Customer Reviews

RCA ANT1500 Superior Flat Antenna (White)

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(52)
3 star:		(35)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(35)

 

 

Let me start by saying you need to take all these reviews with a grain of salt, as each circumstance is unique - and may or may not apply to your situation. There are SO many variables, you just never know whether a product will work for you.

I have an HDTV and an old bedroom TV, both currently using amplified antennas with mediocre results. I bought the ANT1500 for a basement TV, based on good reviews, hoping that it might possibly work. I was not terribly optimistic, based on the fact that that analog signal in the basement produces a grainy, less than satisfying picture.

Imagine my delight when I placed the ANT1500 as high as I could between some floor joists and two galvanized heat ducts, connected it to a converter box and wala! 11 channels, locked in as good or better than my TV's upstairs.

I was stunned, and have ordered another to see if it can improve the other TV's. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

I got this antenna as a test to find out if I should get an outdoor antenna. I was amazed at the channels I received, and now going to order the db4 and get rid of my dish network. What people have to understand is you can not just buy any antenna and think it will work great. There are many considerations. antennaweb.org will help greatly, the more yellow you see, the better off you are, please check this site before you even consider an indoor antenna.

It's amazing that most of these antenna reviewers don't state how many miles away they are from the Digital Towers. Damn, some don't even list what state let alone city they are in. In my opinion, this renders their reviews absolutely useless as it DOES MATTER WHERE YOU ARE.

Some basic background first. This is for my 82 year old mom who lives in Bayside, NY (Queens County) around 11 miles East of most of the Digital Transmitters of the TV stations (Ch. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 31, 50) she is interest in receiving. Her TV is set up in the NW corner of the home on the first floor located on a busy street. She is also about 18 miles West of her favorite PBS station (Ch. 21). Most of the above stations are now UHF but 3 of them (Ch. 7, 11, 13) reverted back to VHF. It would have been a lot easier if the Government required all stations to go UHF--the original plan for Digital. Up to 3 weeks ago (around 6/12/09), she was able to pull in all of the above channels (some better than others) without moving around her 22 year old combination rabbit ears/UHF loop antenna (unknown brand or model) attached to her 22 year old 26 inch JVC TV set. The important thing here was she was able to successfully view all the channels without ever getting up to adjust the antenna. That was my goal for the Digital transition--pull in the most channels for her without her having to move the antenna ever again.

Well on 6/13/09, her life changed for the worse. I purchased an RCA DTA809 Digital to Analog converter box. I installed it in 2 minutes and hooked up her old antenna to it and did a scan. To my surprise, most of the channels came in. After playing with the antenna again, I rescanned and picked up the other channels with the exception of Ch 21. (the lone station in the other direction). No matter what I did and all the playing around with the antenna, I could not get all the stations (34 total channels including the subchannels like 7.1, 7.2 & 7.3, etc.) to come in at a solid signal strength of 30% or higher (which seems to be the magic number to get a solid signal without pixlations or unable to tune messages) at the same time without repositioning the antenna. Some of the 34 channels are in a non-English language and are of no interest to her.

I purchased the RCA ANT1400 [...], installed it and rescanned. To my horror, only a total of 10 channels (instead of the 34) came in when I placed the Antenna on top of the TV only. Moving it all over and finally resting it flat on top of the window box only picked up an additional 4 channels for a grand total of 14 channels. Half of those 14 stations were under the magic 30% signal strength number and therefore, pixlated or did not tune in at all. I packed it back up an returned it to Walmart where I received a full refund. They did not have the RCA ANT1500 in stock.

I purchased the RCA ANT1500 [...], installed it and rescanned. To my surprise, 28 channels came in--still short of the 34 with the rabbit ears but double the number of the ANT1400 just by placing it on top of the TV. Moving it all over and finally resting it flat on top of the window box (about a foot below the ceiling with the built in 6 foot cable fully extended) picked up the missing channels plus one more for a grand total of 35 channels. Playing around by moving the Antenna one inch at a time, I finally found a position I could live with for the time being. Still no Ch. 21 (you would think that a station only 18 miles away should be captured at some point with this type of multidirectional antenna) but Ch. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 along with the subchannels come in clear. Ch. 31 & 50 come in weak. However, according to www.dtv.gov, that site claims that Ch. 31 will be at full strength operation in August and Ch. 50's clone station Ch. 58 will be in operation to provide a stronger signal than Ch. 50 by October.

Everbody's situation in different and you have to do your homework. Go to www.antennaweb.org and put your address or zip code in. It will give the stations in yellow you are expected to receive with an indoor directional antenna (point and shoot type/rabbit ears type). The RCA ANT1500 claims to be a multidirectional antenna (set it and forget it type). However, even a change of one inch in placement can improve or worsen reception. So you will have to do some experimenting for best placement and reception. Learn how to use the signal stength option on your converter box to improve the overall signal--each box is different but the same approach applies.

For my mom's situation, the ANT1500 was much better than the ANT1400 hands down--no contest. Laying it flat (the higher the better) instead of standing it up or hanging it was better. However, if you don't mind getting up and moving the antenna, your old rabbit ears should be fine. Rule of thumb: You should be able to receive the same stations after 6/12/09 that you did before 6/12/09. When the signal is strong enough, you get a clear crystal picture with digital. However, with a weak signal, your picture will break up or just go blank. Gone are the good old days of analog when with a weak signal you still got a slightly fuzzy or ghostly picture. My mom is a bit mad she can't get a few of her old stations but when I told her of the horror stories out there, she calmed down.

Summary: I recommend the ANT1500 (although it should come with a longer, non-built in cable). Stay away from the ANT1400. Use your old antenna first--you may get lucky. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION & then POSITION, POSITION, POSITION. Good luck.

I bought this antenna for its appearance. It is compact, easy to place, and unobtrusive. I placed it flat on a shelf near the HDTV and no one notices it (it has a handy bracket if you wish to stand it upright). To my great delight, when I turned on the TV the picture was crystal clear -- all that HDTV/digital TV is supposed to be, and without cable boxes or ugly rabbit ears. It has strong stable reception for digital tv stations as far as 35 miles away, so I strongly recommend it for urban areas. I would not recommend it for stations more than 40-miles distant. In short, this antenna is a great combination of function and form.

I live in an apartment and we're not allowed to mount anything outside. I first bought RCA rabbit ears for 9.99 from Best Buy to work with the Dtv box (GE 23333 which has a smart antenna interface from Target $54.99) and picked up 22 channels...not including ABC and PBS. PBS signal would fade in and out. I then purchased another RCA product for 39.99 from Best Buy Indoor Amplified antenna (ANT1251). I picked up 23 channels, but couldn't pick up ABC and PBS at all, regardless of how much I played with it. I just bought this antenna from Best Buy anf it picked up 28 channels right away, including all ABC and PBS channels and sub-channels. I just ordered another one from Amazon. I am going to try out the smart antennas as soon as Best Buy gets them in stock so that I can see if there's any difference.

After helping a few people convert to digital set-ups, this antenna has turned out to be my indoor workhorse of choice.

Probably most useful for those who currently have set-top loop/rabbit ears and are having trouble with some digital stations breaking up as a function of time, weather, or movement of people in the room.

In 3 of 4 cases (in two different suburban broadcast markets), the RCA ANT1500 eliminated the fluctuations, producing stable results over time, once positioned. The 4th case, a basement TV, has always needed a roof/attic antenna, though the ANT1500 came close, providing stable OTA DTV reception for all but one channel.

In each 100% successful case, DB4 (Antennas Direct) and Winegard SS3000 models were tried first -- I have been trying to get rid of them ever since they didn't work for my personal set up. And I still have not found a situation where the SS3000 provided viable performance.

The ANT1500 always worked slightly better (and at least never worse) than the larger, bulkier DB4, probably to a large extent because it was easier to place.

For example, one site has solid reception on all available channels when the antenna is propped up on the floor against the wall behind a couch. Everybody is delighted with the "invisible" solution. No problem for the ANT1500 ... but not a chance for such a placement with the comparatively gangly DB4.

Some say the ANT1500 is style over substance, but when a couple feet of positioning makes a huge difference in reception, the practical ability to blend into a room can be worth a couple db of gain measured in the lab.

The ANT1500 always turned out to be an improvement over loop/rabbit ears in terms of stability and placement options, eliminating the problem of reception changing when you stopped touching the loop/ears after adjustment.

The coax that comes partly built in to the ANT1500 is fairly short at about 6 feet; if your first try isn't satisfactory, you may want to invest in ~25 feet cable and a cable-connector to extend placement to different areas of a room. Also, before you hammer something into the wall to mount it, you might want to see if you can non-destructively fix it in place for a few weeks to be sure reception is stable before you commit to hole-making.

Like most, I bought the new, flat antenna for its looks. I had replaced my old tube TV with a new HD wide-screen, and wanted to replace the old rabbit-ears with something more stylish. I also hoped it was something I could just sit in one unobtrusive spot that would bring in broadcast channels without needing to be turned or moved about.

Alas, the reception was worse than the rabbit ears - significantly worse. Especially when I tried simply sitting it behind the TV. To get half-way decent reception, I had to stretch its cable out as far as possible, then put the flat antenna as high as possible. Which means that instead of it hiding unobtrusively, I had this big, white square hanging from a curtain rod, dangling a thick, white cord across the room behind it - which was far more visually distracting than the thinner, black cable on the rabbit ears. So I returned it.

Needed local channels to come in HD so I could watch football. This product did the job. When I set it flat the strength was OK, about a 75. However, when I flat-mounted it to the wall above the TV the strength increased to 90-95 on all local channels. Pretty impressive for such an easy set-up.

No complaints about seller. They did a good job.
The antenna is just not very good. I found that rabbit ears work just as well. After some research I found that it boils down to the laws of physics-an antenna this small can't do a good job. I built a DIY antenna from easy instructions found all over the net. Just search for "DIY DB4" if you're interested. I plugged this home-made thing in and rescanned the channels. It's amazing how many channels were missed by the reviewed antenna and now come in strong. The stations are located within 15 miles.

For where I live, this RCA ANT1500 is a waste of money. From my experience, claims of advanced technology and multi-directionality simply are not true.

I bought this primarily for its improved appearance over my $10 RCA ANT111 rabbit ears with hopes that the ANT1500 would provide slightly better performance. I would have been satisfied but slightly disappointed with equal performance to the RCA $10 rabbit ear, which has provided respectable HDTV over the air reception. What I experienced with the ANT1500 was slightly worse performance. This was after fiddling with dozens of placement settings with the ANT1500. The fact that one has to position this antenna in a place of general compromise to receive the expected number of channels contradicts the marketing claim which says it "outperforms traditional antennas due to patented design" and that it "eliminates constant adjustments with multi-directional reception pattern." In my experience, these claims are false.

The $10 RCA ANT111 rabbit ear is back in action because it performs better than this "patented design" ANT1500. This ANT1500 is in the closet. The bottom line is that I wasted time and money on the RCA ANT1500.