Ever since having my first television, I have always used cable TV. The costs have gotten so high that I thought I would get one of the new smaller attic mount antennas with a rotor and head end amp and see what I can get here in the Atlanta area. I was hoping that at least MeTV was available, but when I looked online, it was said they left Atlanta in March I had assumed they were available because the cable has it as a part of it's lineup. Apparently it is available in a incy wincy town about 100 miles off and that is what the cable is providing. As hokey as it is the other old TV channels are meager substitutes. Regardless, I assembled it and hand held it in the living room and it gives quite good results. I want to try this and also use video streaming and discontinue the cable service. I have a streaming device and have been watching programs on YouTube and debating which groups I might subscribe to.
I haven't had cable since 1985. When they switched to digital, I paid $100 for a good match for digital frequencies antenna. It's about a foot wide and two feet high. I have it mounted to my bedroom ceiling right next to my not smart digital tv. It was specked out at 60 mile reception. The digital tower park is 30 miles from my antenna. MeTV is broadcast 60 miles away in a town 60 miles south of tower park. I get over 40 channels with that antenna. It is picking up stations from northeast to southeast from thirty to 60 miles away. They make 120 mile antenna as well. My antenna is inside a brick walled building on the second floor and the house is on one of the higher elevations in the city - nothing blocking straight line reception.
Bought a RoKu running off my WiFi and connected to my TV with an HMDI cable. Netflix subscription gives me more than enough to watch.
TV in the living room is a smart TV so picks up Netflix directly from the Wi-Fi router. Hooked the upstairs antenna into the in the wall cable coax so it feeds the downstairs TV as well.
Netflix is $10 a month. Never looked into other streaming services available because what I have is more than enough. Not a sports nut, etc so don't need those services.
Sure beats paying well over $100 a month for full package cable. Has worked well for me since the change to digital.And they keep adding more sub-channels to broadcast stations, more than I need. Favorite two are MeTV and IonTelevision.
This is the antenna I am using (https://www.antennasdirect.com/store/ClearStream_2V_UHF_VHF_Indoor_Outdoor_DTV_Antenna_With_Mount.html) that's rated at 60+miles ($99 with free shipping). Did a lot of antenna research before settling on this one and it works great without any power amplification needed.
They have a dual set up antenna (https://www.antennasdirect.com/store/ClearStream-4-Ultra-Long-Range-Outdoor-DTV-Antenna-With-J-Mount.html) that's rated at 70+ miles ($139 with free shipping) that they say is for lower areas or with more microwave absorbing leafy material (trees).
The only time I get a blip for 5-10 seconds in the signal is when a very large airplane on approach to the airport cuts in between the tower and my antenna. The HDTV tower part is right on the north approach to and less than 15 miles from the airport so it is possible for planes to mess up the digital signal from these 1,500 foot tall towers.
It's quite amusing to think that a TV aerial over there is a relatively uncommon thing to use, here in the UK, the majority have used terrestrial (as in broadcast from ground-based towers, as opposed to cable and satellite) television signals to receive their TV, from the early analogue days right up to today for digital services like Freeview (a set of free to watch channels broadcast in the clear)... :)
I live about 2 miles from the nearest transmitter so don't need to go to the expense of specialised antennas, for my TV in my bedroom I made one out of a couple of carefully trimmed lengths of copper wire attached to a coax plug, and it works great (well, it did 'til I gave up watching TV, not a lot on these days that I enjoy watching now)... :)
I was wondering how common or uncommon community antenna systems might be out your way. Cable here has been somewhat of a necessity due to too few regional broadcast stations covering areas with 1000 foot transmission towers. Growing up in Indiana, we were in range of 3 stations in Indianapolis and 1 barely accessible station In Terre Haute. in 1968, when we got cable we could then also get 2 stations in Chicago, 3 stations in Ft. Wayne, 2 in Muncie and 1 in Lafayette. The region had so much area to cover that Purdue Universities' Public Broadcasting Station operated two television broadcasting stations in DC-6 airliners that would fly in a figure 8 pattern over eastern Indiana, north and south. broadcasting educational programming to Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky.
Here in the UK there's relatively few community TV channels (but calling them community is a bit of a misnomer as they're not really a TV equivalent of Youtube where you can broadcast what you create), and those channels that are broadcast are just piped through the main transmitters that the likes of the national channels come through, the majority of TV here though is through public broadcasting, aka the BBC, independent commercial broadcasters (ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, etc.) and subscription channels, the latter of which tending to be on cable & satellite, with terrestrial only having a very small handful of encrypted services...
I have a Mohu Sky 60 in my attic. It's probably overkill for the Washington DC stations (<10 miles away), but living on the northern edge of a hill, I can also pick up the Baltimore/Annapolis stations (40+ miles away in hilly terrain - save for MyTV 24 Baltimore), so I have double the network affiliates, but a whole range of sub-channels to watch (if so desired - not much overlap in the subs between DC and Baltimore). For "cable", I have SlingTv - not perfect, but uses no data on my iPad when out and about, if desired. I'm not a big sports TV watcher - I'd rather see it live (or read about it the next day...).
I give the Sky 60 a big thumbs up.
J
Quote from: compubit on August 21, 2017, 10:11:53 PM
I have a Mohu Sky 60 in my attic. It's probably overkill for the Washington DC stations (<10 miles away), but living on the northern edge of a hill, I can also pick up the Baltimore/Annapolis stations (40+ miles away in hilly terrain - save for MyTV 24 Baltimore), so I have double the network affiliates, but a whole range of sub-channels to watch (if so desired - not much overlap in the subs between DC and Baltimore).
Yes, it can be easily and successfully done. I haven't had cable since the mid 1980s and after going digital, all those subchannels give me great alternative to the major 4 broadcast main channels.
I get the 4 major broadcasters from Milwaukee's Tower Park (1,500' towers each putting out 1,000 kW - 1,000,000 watts) and the minor broadcaster from Kenosha's towers which are 35 miles south of Milwaukee's Tower Park and 40 miles from my house. And I get them both without turning the antenna so it has about a 120 degree reception angle if not more.
Simple rabbit ears will work to pick up some stations but they don't have the reception bandwidth needed to catch all of the HDTV UHF/VHF frequencies out there.
When we go on vacation each summer, we stay at a cabin that has cable and it amazes me that of the 190 channels available, I still end up on the handful I pick up for free using my antenna. I bought my antenna some 6 years ago and picked something that fit my budget and did the job. Every year I say to my wife, "Wife, still don't need cable at home!"
I also have a great Toshiba small color TV with a remote I got from Goodwill 5 years ago for $10 for the kitchen. Put a converter box on it and bought a small panel HDTV antenna from Wal-Mart for $29. That foot square flat antenna is good enough to pull in all of the stuff my big antenna does from both cities and feed it to one TV. Being small, it's more sensitive to placement and direction. It didn't pick up the Milwaukee stations until I put it in a corner of the living room where the line of sight to tower park cleared the 2 story house next door.
Lets see, $1,200 for basic cable per year for 30 years means I saved about $36,000 at an outlay of less than $200 total. Not bad.
Well, the big 3 networks are not my cup of tea . It will be nice getting PBS in HD and I want the oldie channels. YouTube has been a wonderland of the mysteries I like and it appears there are more depending on the subscription cost.
I'm 69, I've always only had an antenna. never had cable or satellite. I live way out of town, so it's hard to get good reception. My antenna is at the top of the property in the top of a tree. since they went to a digital signal I get way more channels, probably 30 Channels.
Quote from: 19and41 on August 21, 2017, 11:20:27 PM
Well, the big 3 networks are not my cup of tea . It will be nice getting PBS in HD and I want the oldie channels. YouTube has been a wonderland of the mysteries I like and it appears there are more depending on the subscription cost.
PBS here in digital has at least 5 sub channels each. We have two PBS stations and one of them has 5 sub-channels, one for weather, one for traffic, one for jazz, one for classical. The other sub-channels have content including Austin City Limits, concerts, cooking shows, travel, etc.
We have the big 4, CBS, ABC, NBS and FOX. They each have 3 or 4 sub channels playing older TV shows, stuff I grew up with and prefer. For example of my favorites, CBS has Perry Mason on twice a day on a sub channel for the past few years, still love that show. ABC has been playing the old Sherlock Holmes movies every Sunday on a sub channel for over a year now. They just rotate through them. I think they found older people prefer those shows over today's crud because all the ads on the sub channels are directed at seniors.
Some of the other broadcasters have 6 or 7 sub channels. It's amazing how much more content you get with HDTV broadcast on an antenna than just the main channel of each.
I had cable for 3 years in the mid 80s. Don't miss it one bit.
I have cable, plus I have a Roku and I subscribe to both Amazon because I use Prime and to Netflix. We live 60 miles away from any broadcast towers and the "long range" HD antennas don't do much.
Even though I have cable plus Netflix and Amazon, my wife and I are always saying that "there is nothing on tonight".
Hundreds of channels at our disposal and nothing on! Time to go work on hobbies! :)
Quote from: TelePlay on August 21, 2017, 11:12:28 PM
Lets see, $1,200 for basic cable per year for 30 years means I saved about $36,000 at an outlay of less than $200 total. Not bad.
That's a LOT of phones!
Quote from: Phonesrfun on August 22, 2017, 08:09:34 PM
Time to go work on hobbies! :)
:-)
And I do have cable TV (minimal package) only because Internet is cheaper with a basic package than without. I only use it to occasionally record something off air, and to watch the in-market station that's gone hyper-local for news (including Northern Virginia), but not receivable over the air...
Jim
After using it for 2 years, I have found the antenna to work quite well and it was easy to install. This is the type I got.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M5RXL5M/ref=dp_cerb_1
Quote from: 19and41 on July 09, 2019, 03:50:05 PM
After using it for 2 years, I have found the antenna to work quite well and it was easy to install. This is the type I got.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M5RXL5M/ref=dp_cerb_1
We ditched our $165/mo cable bill about 5 yrs ago, and put up the Winegard MS-2000 and get 38 channels, BUT, we do subscribe to NetFlix & have Amazon Prime too. This antenna works great too!
https://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p=ms-2000
Wow! That's a lot of money for cable TV service.
Here in Germany the cable fee is much lower (maybe 200 € a year, would be close to 225 $), but then there is an obligatory license fee of 18 € per month and household to finance the public broadcasting instutions. These can be received via air or satellite for no added costs in return. Pay TV has not caught on here for general programs, but football/soccer fans get fleeced extra...
A couple of formerly free to air commercial stations have begun to charge for HD service also.
Quote from: countryman on July 11, 2019, 02:45:13 PM
Wow! That's a lot of money for cable TV service.
Here in Germany the cable fee is much lower (maybe 200 € a year, would be close to 225 $), but then there is an obligatory license fee of 18 € per month and household to finance the public broadcasting instutions. These can be received via air or satellite for no added costs in return. Pay TV has not caught on here for general programs, but football/soccer fans get fleeced extra...
A couple of formerly free to air commercial stations have begun to charge for HD service also.
Out of curiosity, Are your cable services provided by government or by private businesses? It's been a long time since I was in Germany and I didn't know you had cable service.
Yea, cable is way too expensive for what you get. We dumped cable three years ago, and just have internet with roku tv's, so we can watch things like Netflix and the like.
Time Warner, spectrum what ever it is this week, is way to expensive for what little tv programs are on.
I have to keep renegotiating my plan with Comcast and I have the ultra cheepie weepie TV (OTA and the shopping channels) and middle range internet for $72. It started last year with the fastest internet and C-W TV for $56. I have to keep the crap tv for a bundle deal.
Quote from: 19and41 on July 11, 2019, 03:53:30 PM
Out of curiosity, Are your cable services provided by government or by private businesses? It's been a long time since I was in Germany and I didn't know you had cable service.
The TV cable was dug into many city streets in the late 1980ies/1990ies first by the state-owned Deutsche Bundespost, that became Deutsche Telekom (a stock corporation) later. Due to anti trust regulations the cable business was spun off to mainly 3 private operators. These also offer internet service via cable now.
According to Wikipedia 70% of the households have cable access. I personally use free to air satellite service, which works fine since a long time now. Until the eighties we only had 3 public channels, meanwhile these have grown many sub-channels, and free to air commercial stations appeared, also on the Astra satellite system. Plus the before mentioned pay TV sport channels.
The value transmitted has kept the same, but is diluted over 20 times as many stations now :-(
My internet and VOIP service comes from Telekom through the same copper wires that carried POTS for decades. (40 € monthly) They upgraded the system by adding fiber optic and "DSLAM" access boxes in the streets. POTS nowadays is only available for customers that never changed their subscription nor requested internet service, via interface modules I guess.
Antennas are so nice to have now with all the digital sub channels. My parents got rid of theirs when they switched to cable right before the digital switch and I wish they hadn't. They likely could have gotten quite a few channels now.
I always wondered how digital TV could have over 1,000 possible channels. Well, I finally figured it out. You have 68 main channels (2 thru 69) and if each one had 15 sub channels, multiply 15 and 68, and there is how you come up with over 1,000 possible channels.
Unfortunately, some of them rate right up there with the paint drying show. :D
Quote from: andre_janew on August 11, 2019, 05:14:19 PM
I always wondered how digital TV could have over 1,000 possible channels. Well, I finally figured it out. You have 68 main channels (2 thru 69) and if each one had 15 sub channels, multiply 15 and 68, and there is how you come up with over 1,000 possible channels.
Not quite the same. Whereas Over The Air broadcast TV had 81 (2-83)*, then 67 (2-69)*, then 49 (2-51)*,and now heading for 35 (2-36), cable TV uses the entire 50 MHz to ~1 GHz Range (which if broken in 6 MHz channels would be approximately 153 analog channels. Depending on digital modulation parameters, the cable companies are able to cram quite a few program streams in each 6MHz channel.
But... some of the bandwidth is used for Internet transmissions (both up and down), so you don't have the entire amount of bandwidth for video.
But also,advanced cable systems use "switched video" for lesser-watched channel, meaning if channel DEF is a switched video channel, and no one in your group of users is watching it, then it's not being sent down the cable into your area (and freeing up bandwidth for things like faster internet access).
* - although there is a Channel 37, it is designated for Radio Astronomy, and is not assigned to any TV stations
Jim