If the broadcast is coming from the west, you'll want your antenna to face west. It'll show you the relative location and direction of the antenna. Just plug in your ZIP code (it's close enough for our purposes) and then click on the broadcast channel you want to explore. One such resource is from the Federal Communications Commission itself. You need to have an idea of just how far away the broadcast towers are and which direction they are from your home.įortunately, there's an internet for that, with handy maps that will show you all of your area broadcast channels, the location - and, more important, the direction - of their antennas. Where you live matters a lot when it comes to choosing and mounting an antenna. Image used with permission by copyright holder Find your nearest towers You get the idea.Įither way, you'll require an antenna. Three tuners? Watch two shows live on two devices while recording a third. Tuner boxes often have more than one tuner inside, which is great because that'll allow different devices (be it your TV or tablet or whatever) to watch a different show at the same time. And some of these products include digital video recorders so that you can record those free broadcast shows. We're talking TVs, phones, tablets, whatever. These are products like HDHomeRun and Tablo, which take the signal from the antenna and share it over your home network so that pretty much any device can play back the free broadcast channels. That's where digital tuner boxes come into play. The TV will have to be located in a part of the home that's easily reached by the antenna cable - and that's not always a done deal.Īnd plugging an antenna directly into the TV means that any other TVs you own won't be able to share the signal. That could be your television, which will work just fine. Eventually, the antenna you buy is going to need to be plugged into something. One of the last steps of this process is actually one of the first things you need to think about. Phil Nickinson/Digital Trends TV or a tuner box? The idea is that you want the antenna to have as unobstructed a view of the sky - and the radio signal - as possible. Are we mounting the antenna inside? Or outside? The basic rule of thumb is that outdoors and higher is always better than indoors and lower.Which direction does the antenna need to be facing? Unlike what you're used to with your cell phone, broadcast TV tends to be more directional, so we'll have to find where the broadcasts are coming from.Are you connecting the antenna to a television? Or an external tuner box? Is it near a window or, even better, somewhere you can run coax cable through the wall to the outside of your home? And if you're going to use a tuner box, you might need a little home networking knowledge.Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends First, a little homework Step 3: Acquire an antenna and connect it. How to get Amazon Fire TV working on a hotel room television Best OLED TV deals: Save on LG C3, Samsung S90C, and moreīest 75-inch TV deals: Get a large screen for only $500
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