good looking

bad reception, costs too much.

as some other reviewers have said, the performance of this antenna is laughable. my rca rabbit ears actually perform better, after having tried the rca amplified one also, i can say the terk 25 is worse, and this one cost more. will return it for a different one. don't waste your money.

Similar Products Used:

rca amplified antenna, rca unamplified

No ugly rabbit ears to adjust. No need to adjust antenna to bring in other stations, they all come in.

The layout of the antenna loops are a little big. Takes up more room on top of an entertainment center. But well worth the extra space needed.

I purchased this antenna after being tried of paying for basic cable to get local channels with my DirectTV. After trying a set a rabbit ears I thought I was stuck with the basic cable. I decided to go and find an amplified antenna to see if one work any better than the standard rabbit ears. I purchased the Terk TV-25 and a RCA amplified antenna at about the same price. The TV-25 out performed the RCA unit. Once the loops were rotated to lock in a station, I was amazed at how not just the one station, but every staion, came in so clear without having to adjust the loops. Needless to say the RCA went back to Best Buy. I purchased another unit for the TV in basement. Works just as good in the basement.

Similar Products Used:

RCA amplified and standard rabbit ears.

Nearly all stations come in clear, even channel 2 comes in halfway decent. 41 is also decent, and the rest seem outstanding so far.

The coax on the antenna side is internally fixed. In other words, you can''t take it off the antenna, so it took a little more maneuvering to get the coax from the top of my entertainment center down the back and throug the hole behind the VCR.

I am GLAD I Got the Terk TV25. I just got it today, but if this is any indication of what to expect as time goes on, I Recommend it. It was a hard choice between that and a Jensed with dual amplifiers. But the Best Buy Guy told me several of his co-workers use Terk products at their cabins and were satisfied, so I that helped me make the choice, as both are up to 45db gains. I decided to give up Time-Warner Cable, as I don''t want to pay the sky high prices. 49.95 for the first few months, then 59.95 is insane for a bunch of repeating programs. SO I got the Terk TV25 since other indoor amplified antennas were just fair.

Similar Products Used:

Optima and Magnavox

low profile, ease of use

none in particular

For me the TV20 was a clear improvement over the rabbit ears I had. Stations that were fuzzy are now better, though not perfect. The improvement is not as dramatic as I'd hoped but probably worth the money.

I think the value of this will depend on your circumstances. If your problem is you live far from stations or have a weak TV, then a powered antenna is probably just the thing. On the other hand, if your problem is interference from competing stations or from buildings etc., then a powered antenna may be useless and painstakingly-adjusted rabbit ears will likely do better if you have the patience. I notice an unsatistfied customer from NYC and a satisfied one from AZ, which would make sense.

Similar Products Used:

Also tried their round AM/FM antenna. Didn't work.

Easy to set up, works as advertised,

none

I ordered a TERK 20 over the internet before I read the reviews here. So when it came, I planned to just send it back after a quick test. This unit is for a TV in a computer room without cable, and the Radio Shack antenna took too much fiddling and did not get a good picture. In Phoenix, I live 28 miles from the South Mountain TV antenna farm. Channels 3, 5, and 15 had the worst reception with rabbit ears, none were good.

I fired up the TERK and could not believe it. All UHF channels came in clear (15, 21, 33, 45, 51, 55, 61, 67) Channels 5, 8, 10, 12 came in as clear or better than Cox cable, far better than before, and channel 3 even worked as good as cable after a little ajustment.

I'm trying to figure out why so many people here had problems with the TERK 20 and 25. The only way I could duplicate the problem was to turn the gain all the way down, or pull the power plug. I wonder if the problem products were defective and mine just happened to work.

Similar Products Used:

Radio Shack Color Eagle 100 rabbit ears (Archer Cat No. 15-1808)

can be used as club against intruders in a crisis

does not work, terrible build quality, frustrating in it's complete inability to do what it's marketed to do

Sharper Image recommended this as the "best indoor TV antenna". I ordered it online for much less than Sharper Image's price and still got ripped off. The Terk's cheap plastic amplifier setting knob broke as soon as I used it and no combination of position, switch settings or amplifier produced a pleasing TV picture. At best after 10 minutes of agonized twiddling I got a picture that looked like abstract expressionist art. And each channel needed to be tuned individually--there was no one optimal setting as the box promised. I have seen other folks cheap RCA or Optimus rabbit ears work vastly better than the Terk. Maybe the cable companies own Terk and market this frustrating junk to drive customers into the arms of Time Warner Cable so they can see recognizable objects on their television screens...
This company should be renamed "Jerk" in honor of all of us suckers who wasted money on these chunks of scrap metal and plastic.

Similar Products Used:

Radio Shack & RCA rabbit ears

Works very well, simple installation

Build quality's a bit cheap, looks take getting used to.

This is about the TV20. I couldn't find any product differentiation (aside from 5dB in the amp) on Terk's site, and didn't want to pay for such a tiny difference.

The antenna works wonderfully. My previous experience was with various sets of RS rabbit ears. The Terk setup works much, much better. For one, the amplifier makes a -huge- difference in reception, especially on UHF channels. For two, the twin element setup really does appear to minimize ghosting. To be fair, it doesn't get rid of it altogether...I could do a better job manually with rabbit ears, presumably because I -could- vary from 180deg in order to catch bounces. However, I've had much better luck with the Terk finding one position that works well with all the channels. For me, not having to fiddle with the thing every time I switch channels is worth a couple of ghosts.

I have no idea what happened with the previous reviewers, but for me, this antenna damn near rivals cable quality on broadcast channels. Very recommended.

Similar Products Used:

Radio Shack antennas

None

Everything

What a waste. I bought this to replace Emerson rabbit ears I bought for $10 at Wal Mart. The picture quality of the TERK was worse!!

I have since read several reviews of TERK products at etown, and I can see that this performance is typical.

Too bad they don't allow zero stars

Similar Products Used:

Rabbit ears

Hype, not much else

Uselessness (Lots of S's as in BOO! HISS!)

I agree 100% with the other reviewer although this review is for the TV20 model which is the next one down from the TV25. I didn't want to spend $80, so I bought this one figuring it was similiar in performance. You could stick a piece of aluminum foil on back of the TV and get better results! I read the reviews for this and other Terk products which were not favorable but I had already bought it. I then went to Radio Shack and bought a set of rabbit ears with a fine tuning control for $15. What a big difference! The Terk TV20 could only pick up one station with a lot of static no matter how I set it. I even put it on the window sill but it was no better there. The Radio Shack doesn't even have an amplifier but it was pulling in a lot more stations with greater clarity. I might try one of their amplified antennas to see if it's any better and use the $15 one for FM on my receiver.

I returned the Terk the next day and got my money back vowing never to buy a Terk product again. They are overpriced and don't even work! I don't know how this piece of junk got all those "rave reviews" that are on the box. You should go to terk.com and take a look at Mr. Terk himself and ask yourself: Would I buy an antenna from this man?

Similar Products Used:

Rabbit Ears, Rooftop Antennas

Lightens your wallet

Horrible receptions, poor engineering and materials

I bought a new TV for a room that does not have the coax hookup from my roof antenna, so I figured I would save myself the hassel of running a new line by buying a good set top antenna. I live in Chicago, so I figured the reception would be very good regardless of the antenna. The antenna that came with the set was a simple dipole that provided clear images, yet colors are sharpness left something to be desired.

The Terk TV-25 cost $80 at Best Buy. Thinking that $$=quality, I bought the most expensive model. The TV-10 and TV-20 are unamplified and amplified models, respectively, similar to the TV-25. The first impression of this model is that for $80, you don't get much. The amplifier gain knob fell off, the plastic housing is really cheap, and the source and local/distant selector switches are of the poorest quality. Hoping that the TV-25 worked a lot better than in looked, I connected the supplied coax to the TV and plugged in the power to the amplifier.

Performance is laughable. I tried every possible combination of position, amplifier setting, local/distant switch and I just could not get a clear image. The colors with the amplification were a bit richer than the dipole, but the image was horribly fuzzy! I expected a lot more for an amplified antenna that cost $80. Perhaps these things are just snake oil like many high-priced audiophile junk. I'll go back to the simple but effective dipole until I can run a new lead from the roof.

I'd give 0 out of 5 stars if possible, for the rip-off factor.

Similar Products Used:

Generic TV antennas, rooftop antennas