Free tv and lovin it

[snazzy]

I finally did it. I installed an antenna and cancelled my dish. 70 bucks in my pocket every month and around 30 free usable channels.

Just wondering if anyone else has grown tired of the high satelite or cable bills and what was your solution?

I thought I might supplement air tv with netflix or something. Don't have a definite plan but I feel good being out of another bill and using what is already there for you.

Plus this gives me reasoning when 50lbs of grain shows up at the door and the wife gives me the eye roll

 

[Sea]

30 channels? We only get 5 here. I didn't have TV for 9 years, but I finally caved so I could watch football. That bill does suck though, and there's never anything on...

 

[snazzy]

The great thing is I get all Bears games and also pick up enough to get all colts games.

 

[bdupree]

you can watch any cable tv shows you miss here if you don't mind waiting a day or to for it to get posted. http://tvshack.cc/

 

[JNye]

if it wasn't for sports i prolly wouldn't even own one, seriously. but i have to pay the bill to get my fix. they should offer channels ala carte. most of them suck.

 

[Revvy]

you can watch any cable tv shows you miss here if you don't mind waiting a day or to for it to get posted. http://tvshack.cc/

This website reported unsafe...

I fund Hulu gets most of the shows I want to see,with little delay.

ANd this is a good link site for live tv online, including most sporting events. There's actually 2 pages of links every day, "Live SPorts" and "Live Tv"

http://atdhe.net/watchtv.html

 

[Hang Glider]

I would LOVE to cancel everything - but I'd have no internet. Out in the county, I DO get cable, but no DSL, and poor wireless signal. So...my internet is cable. And for the price they charge for an internet-only account, I can get discounted internet plus basic cable...

If I had a way to get internet at home, it would be hulu and free-air TV for me!

 

[DevilsCreekBrewing]

I got rid of tv about 8 years ago. I would get a few channels, if I could just pay for the ones I want. No bundles, no basic at price x first.

If I 'need' to see a particular game, off to the bar I go.

 

[Pappers_]

Yes, I know a few urban pioneers who are getting rid of cable and using online, netflix and itunes only. I think I'd be good with that, but the swmbo might have issues . . .

 

[ChshreCat]

I cancelled tv and just kept cable internet about a year ago. The internet gets me all my TV shows, but I'm going to go ahead and get an antenna set up. I tried one of the set-top antennas but I could only pull in a handful of channels. One on the roof and I should be able to haul in about 20-30, most of which are HDTV.

 

[skidmarks]

I pulled the plug over two years ago now, wife was unhappy at first but she has come to see what a waste it was...I do miss Discovery and History channels.

We do the Netflix and Hulu route.

The real payoff was one night when I noticed the whole family was all sitting in the family room reading books.

 

[MetallHed]

www.justin.tv

i only have antenna but I only get six channels.. but thats okay every night married with children is on (woo hoo!) and i get to watch football (not my fave team, just packers...)

i have been buying tv shows on dvd too when they get cheap enough (wally world had seinfeld seasons at 15 bux each recently)

 

[Homercidal]

Can't cancel dish now. Not with High Def Wings Games coming up shortly! I could do without pretty much everything else. Netflix and Internet would cover all my other needs.

 

[Revvy]

www.justin.tv

i only have antenna but I only get six channels.. but thats okay every night married with children is on (woo hoo!) and i get to watch football (not my fave team, just packers...)

i have been buying tv shows on dvd too when they get cheap enough (wally world had seinfeld seasons at 15 bux each recently)

Justin's ok, but I have found that more often than not, the programs/links get shut down pretty rapidly, especially for big sports events like the olympics.

 

[MetallHed]

thats because it's illegal to broadcast pro sport events.

you can find them but you have to go from link to link to link to get to them.. and they usually aren't good quality.

I use justin primarily for background noise when cleaning, workin on beer stuff, etc. They'll have channels dedicated to all seinfeld or other shows i like which is great to me!

 

[mosquitocontrol]

I wish I could get rid of tv. It pretty much kills me that I pay $50 a month just to get ESPN. I can make it through the summer without it because of mlb.tv. But definitely not the playoffs or football season.

Besides sports all of the TV shows and movies we watch we stream from our computer anyway. So some weeks the TV doesn't even get turned on.

 

[Revvy]

BTW, I don't have over the air tv either. I live 70 miles away from the nearest High Def antennas and even with a power antenna can't get anything since the high def switchover. Even before that I wasn't getting analog tv from the detroit area that well. I was relying on the canadian stations across the border in Ontario for my tv watching (they ran most of the us network shows on their channels) but since I put those useless boxes on my tv I can't get the Canadian stations, and I'm not sure when they are making the HD shift...I've kinda given up bothering to turn on my Tv anymore to try.

 

[GVH_Dan]

I was a bit pissed when my wife canceled cable. They shut it off the very day the Packers played on MNF. But life is better without.

Life with cable: Spend 1/2 hour going through channels to figure out there is nothing on, then realize 1/2 hour has gone by and start the process again.

Life without cable: Spend 2 minutes going through the channels and think, I could watch Norm build that same cabinet on PBS for the 33rd time or I could haul my butt out to the garage to finish the cabinet I started.

More stuff gets done at our house without cable. We opted to get a Wii for our entertainment source. We've both lost a few pounds and the kids love beating Dad at any given game. Now if I could switch off the internet to disrupt SWMBO's marathon facebook sessions...

 

[TxBrew]

Did you build your own antenna, or did you buy one?

 

[Revvy]

Did you build your own antenna, or did you buy one?

I've done both. I built the one talked about in a thread we had here way back when the US was making the switch to digital. Then I tried a power one from radio shack, and it didn't work so I returned it. What I haven't done is used the homemade antenna with an inline amp to boost the signal. I just got tired of monkeying around wit it.

 

[GVH_Dan]

Do the signal boosters really help that much? And do you need to put them as close to the antenna as possible or will it work anywhere in the line?

I was also thinking of mounting an antenna in my attic. Anyone ever try this? I'm sure my neighbors would complain about something on the roof. At the moment, I just hooked up some rabbit ears in an unused bedroom, run the signal to the basement and re-route it to all the other jacks. I know there would be some attenuation but I figure if the rabbit ears work well enough, a real antenna in the attic would work even better.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I keep meaning to trim my services down. If I dump all the extra stuff we don't use I can save about $40 a month on my cable bill without losing anything we actually do use.

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

SWMBO and I have been talking about doing this for months. I guess it's time to bite the bullet. We've hardly been watching much on it anyway and since most of the shows we like are available online and I have a monster S-vid cable hooked up to the TV, it'll be as if we didn't cancel at all, except the extra $50 a month...

 

[tallybrewer]

We decided to drop cable when it hit $50/month - about 7 years ago. Got by with OTA & the cheapest DSL package. The only thing we miss is sports, but we still get network sports.

 

[snazzy]

Did you build your own antenna, or did you buy one?

I live about 60miles from Chicago so I needed a good setup. Went to a local electronics store who deals with this stuff alot and shelled out the extra money for the best antenna and amp.

Few hours of install and pointed it the 317degrees that was suggested and I had all chicago stations and about half of Southbends stations which is about 70miles the other way.

 

[david_42]

I was also thinking of mounting an antenna in my attic. Anyone ever try this? I'm sure my neighbors would complain about something on the roof. At the moment, I just hooked up some rabbit ears in an unused bedroom, run the signal to the basement and re-route it to all the other jacks. I know there would be some attenuation but I figure if the rabbit ears work well enough, a real antenna in the attic would work even better.

Did this about 4 houses back. Was a real hassle, as the place used W-trusses and point the antenna took a lot of maneuvering.

You can put a booster in anywhere. I used to design cable systems and we'd have boosters all over the place.

 

[snazzy]

Do the signal boosters really help that much? And do you need to put them as close to the antenna as possible or will it work anywhere in the line?

I was also thinking of mounting an antenna in my attic. Anyone ever try this? I'm sure my neighbors would complain about something on the roof. At the moment, I just hooked up some rabbit ears in an unused bedroom, run the signal to the basement and re-route it to all the other jacks. I know there would be some attenuation but I figure if the rabbit ears work well enough, a real antenna in the attic would work even better.

Attic antennas will cut down reception 50%.

It also against the law to not let someone put an antenna up even if it is in the covenants. Many have fought this and won. Unless it is like an E.T. phone home thing and way bigger than it needs to be.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

I thought I would resurrect this dinosaur to share my experience.

I just switched to broadcast TV after finding out just how clear of a picture you can get. It's been a couple weeks now and I still can not believe that I'm able to pick up 20 mostly HD channels for free with a coat hanger style antenna that I built with the help of a Youtube video.

Here's a blog post I wrote if you are interested. Digital broadcast air television – No longer just your grandmothers preferred choice

 

[ChshreCat]

I had one of these antennas and didn't get too much in the house:

I put it on a mast up on the roof and got a few more channels, but it didn't quite have the pull I wanted since I'm a bit far from the towers. I figured I'd just need to shell out for a real antenna, but thought I'd try one more thing.

I picked up a couple of these:

And then I did this:

Strong signals!!!! :rockin:

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

I had one of these antennas and didn't get too much in the house:

I put it on a mast up on the roof and got a few more channels, but it didn't quite have the pull I wanted since I'm a bit far from the towers. I figured I'd just need to shell out for a real antenna, but thought I'd try one more thing.

I picked up a couple of these:

And then I did this:

Strong signals!!!! :rockin:

Awesome! How many clear channels are you pulling in with that setup?

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

Anyone have a recommendation for a booster? I'm perfectly content with the number and quality of stations that I currently have, just want to see how many more I can pick up.

 

[sivispacemparabe11um]

We got rid of it about four months ago. It's amazing how much time we were spending watching TV. We still watch TV just not nearly as much.

 

[geoffm33]

I thought I would resurrect this dinosaur to share my experience.

I just switched to broadcast TV after finding out just how clear of a picture you can get. It's been a couple weeks now and I still can not believe that I'm able to pick up 20 mostly HD channels for free with a coat hanger style antenna that I built with the help of a Youtube video.

Here's a blog post I wrote if you are interested. Digital broadcast air television – No longer just your grandmothers preferred choice

Thanks for the resurrection! I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

I ditched satellite last year (~$70/mo in savings) and went with a $30 Radio Shack OTA antennae. I get about 20 channels many in HD. I re-jiggered the cable tv wiring to feed all the TV's in the house.

I could probably get an external antennae but I get ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX in HD with what I have already. Everything else is just gravy (get PBS Kids cartoons in HD for the youngins).

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

We got rid of it about four months ago. It's amazing how much time we were spending watching TV. We still watch TV just not nearly as much.

The other day I read somewhere that Americans watch something like 3.5 hours of tv per day. I was really surprise by this statistic.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

Thanks for the resurrection! I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

I ditched satellite last year (~$70/mo in savings) and went with a $30 Radio Shack OTA antennae. I get about 20 channels many in HD. I re-jiggered the cable tv wiring to feed all the TV's in the house.

I could probably get an external antennae but I get ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX in HD with what I have already. Everything else is just gravy (get PBS Kids cartoons in HD for the youngins).

Awesome savings. Have you tried to build the "Coat hanger antenna"? If you have an extra hour to kill youtube it. Many people say that it gets better reception than most indoor store purchased ones.

Just for fun I compared a cheap bunny ear antenna to the one that I made. My homemade antenna received an additional 8 channels or so with considerably better signal strength.

 

[geoffm33]

Awesome savings. Have you tried to build the "Coat hanger antenna"? If you have an extra hour to kill youtube it. Many people say that it gets better reception than most indoor store purchased ones.

Just for fun I compared a cheap bunny ear antenna to the one that I made. My homemade antenna received an additional 8 channels or so with considerably better signal strength.

Oooh. I might have to try that. I bought a $100 antennae, a $60 and a $30. Guess which one worked the best If the pattern holds, the coat hanger will work best of all!

 

[jgarretson]

What are guys doing for stations like ESPN and other essential cable channels? I keep waiting for a goo solution to stream from a browser to my tv but nothing I've seen thus far seems to do this.

I need to be able to watch sports and the DIY Network. SWMBO needs Bravo and that crap...

I can't wait to ditch Dish. $100 a month and being a former slave I mean employee... It will feel really good to cancel that service.

 

[Silverbullet]

What are guys doing for stations like ESPN and other essential cable channels? I keep waiting for a goo solution to stream from a browser to my tv but nothing I've seen thus far seems to do this.

I need to be able to watch sports and the DIY Network. SWMBO needs Bravo and that crap...

I can't wait to ditch Dish. $100 a month and being a former slave I mean employee... It will feel really good to cancel that service.

I recently dumped cable as well but only after finding (and verifying) ESPN, Fox, CNN, etc. cable alternatives. If you have a Roku, you can get USTVNOW and for $19 a month (no contract) pull in around 20 cable network channels. It's supposed to only work if you're overseas......
Heads up though, very few of the streaming channels are in HD, but it works for me and I still get Monday night football.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

What are guys doing for stations like ESPN and other essential cable channels? I keep waiting for a goo solution to stream from a browser to my tv but nothing I've seen thus far seems to do this.

I need to be able to watch sports and the DIY Network. SWMBO needs Bravo and that crap...

I can't wait to ditch Dish. $100 a month and being a former slave I mean employee... It will feel really good to cancel that service.

I tend to avoid perceiving anything TV related as a essential or a need. Understanding this makes cutting the chord much easier.

Aside from the occasional nightly news, I watch somewhere between 0-2 hours of TV per month so the decision was easy for me.

We get ABC, NBC and FOX with broadcast so SWMBO is happy to see "Dancing with the stars" "Bachelorette" and all the other reality hype that I consider to be brain rot. Plus we have streaming Netflix and stream bootleg if necessary.

Look at it like this.. $100 per month is $1200 per year. Round here this buys 1500 lbs of America 2 row which will make over 250 cases of beer!:rockin:

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

Oooh. I might have to try that. I bought a $100 antennae, a $60 and a $30. Guess which one worked the best If the pattern holds, the coat hanger will work best of all!

Yeah, I must admit that I was very surprised with the results.

The other day I hung my antenna in the attic. While I considered it cool and a conversation piece, the wife considered it an eyesore. On the bright side most of my signal strength increased by 25% or so on most channels.