Use These TV Antenna Tips for Picture Perfect HD Reception

Currently an Antenna is Your Best Bet for Watching 100% FREE TV

Even the best antenna placed in the wrong location will only offer subpar performance

The price of cable and streaming live TV channel plans have seen more big price increases this past year. Currently, a TV antenna is still your best bet to watch completely Free Live TV channels from your local area network stations.

With Free channels available like ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, Fox and CW this offers some of the better content that is available on cable TV.

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TV Antennas 101

Here are some key things to think about before investing in a TV Antenna to watch Free local live TV channels.

1. Unless you live next door to the transmission towers, a high quality larger antenna placed outdoors or in an attic will almost always receive more channels than a small indoor antenna. Always opt for a larger longer range antenna and install it where it does the most good.

2. Proper placement outdoors is just as important. If you antenna is placed too low where it is blocked by a hill, trees or a building your TV signal quality will suffer. Causing weaker channels to break up, pixelate or not come in at all.

3. Make sure to buy the right kind of antenna in the first place. Many times manufactures print distances on the box. For example check out these two long range antennas:

A. ANTOP Big Boy 85 Mile Antenna

B. Antennas Direct ClearStream 4V Ultimate Long Range Antenna

4. In some cases an amplifier may do more harm than good. High quality Amps and TV splitters are very important when splitting the signal from an antenna to several TVs. If you have a strong signal to begin with an Amp can even degrade the picture quality from your antenna. Before adding an TV antenna amplifier, always check your picture quality without one.

5. Each TV or Device Like an FM radio degrades the signal a little bit. The Perfect TV antenna setup is one antenna connected directly to a single television. Since we don't live in a perfect world, an antenna is often hooded to multiple televisions and a radio receiver. Each time the signal from the antenna wire is split it degrades it a little bit.

You can offset this by using high quality Quad Shielded Coaxial Cable. Compression Type F Connector cable ends, and a cable TV wire compression tool.

If you still have an unused DirecTV or Dish Network Satellite dish attached to your home, you may be able to use the same mast and wire already installed. Just remove the dish portion and hook your new antenna to the same mast. Since it should be already grounded your wire installation just got tons easier.

In some cases, no matter what you try or if an antenna is not allowed to be placed outdoors where you live you may be out of luck. Your next best bet is to try and find a lower cost Live Streaming TV service that has the channels you need. This chart compares all the channels available from popular streaming TV plans.

Be sure to take advantage of any Free Trials or other promotions currently offered. Here is a list with links to popular streaming services that have FREE trials.