Which Antenna Is Best For Digital TV: Selection Criteria And Review Of The Best

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

What antenna to use for high-quality digital TV: top 5 best models

If the digital signal in an apartment or house is weak, the viewer thinks about buying an additional antenna to increase the picture quality on TV. What to look for when choosing an antenna for digital TV? What models do users recommend?

Content

• 1 Which antenna is better for digital TV: we disassemble the features of different types

  • 1.1 Indoor or outdoor
  • 1.2 Passive or active

  • 1.3 Channel, band or all-wave

    1.3.1 Table: Top 5 Best Antennas *

Which antenna is better for digital TV: we analyze the features of different types

Please note right away that there are no special digital antennas. In any case, you will use the most common antenna, as in the situation with analog television. The main thing is to have support for the DVB-T2 format. This applies to both amplifiers and coaxial cables.

Antenna selection is based on model specifications. But which characteristics are right for you? It all depends on the following criteria:

• the place of attachment and the area where the antenna will work;
• the purpose of purchasing the device;
• the range of frequencies that the antenna can receive;
• technical ability to amplify the TV signal (built-in amplifier);
• gain - measured in decibels; the higher, the better, but the values usually do not exceed 45 dB (if the gain is indicated in the passport from 80 to 120 dB, you are clearly being deceived - the product is actually of poor quality).

Indoor or outdoor

When is the indoor model suitable? If you are near the tower (no more than 20 km), your TV receives a stable and relatively high-quality signal. An indoor amplifier is weaker than an outdoor one, since the signal will pass through a lot of interference: walls of buildings, power lines, landscape features, etc. If you live in a summer house or in another settlement far from the city, an indoor antenna will not work for you …

When choosing, consider the thickness of the walls in your house and the position of your apartment in the entire building (through how many walls the signal will have to break through, where the windows go, what floor you have - the higher the better).

A small indoor antenna with an amplifier is suitable for urban residents, where the distance from the tower is minimal

An indoor antenna picks up a signal in the meter or decimeter range. The quality of TV waves will be limited - you will need to tune each channel separately. This is the disadvantage of this type of antenna. However, its advantages are obvious: compactness and low cost. A popular manufacturer of such antennas is the Remo company.

If you live far from the tower (for example, outside the city), use an outdoor antenna - it will be fixed outside the building. A cable is drawn from it, connected to the TV. Outdoor antennas are the most powerful. They are ready to pick up a signal from a distance of up to 50 km. Of course, there may be obstacles in the signal path, but in general they will not greatly affect the quality of the received signal. If you know that there will be a lot of interference even with an outdoor antenna, buy a device with a built-in amplifier.

An outdoor antenna is suitable for residents of settlements that are far from the city and the tower

The installation of an outdoor antenna should be carried out by a specialist so that you get the maximum quality indicator as a result

Passive or active

A passive antenna is a device without additional active elements that can amplify the received signal from the tower, for example, microcircuits and transistors. It works only due to its design - its shape and area.

The advantage of a passive device is that it does not connect to the electrical network. However, such a device can be used only if it is installed at a height of 10 meters or more. Also, there should be no high-rise buildings around your house - the device should be located near the tower.

An amplifier can be built into the antenna - then it can be attributed to the active model

Active antennas receive a signal and transmit it to TV due to their design and an additional built-in amplifier. It can be installed separately or on the antenna itself. For such an antenna to work, it must be connected to the electrical network using the supplied power supply. An active device is suitable if you live far from the tower, and your TV signal is unstable.

Channel, band or all-wave

By the type of channels, the following TV antennas are also distinguished:

1. Duct. They are bought when you need to support channels with a certain frequency, which is quite rare. Usually such models are not in demand among ordinary TV viewers.
2. Range. They are installed when it is necessary to receive a signal in a certain range, for example, in decimeter or meter.
3. All-wave. Such antennas are most often purchased, since channels in Russia are broadcast at once in the two frequency ranges indicated above. If you want your TV to catch as many channels as possible, buy it all-wave.

Table: top 5 best antennas *

Model name	Site Antenna Type	With or without amplifier	UHF signal enhancement	Price
Funke DSC 310	street	with amplifier	18 dBA	1920 RUB
Locus Meridian 12AF Turbo	street		29 dBA	RUB 925
Locus L 94110 CAYMAN	room		11 dBA	370 RUB
Locus Meridian 60AF Turbo	street		31 dBA	RUB 1550
REMO Inter 2.0	room		42 dBA	1090 RUB

* The selection is based on estimates from irecommend.ru and Yandex. Market. All five models have mostly positive reviews and ratings from 4.0 out of 5 possible.

If your TV signal is unstable (you are far from the tower), choose an outdoor active antenna, that is, with an amplifier. Indoor antennas are more suitable for urban residents. Please note that if you have chosen an active model, it will need to be connected to the mains - otherwise the built-in amplifier will not work.