Battle of the Indoor TV Antennas, Last blog entry on Cutting the Cable Cord!

It took four months, a lot of phone calls and emails, but finally, a cable technician climbed the telephone pole at the back of my house and cut the cable cord once and for all… it was a disturbing moment for me emotionally as my family has not been without cable for 20 years.

For local channels I decided to experiment with indoor antennas. I have three LED TVs for which I wanted to have local antenna channels. I did a lot of research but could not figure out which indoor antenna to purchase.  My original thought was to buy the best rated antenna and split the signal to the three TVs. However, once the first antenna arrived I realized that splitting the signal would be impractical as my TVs are far from each other, thus requiring long cable runs degrading the antenna signal. Therefore, I decided to have a “BATTLE OF THE TV ANTENNAS” by purchasing three different name brand antennas and seeing which one did the best. After a lot of research I settled on the following three name brands:

1. 1byone Amplified HDTV Antenna - 50 Mile Range with Detachable Amplifier Power Supply for the Highest Performance and 10ft Coax Cable an Amazon Best Seller.
2. Winegard FlatWave Amped FL5500A Amplified Digital Indoor HD TV Antenna (OTA / High-VHF / UHF / Ultra-Thin / Black and White - Reversible / USB Power Supply) - 50 Mile Long Range. Best specifications as they claim to have the best quality components.
3. Mohu Leaf 50 TV Antenna, Indoor, Amplified, 50 Mile Range, Original Paper-thin, Reversible, Paintable, 4K-Ready HDTV, 16 Foot Detachable Cable, Premium Materials for Performance, USA Made, MH-110584.

I justified this expense to my wife by pointing out that we would be saving $70 a month on the cable bill and have the antennas paid for in less than three months. The argument did not go well but once I got everything setup she came onboard with the project after each antenna pulled in about 40 local channels near Detroit.
NOTE: Analog TVs will not work with these digital TV antennas, as by law, there are not any stations broadcasting in analog anymore. To use these antennas, your best bet is to purchase a new TV with a digital tuner, if you don’t have one already. I recommend the 55” TCL Smart Ultra Roku TV at Costco with a SquareTrade extended warranty for an additional $30.

First off, I had some crazy stuff happening. When I hooked up the antennas to my 8-year old digital Visio TV, it would scan for channels reporting back that it found between 40 to 48 channels and then the screen was blank. I was clueless and tried everything I could think of such as swapping antennas. By accident, I unplugged everything and when I powered everything back up again, the local channel antenna was working fine to the Visio TV. Riddle me that one batman!

Each antenna is easy to mount with the two way tape that comes with them. Since we will be moving in one year I chose to use masking tape and save the two-way tape for my next home. My wife hates it, but having the antennas taped to the wall with masking tape does not look all that bad to me. I imagine when we go to sell the house I will have to come up with some other mounting solution but for now, masking tape in the room’s upper corner looks just fine.

Now to the meat and potatoes which is my evaluation of the three indoor leaf TV antennas:

• The 1byone was the cheapest and most popular at Amazon for a reason. It pulled in about the same number of channels as the Winegard and Mohu but for a cheaper price. However, you get what you pay for as this antenna could not match the performance of the Winegard or the Mohu. I had distortion on some channels since it pulled in less clear channels.
• The Winegard was awesome in the number of channels it pulled in, but most of the new channels were distorted going in and out, so they might as well not have been found. However, this is an awesome antenna that is a solid purchase and I believe Winegard does have superior components. The fact that it found stations the others did not reflects that it is better quality.
• Even though the Winegard may have excellent construction, the Mohu Leaf took the prize! The first thing I loved was that the cable was detachable at the antenna. You would think that this would be standard in all the antennas but with the 1byone and Winegard, the cable is a permanent attachment to the antenna. This makes mounting these antennas a pain in the a$$ and if it becomes damaged or if you want a cable of superior quality or length to the one attached, it does not allow for replacing the cable. Next, the Mohu pulled in fewer channels than the Winegard but those channels were clear. Lastly, the Mohu comes with one side black and the other side white. Depending on what your paint color is, you can choose the visible side that blends in best with your wall paint. If you are married let you spouse choose the color as I thought black on brown paint went better than white on brown paint but that was not the case.

I hope this and previous blog entries will help you to cut the cable cord once and for all as their $130 a month days are numbered. I know letting go of cable will be an emotional event and my 80 year old mother would never consider a change such as this, but you can. I have shown how to do this step-by-step with the purchase of TCL Roku Smart TVs and indoor TV antennas. More than likely you probably already own high-speed wireless Internet for streaming video. I chose Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, but there are many other streaming options for you from which to choose. My solution does not give you ESPN but you have local antenna channels for some sports viewing. My solution does not give you national channels such as CNN and FOX News but they really don’t give you news anyway; I call it infotainment, not news!

With all my research and work, you can now cut the cable cord and save about $75 a month. You will have over 200,000 entertainment options by doing so for less than what an LED TV used to cost a few years ago. The choice is up to you as I have done all I can to help you - with no affiliations, sponsors, and using my own money putting it all where my mouth is!

Here ends ThatCyberSecurityGuy's series of blog entries on cutting the cable cord.