In a completely unscientific test, Gemini/Zenith's high tech HDTV antenna slightly beat out Jensen's adjustable loop antenna in my basement. With proper windowsill placement, both can pick up seven over the air HDTV channels, and neither can pick up NBC no matter what I do. Neither of them get perfect reception: despite what you've heard about the "cliff effect" (the signal is either there or not there, as if dropping off a cliff), HDTV is not an all or nothing affair in my house. Perhaps it's the grade of my street, the angle to the Empire State Building, or the fact that it's in a basement, but both antennas suffer from audio dropouts and blocky digital artifacts. Both antennas perform better in clear weather.
The edge goes to the Zenith for three reasons:
- While actual tuning performance is roughly the same, the signal stregnth meter generally reads higher on the Zenith than the Jensen. It would be nice if that translated to more consistently artifact-free reception, but it doesn't.
- It's easier to adjust the Zenith. The Jensen tilts and rotates and has a variable gain control - a lot of adjustments, but it's impossible to know whether they're helping or hurting the signal and how they interrelate, so the extra features just add complexity. The Zenith can be oriented horizontally or vertically - that's it.
- The Zenith looks cool. Let's face it, when you've got a nice big fancy silverish slim HDTV, loops and rabbit ears are visually out of place.
-avi
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