How to Connect Multiple TVs to your OTA Antenna

Last Updated: April 1, 2021

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Table Of Contents

1 FIVE STEPS TO CONNECTING YOUR ANTENNA TO MULTIPLE TVs

FIVE STEPS TO CONNECTING YOUR ANTENNA TO MULTIPLE TVs

Free HDTV on Every Screen in Your Home

First of all congratulations! If you are reading this post you are ahead of the masses and have realized OTA (Over-the-Air) TV is an amazing alternative to Cable TV. Now you are looking for a way to connect an HD antenna to multiple TVs in your house.

1. Install your Antenna.

For some, an Indoor Antenna (like the excellent Mohu Leaf 30) will work, but for those who need to access a far away signal, an Outdoor Antenna (we recommend the Winegard Elite 764.990) will be necessary.

If you are new to Antenna Installation, here is a video I put together on how to install the Mohu Leaf Outdoor Antenna:

If you are not sure what channels you will get, try using AntennaWeb’s lookup tool. And if you don’t know what subchannels are yet.. take a quick read.

Click Below to Learn More:
Indoor Antennas	Outdoor Antennas	OTA DVRs

Mohu Antennas are the #1 Selling Antennas on Amazon for a Reason!

2. Connect the Coaxial Cable to an RF Coaxial Splitter.

Once you have your Antenna all hooked up, the next thing you need to do is connect a coaxial splitter. This is an inexpensive device designed for splitting an antenna signal to multiple TVs. This lets you use one antenna for multiple TVs, so you can watch your local channels on every television in your house.

Worth noting here is that splitting the signal can result is a 50% drop in signal strength (3.5db). Furthermore, every additional split will continue to decrease the overall signals strength. So if you have a weak or marginal signal coming from your antenna, splitting it will have a negative effect. This also means that if you only need a two-way splitter, don’t use a 4-way splitter because you’re losing more signal strength with every unused output.

Finally the more distance the signal has to travel, the weaker the signal becomes. So fewer feet in coaxial cable, means stronger signal, equating to better picture quality.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; you won’t even know if splitting the antenna signal to multiple TVs will cause a problem – until you test it.

HOW TO CONNECT YOUR ANTENNA TO MULTIPLE TVs

Side Note: Be careful with 3-way splitters. Signal loss can vary substantially across the three outputs. Meaning if used, two TVs could work fine, while the third would suffer from a weaker signal. I did some research and found an example of a Splitter that addresses this issue: the Monster Standard RF Splitter.

Click here to read the reviews: “If you are looking for a 3-way splitter with an equal signal loss on all 3 outputs, for $12 this is a good value.”

To learn about a DVR for Over-the-Air TV – Read: Recording Over the Air Channels With No Subscription Fees

3. Connect Your Main TV

I don’t suggest connecting more than one TV at a time because if something goes wrong you won’t know where the issue is. As I eluded too above, we are trying to remove as many variables as possible from the installation. If done correctly, this method will allow us to troubleshoot any hiccups, more effectively.

4. Connect the 2nd TV

Once you got the first TV working as expected, then hook up your 2nd TV. If successful go ahead and connect three TVs. And again, test the signal. If any point during these steps you notice that you have lost signal strength, it is time look into buying an amplifier. If this is not an issue, YOU ARE DONE, my friend.

5. Determining if you Need a Coaxial Amplifier

I don’t suggest starting out with an amplifier because some antennas come with built-in amplifiers that can easily support multiple TVs.

“The reason we want to first try installing amplifiers first is signal overload. If the signal is strong from the tower, too much amplification can overload the tuner and cause the TV tuner not to receive the channel. Amplification should always be seen as a way to improve reception, not installed by default.” Grounded Reason

When buying an amplifier you need to understand that there are two basic types:

PRE Amplifiers amplifies the signal received by the antenna into the down cable. It should not be anywhere but on the original antenna cable right at the antenna.
- Channel Master Amplify Adjustable Gain PreAmplifier – By design, this PreAmplifier can boost signal strength on any Indoor or Outdoor Antenna on the market. Professional grade, easy to install, TV antenna amplifier.
  Buy Direct
DISTRIBUTION Amplifiers allows you to redistribute that signal through multiple outputs while maintaining the same signal strength.
- Tip: Read the Amazon reviews on the Channel Master 3414 4 Outputs Distribution Amplifier. This thing is a beast!

If you would rather not deal with an amplifier all together, the Sky from Mohu, for example, is small, powerful outdoor antenna that can provide uncompressed HD broadcast to multiple televisions in a home (also has a range of 60 miles by the way).

Going Wireless

If you would rather go wireless, and stream your OTA signal across your entire home, to every WiFi connected device, then check out the HDHomeRun.

If you have already connected multiple TVs to your antenna, what suggestions do you have for us? What did I miss? Cheers!

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Helen Back

Helen loves to help people rid themselves of the high costs of cable and satellite TV, through writing about simple cost effective alternatives to cable TV. Contact her at [email protected]

31 replies on “How to Connect Multiple TVs to your OTA Antenna”

I have 4 tvs that are currently run off two cable boxes and through a 4×4 HDMI Switch/Splitter. I am ready to cancel cable, but as I already have the house wired with HDMI and coax in not near the tv locations, I was considering the following set up.

OTA amplified antenna (Trek Omni Directional)
via coax to
Digital Converter Box (Iview 3500STBII)
via HDMI to
4×4 HDMI Switch (Monoprice)
via HDMI to each TV

Any thoughts on if this would work?

Trying to figure out the best way to tackle this job. I have 5 tv’s currently through direct tv. Looking to get rid of it and get an HD antenna for locals. I’ve read about the mohu leaf antenna, but not sure if I need one of these for each tv or if I need a roof antenna. I know without a doubt I’ll need an amplifier to have good signal strength. I should also be able to use the existing house coax wiring as well I assume. Just not sure the best way to have all 5 tv’s up and running. I have netflix currently and would like that on each, and I’ve also looked at the sling which I think would be good for getting the channels I want to each.

I apologize for my delayed response. What I ended up doing, is I got a box that will accept my OTA signal. I connected that box to my receiver, and now I can view through my receiver. also, the box I got allows me to record.

Thanks Dennis – can you tell us the name of the box you are using? Would love to learn more.

It’s a mediasonic by homeworx. It allows me to record too.

I need to add on 24 televisions on a VHF antenna can you advise me what antennae ,splitter, amp or any other device I may need to have the televisons show excellent

Hi Nasser – Honestly i don’t know if you can get a strong enough signal using one antenna. I suspect you would need multiple antennas for something like this.

Good day, I wonder if I only need a splitter and a cable wire to connect multiple TVs to the set top box os is it one box for one TV or splitter and cable wire will do? please help… thanks!

Well if you split the signal that comes out of the box (streaming device) then only one channel or service can be viewed at a time (on both TV’s). If that is not a problem, then it should work.

Now if you are splitting an OTA signal – each TV should be able to access different channels simultaneously – assuming of course you get a powerful enough signal.

Hi, we have our antenna set up outside and because football was in full swing my husband didn't bother figuring out how to hook it up to our outdoor cable box. Im tired of having a wire running through our living room. We only have one tv, but there's a cable hook up on the wall that connects to the box outside. What wire do I need to connect the tv to the wall port? It might seem like a dumb question but I can't for the life of me figure it out. Thank you so much!

Currently both Comcast cable TV and internet come into the coax cabling in my home. I want to get rid of the cable TV and keep the internet. Can I hook my home’s coax cabling up to a new amplified antenna while still keeping the internet service through the cabling? Or will the antenna and internet signals interfere with each other?

That should work fine. Please check back in if that does not work and we can try to troubleshoot the issue.

Did this work? And how did you connect the antenna into the current coax lines? I’m in the same boat in Nashville. Looking to get rid of Comcast cable but unfortunately have to keep their Internet till Google is up and running hopefully in the next year or so….

Laura, I haven’t had the time to try it yet. Sorry.

One other option is to use an indoor antenna like the “Leaf”. Hang it on the wall near your TV and then try and hide the cabling.

Can I use a chromecast/laptop and MUHU antenna on each TV instead of splitting the signals?

Hi Beck – Yes, you can absolutely use a separate Antenna for each TV.

Hi Katharine – Felicia provided some great info. And in short the answer to your question is YES. You should be able to use the existing coaxial cabling in your house. But testing signal strength, one TV at a time, is a great way to avoid future issues. Did this help? Do you have any other questions?

Thanks Felicia! Excellent feedback and suggestions. Were you able to setup your antenna using existing cabling?

Katherine- when installing your antenna, if you are wanting to use the existing cabling, I suggest testing each cable at the junction box to coinciding televisions then labeling them with a permanent marker. If you've ever had direct or fish there should be minimum splitters already. If there isa splitter with a red line running from the in side to an out port, that is for the power source or amplifier. Direct TV calls it a swim power inserter, it sends an electrical current back to the splitter and antenna to amplify the signal so it may reach even the furthest television on the relay.

Is there any way to hook the outdoor antenna to where the cable comes into the house. Then use the cables already installed in my house to run the signal? I want to switch off of cable, but I will not run cords all over my house to fit all the tv's in the house.

Hi Dennis – please explain more… Are you trying to hook your OTA signal into a stereo receiver? If so I would suggest just going from the TV into your audio system using audio video cables.

How to connect to my stereo?

Hi Jeffrey Martin – First of all I highly suggest reading everything Steven Cedrone has posted on this article. He is very knowledgeable and is happy to help anyone who asks. Secondly the first step is to test it out – one step at a time. 1st get the Sky hooked up to a single TV. Then try a splitter and see what the quality is like on two TVs. At this point you dont even know if you need an amplifier. If you run into signal strength problems then you can look into an amplifying the signal. The amplifier I link too in the article costs around $35.00

Looking at the Sky and you mentioned that would work for multiple tvs but do you need amplifiers at each tv or do you plug it in at the attic if possible? If the former how much do the amplifiers cost?

Of course. Not sure how I missed that. Let me make a mention of it in the post. Thanks TabloTV!

Is it possible to hook sky antenna up to the outside where your existing cable was that has the coaxial cable already in place to existing tvs?

Hi Donna – Yes absolutely. But keep in mind that your number one priority is to find a spot that can reap a quality HD signal. Once you have found the right spot – then think about how best to run the coaxial cable. If there one in the same – then your job is easy.

Dave Kennedy if you need help at anytime feel free to contact me. steven at cedrone dot com

This is such great info Steven. Thank you.

The best way to do this is to get an amplifier with one output and a splitter or an amplifier with multiple output ports. Whichever you choose, make sure you have a way to adjust the output strength to just strong enough to pull in the channels. Over amplifying the signal can actually create interference and cause less channels to show up in your scan. A good rule of thumb is to always try it without the amplifier and see how many channels you get and what strengths they are (if you TV gives you that information) and then add the amplifier on the lowest setting and keep increasing it until you get the most amount of channels at the lowest signal possible. You can also hook multiple antennas (aimed in different directions) into a bi-directional splitter (using it backwards) so it pulls in all the channels you want with an antenna aimed in the right direction and combines multiple sources into one cable before you amplify it. as shown in this setup here: [link removed]