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Not necessarily. If the TV is in a location with clear signal (near a large window for example, you may get good reception with an indoor antenna. It's not too expensive to experiment with. You can also get ones that look sleek and not like your grandparents' old rabbit ears job.

BTW - the result is sure to be at least as good as TV was when you were a kid ;)

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I know what you?re trying to say, but that?s not accurate.

A "digital" television antenna is as real as an FM radio or VHF television antenna. It?s a complicated topic but basically, antennas are designed to be sensitive to radio waves in a particular band, and generally speaking, the smaller the wavelength (higher the frequency) the smaller the antenna can be.

Over-the-air HDTV/DTV television broadcasts occur in the analog domain just as with all radio-based technology, but the signal is modulated in a way that encodes digital data in the transmission, which is then decoded by your set. These signals are in a higher frequency band than FM radio or VHF television, but similar to UHF. That means an antenna specifically tailored for digital television will result a different design than one for FM or VHF, but will have a lot in common with a UHF antenna. Now, depending on the signal strength in your area, you might even be able to receive signals with no antenna connected at all, a small length of wire, or even a different antenna design! The weaker the signal, the more critical it is that an antenna is tuned to the intended frequency band.

On another note, OTA digital television is likely to produce better picture and audio quality than cable. The transmission lines used by cable TV providers have a limited bandwidth. They can only carry so much information, but because cable TV providers want to offer a zillion channels and on-demand programming to a viewing public that?s a sucker for quantity over quality, something has to give. That?s where lossy audio and video compression comes in. The more the information is compressed (the more data that?s thrown away), the more programming they can transmit.

If you have a Roku box, you might want to look into Aereo. I just started using it in December (after trying it for the free month trial they offer and really liking it). It costs $8/mo, but you get everything that's OTA (live streaming networks), along with the capability to record a show to watch later if you want.

I have a Mohu leaf antenna (looks similar to the clear tv antenna) as well that I was using before Aereo - for whatever reason, I could never receive CBS with it, and couldn't get the other OTA networks at the same time without having to move the antenna around.

Aereo is just too easy. It's a "secret" channel on the Roku, so you have to add it from the Aereo.com site...

There's no such thing as an "HD" antenna. It's just the same old OTA technology with a digital rather than analog signal. I had an old antenna on the roof; found the coax wire in the basement and led it to the living room; bang, broadcast HDTV. And it's just as high rez as over cable, if it's being broadcast HD not just SD as some of the lesser stations are. Bought a $50 USB tuner and the HTPC is back to being a recorder as well as a streaming and browsing box.

We get great reception here. http://www.antennaweb.org/

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It?s not a scam because it does what the manufacturer claims, but yes, it?s JUST an HDTV antenna that does what any HDTV antenna is supposed to do.

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Question do you have to have an antenna on the house for this to work? I just recently took down all the nasty crap from my roof a few months ago and would prefer not to put any sort of dish or antenna on the roof.

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Thanks! I been reading some of the reviews.. some people are in love with it, and others are calling it a scam. I appreciate the response, even though I can watch the news on Apple TV and Roku but its always a 12 hours delay and for PBS its 24 hours delay and was hoping to add an antenna to see the news live.

It's just an antenna, right? If so, I don't really think it's necessary to order this particular one. You can pick up an antenna which can receive broadcast HD at BB or Target.

Been a while since I tried this myself back in about 2010 but if I remember right I was able to pick up broadcast stations in HD with what was basically a pair of rabbit ears I got for $15 from Target. For sure it's probably not the resolution you can get from fios or cable but it does work.

Hello!

Quick question, I gave up cable TV in 2009 and have been using the Roku box and Apple TV at home, but was curious about Clear TV, I put in my zip and it seems to be offered by me but not too familiar with it. Anyone have it? and how is it? is it worth it? Many Thanks!