Is a digital antenna better than a regular antenna? The question is often asked by the new dish owners who’re planning on getting a new TV setup. The straight answer is, both the antennas work great and there isn’t much difference.
It may sound irrational to you but the truth is, you shouldn’t compare between analog and digital antenna.
Look, anything digital we’re seeing today is an upgraded version made by the creators to ease and make everything simple. The same happened for TV antennas as well.
Want in depth about the hype antennas? Stick around to the end to make everything crystal clear.
What Is A Regular Antenna?
Broadcasting technology uses certain types of frequencies. In the past, the frequency used needed Analog antennas. Regular antenna also known as Analog antenna was the perfect suit to carry out those frequencies and deliver a standard signal.
They were the bigger type of antennas that could use a lot of help in placement and installation. Besides, Analog or regular antennas faced many difficulties to prevent the resistance and deliver all the channels.
What Is A Digital Antenna?
Digital antenna is basically a cord type antenna. Being smaller it’s super easy tohandle them. Besides, these antennas are able to deliver HD picture quality. That’s why another name goes, HDTV Antenna (High Definition Television Antenna).
A Digital Antenna picks up all the channels that are in your area. Here, all means the many local channels you didn’t even know were there because you couldn’t get them on your cable satellite TV.
Is A Digital Antenna Better Than A Regular Antenna?
In terms of doing an antenna’s job, both the antennas work the same. However, if you measure in quality, a Digital antenna is far better than a regular one.
Although Digital antenna has brought the term HDTV, it can’t make a non HD signal to HD. However, digital antennas got spread out when the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC) introduced the digital transmission.
After that, all high power stations were moved to the UHF band, which means Ultra High Frequency band. Digital antenna is capable of teleporting the UHF and delivering an uninterrupted quality signal.
Although VHF is still used in some areas, in most regions, UHF is the only band. That’s why digital antennas got a huge hype in the market.
UHF delivery also varied depending on antenna placements in different areas. That’s why suitable individual digital antennas are made in different sizes in different models.
In the first place, analog signals were used to transmit directly to your TV. However, in a digital antenna the signals are decoded first and go through some error corrections. So, you get the best output in your Television.
Advantage And Disadvantages Of Digital/Regular Antenna
Well, you can’t point out many advantages and disadvantages of Digital and Regular antennas. Still, here we notify you about some specifically for your ease of understanding.
- Advantages Of Regular Antenna
If you have an old antenna setup and are situated around 30 miles near your network towers, a regular or analog antenna is just fine for you. In this case, most likely you’ll not face any issues with your signal strength.
Although you face a little issue an amplifier can help you out right away.
- Disadvantages Of Regular Antenna
Regular antennas are not capable of picking up UHF band networks. So, if you are placed in an area where most of the channels are UHF bases, then it is time for you to upgrade to a digital antenna.
Otherwise, you’ll only get to watch the channels that are still going on in the VHF band.
- Advantages Of Digital Antenna
Better picture and sound quality is undoubtedly the greatest advantage of Digital antenna. As the digital signal is decoded, it is able to provide better quality pictures and noise cancellation.
That’s how you get to watch your favorite HD show in proper HD quality.
Besides, digital antennas are way smaller antennas than before. So, it takes less space and is ready to install straight out of the package.
- Disadvantages Of Digital Antenna
Well, the only con about Digital Antenna you can say is it is expensive. Although you can get a digital antenna for $10. But the cheaper digital antennas don’t work for long.
If you want something permanent, get the best mid-range digital antenna. For that, you may need to spend $150 at least. And that would surely be a beneficial investment.
FAQs-
Can you use an analog antenna on a smart TV?
You can use an Analog antenna on a smart TV. Today’s smart TV comes with a built in Over The Air digital tuner. So, you can either attach a digital antenna in the plug or an analogue one.
What kind of antenna gets the most channels?
In digital antennas Roof top/Attic style antennas get the most channels. Digital antennas are structured to adapt Ultra High Frequency band channels. With a rooftop antenna the frequency gets very less resistance, so can work very well.
An Attic style antenna gets more resistance than a roof style but still works great and gets most of the channels.
Do digital antennas work well?
Digital antennas work as well as analog antennas. There isn’t as much difference to tell. But in a digital antenna you get a clearer picture and sound quality indeed.
Conclusion
Now we’ve reached the end of the article. “Is a digital antenna better than a regular antenna?” still a question for you, then we suggest you try it. Most of the different models of digital antennas are smaller than analog antennas.
So, they are really easy to install. You just need to plug it in to the built in OTA digital tuner. If you haven’t that behind your TV, you can get a signal converter box and plug in a digital antenna.
Still if you are not sure to do it on your own seek professional antenna installer’s help.