About 6 years ago , got tired of constant price increases and really not very good service with DirectTv , I canceled it and put a big antenna up in my attic , due to where I am located between two larger towns I then received IIRC about 20 channels , FFW to now , I think I normally get about 50 .
We had a extremely dry and windy winter and spring due to La Nina' and my antenna worked ..awful but, most recently it has been much better ..
Yesterday it was working lousy so,
I scanned my TV last night and now, 71 show up but, most you can't view yet , apparently they are adding more , what was the weirdest thing , I got a station from Des Moines ? ( and I CAN'T get my local channel in SIoux Falls ) lol
Yes, there is some redundancy .. two of most of the major networks , 3 PBS channels but for free and i only watch just a little bit a day, mostly for weather and maybe cartoons on Saturday morning on MeTv
The lips of fools bring them strife, and their mouths invite a beating.Proverbs 18:6
Re: Over the air television
[Re: bigdad]
#3068065 08/15/2208:36 AM08/15/2208:36 AM
I did the same thing about 6 years ago. I did put a cheap booster in line with the attic antenna and get I'm guessing about 80 channels but I delete the shopping and spanish stations. Along with Prime and Netflix my TV bill is about 30 bucks a month.
My antenna is still in the attic,(30 years) tell me what to hook up, I’ll try it again. Our cable bill is up to $150. I only watch the golf and weather channel.
When I got divorced 9 years ago, my Satellite bill was the first thing to go, to help save money. I don't miss it one bit. My TV is rarely on these days. No way, no how will I spend $100+ a month to watch TV.
69 GTX
68 Road Runner
Re: Over the air television
[Re: JERICOGTX]
#3068100 08/15/2210:07 AM08/15/2210:07 AM
I tried it for awhile several years back, but missed not having a lot of choices. I’m retired and don’t leave home much, so yeah… I’m a TV hound.
History Channel, American Heroes (Miltary), Financial feeds, Smithsonian, News channels (or should I say editorials), Law and Orders, yada yada. I subscribe to extended basic, but no premium channels.
When I was over the air, I had multiple TiVo’s for recording, but that was kind of a technological pain here and there.
Spectrum recording boxes much more user friendly,
I have four recording DVR boxes, and two feed only boxes.
I am set for over the air during house power loss, running off generator.
I also have a couple Roku sticks, mainly for travel when needed.
My issue is that you pay for channels you don't want with cable/sat/hulu/etc.
Not interested in paying for ESPN, MTV, etc but to get what I want to see I have to. Starting to get to the point where I don;t want to pay for stuff I don't want more than I want to pay for stuff I do want to see.
There really is no reason they can't offer channel packages that go something like this. You pick a 10 channel package that consists of whatever 10 channels they offer and you want. Then I can get what I want and not pay for what I don't want.
Re: Over the air television
[Re: Sniper]
#3068115 08/15/2210:49 AM08/15/2210:49 AM
My issue is that you pay for channels you don't want with cable/sat/hulu/etc.
Not interested in paying for ESPN, MTV, etc but to get what I want to see I have to. Starting to get to the point where I don;t want to pay for stuff I don't want more than I want to pay for stuff I do want to see.
There really is no reason they can't offer channel packages that go something like this. You pick a 10 channel package that consists of whatever 10 channels they offer and you want. Then I can get what I want and not pay for what I don't want.
This is my main complaint about cable, 300 channels and I only watch between 20-30. With existing technology it should be simple to let the customer choose the channels he wants and pay only for those but that would cut into their profits...it's all about money.
The INTERNET, the MISinformation superhighway
Re: Over the air television
[Re: formula_s]
#3068154 08/15/2201:01 PM08/15/2201:01 PM
An antenna works best outside but it's not easy to set one up outside. I did a gable end antenna mount with a reputable outdoor antenna. I drilled a hole in the side of the house just under the eave for the coaxial cablefeeding into the attic. From there it splits to the two TVs. Reception is excellent- I live 44 miles from the broadcast towers. That being said..........Much of what's broadcast is not interesting- to me. But I like having crystal clear local news and the miss likes her daytime /afternoon shows. If you have robust internet you don't have to be a paid subscriber to anything to enjoy decent stuff. Youtube is free as well as Pluto TV, The Roku Channel and several others. They are free because you will watch commercials. But the combination of an antenna and the ability to internet stream provides great entertainment. YouTube has documentaries and movies along with individual creators who are fantastic
If my wife didn't watch TV, we wouldn't even need one. Fortunately, she likes those old TV shows we can get off that cheap antenna I have mounted on a 10' piece of conduit screwed into the back porch railing. Between the antenna and the Roku, we have my wife's TV covered. The internet is what kills me. Pretty crappy connection for what we are paying for it.
Re: Over the air television
[Re: bigdad]
#3068387 08/16/2208:40 AM08/16/2208:40 AM
For indoor use for UHF channels 14-60 the older Radio Shack “double bowtie with reflector” and Terk log periodic in my experience are superior to what is currently for sale but since they are discontinued you have to buy them off eBay
For UHF channels tower or pole mount outdoors the 20 element Yagi antennas from Japan are best but expensive
My issue is that you pay for channels you don't want with cable/sat/hulu/etc.
Not interested in paying for ESPN, MTV, etc but to get what I want to see I have to. Starting to get to the point where I don;t want to pay for stuff I don't want more than I want to pay for stuff I do want to see.
There really is no reason they can't offer channel packages that go something like this. You pick a 10 channel package that consists of whatever 10 channels they offer and you want. Then I can get what I want and not pay for what I don't want.
You have hit on EXACTLY what has irritated the cr-p out of me for years. We pay for access to CR_P I never watch or care about.
There really is no reason they can't offer channel packages that go something like this. You pick a 10 channel package that consists of whatever 10 channels they offer and you want. Then I can get what I want and not pay for what I don't want.
with à la carte they would find a way to charge you even more..
It's better to keep your mouth shut and give the impression that you're stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.
I pay $275/month for cable TV, internet, and yes, still a home phone the Mrs. wants. It started out at $105/month for bundled and has risen ever since. It drives me nuts, but the Mrs. wants her channels as she is home 22-23 hours a day and I am an the road most of the time. It kills me that I have to pay for hundreds of channels I don't care about, but in order for her to have the channels she wants I have no choice. Probably going to Dish TV soon to get the $69/month for two years deal, and keep my present internet as every time I have changed providers it is a major pain to get everything working again...
The funny thing about science is that if you change one miniscule parameter you change the entire outcome to the way you want it.
JB Rhinehart, Realist
A-Body's RULE!
Re: Over the air television
[Re: Rhinodart]
#3069366 08/18/2209:10 PM08/18/2209:10 PM
You obviously have internet ... spend $40 on an Amazon Firestick and have the neighborhood nerd load TeaTV on it and watch any program on the planet anytime you want - commercial-free. There are even some apps that will give you every channel on the planet "live". Navigating the apps can seem cumbersome at first but once you get the hang of it its a breeze. I personally have not watched a full live TV program in the past ten years - at least !!
The Firestick is similar to what many refer to as an "Android box". The main difference ... it has a big company behind it and its a fraction of the cost.
Did I mention NO MONTHLY FEES !!
Re: Over the air television
[Re: Stanton]
#3069375 08/18/2209:48 PM08/18/2209:48 PM
You obviously have internet ... spend $40 on an Amazon Firestick and have the neighborhood nerd load TeaTV on it and watch any program on the planet anytime you want - commercial-free. There are even some apps that will give you every channel on the planet "live". Navigating the apps can seem cumbersome at first but once you get the hang of it its a breeze. I personally have not watched a full live TV program in the past ten years - at least !!
The Firestick is similar to what many refer to as an "Android box". The main difference ... it has a big company behind it and its a fraction of the cost.
Did I mention NO MONTHLY FEES !!
I have a Firestick programmed and ready to go, but I haven't found the time to set it up. Heck I don't even have a Smart TV, that crap is for kids! My biggest issue is in training the Mrs...
The funny thing about science is that if you change one miniscule parameter you change the entire outcome to the way you want it.
JB Rhinehart, Realist
A-Body's RULE!
Re: Over the air television
[Re: Rhinodart]
#3069397 08/18/2210:56 PM08/18/2210:56 PM
We have Spectrum....bill was up to $200+/month for TV/cable/phone. We dumped everything but internet a few years back. I put Firesticks on all our Tvs and got Hulu+ live. We get 70 live channels plus local networks plus access to the Hulu library. $70/month. We figured about $60/month savings.....$720/year. We have more stuff to watch than we will ever use and all our local stations for news,etc. 50 hrs of cloud recording storage,etc. The Firesticks make all of our TVs function exactly the same. Best move we ever made!
Re: Over the air television
[Re: Dcuda69]
#3069432 08/19/2207:41 AM08/19/2207:41 AM
I have wondered whether Youtube TV is worth the extra money, over Sling, Hulu, etc?
My sister used Hulu app to drop the cable bill for the Smart TV in the waiting room of her business office.
My brother likes the Firesticks.
We use a Sony Smart Blueray player Youtube app to play Lawrence Welk shows for my mother. App seems capable but noticeably slow. Search in Youtube is clunky.
I have had a Mibox running Android TV for about 4 years on an upstairs Samsung TV. Before the Mibox I had a Sony Android TV box. On Reddit Anfroid TV forum users seem to prefer the $20 Walmart Onn box because hackers have “jailbroke” the operating system on it, allowing many mods.
Dish Network Satellite service costs $140 a month and we actually watch less than 10 of the channels.
Re: Over the air television
[Re: 360view]
#3069445 08/19/2209:09 AM08/19/2209:09 AM
Ok, all these things like Hulu, Firestick etc do these work out in the county with VERY limited or no internet? Heck my Verizon -phone only has one dot sometimes
Ok, all these things like Hulu, Firestick etc do these work out in the county with VERY limited or no internet? Heck my Verizon -phone only has one dot sometimes
You're gonna need some kind of internet access. That's the only thing I kept from Spectrum...200 Mbps. I have used my phone on 4G as a hotspot and streamed TV from that and it worked fine but you'll blow through data if you have a limited plan.
Re: Over the air television
[Re: Dcuda69]
#3069523 08/19/2211:53 AM08/19/2211:53 AM
Ok, all these things like Hulu, Firestick etc do these work out in the county with VERY limited or no internet? Heck my Verizon -phone only has one dot sometimes
You're gonna need some kind of internet access. That's the only thing I kept from Spectrum...200 Mbps. I have used my phone on 4G as a hotspot and streamed TV from that and it worked fine but you'll blow through data if you have a limited plan.
Authorities have been trying to get broadband down here but I hear that is expensive also. Our cable provides internet but for a big up charge, then when a tree falls on the line everything is out for days.
Ditched overpriced cable (the Three-fer plan) and kept internet, got a Leaf antenna which gives me all the local and sideband local channels, plus a tv-load of other channels and stuff from Canada. Add in the Firestick (which I rarely use) and we have a zillion channels for about $30/mo (not including the internet, which is a business expense for me).
Re: Over the air television
[Re: Jer]
#3070143 08/21/2212:51 PM08/21/2212:51 PM
Nearly any cable/satellite TV package has an equivalent available much cheaper in the streaming/internet version. But you must have strong reliable internet. That's a big hurdle for some. Older folks tend to shun streaming TV. Its understandable. On the surface it seems difficult and daunting. But once set up- its actually very easy to use. In fact where the cable and satellite remote has 1000 tiny buttons- the Amazon Fire Stick and Roku remote has under 13 buttons. My former mother in law at 71 years old FINALLY got so sick of her overpriced garbage and commercial filled bundle she had me set up a ROKU stick. She soon became proficient and subscribes and cancels various services on her own. My suggestion? If you are apprehensive to streaming tv yet have good internet do this. Buy a $35 ROKU streaming stick. Have a son daughter friend help you set it up. Start out viewing ONLY THE FREE services- there are a lot of them!!! Get familiar with streaming/viewing TV. Then consider a pay package thru Hulu or Sling- a package that mimics your current overpriced cable offering. Have it set up for your use and pay for the month. If you like it- cancel the expensive cable/satellite package and stick with the streaming preference. If you do not have reliable internet available the Star Link system may be an option. It is a satellite but is SIGNIFICANLTY BETTER than the service from the Direct TV type satellite. https://www.starlink.com/
Last edited by 2boltmain; 08/21/2204:49 PM.
Keep old mopars alive.
Re: Over the air television
[Re: 2boltmain]
#3070297 08/21/2209:30 PM08/21/2209:30 PM
Nearly any cable/satellite TV package has an equivalent available much cheaper in the streaming/internet version. But you must have strong reliable internet. That's a big hurdle for some. Older folks tend to shun streaming TV. Its understandable. On the surface it seems difficult and daunting. But once set up- its actually very easy to use. In fact where the cable and satellite remote has 1000 tiny buttons- the Amazon Fire Stick and Roku remote has under 13 buttons. My former mother in law at 71 years old FINALLY got so sick of her overpriced garbage and commercial filled bundle she had me set up a ROKU stick. She soon became proficient and subscribes and cancels various services on her own. My suggestion? If you are apprehensive to streaming tv yet have good internet do this. Buy a $35 ROKU streaming stick. Have a son daughter friend help you set it up. Start out viewing ONLY THE FREE services- there are a lot of them!!! Get familiar with streaming/viewing TV. Then consider a pay package thru Hulu or Sling- a package that mimics your current overpriced cable offering. Have it set up for your use and pay for the month. If you like it- cancel the expensive cable/satellite package and stick with the streaming preference. If you do not have reliable internet available the Star Link system may be an option. It is a satellite but is SIGNIFICANLTY BETTER than the service from the Direct TV type satellite. https://www.starlink.com/
Yep...very well stated and exactly what we did a few years back. I put Firesticks on every TV we have(even the smart ones) $25ish each. setup was pretty simple even for this old guy. Now every TV in the house functions the same...same remote,same functions, same access,same recordings,etc,etc, Figure we save $60-$70/month over the cable TV and have MORE stuff to view than we'll ever use.
Re: Over the air television
[Re: bigdad]
#3070326 08/21/2210:54 PM08/21/2210:54 PM
I bought a MARS box one time fee of 250, but you need high speed internet. Thousands of channels, VOD ect . If there's drag racing on somewhere I get it. Every football, baseball, NBA ,college sports it's on there. Movies. News from all over the US.
America First!
Re: Over the air television
[Re: carnut68]
#3070395 08/22/2210:23 AM08/22/2210:23 AM
I bought a MARS box one time fee of 250, but you need high speed internet. Thousands of channels, VOD ect . If there's drag racing on somewhere I get it. Every football, baseball, NBA ,college sports it's on there. Movies. News from all over the US.
When you purchased the MARS, did you use the following website ? The M-3 box is listed at $399 ....
I bought a MARS box one time fee of 250, but you need high speed internet. Thousands of channels, VOD ect . If there's drag racing on somewhere I get it. Every football, baseball, NBA ,college sports it's on there. Movies. News from all over the US.
When you purchased the MARS, did you use the following website ? The M-3 box is listed at $399 ....
This looks like a cool idea but not much on that site. The video on Youtube has been taken down. No real explanation as to how it works. Do I need one for each TV? If so, I have 4...that would be $1600! No reviews on the site either. I'll keep my Firesticks for now.
Re: Over the air television
[Re: Dcuda69]
#3070573 08/22/2206:53 PM08/22/2206:53 PM
I bought a MARS box one time fee of 250, but you need high speed internet. Thousands of channels, VOD ect . If there's drag racing on somewhere I get it. Every football, baseball, NBA ,college sports it's on there. Movies. News from all over the US.
When you purchased the MARS, did you use the following website ? The M-3 box is listed at $399 ....
Yes I got mine through a co-worker who gets them from a dealer. It's the M-3 box.
This looks like a cool idea but not much on that site. The video on Youtube has been taken down. No real explanation as to how it works. Do I need one for each TV? If so, I have 4...that would be $1600! No reviews on the site either. I'll keep my Firesticks for now.
Yes you need one for each TV. Basic cable /satellite 150 a month x 12= 1800. It works just like a cable box HDMI cable and wifi. A bunch of us at work got them and luv it.
If it works to your satisfaction then you are all set. I have an indoor/outdoor compact antenna. It's a Mohu Sky unit. At first it was in my attic and worked good. Then I mounted it outside on a gable end mount and the weak stations became strong stations.
Last edited by 2boltmain; 08/24/2207:51 PM.
Keep old mopars alive.
Re: Over the air television
[Re: 2boltmain]
#3071380 08/25/2202:17 PM08/25/2202:17 PM
I'm trying very hard to get my wife to cut the umbilical cord to direct. But she doesn't like change ( which has been good for me LOL) We rarely watch it which just grinds my backside due to the cost.
I believe one of her resistance points is having a "channel line up" or Index of what's currently on that she can scroll through until she finds a cooking show, something on PBS or whatever. Again it's not very often that she does. I currently have Hulu, Netflix and Amazon prime.
So, my question is do any of these other CHEAP offerings have a channel or program line up that one can scroll through ? hope this makes sense
I'm trying very hard to get my wife to cut the umbilical cord to direct. But she doesn't like change ( which has been good for me LOL) We rarely watch it which just grinds my backside due to the cost.
I believe one of her resistance points is having a "channel line up" or Index of what's currently on that she can scroll through until she finds a cooking show, something on PBS or whatever. Again it's not very often that she does. I currently have Hulu, Netflix and Amazon prime.
So, my question is do any of these other CHEAP offerings have a channel or program line up that one can scroll through ? hope this makes sense
Hulu + Live has a complete channel guide for the live channels(about 60 channels,includes 50 hrs of cloud recording storage) plus access to the complete Hulu library. I think it's about $60/month.....which is what we use.....with the price of cable internet still saves us almost $70/month. We have all the TV content we need including live/local networks for news and weather.
Re: Over the air television
[Re: TJP]
#3071450 08/25/2208:20 PM08/25/2208:20 PM
I'm trying very hard to get my wife to cut the umbilical cord to direct. But she doesn't like change ( which has been good for me LOL) We rarely watch it which just grinds my backside due to the cost.
I believe one of her resistance points is having a "channel line up" or Index of what's currently on that she can scroll through until she finds a cooking show, something on PBS or whatever. Again it's not very often that she does. I currently have Hulu, Netflix and Amazon prime.
So, my question is do any of these other CHEAP offerings have a channel or program line up that one can scroll through ? hope this makes sense
For OTA I use a TiVo OTA DVR. Love it. You can buy lifetime subscription boxes on eBay for reasonable price or new. They have a full channel guide. No monthly fees if you get the lifetime subscription one.
For OTA I use a TiVo OTA DVR. Love it. You can buy lifetime subscription boxes on eBay for reasonable price or new. They have a full channel guide. No monthly fees if you get the lifetime subscription one.
I've been using these for years for my DVR'ing needs. They're very cheap and reliable, but you do have to add your own hard drive.
I'm trying very hard to get my wife to cut the umbilical cord to direct. But she doesn't like change ( which has been good for me LOL) We rarely watch it which just grinds my backside due to the cost.
I believe one of her resistance points is having a "channel line up" or Index of what's currently on that she can scroll through until she finds a cooking show, something on PBS or whatever. Again it's not very often that she does. I currently have Hulu, Netflix and Amazon prime.
So, my question is do any of these other CHEAP offerings have a channel or program line up that one can scroll through ? hope this makes sense
If you have a Roku there are a few channels that are FREE that have a channel line up you can scroll through. Try adding Pluto, STIRR, and Xumo.
Re: Over the air television
[Re: MoreParts]
#3072232 08/28/2210:26 PM08/28/2210:26 PM
thanks for all the suggestions, now I just have to find the time to check them out, try to find the easiest one for her, and then convince her to try them. She has said more than once just do it and I'll be forced to learn the changes. But she does so much it's hard to force something upon her. But the price is going to push it over the edge
