Over the Air Antenna Review

Hi guys I have tried 3 OTA antennas, one was from MonoPrice and it was amplified, it worked ok keep in mind your location to the broadcast towers has a lot to do with how many channels you will get and also what’s in your line of sight to theses towers. Antenna Web and TV Fool can give you a good idea of what size antenna you will need to pull in channels. I myself am located in Westchester NY. And I am about 35 miles from the broadcast towers in NYC. I am also on a hill which helps. Now back to the other antennas I tried.


The second unit was the Mohu Leaf Paper-Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna - Made in USA non amplified version it also did work but dropped a lot of the channels no matter where I tried positioning the antenna even in my window channels would pixilated or cut out if I walked passed the antenna. The one thing it does have going for it how flat it is and can blend into the background so your not looking at an ugly antenna for ascetics it has a high wife approval rating. With the results I got I emailed Mohu direct which is were I purchased the Leaf from and gave them my location Where I was mounting the antenna to see if the Leaf Plus Amplified Indoor HDTV Antenna would work any better for me, they said based on my location neither of the Leaf antenna s would work for me I would need an attic or roof mounted antenna to get good signal. I appreciated their honesty and my return was smooth, they even refunded me the shipping.

The last antenna I tried was a Winegard FreeVision FV-30BB HDTV Antenna HDTV Antenna also a non amplified antenna again according to antenna web and Mohu’s tech support based on my info I would need at least an attic mounted antenna. Well with the Winegard FreeVision FV-30BB HDTV Antenna I get in about 60 channels, some or oddball ones I will never watch but I do get ever major network , CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC,WB PBS and the Ion channel from NJ. The channels never drop or pixilated like the Leaf did and they all look amazing far better than what my cable box does. If you live close to broadcast towers try the basic Leaf and you don’t want to look at an antenna the Wingard is not that big and I have it sitting on top of a dresser behind two decorative candles so you don’t really notice it. I will say the amplified version of the Leaf is way over priced at around 70 bucks on Amazon. I hope this info helps I wish I had this info when I was looking for an antenna.


One last thing I forgot to mention the Mohu Leaf Paper-Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna - Made in USA is optimized for UHF broadcasting, it does pull in some VHF stations but is not optimized to do this, so when you check on antenna web or TV fool look to see if any stations you want are broadcasted in VHF only as you may not pull them in if your too far away.

Roku Streaming Media Player

My first blog post with be about one of my all time favorite electronic gadgets the Roku media streaming set top box. I love the product so much you might even call me a Roku evangelist.  I first learned about the Roku back in 2010 from my boss who showed me a newspaper article about a new cord cutting device to replace cable TV.  He asked me what I knew about it and did I think it was any good. So I started looking on the web about it. The first place I check was Amazon to see what kind of reviews people were giving it. Turns out the reviews were good so I decided to take a shot and buy one. It was just under a hundred dollars at $99.99 for there then flagship model the XD/S. 802.11g Wi-Fi reception (as well as an Ethernet connection), and an HDMI output. 1080p resolution (if channel programmers provide it), an enhanced remote with replay capabilities, and single-band wireless N Wi-Fi. Also adds component video and optical audio outputs, dual-band wireless N, and a USB port for playing videos, photos, and music. It could play Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora and much more.

I was so amazed at how small the box was when I received it and at how well it streamed the video content which was provided thought what they call the channel store. Most of the channels were free but there were a few paid services like Netflix and Hulu to name a few that charge a monthly subscription to use.

At the time I was considering building a HTPC for the living room after I had just built my own custom desktop PC. But the cost of building another PC and the maintenance required to up keep a home theater PC was expensive and time consuming  neither which I had to spare. Plus it would not be very user friendly from my wife and kids who by the way use our Roku player everyday with no issues and also love it. I had the XD/S model for about a year and loved it and used it every day. When Roku announced a new improved line of boxes I could not wait to buy the next flagship model which was the Roku 2 XS Roku 2 XS 1080p Streaming Player . The new model was smaller faster and now had a Wii type remote which could also be used to play what they called casual games offered on the box like Angry Birds. What’s great about  all the Roku 2 models is they will connect to any TV from Old school Picture Tube TV to today’s current HDTV using an HDMI connection.

Here is a brief history of the device from the Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roku

Welcome To My Blog

This blog is my take on products I use personally in my daily life. The reviews will range from Technology gadgets to car seats. I am a tech guy for the common man. I hope you find my reviews informative and helpful.

Vinny L. aka The Tech Guy