The Mohu Leaf is a paper-thin TV antenna you can hang on your wall to get HD-quality television, for free. Cable is quaint. Web-savvy consumers ditched that overpaid service a long time ago: it’s simply cheaper to stream shows online or purchase them later, especially if you only watch a few.
But ditching cable doesn’t mean you need to ditch live TV altogether: all the major networks and an occasionally surprising amount of other channels are available to you free of charge over-the-air, if you have an antenna. This means you can watch many of the most popular shows, along with many major sporting events, in high definition for free.
We’re giving away one Mohu Leaf Plus and two regular Mohu Leaf antennas valued at $150. Read on to find out more about the Mohu Leaf antennas and how to win them!
The Mohu Leaf isn’t magic: it’s just a TV antenna which you plug into your television, similar in many ways to the ugly rabbit ears you might remember from older televisions. It’s certainly less of an eyesore than those rabbit ears, however, and generally doesn’t need to be adjusted once it’s set up. Hundreds of reviewers on Amazon love this antenna; you might too.
Using The Leaf
There are two models of the Mohu Leaf (which retails for $37.99): the Leaf and the Mohu Leaf Plus (RRP $74.99), the latter of which uses USB for extra power. Both models look the same; the only difference is performance.
This antenna looks like little more than a piece of laminated paper, with a wire coming out of it. Here it is next to my favorite coffee mug, for context:
As you can see, it’s not huge. It’s two sided – one side is white, one side is black. Which way it faces makes no difference whatsoever in terms of reception: the colors are there to make it easier to match the antenna with your decor.
If you grew up without cable (I did) you probably remember adjusting an antenna, struggling to get a decent picture. The picture rarely looked perfect: there was inevitably a certain amount of “snow”.
Put those thoughts out of your mind. Terrestrial broadcasts today are digital, high-definition and crystal clear. This is great, but also means there is less wiggle room than before. With digital television there is no fuzzy picture: it’s all or nothing. This means you need a good antenna to consistently see your shows.
Putting The Mohu Leaf To The Test
Mohu suggests that customers who live within a 30 mile radius of their neighbourhood broadcasting tower to go for the Leaf antenna, whereas those who live 10 miles further should ideally use the Leaf Plus instead. I just happen to live in one of the hardest towns in America to get television reception – Boulder, Colorado. I have a cheap antenna from Radio Shack, and I can get most channels but it’s inconsistent: some stations work well, others are a hassle. This can get annoying: I had to stand in certain places to maintain reception throughout the Stanley Cup Finals this year.
In this environment, the regular Mohu Leaf simply won’t work well, so I decided to put the Mohu Leaf Plus to the test. The Mohu Leaf Plus, unlike the Mohu Leaf, requires a USB port to be powered.
You can plug this into your TV, if your TV has a USB port, or the USB port on your game console or media computer. If there are no USB ports near your TV, don’t worry: an adapter you can plug into the wall comes with the Leaf Plus.
Back to the test. How many channels did I manage to get? Here’s a chart comparing the Mohu Leaf Plus to my old antenna, channel-for-channel:
The list includes every channel I could hypothetically get in this area, though I doubt any antenna could pick most of them up. As you can see, I managed to receive channels I didn’t before. Sure, most of those channels are in Spanish, but still: new channels!
Even better, and this doesn’t come across in the spreadsheet, I can get the channels I like without the need to constantly tweak the antenna. Every channel worked once I set the Leaf Plus up, although for PBS I do need to move it occasionally.
I’m seriously impressed with this antenna. Sure, I need to use the Plus and its USB power source, but that’s only because I live in one of the worst reception areas in America. If you live away from the mountains the Mohu Leaf will probably work for you.
Interested in which channels it’s possible to get where you live? This reception map can help if you live in the USA.
What do you think? Eager to try out the Mohu Lead? We have one Leaf Plus and two Leaf antennas up for grabs in our giveaway. Join below and be in the running to win!
How do I win a Mohu Leaf antenna?
Step 1: Fill in the giveaway form
Please fill in the form with your real name and email address so that we can get in touch if you are chosen as a winner.
The giveaway code required to activate the form is available from our Facebook page, Twitter stream and Google+ page.
- Donavyn Elliott
- Christian Caldwell
- Patricia Alsup
Congratulations! If you were selected as a winner, you would have received an email from jackson@makeuseof.com. Please respond before Sep 19. Enquires beyond this date will not be entertained.
Step 2: Share!
You’re almost done. Now, all that’s left to do is to share the post!
(Note: no points will be awarded.)
Alternative entry method: Use your points!
Exchange your MakeUseOf points for an entry into the competition. First, create a MakeUseOf account, earn points and exchange your points for an entry! Learn more about our Game system and Rewards program.
Sorry, the competition is now over
By participating in this giveaway, you agree to the giveaway rules.
This giveaway begins now and ends Friday, September 7th. The winners will be selected at random and informed via email.
Spread the word to your friends and have fun!
Interested in sponsoring a giveaway? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via the form at the bottom of this page.
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Does this work well in all countries?
It should work anywhere DTV is the standard. Someone from Mohu might correct me, but I think the countries listed here should all be supported:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVB-T#Countries_and_territories_using_DVB-T
Note that this is intended primarily for urban users. Ruralites far from broadcasters are probably better off with something outside.
Something tells me this wont work in the UK. I have an Elgato DVB-T hybrid USB thingy, and that doesn’t work with a regular arial because of some weird technical reason.
Believe it or not Justin, the Mohu Leaf will work for both digital (DTV) and analog stations that are still being broadcast, assuming that the stations are UHF. The most important factor of determining whether the antenna will work or not is to find out what frequencies the antenna is designed for. The Mohu Leaf and Leaf Plus are both designed for UHF frequencies, which consists of roughly 90% of the TV stations being broadcast today. As a general rule of thumb, any channels that are listed as 13 or higher are considered UHF stations and should work with the Mohu Leaf.
Probably..
These are great antenna’s, I would love to have one, and the plus is just what I need.
Good luck!
I hope the same dude, XD
Good luck for you…
I live in Northglenn, CO (pretty close to you) and after getting the Mohu Leaf, I was able to pick up every channel with the antenna(took a little bit to get the exact location for the antenna to get all the local channels). I have not been able to find another antenna that I can pick up all the channels without having to point it in another direction, and the Mohu leaf one doesn’t need moved to pick them up, so I would highly recommend this antenna.
I wanted to buy one of these but it was a little expensive at the time.
would there be many channels in Canada??
You should be able to get the networks, such as CBC and CTV. Depending on where in Canada you are Global, City TV are also possibilities.
If you’re near the USA you might get some American channels as well – growing up I got ABC, NBC, CBS Fox and PBS because of my family’s proximity to Buffalo.
Does this work on a PC or laptop??
Or it’s needed a tv tuner to work?
P.S.
Is this giveaway available for me, who lives in the south-east of europe?
To use this with a computer you’ll need a TV tuner; the Mohu is only an antenna.
I’m not sure where the giveaway is and isn’t happening; Jackson, who runs the giveaways, will let you know. I’ll send this to him to make sure of that.
I am also interested in knowing if us europeans can participate/ win. I am from Romania. As far as the rules for giveaways go I read them and I haven’t found anything regarding this matter.
Please let me know when you have an answer! Thank you!
There’s regional restriction, but it’s up to you to figure out if the device will work or not.
Thanks! ^^
im not on any of them things! so i guess im outta luck
Yup.
Great. I need one. Thanks…
I don’t see where you rated the actual picture quality you got. I know earlier in the piece you said it’s great, but did you actually get a great picture? I’ve been flirting with and over the air HD antenna for a while but I’m still skeptical.
With HD it’s all or nothing: you either get a great picture or basically nothing at all. I get a great picture.
Heh, that’s not true. If you get bad reception, you can have picture freezing, audio missing, lots of strange artifacts – HD or otherwise. The fact you didn’t means you got a good reception though!
For the channels you can get, your picture quality with this will actually be BETTER than with cable, typically. This is the same signal your cable company gets, in fact, but most cable companies “compress” the signal so the lose some quality as a result.
Yes, the cable company just picks up your local channels using an antenna and “repackages” them… no value-added. Similarly, they get their NATIONAL feeds off of satellite signals… same thing.
That’s awesome! I’ve heard that before. I never thought of it as the cable companies compressing the signal. Makes sense now. Thanks!
This is 100% true. You really have to see it to believe it, an over the air TV picture is simply unmatched in terms of overall picture quality.
Yeah cable is obselete….unless your a sports fan. Good luck accessing any ESPN content, as well as NBCSN, CBSSN, all the FSN and CSN regional nets, NFL net, NBA tv, MLB net, Big 10 net, Pac 12 nets, etc. without cable. Heck, with the mess that is cable and sattelite contracts between the networks and the providers, you’d be lucky to get all you want even with the subscription.
Yeah, sports is the main reason to keep cable. I’m not sure it’s possible for me to get the games I want, though, so I’ve never bothered.
Not sure if it will work in my country…
not applicable in the philippines according to your link in wikipedia :(
oh, god! I need this sucker! thanks for the giveaway!
It even looks good. Gimme!:D
I’d really love to try one of these. I’m suspicious about a lot of these “HDTV” antennas, as I think quite a few are just gimmicks. I tried two different ones that cost over $50, that didn’t work as well as my cheap old rabbit ears.
I’d love to try a leaf, because it would look so much better.
This looks better and works really well, better than my cheap old rabbit ears. But of course your mileage may vary.
Justin is absolutely right. If you live within about 45-50 miles of the broadcasting towers, the Leaf Plus should be able to pull in whatever stations are available in your area.
Good Luck to everyone. Hope I win one this sounds great to have.
love to have this.
I need this antenna, tired of being screwed by these cable tv providers up here in Alberta!
When I lived in Peace River there were only two over-the-air channels available. Not sure how different it is in the cities, but be mindful.
Happily CTV broadcast The Daily Show and CBC had HNIC, so I basically got everything I wanted from my TV.
Goodone for people living in remote areas.
Am i allowed to enter, with the code i recieved in the email, by sharing or liking, and by using points or just one of the three?
As many as you want! The more things you do the more entries you’ll have.
These are definitely the best antennas for the price. Unless you want to mount an antenna mast on your house get either one of these!
The best part is, the Mohu Leaf is easily mounted behind a picture frame or a poster. You can have this antenna completely out of plain sight and it will still outperform rabbit ears. Amazing.
This would be a great backup to cable!
Well, when I first tried (in 2 browsers) to access the giveaway, I got a ’502 invalid gateway’ error. I came back later and was able to successfully click on the link. However, entering the code “13af” in the giveaway code box earned me the message that the code was invalid. Unsure if the first character in the code was alpha or numeric I tried it with a one and with an “I” to the same avail. Guess I won’t be entering this one!
Hey Bob, where did you get the code from? I’d suggest just copying and pasting the code in.
Jackson,
Thanks. That worked. Never had that kind of problem before on Makeuseof.
I live in the simi flat land area of Arkansas so it should work well here. Would be excited to win one
Best of luck to you!
Thanks for the giveaway.
Here’s my tweet: https://twitter.com/jkitc/status/241579166447833088
I already have one TV using an indoor antenna in the hills of Los
Angeles. 63 stations! (of course you need to know some foreign languages to use them all.. Good post
crazy technology… good one. I’m in india and so eventhough i win it, it is mere useless for me… :) wish others all the best.
I live about 7 miles from the nearest bi city and I think something like this would beat the antenna I am using now. It actually might pull in a few more channels that I can now which would be a big plus…
My nephew could really use this.
Nice, and yes I did go without cable at certain points in my earlier days(Making myself sound really old here lol), so I definitely know the feeling very well.
Anyways, not entering, just wanted to wish everyone good luck!
i need one of these
very cool
would love to give this a try
OMG, I could totally use something like this in my house! We don’t have cable, and the air channels come so inconsistently it’s not even funny! The strangest thing is that upstairs Channel 4 comes through just fine, but downstairs it can’t even get picked up at all–not even a bad, fuzzy picture or anything! I wouldn’t think a 10 ft height distance would make such a difference, but it does apparently. We even bought a long extension cable thing and took the antenna outside to test for better reception, but to no avail! Do you think it could be something wrong with the TV itself? Strange…Anyway, I would love to have one of these antennas to at least get better reception for the rest of the channels! :D
Do you happen to know whether or not you’re using a digital-ready TV downstairs? Are you able to pull in any stations on the downstairs TV at all?
I have heard about these and I hope I am one of the lucky ones to win one!
Right now I user 2 tin cans split in half… it works!!!
However, it is ugly as sin.
My mom needs one of these…they don’t even offer satellite to her in the BFE she lives in!
Has anyone tried this in the Seattle/tacoma area?
This is sweet! I’ve always wanted one of these. Entered in!
There are trees just in front of where I live. I wonder how effective this would be? I don’t have cable and it would be really nice if I won this.
I don’t think trees would be a problem. The real issue is whether you’re close to the broadcasting towers.
No Big Deal, when the US went over to HDTV back in January of 2010 I believe, citizens were notified to purchase the converter and purchase a good antenna. Mine is an RCA model made in China, of course, and is identical in size and shape to this one, except all one color. Upwards of a $150.00 bucks? Sounds like a “snake oil” salesman to me!!! Anyone that stupid to pay that price should be fleeced……..!!! Purchased mine for under 50/60 bucks and also have some 22-29 extra channels, too!
I am anxious to try the Leaf…not sure if I need the Plus or not….I am about 35 miles from NYC.
Don’t know the area well, but my guess is you’d be fine. I’m 30 minutes from Denver.
I live in an area with poor reception. I can certainly use this…it would be great to win it.
will work in sydney australia??
I am entered and i shared on facebook and tweeted this giveaway as @CarolynRBarnett
I hope I win!
Another great giveaway. Thx……….
Very skeptical about the claims of another indoor antenna. I have tried a couple and it just doesn’t work well unless you love the idea of streaming channels with bad internet connection which is what it felt like. Had to buy a larger outdoor one and it works so much better. Maybe tech had changed the last couple of years so bring it on.
Large outdoor ones will *always* be better.
Yep, no way around that. Maybe we’ll give away an outdoor one sometime soon…
Certain areas will always be better suited for outdoor-mounted antennas, especially for those who live 60+ miles from the broadcasting towers. If you live within about 40-45 miles of the towers in your area, the Mohu Leaf plus should pull in most, if not all of stations that are available.
thanx for the chance!
how do i win the giveaway . tell me the process.
The instructions above are meant to be clear. Is there something specific that you don’t understand?
thanks for the giveaway!
nice
Help with ditching cable is a ggod thing
Tried to enter your giveaway for the Leaf antenna using the code in your Email and I keep getting an invalid code message. Is this a con?
Did you get the confirmation email?
I couldn’t even get to enter. The code was invalid. I did not receive any other Email other than the original offer.
Jackson-Thank you. I tried the copy and paste you suggested to another post, and it worked fine. I should have thought of that myself. I don’t feel so smart now.
It happens, no worries. Good luck!
I would love to have one of th ese. We need to get rid of cable to save money. Haven’t found more than a little part time work for years. What a blessing it would be to be able to have access to tv without paying those ridiculous cable bills!
Even if you don’t win you should buy an antenna: it’s cheaper than cable by far.
Nice giveaway. Thanks for the contest.
It’s so great!
sounds interesting, I would like to try it.
would like to win. How does it compare to an antennas direct db4e?
send me the antenna
You have to win the contest first!
we never got this device or the likes in our country even though 60% of the country still uses normal antenna’s i am not sure if this would help in the case but an interesting read none the less.
The code listed in my email is 13af. I ALSO checked on facebook…and it lists the same code. Unfortunately, it keeps getting rejected by YOU, so I can’t enter the giveaway because I can’t access the form using the code sent to me by MUO.
VERY FRUSTRATING
Jackson, the giveaways editor, will help you as soon as he sees this. I’m terribly sorry for your frustration.
It’s not a number 1. It’s actually the letter L. Try it again, please.
Nice giveaway. Hope I win.
Sounds a nice experience to enter into this contest/hope i am lucky :0
Comment removed.
We really want everyone to be able to enter. Jackson, the giveaways editor, will be around to help you soon.
D.G. There’s no need to use that language here. If the form isn’t recognising your code, that means you don’t have it right. Be patient and try again. We understand that it might seem a little tricky. Here’s a hint: there’s only one number in the code and that’s 3. The rest are alphabets.
it would be great if i could get more than 4 chanels
I have been waiting for a better, more reliable DTV TV antenna. This sounds like it!
Thank you for all competitions!
i need one……
The Mohu may work fine but I find it kind of an eye sore. Right now I use the NV20 Pro indoor antenna & get about 15 channels in including both US & Canadian broadcasts – I’m based out of Toronto, ON
Will it work all over the world
Depends on the broadcast standards in your country, but it should work in most places.
I’m in !!!
Good luck to all !!!
This is what I have been looking for. I live up against the mountains between Portland, Oregon and Mt. Hood and our TV reception is really crappy. DirectTV is in the middle of disputes with local providers so for half the day, DirectTV is black. It’s so frustrating to not be able to watch the news because they can’t get their act together. I can stream everything else I am interested in watching but not the local news. So this would be perfect. I will definitely be checking it out on amazon, maybe I can put it on my xmas wish list. Thanks for the review of what seems to be a wonderful product!
Be sure to enter the contest! You might not need to add it to any list…
My computer has a tuner and this antenna would be a great accessory to have for watching on-air TV.
good giveaway
oooh…. just what I need – more ways to NOT work at my computer. Mine please! :-)
It’s designed for a TV, and won’t work on your computer without a TV tuner. Just so you know. :)
I checked the channel list for my area, and unfortunately it doesn’t have any of the channels I typically have on in the background while I’m doing something else. ;) I didn’t really expect it to, since none are local, but hey, an old woman can dream, can’t she?
I wish it did, because it could save me a ton of money…..but the local networks here aren’t good for much more than news and weather, so I guess I’ll be paying for cable for the duration.
There’s no way around it: if you want cable channels you have to pay. Or pirate, but we’re not getting into that today…
Anyway, thanks for stopping by.
Really cool!!
Wireless broadcasts in HD stream at 19.3 Mb/s. Unless the Leaf has USB 3.0, there is no way it can stream HD to a computer without lag.
Despite not being able to achieve true HD, a USB TV tuner for the computer is nice.
It’s not a TV tuner: it’s an antenna. The USB is only on the Leaf Pro, and it’s only used as a power source.
hope i win
Thanks for the link for fcc.gov for finding US broadcast stations. I’ve been off air and streaming only for years and actually prefer tvfool.com. It provides more information on station broadcast locations and relative signal strengths, including compass direction to the transmitter and related stations and land features that can impact reception. It can also help one determine “how much” antenna is required based on local conditions/distance. Here in the SF Bay area, I get over 70 channels off-air with a large rooftop antenna pointed halfway between my two nearest transmitter sites.
Does this work well in India?
All I can say is it looks like some of India is digital and some is still in transition, so it depends where you live. More information here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_India#Digital_switchover
I have been using a xxx powered antenna to get signals from transmitters located at 10,000 feet and about 30 miles away line of sight. Most come in of, but some break up digitally at times. Being an indoor antenna hanging in my window, I am at a loss as to improving it, short of a new external antenna or finding a way to protect this one & locate it outside.
Do you think the leaf might work better or have similar issues?
I also just bought a Roku2 XS and put it on my cable internet. What a great way to save money. One month on cable tv is more than I paid for free movies on the Roku. The $8 for Netflix is way cheaper than my video rental bill per month.
So getting local stations and news off air is what I want to improve.