Watch TV for free in HD

Streaming services are fantastic for some things, but when it comes to local programming and live sporting events, they can be more of a pain than they’re worth. A simple antenna can grant you access to tons of HD content for free, including your local broadcast affiliates and sports. We’ve chosen the Antop AT-800SBS-J HD Smart Panel Antenna as our best overall antenna for its combination of features, easy installation, and price. But, check out the rest of the options to get a model that fits your specific space and budget.

How we chose the best TV antennas

With so many different particular needs to address, there isn’t really a single “best” TV antenna for that new OLED or QLED TV beaming entertainment into your home. We made our selections based on professional and consumer impressions, intending to cultivate a range of options that should suit the needs of most TV viewers in the United States, including options that will suit homes or apartments, rural areas or urban living, and more. These TV antenna reviews will help you find the best model for your needs.

The best TV antennas: Reviews & Recommendations

The best TV antennas are more powerful and accessible than ever. If you’re new to OTA television after a lifetime of cable or streaming and looking for an antenna for local channels, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how it looks. No matter your budget or needs, the best TV antenna to complete your setup is very likely here among the choices we’ve collected.

Best overall: Antop AT-800SBS-J HD Smart Panel Antenna

Antop’s AT-800SBS HD Smart Panel Antenna is one of the best-performing indoor/outdoor versatile antennas, making it our pick for best overall. This HD TV antenna has a long range, particularly for an indoor model, and has a 4G LTE blocker to minimize signal interference. When placed inside, the white box with protruding poles on either side seems a little gaudy. When mounted on a roof, it’s one of the nicer-looking antennas, though. This digital TV antenna is expensive, but it provides unparalleled flexibility and high performance.

Best for outdoor: Antennas Direct 8-Element Bowtie TV Antenna

Antennas Direct’s 8-Element Bowtie antenna is a solid workhorse that should be more than powerful enough for most people who have the space to mount it in an attic or, ideally, on the roof. Its eight separate antenna elements are split between four reflecting panels on two independently rotating shafts. These can be either aimed at a single target to better capture signals from a particular direction or spread out to catch a wider range. With a maximum range of 70 miles, 17.4 dBi gain, and flexible configuration, this outside TV antenna is a powerful all-purpose option. However, it requires some additional hardware to mount and connect fully.

Best for indoors: Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro

Mohu is one of the biggest manufacturers of indoor TV antennas for a reason. The Leaf Supreme Pro measures a commanding 12 x 21.5 inches, so it’s hard to ignore its presence. It’s a very thin, flat panel, though, so it can be easily installed in a high corner and features reversible black and white sides to make it as discreet as possible. The coaxial cable is also conveniently detachable, meaning you can avoid an unsightly wire going up your wall when you’re not actually using it.

On the plus side, this antenna for smart TV gets great range for an indoor antenna and comes with a separate, USB-powered amplifier that noticeably improves performance. Thin, flat indoor antennas generally don’t do quite as well as their outdoor counterparts, but this wireless antenna for TV gets pretty close without many tradeoffs.

Best long-range: Five Star Outdoor Digital Amplified HDTV Antenna

In search of the best indoor TV antenna 100 mile range? The Five Star Outdoor Digital Antenna boasts 200-mile, 360-degree coverage and the hardware to back it up. It features six reflector elements spread across three poles on a motorized spoke, which can eke out as much coverage as possible. It includes wiring and hardware for attaching up to five televisions, perfect for a large, remote home. It conveniently also includes a mounting pole. It requires a bit more assembly than other options, but you get a lot of coverage for your time and effort. 

What to consider before buying one of the best TV antennas

TV antennas are very simple to set up and use, but picking one and TV antenna installation requires a little advanced planning. At the very least, you should know whether you want an indoor or outdoor TV antenna. Traditional, roof-mounted outdoor antennas are substantially more powerful for picking up station signals over a wider range but require permanent installation on your roof or another high place and require outdoor cable management. It takes some work and isn’t an option for most renters and apartment dwellers.

If an outdoor antenna isn’t feasible, smaller wall- and window-mounted indoor TV antennas must be fastened to a high spot in your space. They offer a shorter range but are far more discreet and easy to install. Indoor antennas are almost all omnidirectional because all the local interference of walls and windows tends to even out any benefit you might get from a targeted antenna like one would on their roof.

What do you want to watch?

TV antennas can only pick up local broadcast channels. For most of the United States, an antenna should catch local affiliates of FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC, The CW, and PBS, which all reach over 95% of American homes. In addition, some areas may have broadcast channels like Ion, Telemundo, and MeTV, as well as various public access stations. The number of channels you can find with an antenna will vary widely depending on where you are, with more options as you get closer to a major city.

If you want to find out antenna TV channels by zip code, there are several free tools online, including AntennaWeb and DTV Reception Maps from the Federal Trade Commission. Input your address, and you can find what stations are nearby, and what kind of antenna you’ll need to watch them. They also include maps of when the signals are actually broadcast, which can be important for some outdoor antennas.

Won’t the image quality be bad, though?

If you’ve ever watched a TV with built-in “bunny ear” antennas, you might assume that a broadcast TV signal will come in faded, with crackly black and white static (like the opening line of Neuromancer). Fortunately, things have changed drastically since then. In 2009, the U.S. government mandated that TV stations transition from analog to digital broadcasting. As many cord-cutters have been pleasantly surprised to learn, digital signals broadcast over the air are often less compressed than the versions sent over landline by cable services. Major networks broadcast over the air (OTA) in Full HD, or 1080p, and many users claim their broadcast channels come in with brighter, crisper images and sound. You can find an HD free unlimited antenna to pick up those signals.

Why is this happening? Both cable and OTA transmissions will degrade over long distances, and cable signals often have to cover a much longer distance than your local station’s broadcast. Cable offers more channels, of course, but broadcast still has some utility.

Range and gain

There are two major specs you want to consider when looking at TV antennas: range and gain. An antenna’s maximum indicates how far away it can be from a station to pick up a broadcast signal. Generally speaking, having a higher range is always better. That said, some antennas boasting very high ranges achieve those stats using built-in signal amplifiers, which may not deliver stellar picture from stations out on the fringes of their extended ranges.

Gain, expressed in decibels (dB), measures how well a given antenna performs against a standard reference in picking up signals in a particular direction. As expected, a higher listed gain number means better performance, particularly with signals coming from the edges of your antenna’s range.

UHF and VHF

More than an underappreciated 1989 Weird Al vehicle, UHF (ultra-high frequency) and VHF (very-high frequency) are terms you’ll see while antenna shopping. They refer to the bands of frequency on which particular channels are broadcast. Most contemporary channels are on UHF, but there are still VHF broadcasts out there. 

This distinction mostly matters for outdoor antenna users, since most indoor antennas are UHF or combined, but even nominally UHF-only will usually pick up VHF stations regardless. The online tools for finding your local broadcasters mentioned above will include this information about each station. Many antennas are advertised explicitly for both. In general, this is only something you need to worry about if a critical mass of broadcasts you care about are VHF, especially Lo-V.

FAQs

Final thoughts on the best TV antennas

If you’re considering joining the cord-cutting wave or have done so and miss your local channels, a TV antenna could be the perfect way to round out your TV setup. The exact type and model you need will depend on several factors, but you can rest assured that there is almost certainly a great option out there for you at a very reasonable price.