but I noticed that the article was updated on January 26th 2014 and a new antenna was now the top recommendation, the HD Frequency Cable Cutter Indoor/Outdoor HD Digital TV Antenna. Not being familiar with the product or the company I did some quick research and turns out that the HD Frequency Cable Cutter Indoor/Outdoor HD Digital TV Antenna was first announced on Kickstarter and failed to fund on August 29, 2013. Luckily the company released the product anyway and you can read about the company and the two antenna's that they sell here, http://www.hdfrequency.com.
The HD frequency Cable Cutter antenna is a premium product priced at $99.00 so how does it compare to my current antenna,Terk HDTVa?
Unboxing and First Thoughts
When I opened the delivery from Amazon the antenna arrived in a plain white box that proudly proclaimed that it was made in the U.S.A as pictured below.
The contents of the package includes:
- Antenna
- 12' white cable
- Getting started guide
- Command hook to hand on a wall or window if installing inside
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Priced at $99.00 and while the packaging just comes in a white box the antenna itself is well built with no flexing or bending. This antenna is large measuring at 20 inches by 19 inches and should hold up well if the antenna is mounted outside.
HD Frequency Cable Cutter Performance
I ended up putting the antenna in multiple positions in the room to ensure that I was getting the greatest signal strength to compare the two antennas.The green cells represent a solid signal and the yellow I could get the channels but due to the direction design of the Terk I had to adjust the position of the antenna to receive an OK to good signal.
Verdict
Number of Channels: Tie
Both antennas where able to pull in 27 channels with the Terk's directional design needing more fine tuning to pull in the stations in yellow.Picture Quality: Tie
Both antennas where able to pull in strong signals and doing an A/B test I could not tell a difference between signal strength of the two antennas.Winner: Terk HDTVa
The winner of the antenna shoot out comes down to price. The Terk HDTVa is only $39.99 vs the $99.99 premium for the HD Cord Cutter. The performance of the two antennas are very similar indoors except that the omnidirectional design of the HD Cord Cutter allowed all 27 channels to be picked up by the HDTV without having to play around as much with antenna position. So sorry thewirecutter.com I will be sticking with the Terk HDTVa a bit longer.
