Antennas for cord cutting: What you should know

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While you don’t need an antenna to cut cable TV or watch local channels, having one can save you a lot of money.

Still, over-the-air TV won’t be feasible for everyone. Setting one up can be a hassle, and you may not live in an area with good enough reception to make it work. In many cases, setting up an antenna will be more trouble than it’s worth.

Antenna benefits

It’s free: Once you’ve bought the antenna, you’ll never have to pay to watch local channels again. This is especially helpful during football season, when you can watch local games without any subscriptions.

More content: Even if you mostly rely on streaming, an antenna may get you channels that may not be available on live TV streaming services, such as local access channels and some digital subnets.

No latency: Live broadcasts come in faster from an antenna than any streaming service or even cable. For major sporting events such as the Super Bowl, an antenna is the best way to avoid social media spoilers.

Over-the-air DVR: By investing in the right DVR hardware, you can record local channels from an antenna, skip the commercials, watch from outside the home, and even download recordings for viewing on the go.

Why you might not need one

Most live TV services have local channels already: YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, Fubo, and DirecTV Stream carry the major broadcaster’s local channels in most markets. If you sign up for one of these services, an antenna will likely be redundant.

That said, an antenna can be a great supplement to other live TV streaming services that have limited or no local channel coverage, such as Sling TV, Philo, or Frndly TV.

You might get what you need from streaming: Paramount+ Premium, Peacock Premium Plus, and Fox One carry local feeds of CBS, NBC, and Fox, respectively, while ESPN Unlimited carries ABC’s sports coverage. Many PBS stations also offer live streams along with on-demand programming, and Hulu’s on-demand service offers shows from both ABC and Fox the day after it airs. If you’re subscribing to these services for other reasons, they may already carry what you’re looking for without an antenna setup.

You won’t get regular cable channels anyway: With an antenna, the main channels you can hope to get include ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CW, and PBS, along with some lesser-known subnetworks such as MeTV and Bounce. If live cable channels such as ESPN, CNN, or TNT are on your must-have list, you’ll still need a live TV streaming service to get them.

You may be bound by the laws of physics: If you live more than 60 miles from any local broadcast stations, or you’re blocked by major obstructions such as mountains, an antenna probably won’t be feasible to begin with. There is no antenna that will pick up signal from hundreds of miles away, regardless of what shady Amazon vendors tell you.

How to pick an antenna

To figure out if an antenna will work for you, head to AntennaWeb and plug in your address. You’ll see a list of all nearby stations, their distance from your location, and the type of antenna you’ll need to get them.

Keep in mind AntennaWeb’s color-coding, which is a bit counter-intuitive:

• Yellow: A small, indoor, flat-panel antenna should work.
• Green: You may need a larger indoor antenna.
• Light green or red: You’ll likely need a directional antenna in your attic or on the roof.
• Blue or violet: The directional antenna will likely need to be amplified.

As for which antenna to buy, PCWorld’s Martyn Williams has performed extensive testing on indoor and outdoor options alike. Just be prepared for trial and error, as many variables are involved in determining signal quality. If one antenna doesn’t work well for you, don’t be afraid to return it and try something else.

Over-the-air DVR

With an over-the-air DVR, you can record local channels from an antenna, then watch later with the ability to skip commercials. While I’m not going to perform extensive reviews for this guide, here are some notable options based on my experience testing these products over the years:

• Tablo ($100): This is a cheap way to get over-the-air DVR on any TV in your home. Set it up wherever you get the best reception, then watch through the Tablo app on your streaming devices. This requires a solid Wi-Fi network and ideally an ethernet connection from the Tablo to your router, and reliability has sometimes been a problem.
• HDHomeRun ($110 and up, plus $35 per year): Another whole-home DVR solution, this one requires a wired ethernet connection from the tuner to your router, plus an external hard drive for recordings. You can use the HDHomeRun app to watch and record live TV, but the interface is clunky.
• Plex DVR ($70 per year, requires tuner and desktop PC): Plex taps into the HDHomeRun tuner to play and record live TV on your streaming devices, but requires a compatible server device such as a desktop computer. Compared to HDHomeRun’s software, the interface is a lot slicker.
• Channels DVR ($80 per year, requires tuner and desktop PC): Like Plex, Channels uses an HDHomeRun tuner to play and record live TV on Apple TV, Fire TV, and Android TV devices, and it also requires a compatible server device such as a desktop computer. It’s a powerful solution with features like custom channels, personalized profiles, and the ability to capture content from certain streaming sources.
• ZapperBox ($199 and up, plus $30 per year): This is the best way to play and record ATSC 3.0 channels, including those with DRM encryption. The box plugs directly into your TV, and you can install receiver boxes for additional TVs (with support for streaming apps on the way).
• MediaSonic Homeworx ($40): An extremely clunky, bare-bones interface for recording live TV to a thumb drive or hard drive. The hardware is cheap and there are no subscriptions, but you get what you pay for.

Next Up: Streaming Savings Calculator

Next up, I’ll help find the best plan for your needs, either with or without an antenna.

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