There's no such thing as over-the-air analog anymore, not since... June? It got cut off nationally, you'll only receive digital now. So, that has nothing to do with this product.
OTA reception is always a bit of a hit or miss operation. If you're used to just getting cable and not messing with reception, it can be frustrating and confusing. Here's a couple things to keep in mind:
1) Each station is broadcast from a single unique location. If you point your antenna towards that location, you'll get better reception than otherwise, and sometimes these stations can be located far apart from each other relative to where you are.
2) Reception can be blocked by tall obstacles (buildings, trees, etc). If there are a lot of these things between you and the source of the broadcast, you'll have a harder time getting a signal.
3) The higher you place the antenna off the ground, the better your chances of receiving a good signal are. Your own house can block the signal just as effectively as a tall building next to you.
4) You'll start to run into the limits of the broadcast power somewhere between 20-50 miles from the source, depending on the terrain and the type of antenna (this could be drastically reduced if conditions are really poor, or even improved on if you have just the right antenna).
5) The antenna included with this product is just about the lowest rung on the totem pole. You'd get better results with an amplified antenna, and far better results with one that's meant to be roof or attic mounted.
6) In the digital age, there's no such thing as static. This means you'll get a crystal clear picture, or nothing at all. If you're on the edge, it'll look like the picture is skipping.
There are a few websites out there to help you find the location of the stations near you, and the type of signal strength you should be expecting. They may all say something different, so reliability is a concern, but you should at least be able to figure out where to point your antenna. One such site is www.antennaweb.org, I'm sure the others have been linked earlier in this thread.
I got this thing specifically to test out the viability of dropping basic analog cable and just getting free OTA digital TV (I wanted something I could hook up to my laptop and walk around my house with). For reference, I'm about 40 miles from most of the channels in my area, most sites list me as basically marginal for being able to receive any of them, and I've got some trees but not too many. I was able to receive 2 channels perfectly with the included antenna and no specific "tuning", and several more became available when I actively selected the best spot in my house and adjusted the antenna to improve the signal. That's enough to get me to pursue a better antenna option and actually try to make a go of this (much better antennas can be had for as little as $40, depending on where you can put it). YMMV, of course, but so far I'm pleased with the results.
Hopefully all of this info helps someone else figure out how to get reception, or at least why they are not.
