But thereâs a cord right there.
Instant flashback to my days doing tech support for ISPâs, some customerâs would call in furious because they had to attach a cable from their phone line to their modem when they were assured they would have a wireless connection.
I can laugh about it now.
I use an antenna for live TV viewing of the major broadcast channels; I have a cable box, but it isnât HD and Iâll be damned if Iâm going to pay Comcast an extra $X a month for that. (I have a HD capture box for DVR purposes.)
Broadcast TV, beyond the big networks, is spotty. Lots of nostalgia channels. A family-friendly network, ION, that shows some fairly recent big-ticket movies. QUBO, which a guest on Gweek called kidsâ TV from an alternate universe. Lots of home shopping channels. Lots of televangelists.
before you even drop $13 on this, itâs best if you check whether or not youâll even get a signal, how strong it is, and if the channels youâd get are of interest. One such site is:
The Digital TV Transition: Reception Maps http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/dtvmaps/
Personally, I can get everything i need through streaming internet and I wouldnât bother with this device. i get BBC1 and BBC24, Al Jazeera, Press TV, Hulu, Netflix, HBO, etc, etc⌠Not worth the $13 IMO.
Yeah. When I lived downtown and switched to digital, I spent a lot of time locking out the huge number of religious channels. It really slows down the channel hopping. On the plus side, every Lost in Space ever (yippee!).
Another good site:
If you watch network TV shows, Sunday sports, PBS, etcetera, then an antenna is a good alternative to cable. MOD your point about reception.
[quote=âEksrae, post:6, topic:63393â]
On the plus side, every Lost in Space ever (yippee!).[/quote]
I watched a bunch of those last year, starting from the (second, aired) pilot. I love how they try to be science-ish, but have howlers like a surprise comet roasting space walkers with its intense heat.
Also out there on nostalgia channels: The Green Hornet, Honey West, Peter Gunn*, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.**
*GREAT noir private eye show. Compact half-hour crime dramas, with splendid âstool pigeon of the weekâ characters.
**Amazingly low-budget, at least early on, with cringe-inducing cultural stereotyping.
We finally plunked down for FiOS because our HD reception was so bad. Weâre surrounded by tall trees, and weâre at the bottom of a hill, on the opposite side from most of the transmitters. We never could get any of the 3 PBS stations around here, nor FOX, nor NBC. Everything else worked most of the time (e.g. when the kids wanted to watch) and then reception would crap out once in a while (e.g. whenever my wife and I tried to watch).
Before the switch to HD, we used to get most of the stations at least some of the time (and some from Baltimore, further away). FOr both analog and HD we used a big antenna (albeit for old TV signals, not HD) that I mounted up in the attic. I never did try an HD-specific antenna, but figured that no antenna was going to do anything at all about the tress or the hill.
I donât watch sports, but there are many sites that stream ESPN and the
like free. One such site is :
http://www.stream2utv.eu/watch/27101/2/Live-ESPN.html âŚAs to PBS, they
actually have their own website at http://video.pbs.org/
Pretty much anything you want to watch is available online through one
source or another. Just Google "watch streaming âname goes hereâ freeâ, and
youâll find a few sites. Do be careful of some though as theyâd like to
install softwareâŚDo keep your firewall and virus-ware up to date and
never click on âinstallâ. Once you have a few good sites, youâll find they
often also have pretty much everything else youâd wish to watch. Just save
the sites in your browser for easy recall later.
BTW, neither PBS, nor ESPN is available in our little mountain enclave, and
everything else is low signal as well.
We have a similar issue. We live in the California foothills at about 3000 ft in a mixed hill/valley area with 100 foot pines. When it rains, our cellular reception actually drops! Go figure. We tried Dish network, which actually worked for awhile, until they split their satellites and the dish would only access one, resulting in constant blackouts and disconnects. Since then, we relied on our Internet connection, which at 10MBS download is flawless even when all 4 of us are streaming various media. The best part is that we now watch what we want, when we want it. No longer a captive audience to cablevision telling me whatâs available at their convenience. I spent a week in hospital and they had Comcast. I just about went crazy stuck there watching absurd shows that I had no interest in.
Yeah, I could get PBS and the 4 OTA networks. And 17 channels of people telling me how to accept Ja-HE-sus as my lord and savior. Pass. If I canât get Better Call Saul on it, whatâs the point?
I used to live on those foothills facing clear shots of Mt. Wilson. I could get many channels easily with indoor antenna(s/e)! Now, I am on the other side of it, and canât get all. I miss free OTA TV! 
Lots of signals there I should be getting. Iâm 7 miles from the antennas but in a hollow; time to put something in the attic?
Sure. Best is on the roof to avoid any blockages.
I think I was the first person in my neighborhood to install a rooftop antenna for at least 20 years. I think a lot of people have forgotten those things are even still an option.
I mentioned antenna TV to some co-workers and they were boggled that that sort of thing still worked.
Mind you, I work for a place that provides technology to cable TV companies. (Including your cable STB, most likely, and maybe your cable modem as well). Weâre spend our days proverbially up to our elbows inside of video servers and advertising-overlay management systems.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
