Over-the-air (OTA) HDTV becomes more and more popular. For someone who is used to noisy analog TV pictures, it is hard to believe how amazing a quality of HDTV broadcasts can be. In fact, HDTV channels received over the air free of charge often have better quality than the same channels received through a paid satellite HDTV subscription. All you need to enjoy OTA HDTV is a HD television with a built-in HDTV tuner and an HDTV antenna.

Huh? Which kind of antenna?! If you have Ph.D in Electrical Engineering and have never heard about the antenna type called "HDTV antenna", it's not because you were a bad student. HDTV antenna has nothing to do with physics and engineering. It was invented in marketing departments. Marketing found an effective trick to boost TV antenna sales. HDTV is a hot thing these days. Call essentially the same device HDTV antenna, and it sells better. It makes people to believe they must buy an HDTV model or HDTV optimized antenna to watch HDTV broadcasts. This is very far from truth.

HDTV antenna hype created a huge misconception with regard to TV antennas used for HDTV reception. This article is an attempt to clarify this issue.

Author Eric Gov