| Author | Message | ||
     Kilroy |
cutting the cord after my "bundle" doubled in price in 12 months time. Any antenna recommendations for local broadcast digital tv? | ||
| S2t_bama |
I use the simple RCA rabbit ear set from Best Buy for about $12.99. I live in a pretty flat area, and I pick up all 3 network stations, 1 independent station, and 2 Christian stations, and 2 PBS stations. Several of these have "sub" stations, giving me a total of about 20 channels. More often than not, I can find something to watch. At my old location which was only moderately hilly, I would have needed a rooftop antenna to get even a single station. Good luck! | ||
| Pwnzor |
Our cable company offered us this option: Once per year, we switch the cable from my name to her name... so we become "new" customers again and get the promotional deal. Up until they offered us this, I was ready to cut the cord and go with the antenna. Never mind the mutiny from the wife and daughters who can't live without Dance Moms. | ||
| Reducati |
best thing i ever did, save myself 50 bucks per month...im in the chicago area, i have 10 dollar rabbit ears, i have have probably 40 stations most in HD. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
We are antenna only folks too. I am thinking of upgrading to the traditional roof antenna in fact. Right now our $11 bunny ears work pretty nicely. When it's very rainy, the signal is fungled a but by wet house faraday cage I think. Other than that I get HD in several channels and also sub channels like "MeTV" and "thisTV". | ||
| Skntpig |
My brother made an HD antenna and it works great. I'm sure you could google it but his is made of a piece of plywood about 18"x 10" and some crisscrossed wires between nails. Looks like a shoelace. | ||
| Cataract2 |
Is your TV a digital TV? If so you can just get a standard plane ol' antenna. Put it this way, if you have an HD TV, you don't need an HD antenna as your TV can already decode the signal. Check here as it will give you antenna recommendations for what you might need. http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper &Itemid=29 This site gives a brief overview of options. http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/watch-fr ee-1080p-tv-with-these-indoor-antennas/ | ||
| Xdigitalx |
My nephew lives 6 miles from phila, he uses a paperclip and gets all the local/hd channel from phila. I live a few miles further and it works almost as good. I also have an small indoor antenna connected to my laptop. | ||
| Boltrider |
You guys are convincing me to go this route. I too am tired of the cable BS, and network TV coupled with my Roku player would be more than enough. | ||
| Froggy |
Yep the cost savings is worth the switch, unless you really need to have live sports/ESPN. Many shows are available to watch online the next day, or if you pirate them they can be found online shortly after they air. | ||
| Mtnmason |
Well I wasn't going to say this until Frog brought up pirating - I 'know' a guy who worked for comcast. He buys the standard package at about $30 month. Goes outside, climbs up the pole(at night), unscrews the filter, screws the wire back in and - voilą! - all premium package channels. Been doing it for years. Hasn't caught up to him yet --- | ||
| Froggy |
Mtnmason, that (usually) doesn't work anymore, one of the reasons the companies switched to digital cable is so they can manage subscriptions better. Each cable box has a unique number and Cable Card, very similar to the SIM card phones use. They can remotely adjust what channels you do and do not have, and there is no analog spectrum filter to remove. I'm not aware of any cable company still running analog signals, especially now that even broadcast TV is all digital. There are hacks to get free cable even with digital, but they are harder to get away with and not worth the risk, as there are many cheap/free legit ways to see what you want online, and many less legit ways to see it too. | ||
| Coxster |
If you have an old antenna ( or can find one ) the old UHF section works for today's HDTV. | ||
| Airbozo |
Hell, I'd have to climb the steep hill next to my neighbors house to plant a 100' pole to get any sort of digital signal. Part of why Comcast MUST offer a discounted basic package where I live... | ||
| Teeps |
All you will need to know can be found here: http://tvfool.com/ | ||
| Pikeben08 |
I recently cut the cord and bought an amazon basics flat antenna that I stuck to my window. It works ok, but I also live 30 miles from most of the stations. If you live in the city it would probably work quite well. I bought the middle rated one, it was about $35. Ps. Comcast is the most evil company on the face of the earth. I still get my internet through due to lack of any other option. | ||
| Luftkoph |
I haven't had cable or satellite tv in a little over 20 years,I have a channel master antenna with a rotor,3 canadian channels and 4 us channels,and one of those is below the mac bridge,maybe 60 air miles away | ||
| Etennuly |
The mountains in East Tennessee will allow only CBS and ABC with a couple of their useless sub channels, along with a few public useless channels unless you need to know how to clear coat a puzzle for framing, plant a yearling tree, or make an organic pasta salad. NBC quit broadcasting on local air waves a year or so ago. Cable does not reach us. Satellite is our best option to fill up our HD flat TV. We got a new up-graded one recently because our 6 year old HD shot craps a couple of months ago. The definition on the new one leaves the 6 year old TV in the dust for quality of audio and video. Even news casts look like 3D. Blueray is amazingly awesome compared to the old unit. I have a 19" flat screen HD TV in my office with a flexible flat bat wing antenna. The rabbit ears were noticeably better at getting more and better reception. They were much easier to "aim" and adjust. If I had not given them to my son..... | ||
| Aesquire |
There really is no such thing as an HD antenna. The same ( more or less ) frequency range as old school TV uses the same antenna's. The only difference really is the "digital" nature of digital TV. In Ye Olde days, you'd get static & crap and ghostly images on distant, blocked, etc. channels. Now you get zip, or intermittent crap or good. You can check the local channels for broadcast on the internet, complete with the direction of the different stations. ( see link above ) Then you look at terrain. Usually crappy little antennas like rabbit ears and loops are amplified. Almost all TV antennas are more or less directional, and the more directional, the better the range. Where I live most signals are from 2 major directions, so my buddy uses 2 amplified plate/loop antenna's hung from his cathedral ceiling and switches. You can also hang ( with non conductive line ) 2 classic log periodic or yagi style outdoor directional antennas in the attic. Just point each in the right direction, with the traditional yelling from below during the alignment phase. I've done this before with cheap used antennas and it worked fine. If you need more than 2 directions, go with a power rotor system ( which means unless you have a spouse into modern art, it goes on the roof ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_antenna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log-periodic_dipole_a rray http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagi-Uda_antenna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_antenna http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_antenna | ||
| Aesquire |
ps. the bowtie antenna is usually made to UHF length, and may not match your incoming signals well. If you bother to do the math on a dipole or rabbit ear antenna, you can optimize it for different channels. ( although I seldom bother and just have them full length ) Your old rabbit ears can be much better in the old VHF bands. Digital TV in the US is usually ( generally, sorta, with exceptions ) in the 7-50 channel freqs. ( between 200-700 MHz. ) That's from mid VHS through lower UHF. old school. | ||
| Strokizator |
Cut the cord last year when I figured it would cost me $12, 000 over the next 10 years to keep DirecTV. No thanks. I yanked the dish and installed a bow-tie antenna, like the ones on RV's. They claim 50 channels are available but that's only true if you speak English, Spanish and Hmong or want a half dozen religious channels. How many times can you watch infomercials for the genie bra and brazilian butt lift (sometimes simultaneously on two channels)? I did sign up for Netflix which is cool. We just finished watching Lilyhammer which is real funny. | ||
| Kilroy |
what about live streaming over the internet? I also just got a ROKU 3 and can watch millions of "recorded" programs, but hoped to be able to watch some live broadcasts(fox news for example)? |
