# Cutting out cable TV



## Nick (Jun 26, 2014)

Hey guys, 

So I had been planning on getting rid of my DISH network pretty soon and switching to Aereo. Aereo was a business that let you "rent" an OTA antennae in a datacenter and use the Aereo app to watch TV (mostly the local stations). That, plus NEtflix, gave me 90% of what I would have watched anyway. 

Yesterday however the supreme court effectively shut down Aereo. So I'm wondering what the other options are. I've never had an antennae, but is there a good, inexpensive way to get antennae based HD local channels + a basic DVR in place myself in the home? What product(s) do you guys use? 

I think at a minimum I need an antennae. I'm wondering if I can set that up on a desktop computer in my house to automatically record shows and then use DLNA streaming to push it to my TV's in the house, for example.


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## skijay (Jun 26, 2014)

I had a Winegard amplified "squareshooter" outdoor antenna installed a few years back.  It's split to three TVs. It works well for my location.   We use either a box / or smart TV for our Netflix.   Works well for our application! I'm able to buy broadband internet only from the cable company at $40 a month. The only drawback is I have to watch The Walking Dead on Monday nights via iTunes.


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## frapcap (Jun 26, 2014)

I dropped cable a good while back but went a different route than you did. I considered it, but didn't want the lady to have a tough time when she wanted to watch something and I was away.

We currently use the Xbox for Hulu Plus ($8/mo), Netflix ($9/mo), and Amazon Prime ($6/mo, $72/yr- not to mention the free 2 day shipping perk). Through those we can watch just about everything. For HBO, USA, FX, and other channels that don't air content on the three I mentioned, we use a friends HBO go and cable provider log-in. You can also buy current seasons episodes at very reasonable rates on Amazon for the programs that aren't on Hulu or Netflix. I watch Justified this way. 

I also bought an outdoor HD antenna (don't waste your time with that indoor garbage) so we could watch football or anything else that is important enough to watch live on the over-the-air channels for free. This is the one I got, its about $90 at Best Buy
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.as...ase&utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_base

I unplugged my existing satellite feed and ran the CAT5 cable to the new HD antenna since everything was already wired in the house- no extra work on my end!! Picture quality is fantastic. 

We pay $45/mo (was $29, but Charter jacked up the rate) for internet and save a good chunk of cash annually because of it.


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## bvibert (Jun 26, 2014)

There's resources online that can give you an idea of what kind of reception you can expect at your location.  Like this from the FCC

http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/

That might help you to determine if getting an antenna is right for you.


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## Geoff (Jun 26, 2014)

I did the FCC tools analysis a year or two ago.   Providence is OK but I'd need a 40 foot mast with a high gain antenna to get the Boston stations at the Needham towers.  Other than NFL football, it really doesn't help me.   I watch sports that aren't over-the-air (Red Sox on NESN, some ESPN events) and premium commercial-free movie channels (Encore, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc).   Every year when I turn cable back on at my Massholia place in May, I agonize over this.


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## Edd (Jun 26, 2014)

I nagged the lady for some time about cord cutting but we compromised on trimming it down.  Signed a two year deal with Comcast for less than $100/mo for internet with HBO and a handful of channels.  

We have AMC and Comedy Central, which is good.  She lost Bravo, which is great, imho.  We lost some oddballs, like TNT, TBS, MSNBC, SyFy, and IFC.  I'd rather have IFC and MSNBC back, but not abig deal.

What really stung is losing FX.  I didn't realized how many shows we watch on that.


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## soposkier (Jun 26, 2014)

Cut the cord a few months ago.  I pay $40 a month for internet thru RCN.  Pay for netflix and amazon prime, also use my brother's credentials for HBOGO and watchespn. Bought a chromecast and roku stick for streaming.  Bought the basic amazon hd antenna as well as another cheap one and they both work fine. I am however not far at all from the broadcast towers in needham, ma.  

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk


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## LonghornSkier (Jun 26, 2014)

I could never do without cable or satellite, due to my addiction to college sports. It is essentially impossible to get the LHN, SECN, or BTN online. For things like ESPN and ESPN2, you can usually find a pirated link online.


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## WWF-VT (Jun 27, 2014)

Our family is not too big on TV.  I live in Needham, MA and get 20+ channels with an indoor antenna plugged into the back of the TV.  We have MeTV, This TV , Movies! all the local broadcast channels ( ABC,CBS, NBC,Fox) multiple PBS channels and more.  We have never had cable and my college age son watches a lot of programs for free off the web.


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## o3jeff (Jun 27, 2014)

I canceled cable TV and got an indoor antenna a couple months ago and haven't looked back. Get about 20 stations. Lots of better things to do than sit in front of a TV, then again I never really watched much TV and can care less for watching sports.


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## jimk (Jun 27, 2014)

WWF-VT said:


> Our family is not too big on TV.  I live in Needham, MA and get 20+ channels with an indoor antenna plugged into the back of the TV.  We have MeTV, This TV , Movies! all the local broadcast channels ( ABC,CBS, NBC,Fox) multiple PBS channels and more.  We have never had cable and my college age son watches a lot of programs for free off the web.



I've used this too since TV went to digital to get same channels along with old time CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox broadcast networks.  Plus, after not having cable for about 15 years we started getting a basic package about a year ago on one TV because it cost only $5 more to add to our high speed internet cost, who said internet is free:angry: .  Only one child still lives at home and he never watches regular/cable TV, only stuff on his laptop.  Actually, in recent years I've noticed none of my four adult kids watch regular TV anymore, even the one who has worked for two different TV channels:smile:
After having cable for one year here is what we use it for 90% of the time:  Turner Classic Movies, AMC, FX, Pawn Stars, American Pickers, and some home make over/flip/real estate shows.  The only sports I am highly motivated to watch are the Redskins and I get them on regular broadcast TV.  We've discussed dropping the cable TV connection we've had for a yera, but it doesn't save us very much.


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## Nick (Jun 27, 2014)

bvibert said:


> There's resources online that can give you an idea of what kind of reception you can expect at your location.  Like this from the FCC
> 
> http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/
> 
> That might help you to determine if getting an antenna is right for you.



This looks OK. 



I have Charter too. I had 2 years of internet at $39.99 but it just bumped back up to $59.99. I also just heard that in my neck of the woods they are going to do a customer swap in Massachusetts between Charter and Comcast, so I would become a Comcast customer. Which really worries me because I do tons and tons of work online (and WFH several days a week), and their 250gb data cap is right in my area. 

AZ alone does automatic backups to my house and it's like 50gb a month. I delete older stuff but it still comes over my connection. 

I have Netflix and Amazon Prime but really want at least the basic cables so we can watch the primetime stuff.


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## Nick (Jun 27, 2014)

o3jeff said:


> I canceled cable TV and got an indoor antenna a couple months ago and haven't looked back. Get about 20 stations. Lots of better things to do than sit in front of a TV, then again I never really watched much TV and can care less for watching sports.



Yeah, for me the sports thing isn't that big, which is helpful. If I were really into sports it would be a much harder transition.


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## bvibert (Jun 27, 2014)

Sports is where the cable company still has a stronghold.  Luckily for me I don't watch sports.. Though I have watched a few world cup games on my phone or tablet, either using the free Univision app (it's in Spanish, so I just mute it), or a questionable ESPN feed that I found...


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## bvibert (Jun 27, 2014)

Nick said:


> This looks OK.



Note that it says that's for an outdoor antenna 30 feet off the ground...


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## Nick (Jun 27, 2014)

Ugh!


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## o3jeff (Jun 30, 2014)

I have the Winegard Flatwave from Costco http://www.costco.com/Winegard-Flat...ndoor-Antenna-FL5050C-.product.100047906.html $29.99. Not bad but I do have to move it around sometimes depending on the stations.


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## bvibert (Jul 1, 2014)

o3jeff said:


> I have the Winegard Flatwave from Costco http://www.costco.com/Winegard-Flat...ndoor-Antenna-FL5050C-.product.100047906.html $29.99. Not bad but I do have to move it around sometimes depending on the stations.



You can use the FCC map I posted earlier to determine what direction you need to face your antenna for different stations...



It's a cool tool.  Unfortunately I get no reception in my house with an indoor antenna.  Before I moved across town I got a few stations with the same antenna, I guess I had less obstructions there.  I've thought about getting a outdoor antenna for my roof, but I'm not sure it would be worth it.


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## ctenidae (Jul 1, 2014)

I keep thinking about loosing cable, since we seriously watch 4 channels, pretty much exclusively (HGTV, Food Network, BBC America, and Science Channel). There are a number of reasons (none of them individually insurmountable, but in aggregate tough) that prevent it:

1) Inertia. Switching would involve thinking and doing, and when it comes to TV, it's just not worth it
2) Lazy viewing. We adults never watch TV to see a show- don't follow any series, and generally don't care what's on, the TV is background noise mostly. Not having the cable programming served up means we'd have to actively consider what we're watching, and then choose it.
3) Too many TVs. Somehow, we've amassed 6 TVs in the house. 2 have wireless connections and 2 have BluRay players with wireless, but the other 2 do not, so I'd have to come up with a setup that works across them all.
4) Kids. Theoretically, having an endless supply of DVR'd kid's shows should be useful. But, TV is bad (etc etc), and really, we switch between Night at the Museum, Night at the Museum II, and Madagascar II. Our 2 year old finds what he wants on the iPad better than we do, anyway.

#2 is probably the biggest issue, since putting the thought required into setting it up is hard enough, and actually having to decide what to watch makes TV far too active an event. Which would actually probably be a good thing, since we'd probably opt to not even turn on the TV. However, putting gin the effort to switch, only to have it cause a further decline is usage seems counterproductive.

So, inertia wins, and we soldier on with the lowest tier available from AT&T that includes the four main channels.


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## o3jeff (Jul 1, 2014)

bvibert said:


> You can use the FCC map I posted earlier to determine what direction you need to face your antenna for different stations...
> 
> View attachment 12902
> 
> It's a cool tool.  Unfortunately I get no reception in my house with an indoor antenna.  Before I moved across town I got a few stations with the same antenna, I guess I had less obstructions there.  I've thought about getting a outdoor antenna for my roof, but I'm not sure it would be worth it.



Of course my TV is on the west side of my house and most of the stations are north of me. I have it in the window and moving it a couple inches one way or the other help depending on the station. Do trees interfere with reception?


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## Glenn (Jul 1, 2014)

I have a set of rabbit ears sitting on an old chair up in our attic. I'm pulling in a good dozen HD channels. I hooked the antenna up to the coax that supplies the majority of the coax jacks in our house. I spent $10 on the antenna. In my situation, I'd get a bigger antenna and mount it in the attic before I went with an outside antenna. If I had to do that, I'd probably look for a chimney mount. 

I thought Aereo was a really neat concept. But it didn't make sense for me since I already pull in a good signal. Certainly not at the pricepoint they were asking. 

Next step is to break up the local monopoly the cable companies have on the towns. Choice is a good thing.


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## hammer (Jul 1, 2014)

Glenn said:


> Next step is to break up the local monopoly the cable companies have on the towns. Choice is a good thing.


I have Fios and Comcast available in my town.  Not what I would call great options.

I'd like to cut the cable TV and could/would be able to if we didn't have two older kids in the house who would miss what we have the most.


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## skijay (Jul 1, 2014)

Lucky you! The installer of my antenna could not get the signal to lock in on channels: 20.1, 20.2 and 59.1 without losing 22.1 on an attic mount. My antenna is mounted outside on an old dish network pole in the ground about 8' up. I didn't want the antenna mounted on the house. Rarely, I'll get the screen lock / pixilation on 59.1 during heavy rain or wind. 

I also discovered that the DTV tuner on one Samsung TV is weak and I did have to purchase a set top converter which alleviated the problem and has a program guide that the Samsung didn't. 

Also, there are still analog channels out there! I get channel 34 from Springfield, MA and AMGTV affiliate. 




Glenn said:


> I have a set of rabbit ears sitting on an old chair up in our attic. I'm pulling in a good dozen HD channels. I hooked the antenna up to the coax that supplies the majority of the coax jacks in our house. I spent $10 on the antenna. In my situation, I'd get a bigger antenna and mount it in the attic before I went with an outside antenna. If I had to do that, I'd probably look for a chimney mount.
> 
> I thought Aereo was a really neat concept. But it didn't make sense for me since I already pull in a good signal. Certainly not at the pricepoint they were asking.
> 
> Next step is to break up the local monopoly the cable companies have on the towns. Choice is a good thing.


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## MR. evil (Jul 1, 2014)

We ditched Direct TV for Roku (netflix & hulu plus) over 4 years ago. Bill went from $120 per month to about $16. Shortly after that we added an amplified indoor HD antenna for about $100 and also get a slew of free HD local channels.

per the advice of a friend I back fed the HD antenna into my homes existing coax cable. Now that one antenna feeds 4 televisions.


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## Nick (Jul 2, 2014)

Glenn said:


> I thought Aereo was a really neat concept. But it didn't make sense for me since I already pull in a good signal. Certainly not at the pricepoint they were asking.



Yeah for me it was convenience + not needing to hook anything up.


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## o3jeff (Jul 2, 2014)

MR. evil said:


> per the advice of a friend I back fed the HD antenna into my homes existing coax cable. Now that one antenna feeds 4 televisions.



How do you backfeed an antenna?


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## MR. evil (Jul 2, 2014)

o3jeff said:


> How do you backfeed an antenna?



The HD antenna is connect to a coax jack which sends the signal through all the interconnected coax cabling in the house. Any TV in the house with a built in digital tuner that is also connected to a coax jack picks up the HD antenna signal.


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## o3jeff (Jul 3, 2014)

MR. evil said:


> The HD antenna is connect to a coax jack which sends the signal through all the interconnected coax cabling in the house. Any TV in the house with a built in digital tuner that is also connected to a coax jack picks up the HD antenna signal.



Thanks, I'll give it a try.


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## bvibert (Jul 5, 2014)

o3jeff said:


> Thanks, I'll give it a try.



Make sure you wire in the Flux capacitor first!


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## ctenidae (Jul 7, 2014)

bvibert said:


> Make sure you wire in the Flux capacitor first!



And prep the Pfetzer valves with 3 in 1 oil and some gauze pads.


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## spring_mountain_high (Jul 7, 2014)

ctenidae said:


> And prep the Pfetzer valves with 3 in 1 oil and some gauze pads.



gauze pads???  cmon guys, it's all ball bearings nowadays...


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## jimk (Jul 8, 2014)

Pearls Before Swine
By Stephan Pastis,
In today's comics section, right on topic :razz:


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