Best antenna for HDTV reception

Today in our blog series for making an informed choice when deciding if Over-The-Air (OTA) HDTV is right for you, we’re going to talk about antenna placement.

The quality of your Over-The-Air HDTV signal reception is highly dependent the placement of your antenna. The ideal location for yours within your home may be on the roof, your garage, your attic, a bedroom window or a myriad of other places. Here are a few key factors to keep in mind when you’re selecting a spot.

Height

By far the most critical factor for antenna placement is height. The higher you can get the antenna either within our outside of your home, the better your reception will be. For outdoor antennas, test out spots on your roof or garage. For indoor antennas, your attic, or in the window of a room upstairs in a 2-story home may be best.

This means locating your antenna in the basement (even if that’s where your TV is) isn’t the best choice. For this very reason, Tablo was designed as whole home DVR and NOT a set-top-box that connects to a specific TV. With WiFi, you can locate your Tablo in proximity to your antenna (like in the attic), and not be restricted by the location of your home Ethernet router for connectivity.

Direction

Most antennas are uni-directional which means they need to be pointed at the source of the signal (ie. broadcast towers).

Find out where the broadcast towers in your area are located and direct your antenna towards their location. You may want to make small directional adjustments and use the ‘channel rescan’ option within the Tablo app (along with a compass if you have one) to help you find the angle that provides the most channels and/or the strongest signal for the channels you want most.

Obstructions

Anything big and solid between your antenna and the broadcast tower can impact your signal quality.

Inside, this includes walls and floors which is why placing your antenna near a window may be your best bet. However, if you’re pointing your antenna out a window and your ‘view’ consists of a brick wall, you might want to look at a roof mount antenna.