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Gemini ZHDTV1 HDTV-UHF Digital Indoor Antenna

Gemini ZHDTV1 HDTV-UHF Digital Indoor Antenna

List Price: $39.99
Your Price: $24.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent indoor antenna!
Review: This is an excellent indoor antenna, I haven't found better! Great picture quality, very low multipath, high gain for long range. If you wish to use an indoor antenna for whatever reason (in my case, I don't feel like the hassle or expense of installing an outdoor antenna yet, I probably will one of these days). There are a few things any potential buyer should note:

1. This antenna is marketed as an HDTV antenna. And, yes, it will receive ATSC (American HDTV) signals. No, a special antenna isn't necessary to do this. This antenna is actually made by a British company (Antiference) where they have a totally different digital TV system (DVB-T, which is debatably significantly better in terms of reception ease). I'm sure this is a great indoor antenna for HDTV - but the same characteristics of a great UHF antenna, make it a great antenna for any UHF signal, be it ATSC (American HDTV), NTSC (American analog), PAL, or DVB-T. No special antenna required. Though ATSC is so hard to receive with multipath, a GOOD antenna is important (which this is for an indoor).

2. Even the best indoor antenna simply will not compete with even a decent outdoor antenna. Outdoor antennas are able to use bigger, more effective designs and even more importantly they have a clear line of sight. An good outdoor antenna is best, this is merely a good 2nd place.

3. This antenna is UHF only. In case you're not aware, that means this antenna will not recieve channels 1-13 (VHF-Lo, and VHF-Hi). Well, actually, it will, but VERY poorly. This isn't a problem with this antenna. It's a UHF log-periodic design. It's a wonderful UHF design. It simply isn't made to pickup VHF. If you need VHF, look elsewhere (in my case, I have this antenna for UHF since my UHF stations are weak and this is the best I've seen, and I have very inexpensive rabbit ears for the single, strong, VHF station I get. Distant VHF stations I simply try to forget about ).

4. Finally, this antenna isn't amplified. It may benefit from setting up some sort of preamp, especially if your tuner is noisy. I found this with my computer. "Snow" can appear if the incoming signal is very good quality, but weak enough to be too close to the noise floor of the tuner. Note, that this antenna DOES give me a better picture (for UHF), no amp, than the nicest amplified rabbit ears + loop designs). Your results WILL vary. (Antenna needs depend greatly on location).

Anyways, good luck! OTA television with a great picture is a challenge. The best antenna for every location is different. This antenna is great if, like me, you need an antenna for UHF only; have a moderate degree of multipath (it's not as directional as many outdoor antennas, but it's better than any of those rabbit ears + loop antennas I've seen), reasonably strong signals mainly from one direction (or multiple directions and don't mind moving it), and don't want an outdoor antenna.

-update- I added an inexpensive 20dB amplifier I picked up at a major discount store, and it makes this antenna produce a much cleaner picture on weak stations. This antenna has always had a great signal (VERY clean), but it was noisy on weak stations because it's unamplified output was below the noise floor of my TV's tuner. With an amplifier added, my reccomendation for this antenna is even greater. It was ALREADY better than the best rabbit ear + loop amplified designs. Now it's almost ready to compete (amplified) with an unamplified outdoor UHF antenna!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Better than I thought even after reading good reviews!
Review: I was obsessed with finding a good antenna for my HD STB, and tried many. This little antenna outperformed my big rooftop UHF/VHF antenna that was mounted in the attic, and all other indoor antennas by far (given that I live 35 miles from the broadcast stations and they're all together). I think a rooftop mounted UHF antenna would probably be better if you lived much farther from the broadcast station, and they were scattered all around you.

Bottomline, if you live 35 miles or less from the broadcasting stations, they're centrally located (b/c this antenna is highly directional), and know which direction to point it, this is a fantastic product! One word of caution, I had to install this antenna on the second floor of my house to get it to work perfectly and use a $$$ preamp I bought at [local store]. On the first floor, it only worked so-so, it might be the trees in front of my house.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Absolutely worthless
Review: I bought this antenna for my Samsung digital tv thinking it will improve the reception but turned out that I got worse reception with this antenna than my current rooftop antenna. I live about 40 miles from most of the TV station.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the magazines recommended this thing for HDTV
Review: At first I bought a regular antenna and had it in my apt patio. Almost bigger than the patio. Don't remember which magazine recommended the Zenith Gemini. Small, simple, unpowered. It's great. You can aim it, get 20-50% better HDTV reception than the monster in my patio which is stationary. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Spoiled by cable and satellite
Review: I found this antenna to be very adequate for recieving HDTV signals in my area which is within 20 miles of the stations. I can receive all local channels in Jacksonville, Florida, but not without adjusting the antenna 5 to 10 degrees. I guess I am spoiled by cable and satellite. The perfect local HDTV antenna has yet to be invented, but this one is pretty darn good. The picture is the best. To me, signal amplification for digital reception is a bunch of hooey. It is the amount of signal received, not its strength that matters.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best indoor HDTV Antenna i have used
Review: This product is great. Works like a champ. Installation could not be easier. I get great HD reception in my apartment. I highly recommend this item. Worth every penny and more.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pretty darn good for HDTV in West Los Angeles
Review: I purchased both the ZHDTV and the ...RCA amplified antenna. I first tried the RCA and it didn't do much better than the current RCA (with one dial-this one has two). So I tried the Gemini and immediately I began receving a digital picture. With some fine tuning, I was able to watch most of my shows. However, some stations come in better than others.

I would highly recommend this. Plus, it is a very inexpensive option for an indoor antenna as opposed to an outdoors one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great! I am about 30 miles from Sacramento
Review: I live on a hill, and the Gemini is almost as good as an amplified Terk TV55 that costs 3-4 times as much.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Works great - except UHF only
Review: If all you need is UHF, this worked well for me. In fact, local high end stores swore I could not use an indoor atenna at my location, but this proved them wrong.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not for Rural America
Review: I purchased this antenna to go with my Samsung HDTV DirecTV receiver. I already had a Phillips Magnovox self amplified antenna but according to certain websites I would need a directional UHF antenna for the best reception and to reject multipath signals. However, the answer was not with this antenna, it simply could not pick up what my existing antenna was already able to receive. My distance from signal is about 30 miles for local programming and with what I have read the effective range is up to 15-20 miles at best. (Looks like an outdoor antenna will have to go up this spring.)


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