Top 10 reasons I heart my over-the-air antenna
June 22nd, 2007 at 4:47 pm by zack
What would you do with a free $671.88 each year?
You could get a new Quad Core cpu or a PS3 (not to mention a Wii AND Xbox 360) or go on a cruise or do like me and buy a new Canon Rebel XT DSLR. Sounds good, right? So where oh where did I find my free Benjamins?
Simple, I got rid of my cable tv.
A couple of years ago, after another rate hike and a bad customer service experience, I took the plunge and canceled my cable. I was just fed up. It took about two weeks before I got over missing my Food TV, but the withdrawal was truly minimal. Looking back on that decision, I’m very happy I made it.
In fact, I’ve come up with 10 good reasons I heart my over-the-air antenna.
1. No equipment to break
The antenna in my attic is a large hunk of metal. In 30 years, it will still be the same large hunk of metal. Short of something dropping on it (which would probably affect my whole house too as this means my roof is collapsing), it’s not going to spontaneously bend or break. Say that for your cable company box or DVR.
2. Never have to call customer service
I realize that monopolies are traditionally the best at customer service, but for some reason I never felt like a truly valued customer when I would call to discuss a technical matter. Usually, I would be blamed for not knowing how to operate my equipment or be told that the lines inside of my house must have spontaneously frayed (which would be expensive for them to fix if that was the case). My antenna’s customer service line is me. “Are you pointed in the right direction?” “Yes” “Ok, thanks”
3. Most of the programming is in HD
When I turned on this season of Hell’s Kitchen and saw it was in HD, I wouldn’t have been more surprised if I woke up with my head stapled to the carpet. (I wonder who gets that reference) Most everything is in HD. Local news, reality shows, in-car cameras from Nascar…. everything. And with Beyond TV hooked to my plasma, it looks freakin awesome.
4. It’s free
This is one of the few things in life that are truely free.
4.5 The price doesn’t go up
A corollary to #4, the price of free doesn’t go up faster than inflation. How is it that my cable was $30 seven years ago and has now doubled? That’s not just inflation. And seriously, I realize there is “more” content now, but is there still anything good to watch on cable?
5. Subchannels are cool and are starting to get good programming
For a while, it was just three copies of the local radar, but now it’s starting to get good. The ABC affiliate here actually has a pretty good 24 hour newsish channel. I look forward to seeing how much good content actually gets put on the subchannels in the next couple of years.
6. My dvr is better than any rentable DVR
I have yet to find a cable company DVR that’s really worth it, in my opinion. Not to slam the competition or anything, but have they actually used their boxes? As a long-time PC DVR user, I know what’s available and the cable company’s DVRs are not even close.
7. Don’t have to use a cable box to get all of the channels
I could go on a long rant here, but suffice it to say, if the cable company really wants my business, they’ll find a way to let me use cablecard through my choice of software on my choice of PC.
8. There is enough programming to keep me behind in my viewing
Once I got over the initial shock of not being able to record from one billion channels at once, I found that local broadcast has a ton of shows. With a DVR in the mix, I record a combination of news, daytime, primetime and public broadcast tv. All together, I’m way behind on my viewing and not lacking in stuff to watch.
9. The signals are not recompressed
The cable company seems to add a touch of compression when sending down the HD programming. This really annoys me. The signal from my antenna is received exactly as the broadcaster intended me to see.
10. Never have to wait for the cable guy
I can do my installation at 2am on a weekend night and nothing can stop me (short of falling off the roof). Also, it really doesn’t take a genius to hook up an antenna. Most houses can just reuse the wiring already in the walls to push the signal through. The entirety of an antenna setup is an antenna and a long piece of cable, hard to mess that up, even if you don’t rock the technical setup thing.
So do I suggest you give it a shot? Absolutely!
It’s as easy as not watching cable for two weeks to see if you can bear it. If you can, call the cable company, ax your service and then take yourself out to Red Lobster in celebration of your newfound funds. If it turns out that there are still a couple of shows you can’t miss, maybe you can find a way to get your fix via iTunes or one of the other online video services available. Even if you have to pay a little per show, it probably doesn’t add up to $60 a month.
For people interested in having Beyond TV receive over the air HD, there is a whole run down on our hdtv setup center.
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:07 pm
I did the same thing a few months ago. When my wife and I moved into a new apartment, I convinced her that since our broadband costs would be going up (long story), it might be worth cutting the cable. Considering I was the one who had convinced her that we should get cable a few years ago, it wasn’t really that hard a sell.
The only real problem I’ve had is that I’m using an indoor antenna, and it took a few weeks to find exactly the right position to pick up the highest number of stations. Even though the NBC and CBS affiliates should be coming from the same tower, it’s hard to arrange the antenna to pick them both up. I think we’ve finally got it. But for some reason PBS doesn’t come in. *shrugs*.
There are a few shows I miss. I recorded the first half of this season’s Stargate SG-1 episodes before we moved, and so I might download the rest from iTunes. But for the most part, we can find plenty of programming on broadcast TV. And we can supplement that with internet video. I’ve put Joost on the media center PC in the living room, and we watch The Daily Show using the Comedy Central Motherload plugin for Windows Media Center.
It’s not a perfect system (too many button clicks), but it’s free. And we can use BeyondTV and the slight inconvenience associated with online video to make sure we’re not vegging our lives away in front of the TV, but rather watching shows we really want to see.
June 23rd, 2007 at 9:20 am
[...] All you need is an antenna and a tuner. The Snapstream blog has a list of 10 reasons why they love their antenna. From the post: A couple of years ago, after another rate hike and a bad customer service experience, I took the plunge and canceled my cable. I was just fed up. It took about two weeks before I got over missing my Food TV, but the withdrawal was truly minimal. Looking back on that decision, I’m very happy I made it. [...]
June 23rd, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Ditched ours for several reasons but mainly it was because we were paying a monthly fee to have crap continuously pumped into our house and we felt guilty for spending the money and not watching said crap.
When we started pay-per-viewing just to watch something semi-worthwhile, our “service” became an unjustifiable extravagance.
I’ll see your two weeks and raise you six years.
June 23rd, 2007 at 5:15 pm
I’m in the same boat. Free TV all the way. And now with all of the other options — downloading or just renting the DVD at the end of the season, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on a cultural happening just because I can’t watch HBO or Comedy Central.
June 23rd, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Dude you obviously don’t live where I live. Sure it’s free. Only 2 channels but it’s free.
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I get the reference, christmas vacation is great
June 24th, 2007 at 12:10 am
reasons not to switch to antenna
#1
It will stop working 2010.
June 24th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Well, then you only have three years to wean yourself from the time waster. Cutting off cable is a good start.
June 24th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Bob,
Yes, I’m lucky. I’m the first person to say that. Houston is a great place to live if you want digital antenna signals.
Nat,
Digital Antenna broadcasts are scheduled to continue well past 2009/2010. Only analog broadcasts will be discontinued.
-z
June 24th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I saved $960 a year (!) and I’m loving the no-cable … rather no-DirecTV living room. DVDs and iTunes are more than enough to sate my entertainment needs. Installed an indoor antenna and have been enjoying crystal-clear reception HDTV reception for the past five months.
2010? Isn’t that when they simply reassign the digital signals from the UHF spectrum to VHF?
June 24th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Ditto here. After 6 fantastic years of plain ole’ analog cable (no cable box) our cable company has decided that they’re finally going digital and I have to get a box. Make that 3 boxes in the living room if I want the same functionality I have now. 3 tuners for receiving cable and 1 HD tuner to the antenna in the attic. I don’t know about most people, but I don’t have the space in my entertainment system, let alone 3 extra plugs in the myriad of surge protectors to accommodate 3 freaking tuners. Nor do I intend to figure out how to deal with controlling 3 STB’s with one or more remotes.
And somehow on God’s green earth, I’ve convinced the wife that she REALLY can survive without Best Week Ever. I’m not sure if I can make it without Mythbusters though.
June 25th, 2007 at 11:01 am
What will stop working in 2010?
I’m not from america, but I presume they’re switching
from analog to DVB_T completely in 2010.
That will still be receivable using the same aerial.
I researched and installed my own analog/DVB_T
setup in Ireland a while back:
http://www.pixelbeat.org/systems/dvb_aerial/
cheers,
Pádraig.
June 26th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
“Houston is a great place to live if you want digital antenna signals”
For some reason I cannot get KUHT for the life of me. KUHT and ESPN are the ONLY reasons I still have cable.
June 27th, 2007 at 1:00 am
there are tons of sites out there that upload tv shows and entire serise of tv onto the internet in flash format such as tv-links.co.uk and alloftv.net these sites have tons and tons of shows to watch instantly and movies and they are updated fairly quickly (i use it to watch doctor who soon after it airs in the uk)
June 29th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Yea, I’m with FileClerk, I honestly haven’t even turned on my TV in at least 3 months.
And if you’re worried about legality and don’t want to use sites like tv-links. Just go to the TV network’s website, most offer their shows with fewer commercials than you’d get watching regular TV. Who cares if you have to wait a day after it airs(sometimes less than a day).
And as for up to the minute news…Who watches TV news anymore? Check the BBC or CNN website every once and awhile, and you know all you need to know. Versus wasting your time hearing about Paris Hilton while waiting for something resembling real news.
July 5th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
Well I am tickled pink that all of you in metro areas can pick up crystal clear programming on an antenna. But I live in a so-called fringe area…. aka the boondocks… and that antenna is pretty much worthless. I know because I tried it right after moving here. Bought an expensive antenna then spent several days trying to figure out some way to mount and orient it to pick up something watcheable. Finally gave up after almost falling off the roof trying to adjust it for the umpteenth time. I then signed up for Dish [no cable here] and have been very happy with my service. It isn’t cheap but neither is gas and I don’t see many people giving their cars away because they are more expensive to operate. What I do get is crystal clear reception on over 200 channels. And the Dish DVR is a pretty good option with the capability of recording two shows simultaneously with no additional subscription fees as is the case with TIVO.
All in all it isn’t a bad package. You can have your joys of urban living. I am quite content living out here in the country with no traffic, no crime and no pesky neighbors. If the monthly Dish fee is the price for that…. I gladly accept it.
July 5th, 2007 at 11:33 pm
Hi,
At present, I really only like to watch 1 TV show, The 4400 (on USA Network). Cable or the equivalent seems to be the only good way to get it. At least when I record with BTV4 I can skip over the commercials fairly easily. Watching on the Internet, I’m stuck watching them. I did cancel my cable TV when there were no new 4400 episodes.
-Daniel
July 6th, 2007 at 8:13 am
DFW has music video channels and lots of radar (which is good to have this year), but the clincher for me was Cubo. As far as TV for kids go, Cubo and PBS are great! Plus most of our stations broadcast from one point, so with a $100 antenna, I can get everything even at 80 miles away.
July 6th, 2007 at 8:50 am
Only the old analog signal is discontinued in 2010. Some stations have already discontinued the analog signal while going forward with digital.
I’ve been without cable for 4 years, have 3 digital setups including a DVR. All operate off an old rooftop antenna, though I have an indoor antenna available for infrequent use.
There are bonuses with OTA DTV, one of which is that the stations each include a schedule synopsis within the content stream, so your receiver can display both the time schedule for the channel and a synopsis of each program. However, some receivers don’t display this data, I suspect because they have a sweetheart deal with TV Guide for their display. Looks like SnapStream can solve that problem.
Though I’m not using SnapStream now, it has a pla
July 14th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
How many stations on average will you receive? 4-10?
July 21st, 2007 at 9:25 am
try this link to check for HD programming in your area:
http://antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx
July 25th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
I built what I thought would be a capable PVR over a year ago. Problem is that I do not own a high end television. So getting it to display on the 32 inch television was impossible with the ATI card I had. So I attempted to continue recording content and burning to DVD but that took too much time. So we went back to watching analog Rabbit ear TV and decided when we can afford an HDTV we will put the PVR with BeyondTV back in action. In the meantime I just bought a Phillips DVD/HDD Recorder with digital tuner. My wife and I still can’t get over how many additional channels we get with OTA DTV. The picture is like watching a DVD even on the old analog TV. I believe that OTA DTV and HDRadio will give satellite a run for their money. Imagine someone like Clearchannel broadcasting 6 different format stations in one area over HDRadio. Talk about revenue potential from advertising. To me, satellite is going to be for couch potatoes or people in very remote areas. We don’t have enough time to watch the shows we record as it is.
August 4th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
OTA is find and dandy… for the price. I only get 2 channels I don’t like.
SnatpStream… Support QAM! Really support it, not this half baked stuff!
Sing along with me. QAM QAM QAM QAM, QAM QAM QAM QAM!
August 13th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I can get the 4 major networks plus CW and a couple of PBS stations OTA, which is all I ever watch. However, I can’t seem to get rid of the cable service since it is also my ISP. I could go with DSL I suppose, but since I can always get “promotional rates” for basic cable (no cable box) bundled with internet service, I would be paying about the same as I would with DSL only (no DSL promotional rates offered). Plus, I am considering dropping the land line which then eliminates the DSL option alltogether.
By keeping cable I also get a few extra channels that I don’t get OTA. These channels are not encrypted but I suspect they should be since one can normally get them only with a level of service well above basic. Probably an oversight by my cable provider - I don’t expect it to last long.
August 15th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Kudos to you all for educating people on how to ditch the dish and cable monopolies…while still keeping that HD picture.
Frank
Atlanta home theater blog
August 15th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
GIGO, no matter where it comes from.
With the content of commercial TV deteriorating by the hour I am about ready to “pull the plug” on the damn thing and stick to my computer which offers all the news I can stand. I installed a Dish six years ago and only use it to tell if it is still working. It is (was the last check), but the company has yet to get a dime from me since they doubled the cost hardly before I got the thing installed.
TV could have been such a wonderful thing. ‘Too bad it seems to be just a Pied Piper from Hell for the younger generations as it has become.
Grump, grimp
September 2nd, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I’ve never had cable or satellite ever. I would watch cable or satellite at friends places and I couldn’t see paying for it when there was nothing that I really wanted to watch on them. After a week or two would be repeats and late night would be infomercials. Also I usually don’t have the time to watch everything that I record. When I got a HDTV tuner card I couldn’t believe the number of channels (11) I received on indoor rabbit ears. I plan to put up an outdoor antenna soon for better reception and more channels. Then there’s the picture. The HD picture is fantastic, something I never imagined. I watch on a 21″ widescreen monitor and just ordered a new 24″ widescreen to get the full resolution of 1080.
September 6th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Nat Says:
June 24th, 2007 at 12:10 am
reasons not to switch to antenna
#1
It will stop working 2010.
————————————————————————————–
Nat, the only thing that will stop working in 2009 (get the date straight) is the current NTSC (analog) broadcast of OTA television. At that point in time, all broadcasters will switch to the ATSC (digital) broadcast standard. With a good antenna and a TV or a PC with an ATSC tuner in it, you’ll be able to pull all the free stuff off the air you can want from the standard networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, WB, ION, etc.)
Get the facts straight! You don’t even need a high-definition TV to receive the signal! Digital TV is NOT (I repeat NOT) only high-definition. I currently have a set-top ATSC receiver that is pulling in crystal clear signals for all of my local networks, and it is pushing them out to my 27″ Sony Wega tv with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The ATSC standard allows for 480i (what you’re already used to, now called Standard Definition), 480p (often called Extended Definition), 720i/p (entry level High Definition) and 1080i/p (full High Definition).
The govt. is going to start handing out vouchers for anyone who wants to purchase a converter box to get their TV OTA so they can at least view the signal in Standard Definition on their existing television sets. The equipment manufacturers are just trying to convince you to spend your hard earned money on technology (a.k.a. wide-screen TVs) when you don’t even need it at this time!!!
Anyway, I got rid of my D-TV about 1 1/2 years ago and I’m perfectly happy renting what I want to see from Netflix and the public library. $13/month beats $40/month any day!
September 6th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Greg Caulder Says:
July 14th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
How many stations on average will you receive? 4-10?
————————————————————————————–
Well, let’s see… in my area I can get:
4-1 NBC-DT
4-2 NBC Weather Plus
5-1 WTTG-DT (Fox)
7-1 WJLA-DT (ABC)
7-2 WJLA-SD Weather
7-3 WJLA-SD Local Point
9-1 WUSA-DT (CBS)
9-2 WUSA Weather
20-1 WDCA (My Network)
26-1 WETA-HD
26-2 WETA-SD (WETA Family)
26-3 WETA-SD (WETA World)
26-4 WETA-SD (WETA Create)
50-1 WDCW-DT (CW Network)
50-2 WDCW-SD (The Tube Music Videos)
62-1 WFPT-DT (Maryland Public Television)
62-2 WFPT-SD (Maryland Public Television)
66-1 WPXW-DT (Ion)
66-2 WPXW-DT (Qubo)
66-3 WPXW-DT (Ion Life)
66-4 WPXW-DT (Worship)
So that’s 21 channels already…I left out some of the others, like the Virginia station that pumps out world relevant information (MHz)…they broadcast on two channels with 5 subchannels each, and there’s the spanish language station (14-1)…and stations like WHUR aren’t even on line yet. So all in all, for free, I have a choice of about 27 channels that I can receive with my antenna. Again, some I may watch, some I may not, but I’m not paying $40/month for the privilege to decide.
September 8th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
No way. I live in Round Rock, TX, and I get ZERO channels OTA with that shown anntena. So I have pay for cable. And is their any card that will take a HD signal INPUT from the HD cable box? No, I can’t find one. I have hdhomerun on order. But why not support HD from the cable box?
September 21st, 2007 at 3:40 pm
I’m with you man! Philly is another great area for digital television (although at this point in time, I think something like 80% of the population can receive good digital signals). We have about 20 digital channels. I don’t miss cable or sat at all (I’ve had both in the past). I went to a roof mount antenna in 1999 - believe it or not they had high definition monday night football that year, when NO cable or satellite system had it. I’ve been enjoying high definition for almost 9 years now. I will never go back to the cable companies.
September 27th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
[...] Then my utopia was shattered. How in the world would I get my TV shows on it? Pay $35 a series on the iTunes store? I think not. Heck, if you’ve read my other post in the things that heart things series, you know I hate to pay for tv. [...]
September 27th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
I live in Quebec, Canada, about 20 minutes from the Vermont border. I have a rooftop antenna and would like to get all of these digital channels too. What can I purchase to do so? Do I just plug in the wire from my antenna into this thing to make it work?
September 28th, 2007 at 6:32 am
I use OTA ATSC and supplement with iTunes. Boy have I gotten spoilt watching TV commercial-free. I just wish iTunes and NBC would play nice.
I ended up saving $150 more after turning off my cable by redeeming MyPoints for iTunes gift cards.
September 30th, 2007 at 5:30 am
[...] SnapStream Blog » Blog Archive » Top 10 reasons I heart my over Don’t have to use a cable box to get all of the channels how to deal with controlling 3 STB’s with one or more remotes. It isn’t cheap but neither is gas and I don’t see many [...]
October 1st, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I love the OTA HD we get in Seattle but being one of the fifty people in the US that likes hockey, I cannot get any games with a package. Thus I have to foot the bill for a cable box. I might as well get the DVR as well while I am at it thus the $50+ cable bill before taxes. I wish there was a way to get rebroadcasts of Canadian channels for hockey!
October 6th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Can someone tell me where I can purchase a set top digital converter in Canada? Are they available yet? If I buy one in the US will it work in Canada?
October 11th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
[...] Call me cheap, but I tend to use Beyond TV to save money… like by ditching cable tv or by recompressing shows to my iPhone instead of buying them on the iTunes store . [...]
October 12th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Free OTA is amazing, but so is signing up for $12/month basic cable - no cable box - if you have a Clear QAM tuner. You get all the locals in HD, plus all the basics in DVD-quality digital (History, Sci-Fi, ESPN, MTV, etc.).
Cable companies are required by federal law to carry a digital signal of the local channels in your area alongside the basic cable analog signal. So, when you sign up for the most basic cable package, without a cable company box, you just connect a coaxial cable from the wall into your TV — but your TV must have a Clear QAM (ATSC) tuner to decode the signal. Most modern HDTVs have a QAM tuner built-in. Check your manual, and enjoy cable at a fraction of the cost. This will also help you folks living in an apartment in an urban area or a hilly location, where OTA signals are fickle.
December 6th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
[...] the creative mind of such posts as Beyond TV Hearts iTunes and iPhone, Top 10 reasons I heart my over-the-air antenna, TV Viewers Bill of Rights and much more we bring you Zack [...]