Free HD TV Channels With A UHF Antenna
Would you like to receive 100% free HDTV channels?
In an age when you thought everything digital had to come from a subscription based cable or satellite service, it seems ridiculous that good old UHF can offer even higher quality HD content on free TV channels. But that’s exactly what’s offered if you have the right equipment.
Because I live in an area with UHF digital television coverage, I wanted to see if I could pick up some 1080i broadcasts using a indoor antenna. I decided to go with the convenient Nippon Antenna UDF80,
The UDF80 Antenna
The UDF80 is fully incased in plastic and resembles a rectangle about the size of a Blu-ray player. The antenna is fairly lightweight and comes with a screw in foot and wall mount. The antenna has clearly been designed with aesthetics in mind; it’s not that it’s amazing to look at, but it’ll blend in nicely with your other electronics and household furnishings.
Testing and Usage
For testing purposes, I decided to have the UDF80 sit right on my desk. Currently, I use a USB capture device to decrypt and transfer UHF content to my Macbook Pro. With this arrangement, every piece of equipment is within arms reach. This is the perfect solution for someone as lazy as I!
With very little time spent getting the UDF80 up and running — literally, just plugging in the antenna cable — I’ve produced some positive results.
With eight channels detected, I can tune into five of them, but not all of them consistently. I find this still impressive, as my house is a single story dwelling, closely surrounded by taller buildings on all sides. Even if I did mount a UHF antenna on a tall mast, I would still be a long ways from getting a clear line of sight to any transmission tower. Furthermore, with the UDF80 sitting on my desk, it faces several pieces of solid wood furniture with the exterior wall of my house behind them. Obviously, this is a very disadvantaged position for the antenna to be in, but even under these circumstances I’m able to enjoy 5 free HD channels!
Fortunately, because of the UDF80’s lightweight and fairly compact design, I am able to move it around the room and improve reception for specific channels when the need arises.
One thing I’m considering doing is mounting the antenna closer to the ceiling. I could probably do this with adhesive tape and forgo the use of screws since the unit is relatively lightweight. Alternatively, I’m also considering moving it to face a window, or even mounting it outside. If I change the setup and get better results, I’ll make sure to update this review.
*UPDATE* I simply moved the UDF80 to a shelf above my desk and now I am receiving six out of eight channels reliably! The two remaining channels that I can’t get are being broadcast from a different tower that my antenna is not facing.
Conclusion
With the Nippon UDF80 indoor antenna, I have been able to forego mounting an antenna on my roof. For me, the whole point of using an indoor antenna was to get free digital TV with the least amount of effort. In my experience, this has produced good results.
If you are considering an indoor solution for receiving digital television over UHF then I would consider the UDF80. It features mid-range specs and is affordable for most people. Although you shouldn’t expect magic from an indoor antenna, it should be good enough to pull in a decent selection of HD channels. But if you run into troubles, you can still easily mount it somewhere, since it’s a compact antenna that’s also lightweight.
Where To Buy
I’ve seen this antenna sold on Amazon, so I’d recommend shopping there if you can’t find one locally.
Bought 1 locally in Canada from Radio World. The antenna does look very nice but using it in a high-rise apartment is a bit of a challenge. I do live high enough on the 24th floor. And I do have 1 side of the building facing a local transmission tower about 25km away.
Unlike putting it in a house you don’t have a lot of choices where you mount your antenna. Fortunately we do have 1 side that face the tower and we have a balcony facing the same direction where we can mount the antenna outside and run the cable back in.
The only issue is the TV in the room that is not facing the tower, the signal dropped to the point where I’m not pulling in a single station (the walls are thicker and made of concrete). Solution?
I had to buy a separate 5.8 Ghz Wireless Av Sender / Receiver from RF-Link. The sender end plugged into the antenna and the receiver end to the TV. Otherwise I would have to run 50 feet of cable from 1 room to the next.
Some homes you get more stations 1 side of the house and fewer stations the other side. But in an apartment you get all the stations 1 side of the unit and none the opposite side.