tests of TV antennas, and I've been a cord-cutter since 2000, relying entirely on broadcast Tv, DVD, Blu-ray, and streaming for my video entertainment.
The previous version of this guide was written past Wirecutter senior editor Grant Clauser, and some of this material is based on his testing and inquiry, done at his Philadelphia-area dwelling house and in New York City. Grant has written well-nigh AV electronics for more than ii decades. He was an editor at Dealerscope, East-Gear, and Electronic House, also as a writer for Large Picture Big Sound, Consumer Assimilate, Audio & Vision, and others. He is ISF-certified and has completed THX Level Ii home theater design courses.
Who this is for
With so much content available from streaming video services such every bit Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, and others, at that place'due south less need to pay for an expensive cablevision or satellite Tv subscription. But some viewers still desire the live-Television experience, exist it for sports, news, special events, or local strange-linguistic communication broadcasts. For them, a live Goggle box streaming service such equally Hulu + Live Telly or YouTube Goggle box is an option, but that withal requires a monthly subscription fee. If most of the live-Telly content you lot want to picket is from local broadcast channels, an inexpensive Tv set antenna could be the all-time way to become.
As long every bit you lot're inside well-nigh thirty miles of the local transmitting towers and aren't blocked by a mountain range or rows of tall buildings, an antenna will receive free live programs from the major networks, including ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox, NBC, PBS, Telemundo, and Univision. Depending on your metropolitan expanse, an antenna is also a good way to go gratis not-English-language channels.
For this guide, we focused on indoor Boob tube antennas, which y'all can identify in a window, on a wall, or behind your Television set. These models are all easy, applied, and affordable options to install in any house or apartment. Depending on your location, you tin can probably receive more channels with a rooftop or cranium antenna—for example, in my Los Angeles home, my large, rooftop antenna pulls in 144 channels, while the best indoor antennas get a little more than 100. However, many people can't or don't want to install a rooftop or attic antenna. Plus, although a good indoor antenna might not receive equally many stations, the stations yous tin't get are likely to exist small independents with fairly weak transmitters.
How we picked
We assembled an all-encompassing list of indoor antennas that had been introduced since our concluding major update of this guide in 2019, and we also consulted manufacturers to see which new models they thought we should test. And so we focused on antennas that met most of the following criteria:
- Both UHF and VHF: All the antennas on our concluding list were rated for both UHF (channels 14 and above) and at to the lowest degree high-VHF (channels vii to 13) reception. For many years, an indoor antenna's ability to pull in VHF signals was less of import because most digital Television set channels reside in the UHF range. However, recent broadcast-manual changes take made VHF reception more important. You can read more about this in UHF vs. VHF.
- Simple to assemble and install: You shouldn't need tools to put together an indoor antenna.
- Like shooting fish in a barrel to mountain and move: You should be able to hang the antenna on a wall without needing tools or causing major damage to your wall, and the antenna should be like shooting fish in a barrel to move for improve reception.
- At least a x-human foot cable: Because location is the key to good reception, a x-foot cable gives y'all more flexibility. (If you need a longer cable, an extension cable with the necessary coupler is available for about $10.)
- Unobtrusive design: Yous may need to put your antenna in a visible location for the best reception, and so it shouldn't be ugly. Most indoor antennas today—and nigh of the ones we looked at—are flat. And apartment antennas are piece of cake to hide.
Most indoor antennas now include an amplifier, either equally an add-on or permanently built into the antenna's cable, to help boost signal forcefulness. We didn't make an amplifier mandatory, only under most atmospheric condition we institute that the antennas we tested that offered the amp as an option, rather than every bit a permanent feature, performed improve with the amplifier connected than without.
Goggle box antennas often take a range rating, but nosotros ignored that considering it's bogus. Some antennas comport range ratings in the hundreds or thousands of miles, even though the curvature of the World limits range in miles to approximately i.41 times the square root of the circulate antenna superlative in anxiety—for example, about 32 miles for a 500-foot antenna tower on apartment ground, assuming a clear line of sight. Range is more often than not a matter of the transmitter power and location. As ane manufacturer told us, "If you had a strong enough transmitter on the moon, any TV antenna could pick it upwardly."
Some antennas now carry a "NextGen TV–prepare" or "ATSC 3.0–ready" label, but this too is artificial. NextGen Idiot box is a marketing term for ATSC iii.0, a recent expansion of the current ATSC (Advanced Television set Systems Committee) broadcast standards that allows transmission of 4K video, Dolby Atmos immersive sound, and high dynamic range (HDR) signals. Withal, ATSC 3.0 uses the aforementioned manual frequencies as the previous ATSC standard did, so an antenna that works for a sure aqueduct now volition work no better or worse if and when that channel upgrades to ATSC 3.0.
Incidentally, all of these antennas should also piece of work reasonably well for FM radio, which resides in a frequency band just above Telly aqueduct 6.
As anyone who has looked for antennas on Amazon knows, there's a huge number of lesser-known brands. Nosotros skipped them for this guide. We had to practice that to keep our testing process manageable, but if you have any models you're particularly curious nearly, allow us know in the comments section beneath.
UHF vs. VHF
We used to exist able to ignore, for the large part, an antenna's reception of VHF (TV channels two through thirteen, or frequencies 54 to 216 MHz) because, in the switch to digital TV, virtually stations abandoned VHF and shifted to the UHF range (originally, TV channels xiv to 69, or frequencies 470 to 806 MHz). Notwithstanding, the Federal Communications Committee recently auctioned off the radio frequency spectrum above 600 MHz (formerly TV channels 35 and higher) to wireless broadband services, which forced many TV channels to shift to lower frequencies in the VHF range.
This alter, oft referred to as the "FCC repack," required existing antenna users to rescan their channel lineup to observe any channels that may have moved. Some people may accept been disappointed to discover that their formerly reliable antenna could no longer pull in channels that had moved from UHF to VHF. That's considering the longer wavelengths of the lower frequencies are difficult for small antennas to receive. For our latest circular of testing in Feb 2021, nosotros put more emphasis on an antenna'south performance in both the UHF and VHF ranges.
To discover out whether you lot need to worry about VHF reception, visit the RabbitEars Signal Search Map and enter your zip code to run across which stations in your area are dissemination on which channels. The map also shows where the broadcast antennas are relative to your location.
Annotation that these changes do not touch the channel number listed in your Goggle box-channel guide. Telly stations still use the same "virtual channels" every bit before, and so the channel that has always shown upwards equally channel v on your TV will even so be listed as channel 5—simply information technology may actually be transmitting on, say, radio-frequency channel 28.
How we tested
Goggle box reception is unpredictable. As one manufacturer explained to us, "The antenna that works great for you might not piece of work for your neighbour because their house is constructed differently or they accept to place the antenna differently. Mayhap there's a tree in the manner." So we can't promise that yous'll get great results with the antennas that worked best for the states. But in the hope of finding the antennas that would work nigh consistently under the greatest variety of weather condition, nosotros used them in five different locations for our latest round of testing.
I started with two rooms inside my business firm, on the western terminate of Los Angeles'south San Fernando Valley, virtually 30 miles from the Goggle box broadcast towers on Mount Wilson, which are near four,700 feet higher than my house and visible with binoculars from my rooftop. In an effort to test with a weaker, low-VHF channel, I also used locations in Los Angeles'due south Los Feliz neighborhood and in Arcadia, California (almost x and five miles, respectively, from the Mount Wilson antennas), likewise as a motel in Oceanside, California, that put me within 25 or 42 miles of San Diego's TV transmitters depending on which TV station I was trying to receive.
I used three different TVs for these tests: a 2020 Vizio P659-G1, a 2010 Samsung UNC46C8000, and a 2009 Philips 19PFL3504D/F7. For each round of tests, I did a channel scan with the connected Idiot box to see how many channels I could pick up. (Note that many of these channels utilise multicast technology, dissemination several channels in the space of one.) I as well used a Aqueduct Master Television receiver indicate meter, which permit me measure each antenna'southward sensitivity to low and high Tv-channel frequencies.
For antennas that incorporated a signal-level meter, I get-go tested them in the same aesthetically convenient positions I used for the other antennas, after which I tried using their signal-level meters to see if that would help me find a improve antenna position that would pull in more than channels.
Equally mentioned above, we put more accent on VHF reception in our latest circular of tests, equally the longer wavelengths of those frequencies are difficult for small antennas to receive. For case, optimum reception of the everyman Boob tube-signal frequency, aqueduct 2, demands a 4.25-foot-wide antenna. The everyman active Television receiver channel in Los Angeles is channel 4 (which TVs selection up as virtual channels 22 and 63), so I used the Aqueduct Principal signal meter to measure the sensitivity of the antennas to this channel equally a way to gauge low-VHF sensitivity.
I finished by using a TinySA radio-frequency spectrum analyzer to look at each antenna'southward functioning in the frequency ranges from 50 to 300 MHz (VHF) and from 450 to 600 MHz (UHF). This footstep permit me encounter how strong each antenna'due south signals were inside different ranges of the broadcast band, also every bit how noisy their output was—a potential problem with amplified antennas, especially, because if the antenna picks up lots of noise, the amplifier volition just boost the noise, and the TV volition have a harder time picking the bespeak out of the racket. All of our recommendations produce signals that, with a clear transmission in proficient weather, are typically 25 to 30 dB (or 300 to i,000 times) stronger than the noise.
Although the performance of the antennas we tested was sometimes inconsistent and thus hard to gauge, all of our picks excelled in certain tests and at least placed in the middle of the pack in every other test.
Our option: Antennas Straight ClearStream Flex
Our selection
Of all the antennas in our latest round of testing, the Antennas Direct ClearStream Flex was the nigh consistent performer. Information technology always ranked at or near the pinnacle in the number of channels received, and in our technical tests it produced a potent signal with relatively depression noise. Part of this functioning may be due to the fact that it'southward a little larger than boilerplate, just information technology'south even so pocket-sized enough to mount unobtrusively, and it's reversible, with blackness and white sides. It comes with a detachable amplifier that'south powered by USB, and it includes a total of xv feet of cablevision. Among the antennas we tested, this is one of the few that aren't hardwired to the cable, so you can use a dissimilar cable if y'all like.
The ClearStream Flex did the best overall in my in-dwelling tests, pulling in the most channels (90 out of 144) in the beginning room and the 4th-nigh channels (105) in the second room. In our tests in the Oceanside, California, area, it was one of several models that tied for second best, pulling in 21 channels. Without the amp, the numbers were a niggling lower: 81 and 87 in my dwelling, and 19 in Oceanside.
Measuring xvi by 11 inches, the ClearStream Flex is a lilliputian larger than nearly of the flat antennas we tested, just it's still minor enough that slipping it behind a TV, a curtain, or a framed picture show shouldn't be hard. It's reversible, with black and white sides, and paintable—which may aid it blend better into your room decor.
A supplied Sure Grip adhesive strip attaches the ClearStream Flex to the wall, and you tin reposition the antenna by gently peeling information technology off the wall and resticking it elsewhere. You can fifty-fifty wipe the strip off with a damp textile if it gets dirty, thus restoring its stickiness.
The ClearStream Flex'due south 12-human foot black cable should exist long enough for most installations, and the package includes an actress 3-human foot cable to connect the amp to the TV. The cable attaches to the antenna with a threaded connector, and so y'all can substitute a longer, shorter, or different-colored cablevision if you desire. The amplifier is powered by an included USB supply or by your TV's spare USB jack. The amplifier accompanying the antenna we received was a iii-inch-long rectangle, dissimilar from the amp shown on the Amazon page.
Flaws just not dealbreakers
The ClearStream Flex is 1 of the larger flat models nosotros tested. Plus, it doesn't incorporate a signal-level meter, and Antennas Direct doesn't offer ane as an option.
Runner-up: RCA ANT3ME1
Runner-upward
RCA ANT3ME1
For easier, quicker setup
The ANT3ME1 antenna incorporates a betoken-level meter that lets you quickly observe the best antenna position, but it doesn't match our top pick in installation flexibility.
Buying Options
The RCA ANT3ME1 is a slightly reworked version of our previous runner-upwards, the ANT3ME. The new model retains the point-level meter that lets y'all fine-tune the positioning of the antenna for the best reception, and in our tests, a subtle alter in the size of the new antenna dramatically improved its performance fifty-fifty before nosotros used the meter. Nonetheless, the ANT3ME1 still has the downsides we didn't like in its predecessor: The included, nondetachable cable is a fiddling on the brusque side, and its amplifier/indicate meter draws ability from a hardwired Air-conditioning adapter rather than a USB connexion, so it requires an AC outlet. In addition, it currently has express distribution and represents a big footstep upwardly in price over the original ANT3ME.
The ANT3ME1'due south integrated signal-level meter is what distinguishes it from the zillions of other apartment antennas. The meter incorporates five LEDs: ii red, one yellow, and 2 greenish. As you motion the antenna to different places in a room, more LEDs illuminate every bit the betoken strength increases. Yous could use your TV to do a aqueduct browse in each location, but with many TVs, each scan takes a long time—in the instance of my Vizio P659-G1 Tv set, information technology took more than 13 minutes per browse, which might hateful an hour or two of trial and error versus a minute or ii with the ANT3ME1. (In one case you're washed, you can turn the meter off.)
In my living room, where Telly signals are adequately weak, getting even one actress LED to light upward on the meter made a huge divergence. When I mounted the ANT3ME1 in the same aesthetically user-friendly place I used for the other antennas, three LEDs illuminated on the meter and the antenna picked up 51 channels out of 144, 11 more than the older model achieved in the same position a few minutes earlier. Moving the antenna to an adjacent wall caused an extra LED to illuminate and bumped the aqueduct count upward to 115, tying the Antennas Directly ClearStream Flex and improving on the 92 channels I got with the previous model. In a different room, the ANT3ME1 pulled in 142 channels versus 130 with the ClearStream Flex and merely 73 with the original ANT3ME. Nonetheless, in that room, no matter where I moved the antenna, I couldn't get the fifth LED to lite, and so the indicate-level meter was of no assist. If you already have a strong Tv betoken in the room where you're placing the antenna, the meter likely won't offer an advantage.
Even without the meter, the ANT3ME1 gave usa the all-time results with low-VHF signals of all the indoor antennas we've tested—it produced a signal about eight times every bit strong as what we got from the original ANT3ME, and with much lower noise. That ways your TV will have an easier time tuning in channels 2 through vi, if those are used in your area. (In this instance, we're talking nearly the bodily radio frequencies; every bit noted previously, the aqueduct indicated on your TV may not correspond with the actual radio-frequency channel used for transmission.) The ANT3ME1 also outperformed the ClearStream Flex and the Winegard Flatwave Amped Pro in this respect—both of those models had strong low-VHF signals but much more than noise than the ANT3ME1.
At 14⅛ by 11⅞ inches, the ANT3ME1 is narrower than the ClearStream Flex just a little more an inch wider than the original ANT3ME. Similar the ClearStream, it'south reversible—black on one side and white on the other. 4 agglutinative patches are provided for mounting the antenna; they're hands removable, though the bespeak-level meter makes it less probable that yous'd need to reposition the antenna. The ANT3ME1 also has holes that let you hang it with thumbtacks.
However, every bit with the original model, this version'southward cablevision is a piffling short, measuring only 9 feet between the antenna and the amp and 3 feet between the amp and the TV—and information technology's not detachable. Unlike with most of the antennas nosotros tested, the ANT3ME1's amp is hardwired to an AC ability adapter, then you need a spare Ac socket, and you don't accept the option of powering the amp with a spare USB port on your TV.
Upgrade pick: Winegard Flatwave Amped Pro
Upgrade pick
The Winegard Flatwave Amped Pro inspires banal analogies—the Ferrari of Idiot box antennas, the RCA ANT3ME1 on steroids—only those who want to dial up their TV reception to the max are likely to love it, even if it is nearly twice the price of our top selection. The Amped Pro'due south Bluetooth-connected signal-level meter lets yous monitor through a mobile app how many TV channels y'all can get in whatever antenna position—it's like getting the results of a aqueduct scan on your Telly in just six seconds rather than several minutes. Although the Amped Pro is a very respectable performer even before you use the app, we found that using the app permit us get dramatically better results in problematic locations. The Amped Pro is a standard size for a flat antenna, information technology's reversible, and it has 18 total anxiety of cable when you're using the detachable amplifier.
Using the meter requires downloading the Winegard Continued app for iOS or Android and pairing your mobile device through Bluetooth. It provides a count of strong, moderate, and weak stations that it updates every six seconds. In my living room, the Flatwave Amped Pro pulled in 57 stations from the aesthetically convenient position where I also tested all the other antennas; using the meter, I chop-chop institute a position where I could get 112 channels (exactly what the app promised). In my other room, where the five-footstep LED meter of the RCA ANT3ME1 proved to be no help, the detailed information in the Connected app immune me to get from 82 channels in my original testing position to 110 channels (three more than than the app promised). In our Oceanside, California, test spot, the channel count rose from 18 to 21 channels when I optimized the position. And so the meter and the app definitely produced an improvement in every situation. Again, I could have achieved the same affair doing aqueduct scans with the TVs, only that would have taken hours rather than three or four minutes.
The Flatwave Amped Pro measures 13 by 11.75 inches—smaller than the ClearStream Flex but however a niggling on the large side for a flat antenna—and information technology's reversible, with black and white sides. It comes with two modest, easily removable adhesive patches for mounting; these worked for us, but you might need more than. (Fun-Tak adhesive putty will piece of work in a compression.)
There'due south 15 feet of permanently attached white cable between the antenna and the amp, and another 3.three feet of cable that connects the amp to the TV. The amp tin draw power from the included USB supply or from a spare USB port on your Tv.
Budget selection: 1byone Digital Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna
Upkeep pick
The 1byone Digital Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna has been our budget pick for several years, and we're sticking with information technology considering it remained an outstanding performer for the toll in our latest round of tests. Its ability to pull in channels was always respectable, and it performed well in our technical tests. It'south relatively small, and information technology comes with a generously long (simply non-detachable) cable and a convenient mounting organization. However, information technology's non reversible similar our other picks.
On all simply one of our tests, the 1byone performed like antennas costing about double its toll. During my in-home test, it landed in the middle of the pack in the start room, receiving only 59 out of 144 channels, merely in the second room it pulled in a whopping 108 channels, which put it in third place. It was just a bit below boilerplate in our Oceanside, California, tests, receiving 19 channels.
The antenna measures xiii past ix inches, nearly boilerplate for an antenna of this type. However, it'southward blackness on both sides, and it's not listed equally paintable—so if you lot don't hibernate it backside the Tv or a pic or something, you'll terminate upwardly with a very visible rectangular thing on your wall (unless you lot have very dark wall paint). Three agglutinative patches on its back stick to the wall easily; three extra adhesive patches are included.
With 13 anxiety of black cable permanently attached to the antenna and another 3 anxiety fastened to the amplifier, you should have plenty of cable even if you decide to stick the antenna onto a window or an adjacent wall. The antenna comes with a USB power supply, or you can use a spare USB connection on your Boob tube if it has one.
What to look frontwards to
We expect that, just equally RCA did when upgrading the ANT3ME to the ANT3ME1, other manufacturers will release new models optimized for postal service-repack frequencies, and that many manufacturers will release models that are optimized for ATSC 3.0/NextGen Idiot box. We volition do our best to go along up with those announcements and exam those antennas when they're available.
The competition
We've washed two rounds of TV antenna testing in dissimilar locations, separated past a few years, so nosotros're presenting our competition list in 2 groups: The first grouping features the antennas we tested in the Philadelphia and New York areas in 2018, and the 2nd includes the models we tested in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas in 2021.
2018 testing: Philadelphia and New York
Our previous tiptop pick, the Antennas Directly ClearStream Eclipse, worked very well in our original Philadelphia-area tests, merely every bit we mention beneath, it required the improver of an amplifier to get skillful results in Los Angeles, where its functioning was sometimes exceptionally practiced merely sometimes below boilerplate.
The Antennas Direct ClearStream Max is a large, indoor/outdoor antenna that, despite its size, offered no real performance advantage over the minor indoor models nosotros tested.
The Antennas Direct ClearStream Wireless antenna device works with your Wi-Fi network to distribute antenna signals around a firm so all the TVs theoretically get the same optimized reception. It works, but the Wi-Fi connection was glitchy in our tests, and y'all lose some moving picture quality when the device converts the Boob tube broadcast indicate to a digital format for distribution on the network.
The Channel Primary Flatenna ranked among the top performers in places where the Tv signals were strong, but in places with a weak bespeak it tended to pull in fewer channels than our picks.
The Mohu Foliage 30 is the antenna that put flat antennas on the map. Information technology'due south still available, and it performs pretty well, but not too as our picks. Mohu was purchased by Antennas Direct.
RCA'due south Slivr uses rigid plastic to house its antenna element, which makes it bulkier and heavier than other flat antennas. It pulled in only half as many channels as the better antennas did.
The Winegard FreeVision is an indoor/outdoor antenna that looks more suited to attic or outdoor placement. It didn't perform well in Pennsylvania, but it did well in New York, although it was very sensitive to management.
Grant Clauser constructed his ain "Trashtenna" antenna from a square of cardboard covered with aluminum foil and finished with a length of coax cable taped to the foil. Information technology actually did very well in New York, but not so well in Philadelphia.
2021 testing: Los Angeles and San Diego
The 1byone 200NA-0005 is compact and attractive, simply its performance was only average.
The Antennas Direct ClearStream Eclipse is our previous elevation pick. It worked very well in our 2018 Philadelphia-area tests, as nosotros say in a higher place, but in our 2021 round, it required the addition of an amplifier to get good results in Los Angeles, where its performance was sometimes exceptionally expert only sometimes below boilerplate.
The Antennas Direct ClearStream 1Max is an indoor/outdoor design. Indoors, its operation wasn't impressive—except in our Oceanside, California, exam location, where it weirdly pulled in 37 channels when the best any other antenna could practice was 21. We also found the even larger Antennas Direct ClearStream Max-Five to be an underperformer in indoor settings.
The GE Enlighten is a great design that sits unobtrusively atop a TV and provides a bias light that illuminates the area around the screen, which can ease eyestrain. Unfortunately, its performance was below boilerplate.
The RCA ANT1120E is a apartment antenna that doesn't include an amplifier. It might be a good choice if for some reason you discover an amp inconvenient to use, simply mostly it didn't perform every bit well every bit amplified models in our tests.
Nosotros were excited to endeavour the extra-wide RCA ANT2160E, which nosotros thought might outperform smaller apartment antennas, but our picks generally surpassed it.
The RCA ANT3ME is our previous runner-up, replaced by the newer ANT3ME1. However, as of July 2021, the ANT3ME1 costs most 60% more. That deviation may exist reduced as the ANT3ME1 reaches more vendors, but people who live in urban areas with fairly strong signals and still desire a signal-level meter for their antenna may wish to save a few bucks and buy the older model.
The RCA ANTD6ME is a notably attractive, fabric-covered antenna with a hard-plastic torso and a curved front, plus an internal amplifier and a three-LED signal-level meter. You can hang it on a wall, only it also has legs for mounting on a table. It would exist a squeamish pick if you don't want to wall-mountain your antenna, just in our tests it didn't perform besides equally the ANT3ME.
The UMustHave 4K-RS55 is an affordably priced flat antenna that worked pretty well in our tests, but we got improve results from our budget choice.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-indoor-hdtv-antenna/
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