So any ideas on what antenna to use for the free tv stations.My tv is old so I had to buy a digital to analog box need to get one more. Any ideas would be great.Thanks
Tom
Tom
Dumping cable tv
- Thread starter dogg57
- Start date
I dont' have any ideas for an antenna but why don't you use the internet to find and watch shows. Anything you can think of is online and available. I haven't watched a show provided by cable in over a year. There are many free channels. Google is your friend. Depending on what you like to watch, Tvland and JustinTv are good starting points. 
Radio Shack has a number of different outdoor antennas. I don't know your location, but unless it's close to Philadelphia or New York, you will probably need a rotator and the whole setup on your roof. I got an inexpensive outdoor antenna that mounted on the wall of my house here and reception was terrible, all I could really get were the Atlantic City Stations (I'm about 5 miles south of Mays Landing). Yet another reason why I just gave up completely on TV.
Living in upstate NY near Lake Ontario back in the 70's and 80's, we couldn't get cable and there was no TV reception at all without an outdoor antenna. So I mounted one on the roof with a rotator. I could aim it at Syracuse, Rochester, Ottawa and a few smaller towns and reception would vary depending on the weather. Under perfect conditions, I got stations from hundreds of miles away, like Toronto. It was wired up to an amplifier/distribution box to feed 3 different TV's. Those were the days...
Living in upstate NY near Lake Ontario back in the 70's and 80's, we couldn't get cable and there was no TV reception at all without an outdoor antenna. So I mounted one on the roof with a rotator. I could aim it at Syracuse, Rochester, Ottawa and a few smaller towns and reception would vary depending on the weather. Under perfect conditions, I got stations from hundreds of miles away, like Toronto. It was wired up to an amplifier/distribution box to feed 3 different TV's. Those were the days...
Try this website. You plug in your location and it tells you what stations you'll be able to pick up and what antenna to use. I've been reseaching this same thing (getting over-the-air channels and dumping cable) for a few weeks now. I am so tired of paying a $100+ cable bill each month.
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx
I assume you'll be keeping the Internet? We're still basic cable subscribers here because my wife and kids have shows they like, but for me personally I never watch it. I have a $7.99/mo Netflix sub that gives me access to more content than I can possibly consume (I'm just finishing up the 177 episode Star Trek: The Next Generation library), and I get my news from the web. I have a Silicondust HDHomerun QAM converter on my network, so I can watch any of the unencrypted digital cable channels we get from Comcast on my PC, but my impression any time I use it is 40 channels of crap. 60 percent of the time is filled with the same stupid commercials repeated over and over, and the rest is either reality TV, Ancient Secrets of Undead Alien Extreme Snowboarders, or newscasts full of stuff that's been all over the net for five hours by the time they get some blow-dried airhead talking about it.
For me one defining moment in the decline of cable/network television came during hurricane Irene, when some newsie went to the North Carolina shore and actually waded into the water to tape a report, only to be surrounded by noxious brown foam that coated his face and blew into his open mouth. He was later informed that the foam was sewage overflow.
The worst thing about a guy like me for the cable business is that I'm 50 years old. Do they think the current generation of twenty-somethings is going to pay $100/mo to subscribe to their mediocre content? Fare thee well cable television.
For me one defining moment in the decline of cable/network television came during hurricane Irene, when some newsie went to the North Carolina shore and actually waded into the water to tape a report, only to be surrounded by noxious brown foam that coated his face and blew into his open mouth. He was later informed that the foam was sewage overflow.
The worst thing about a guy like me for the cable business is that I'm 50 years old. Do they think the current generation of twenty-somethings is going to pay $100/mo to subscribe to their mediocre content? Fare thee well cable television.
Cable tv went town the tubes for me when they started broadcasting "Queer Eye on the Straight Guy" or maybe iot was that first frightening season of "Survival" especially when i saw who won it.
Al
Al
Will be interesting to see if Netflix can survive... their stock has dropped 38% in the past 3 days.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44599720
What bugs me about cable is receiving the same broadcast on multiple channels. Why? It makes no sense to me from a marketing view or a viewers view. All it does is allow the cable co to state they offer 60 million channels.. Then throw in the HD channels, which are extra cost, and it goes up to 80 million. Why? 
I used rabbit ears when we had the cabin in upstate NY until we sold theplace in 2007, got one channel fairly well, mostly for the news and weather, and one other occasionally depending on weather. But it was Canadian and worthless.
I used rabbit ears when we had the cabin in upstate NY until we sold theplace in 2007, got one channel fairly well, mostly for the news and weather, and one other occasionally depending on weather. But it was Canadian and worthless.
I think what bothers me the most about cable (and maybe it's because I jealous and don't realize it) is the fact that make total fools famous. For example, that Jersey Shore show. How about that show that highlights pregant teenagers. I think it's called "Sixteen and Pregnant" or something like that. It just goes on and on. All that being said, I do like my shows such as Ice Road Truckers, Ax Men, Deadliest Catch, Swamp Man, Coal, etc.
I did see that idiot being encompassed by the poo-foam. It was great to see his face the next day when he was told what he was being surrounded by.
I did see that idiot being encompassed by the poo-foam. It was great to see his face the next day when he was told what he was being surrounded by.
Do you really want to be totally dependent on cell and internet service in an emergency? I suppose a lot of people are comfortable with that, but I'm not. In my case, it doesn't matter because Verizon is the only way I can get internet service. How will you get internet without a phone or cable? I think Comcast will charge something outrageous if you only use cable for internet without one of their TV packages. Have not checked personally, but have a friend who was doing this and she finally dumped it because they kept raising the cost and trying to sell her a package that included TV.
Good point Boyd about the phone. Fios is on its on line. So I can just get the internet for $49.99 I need the speed for Netflix and other toys
Will they sell you FIOS without a telephone? Didn't know that. I don't think they were willing to sell me DSL without voice here.
I got a notice that FIOS was available for me in Medford in 2006, about a month before I moved away. If it were available here, I would get it but that will never happen. The little farmhouse I bought in 1979 in upstate NY was on a road with 5 houses and one pair of phone wires. So we had a 5 party line. 3 or 4 years later they ran more wires and we got a private line (which cost a lot more). What a different world it was then... does anybody else remember how expensive long distance calls were back then?
We dropped our home phone two weeks ago and are now running with a pay per minute cell phone. We get so few calls that in 45 days we will get our money back from the $100 phone time I purchased for the cell. My mom now has access to an iPod2 so I can Facetime her if I want to talk for any length of time and not use the cell phone time.
Boyd ... my grandparents had a party line when I was a kid, and she was always telling us not to answer the phone because it was not for her. It took me a while to understand that she had a different ring than the rest.
Guy
Boyd ... my grandparents had a party line when I was a kid, and she was always telling us not to answer the phone because it was not for her. It took me a while to understand that she had a different ring than the rest.
Guy
Will be interesting to see if Netflix can survive... their stock has dropped 38% in the past 3 days.
They'll survive. Stock price has a lot more to do with the street's gambling than actual company performance.
Well Its done. I just have Fios internet. Will cost me 49.95 for 15/5 Mbps speed plan.Thanks for all the comments. Also got the Antenna up on the roof.Not bad Has what I need channel wise.
Also got the Antenna up on the roof.Not bad Has what I need channel wise.