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With its retro "bunny ears" design, the RCA Indoor FM and HDTV Antenna is the very model of an indoor antenna. It's also supercheap, at less than 10 bucks. Too bad it's not very good.

The RCA consists of a black plastic base, two telescoping rods (the "ears") and a central squared-off loop of wire. The rods stretch up to 2 feet in length and are probably more useful for FM broadcasts than digital HDTV reception.





The base's plastic is underpinned by metal, which gives it some stability when the antenna is fully extended. At the back is the expected coaxial cable, but it's a lot thinner than competitors' (read: not as well insulated) and also very short at only 4.5 feet.



Those bunny ears.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The RCA Indoor FM and HDTV Antenna performed just OK -- better than the amplified models in our tests, but worse than pretty much everything else. It also had the lowest number of watchable channels out of our selection of 11 antennas. It managed just three, where most others got five or more.





The Channel Master Flatenna is only a couple of dollars more (with free shipping) and outperforms the RCA in every way. It's hard to imagine why you would buy anything else. Only the most nostalgic of TV Antenna fans would get anything out of the RCA, and that's simply by virtue of its rabbitty looks.

See how the RCA fared in our cord-cutters' guide to indoor antennas here.

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