Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro HDTV Antenna review

30-second review

Indoor TV antennas are the cable industry’s best-kept secret. Most folks simply don’t know that they can get local channels over the air the same way they did two decades ago.

What’s changed, however, is the technology we use to pull in those channels - and, ultimately, how effective these new tools are at their jobs.

The Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro Indoor TV Antenna is, in many respects, very good at this job. Its 15db power injector helps pull in a dozen or more channels that load up fast and don’t have many noticeable artifacts or much pixelation. Its wide design, although a bit unwieldy and not the most eye-catching, is effective and it's simple to set up, too.

Like most good tools, though, the Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro does cost more than the average HD antenna that should only set you back between $20 and $30, and may not always offer a significantly improved experience for those of us who already live close to broadcasting stations. Overall, however, folks who live 30 to 45 miles out of town should certainly consider it as a great alternative to the cheaper and weaker models out there.

Design

The Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro is a large, flat digital antenna that can be used with the accompanying power injector or without it. It has a white side and a black side that can help it blend in with your living room décor, but it’s best placed next to or on a window with direct visibility to the outside world.

How will you know if it's in the right position, you ask? Well, conveniently Mohu has placed a signal strength indicator on the white side, right near the coaxial connection port. An LED bar indicates how strong of a signal your antenna is currently pulling in and while we wouldn't say that it's totally foolproof, it's a good gauge to help you generally put the Leaf in the right spot.

As for the amplification part of its description, the Mohu Leaf comes with a15db power injector that boosts the clarity of channels received by the antenna. You don’t necessarily need to use it - and it might be the case that you receive more channels without the power injector - but we found it to be very useful in our testing.

Last but not least, to connect the antenna to the injector - or directly to your TV - the Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro comes with a 12-foot detachable coaxial cable. That length of wire should give you plenty of slack to reach the windows from TV - and it feels like a premium addition compared to cheaper models that only come with a one-to-two foot coaxial cord.

Performance

When it comes to antenna performance, the phrase ‘your mileage may vary’ is literal - it all comes down to how far outside of town you live. For us, right outside the Buffalo metro area, we were able to pull in about 54 digital channels - many of which actually worked and loaded quickly. Many of these channels were coming in at sub-HD resolutions, but the primary stations (NBC, ABC, CBS) worked as they should. 

With the power injector attached, the Leaf Supreme Pro has, according to Mohu, a 60-mile radius - which is a real step up compared to the cheaper 30-mile radius antenna that we were using previously. That said, even the cheaper antenna picked up 54 channels. Not all of those stations were watchable previously, and some took a few seconds to start, but the antenna did pick up the basic channels just fine.

All of that is a long way of saying that the Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro does have good performance - but how good that performance is will depend on how far outside the city you live, and what antenna (if any) you already own. People who live close to broadcasters and own a cheap antenna might not need the Supreme Pro, while those who live a far distance out of town might need something even stronger, like an outdoor amplified antenna. 

Overall, though, if you’re just a few miles outside of town and you can place the antenna next to the window, you should expect clear reception and watchable, sub-HD stations. 

Should you buy the Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro? 

Buy it if...

You want a powerful indoor antenna in a suburban neighborhood
The perfect audience for the Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro is folks who live outside the city limits in the suburbs. The 60-mile radius should help you reach most of the nearby major metropolitan broadcasters with no problem.

You’re looking for an antenna with a convenient setup
We also appreciate how easy it is to set up the Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro. You can buy it before the big game, have it unboxed and set up in a matter of minutes, and be ready to watch the game all before you finish that first bag of chips.

Don't buy it if...

You are absolutely out in the middle of nowhere
While the 60-mile radius should work for suburban and semi-rural folks, anyone who’s really out in the middle of nowhere might need something even more powerful. 

You live in or right outside of a major metropolitan area
The counter-point there is that you also shouldn’t buy the Mohu Leaf Supreme Pro if you live too close to town, either. If you’re inside the city limits, you probably don’t need to shell out for the Supreme Pro’s extra-wide radius.

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