Recommend a TV Antenna for Indoor use?

[ibex333]

Hello guys


I live in a 23 floor apartment building in New York City on the 4th floor and having issues getting a descent signal.

I purchased a mohu leaf directional antenna, which is supposed to mount on a window, and my results are very very poor. First, because it's 4th floor, there's a lot of interference from the windows side. There's a train passing by every 5 min about 200 feet away, there are buildings across the street, etc.

Getting higher is not an option.Mounting the antenna higher is not an option either. Also, I really hate how the antenna goes in the window. I don' want to stick anything on my windows, and I don't like the wire going all the way from the window to my TV.

I am wondering if there's an alternative to these directional antennas for indoor use.

My criteria is:

1)Must have as long range as possible given my setting
2)Must be an indoor use antenna(nothing for houses, rooftops, outside walls, etc)
3)Hopefully something that can stand on a tabletop or floor?


Thanks!


PS: A few random questions:


1)Why do they make 4k TV antennas? I thought most channels don't even support 1080p?
2)Why is there so few 1080p channels? I am only getting ONE. The rest are 720p or 480i. WTF?
3)Why is there so many Spanish channels? Not everyone speaks Spanish? (rhetorical question I guess)
4)How do people record live TV? What device do I need for that?

 

[smitbret]

You are really not leaving many options. Sounds like you're obstructed no matter what you do.

All I can suggest is going to antennaweb.org or TVFool and getting some info there.

1) There is no such thing as a 4K antenna. It's just marketing.
2) There are no 1080p channels. There are 1080i, 720p and 480i. Different networks just choose different standards. For motion (sports/action) 720p is a little better than 1080i so Fox and ESPN/ABC tend to run 720p and just about everyone else is 1080i.
3) That's a market driven thing
4) I use my HDHomerun with ChannelsTV app/DVR but the choices are endless with things like Plex, TabloTV, etc.

 

[killster1]

I purchased a RCA yagi and i could receive 0 channels with the antenna inside the house.

After i researched why it sucked i found out ALL TV's have DIFFERENT TUNERS! Some are wayyyy better than others and i guess the plasma LG i tried with RCA yagi is one of the bad ones (its pretty dated for a tv ) Why bother recording tv?

So the antenna is not the only important part.

 

[Kartajan]

That close to ground level, you are likely better off looking at one of the paid streaming services.
(Based on your description of the area, multipath interference is also very likely a contributing factor)

Have you looked up your address on tvfool.com to see what channels are reasonable in your location?