Philips MANT940 UHF Digital and Analog Indoor/Outdoor Antenna Review

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(More customer reviews)If you subscribe to satellite or cable you may be surprised to learn that in many area, over-the-air digital TV offers better picture quality and may offer some unique channels not found on your cable system. But getting great over-the-air TV requires a good antenna. Over the years I've tried the following:
-Traditional roof antenna with rotor: Works great but antenna must be turned to get stations in different directions.
-Simple indoor bow-tie or loop antennas: Very cheap to buy, but only pick up the strongest channels. Very prone to interference that can cause picture freezing and break-up.
-Indoor rabbit ears with UHF: a little better than the cheapies, but still difficult to adjust and prone to interference.
-Radio Shack Double Bow-Tie antenna: This one is no longer available, but it is legendary. It looks like a gold screen on legs, with two gold bow-ties mounted in the front. (Very '50's in appearance.) This is a very good indoor UHF antenna (and all the digital/HD channels in my area are UHF.) It provides good, stable reception on most of my local channels, but sometimes has problems with the handful that are in a different direction. It's not a very pretty antenna, but at about $16 it was pretty cheap.
Recently I got a new TV for the bedroom and after looking around, I decided to give the Philips MANT940 a try. It fit my criteria:
-Relatively inexpensive (I paid just under $40).
-Small and unobtrusive
-Can be used indoors or out.
-Got mostly good reviews from consumers in online reviews.
I put the antenna on the top shelf of the bedroom closet. The included 20 cable was plenty long enough to reach the TV.
So far I'm very pleased. This is the best antenna I've used so far. All of my local stations come in clear and stable without making any adjustments to the position of the antenna. I'm even getting a station from the next town over that previously only came in with a broken signal. I'm very pleased and would recommend this antenna to anyone living within 20-to-30 miles from the TV stations they want to receive. I'm not sure how well it would work at greater distances.

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PHILIPS MANT940 AMPLIFIED INDOOR/OUTDOOR ANTENNAINDOOR/OUTDOOR AMPLIFIED; UHF AMPLIFICATION: 18 DB ; CHANNELS: 1469 ; PLUG & PLAY ; INCLUDES Inline AMPLIFIER, 20-FT COAXIAL CABLE & MOUNTING KIT

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RCA ANT751 Outdoor Antenna Optimized for Digital Reception Review

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(More customer reviews)This antenna is great. I wanted to add the local HD ATSC channels to my TIVO HD. I purchased a DIGIAIR antenna meter to find the spot in my attic with the strongest signal and optimized its position. This antenna did a fantastic job on both hi-VHF and UHF bands. I am guessing it has about 4-6 dB gain on both bands. It is truely designed to reduce multipath interference for digital signal reception. For example, the rear VHF reflector is fed into the antenna feed after going through a 180 degree phase reversal to enhance rear lobe rejection of unwanted signals.
The antenna DOES come with the J mount pole which makes it an even better value.
I live 42 miles from the transmission towers and this antenna is connected to a 60 ft run of RG6 quad shield to my TV. I get a S/N ratio of 23-28 db on most all the channels with a signal strength on the TV of 80-100. The DIGIAIR meter shows strong pull on the VHF channels.
From my knowledge of antenna design and looking at photos on the internet, this antenna appears to be the same one sold for twice the price called the EZ HD Antenna.
It is just large enough to get good signal, but small enough not to be too cumbersome. It was the only combination VHF/UHF antenna in this size that I could find that had multiple VHF elements for increased gain.
Now I receive all the local channels in HD PLUS I receive analog basic cable. My TIVO HD combines both channel sets into a seamless viewing experience. HD channels viewed off this antenna will always look BETTER than if you viewed them off cable because the cable company recompresses the HD signal downgrading it slightly to save bandwidth on the cable system. You just can't get this clarity without an antenna.
YOU DO NEED A SEPARATE RUN OF RG6 QUADSHIELD COAX TO YOUR TIVO BOX. YOU CAN'T COMBINE ANTENNA SIGNALS AND CABLE SIGNALS ON THE SAME CABLE. IT TAKES 2 CABLES TO DO THIS. Running this second cable down to my TIVO was the hardest part of the installation. After you do this, simply REMOVE the cable card from your TIVO to get the Comcast basic cable channels in analog and let the antenna handle your HD digital local channels. Saves cable bill money.
For connectors, I purchased the DataShark compression tool and compression RG6 connectors at Home Depot. I ordered additional connectors (better ones for quad shield) from Amazon. DataShark stuff is made by Paladin Tools.
I purchased the RG6Q (quad shield cable) as RCA brand quad shield at Lowes. Avoid the GE cable as it is of lower quality. Home Depot had some inexpensive QuadShield cable also, but if you look closely the center 18AWG conductor was only copper coated steel, not solid copper like the RCA cable.
For coax face plates, I made my own double gang wall plate. Using one of the "unbreakable nylon" face plates at Home Depot, I was able to drill two holes in it the perfect size to place two coax couplers. The modular data/coax/phone face plate systems from Leviton, and others are nice, but very over priced for what are custom pieces of plastic.
Most homes will be wired with RG59 coax which has a much higher loss of signal than RG6. If you installing an antenna you really need the RG6 to minimize loss of weak signals which come from an antenna. Since all the stations are now digital and digital reception is sensitive to EMI or interference, you need the quad shielded RG6 over the double shielded RG6 to reduce interference. When receiving digital signals it takes BOTH a strong signal and a CLEAN signal free of interference to get a beautiful and clean picture.
My reception is rock solid on all channels. I couldn't be happier.

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RCA outdoor optimized ditigal antenna is designed for the most challenging reception environments. Superior construction and tough materials withstand outdoor conditions. Ultra small design allows placement where traditional outdoor antennas won't work - needs less than 1 meter of space. Receives all local HD and DTV broadcast signals free. Supports all digital and analog TV frequencies (VHF and UHF) and supports 1080 signals. Extended range signal reception quality is effective up to a 40 mile radius of broadcast signal. Range may vary due to terrain, strength of signal or other factors. Easy fold out assembly for simple installation with pre-assembled deisgn, snap lock elements and heavy duty locking mast clamp. Mounting hardware and 75-ohm matching transformer included and has 1 year limited warranty.

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Channel Master 2016 DIGITAL ADVANTAGE (HDTV / VHF / UHF) Outdoor Antenna Review

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(More customer reviews)Granted the directions are bad, but it is so simple to set up that directions aren't needed. I bought it under the assumption that the range is 35 miles. I have it in the attic of our two story house, pointed at a station 60 miles away and it comes in flawlessly. All or local stations are 90 degrees off this station and they come in resonably well for being that far off. I tried it with am amplifier, but the amp is not needed so I removed it. Here are two good sites to help you find what stations you might recieve.
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(CHN2016) Channel Master 2016 DIGITAL ADVANTAGE (HDTV / VHF / UHF) Outdoor AntennaThe Channel Master 2016 is a compact outdoor TV antenna that is engineered to receive high quality digital/HDTV broadcast over channels 7 to 51. Since most broadcasts after the February 2009 analog shutoff will be made on channels 7 to 51, stations that the 2016 is perfectly suited. Oversized antennas will be needed for low band channels 2 to 6. The Channel Master 2016 HDTV / UHF antenna is rooftop, eave, or wall mountable using a traditional mast or a universal satellite style mount.MODEL: CHN2016Reception Range: Channels 7 thru 69 up to 35 Miles Receives digital/HDTV & analog UHF/HIGH VHF TV signals Turning Radius: 34 in Can mount to mast on roof, walls, chimneys and attics Easy Installation Use with digital converter box or HDTV ready TVsIncludes:Channel Master 2016 HDTV VHF High / UHF AntennaMounting kitOwners manual Dimensions:47" x 22" x 36.5"Weight:5lbs

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