Back to the TV Antenna, Goodbye Cable

[Brad]

In about a week I'm having a digital antenna installed on the roof and will get my TV via broadcast instead of Comcast. I'll keep Comcast for internet.  It will take me about two years to make back the cost of antenna installation but worth it to dump all those shopping channels that Comcast has as part of basic cable.  Also my HD will be 1080p as opposed to 720p which is the best cable can do.

I figure between Roku and AppleTV, I can rent or buy the shows I might miss by not having cable channels and still save money.

Anyone else got a Over The Air (OTA) TV antenna installed?

[littleman]

We've done something similar, we reduced Direct TV down to just the kids channels @ $30/month -- still more than I'd like to give them but my kids like their shows.

For everything else we've been relying on the internet.

I'm sure we'll go completely without when the kids are bigger.

[jetboy]

I've been without broadcast TV of any description for the last three years. I get everything off the net one way or another. It just kinda happened, and to be honest it's been quite liberating. I'm perversely proud of the fact that I've never seen a meerkat ad (which will only make sense to those in the UK). My main TV is a non-widescreen CRT with a VCR slung underneath.

[Brad]

For me, once I got used to getting programs on demand, I got spoiled. Now I have little patience trying to remember what show is on when.  I do like broadcast for news and when things are breaking, plus local.

I found a DVR on Amazon that works with broadcast so I'll get that and time shift some shows.  Never had a DVR before.

[Rupert]

Never had cable.  Giving money to Sky would be a form of hell for me.   We don't watch a lot of TV, but when we do, we want to enjoy it.  So about 3 years ago I put in a projector, screen, and drive all the freesat and DVDs through it. 

Michael Macintrye is funnier on a big screen I am sure of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6wZUV1t1y0

[Drastic]

Yeah I killed cable tv 4-5 years ago and got an HD tuner. Between that and netflix the only thing I miss is sports and some news, so not much lost.

One thing about a digital antenna, it doesn't have to be outside. Mine is in the attic. If you have room, a lot of people hang them from the rafters upside down. House exterior looks better and it doesn't get weathered. (Not a huge deal except for the cabling really.)

[Brad]

Drastic, thanks for the tip, think I will have the installer see if he can test it inside the garage.  If it works from there I'll get less flak from the neighbors.

[bill]

Thanks for reminding me about this. They're supposed to be ending all analog broadcasts in Japan on July 24, 2011. Without a digital antenna or cable hookup I won't be able to use my old CRT TVs. I haven't been able to go untethered as standard Japanese broadcast TV sucks, and I can't get NetFlix, Hulu or the like without paying for a proxy.

I too am plagued by meerkat commercials jetboy. The people of the UK are not alone.

[Brad]

Antenna was installed yesterday. Works great, but we had to put it on the roof instead of inside the attic.

I'm pretty happy with the results: I get a good range of broadcast channels, about 4 are 1080 HD and many others are 720 plus a bunch at 480, but all without paying The Man.     I've discovered locally broadcast channels that I never knew existed because they were buried on the cable lineup. Nice to get rid of the noise. I'm in a major US TV market so I have a lot of channels - I'm not sure I be this happy in a truly rural or small city market with only a few channels.

Roku helps make up the gaps and provides on demand programs, particularly movies, that I would normally get on cable only.

Next up: the DVR when it arrives.

[Brad]

Sometime way before the pandemic, I quit watching TV (OTA or otherwise) and mainly got all my news from the Web.  But, pay walls and enshitification have pretty much degraded that experience online.  So I bought new batteries for the remote and turned on the TV and rescanned for current channels.

OTA TV has degraded too, at least that is what I found.  And lots of commercials, but I expected that and no worse than Youtube.

There still seems to be at least 2 movie channels playing classic movies.
There are 2 cartoon channels.
MeTV playing old TV shows like Gunsmoke, so cool.
Fox seems to have a weather channel.  I hate Fox but weather is weather, even though I mainly use apps on my phone.
The big plus is a totally new (to me) news channel, Scripps News, which does not appear to have an ax to grind.

Anyway, it's free and sometimes it's good to have a TV for background noise or breaking events.  That said, I don't think I'll use it much.

[rcjordan]

Psssst! Meet me in the back alley beside the dumpster.