I am looking for good info on HDTV antennas

[Anonymously Submitted]

I am looking for good info on indoor HDTV antennas. preferably ones that are not direction dependent and far reaching (long distance)

[Richard]

What you seek puts antenna design on it's head... Except for Smart Antennas there are no HDTV antennas since all DTV changes is the how the information is carried, digital instead of analog.

Putting an antenna indoors greatly reduces signal gain and depending on the construction materials of your house may work very poorly or not even at all. The more gain an antenna has the more directional it becomes which is good for DTV because that means it will also do better at rejecting multipath yet the negative is that it may need to be pointed for various stations manually or with a rotor.

With the DTV revolution the FCC passed a law that allows ANY home owner to install an outside antenna 10 feet above the roof line and over-writes any homeowner associations rulings.

Your mileage will vary just like it does for everybody else. Some general application rules...

If you are within 10 miles of your station chances are high an indoor antenna will work. First you need to know where you are and where the towers are...

http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

Here is some info about the Silver Sensor which is still a good antenna but...

Silver Sensor dethroned for an indoor antenna
viewtopic.php?t=3940

The coolest thing to come along for indoor applications is Smart Antennas but so far we only know of DTV converter boxes being designed to use them and even then the list of compatible products and Smart Antennas is small. I would love to see some outdoor antennas and full featured DTV receivers using this technology...

Smart Antenna technology and DTV
viewtopic.php?t=10289

The most popular antenna used outdoors and in attics for over 10 miles applications over the last decade for DTV is...

ANT Channel Master: 4228 8 bay bow tie
viewtopic.php?t=3377

Often times a preamp is used...

ota antenna splitting/amplification
viewtopic.php?t=9624

KenQV is the author of our Antenna/Cable/Satellite Dictionary and Encyclopedia...
viewforum.php?f=72

...and has his own website devoted to antenna
www.hdtvprimer.com/ANTENNAS/basics.html

and then our own category...

OTA Antenna Systems
viewforum.php?f=60