I'd be interested in trying the Channel Master. That's one we have not yet tested. We've used the Magnavox, RCA, Zenith, DTV Buddy from Echostar, the Insignia and several others.

At home I have the DigitalStream that Radio Shack sells, and it works pretty good. I think the Zenith was the most sensitive one we'd tried, but I like the DigitalStream picture and the TV Guide features better. The HD/SD down-conversion appears to have fewer artifacts on the DigitalStream box as well.

Unfortunately, it is only composite output. I'd like to get one with S-Video.

Has anyone tried one of the "smart antennas" with a "smart antenna compatible" converter box? I believe it remembers the best antenna setting for each channel and adjusts the antenna accordingly when changing channels. I'm not sure if the antenna rotates or whether it uses some type of electronic phase steering. I've got to check one of those out as well.

The Phillps antenna has been our main test antenna. It only covers UHF, however, but it's darn good. We also have used 12 dollar rabbit ears from Walmart, bow tie arrays, and one of our guys is checking out some type of absolutely flat panel antenna now. I'm not sure where he got it from.

I'm using a cheap set of rabbit ears with one of those little phase shifting adjusters. It works OK, but I do get some multipath problems from the siding on the house. This spring I plan to get an antenna up on the roof or in the attic before I get a high-def receiver.

Tom

From composite, there is a good-sized step up in picture quality with Y/C ("S-video"), then another smaller step from that with component, and finally a giant step with HDMI (or DVI which has the same video signal).

All the video geeks I talked to thought component should be as good as HDMI.

I've found however that, in practice, consumer electronics component video gets clobbered by going through first a cheap D/A converter, then a cheap A/D converter to reconstruct as possible of the original signal.

A friend of mine has a $5,000 SONY VPL-VW50 front projector with a very good A/D converter. That however doesn't save him from the $0.14 D/A converter in the ATSC tuner box.

If you want a picture that will make your friends consider consider dropping their $100/month cable/satellite subs, you need to stay digital by using an HDMI (or DVI) cable.

If your TV (like mine) doesn't have enough HDMI inputs, get a switcher. I got one with a credit card-sized IR remote, cost me a only few tennies at Newegg.

Which is the best antenna?

Must be the the top-of-the-line Channel Master that's as long as a VW bus, right?

Yes, if you live in a rural area really far from the transmitter (and it's not too windy).

What about elsewhere? No, this antenna is so directional it will lose its signal if it flaps too much in the wind.
It also doesn't do a good job of rejecting multi-path (which is often a big problem in cities).

For multi-path situations, a bow tie antenna MAY be more appropriate. It has a phenomenal Front/Rear rejection ratio, meaning that any signal coming from behind will not be a factor normally. On the other hand, it has lower gain than the VW bus-sized Yagi (the typical "TV antenna" design).

Best is to first go to antennaweb.org to get a basic idea about your situation. If many stations are in the green and you can put a tabletop antenna near a window, that's worth a shot.

After that, you should ideally be able to go to a local dealer who has local OTA customers. I suspect that's not so common though. Imagine going to Circuit City's minimum wage staff for advice...

I just use the old 6' UHF/VHF antenna on my roof, rotated in the direction of Mt. Wilson. A while back I had 5.1 disappear, haven't tried to to see if it's back. Otherwise, the L.A. OTA channels are pretty solid, except for 24.1, which only comes in around 1/4 of the time. I'm guessing that 24.1 is not broadcast from Mt. Wilson. I live in West L.A. at the edge of Marina del Rey.