Who uses TV antennas anymore?

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Who uses regular television antennas these days, anyway?

ME!

I dumped satellite TV in December 2005 after they replaced Music Choice with simulcast satellite radio (yuck!) among other reasons to cancel it. Lets see, I have saved over US$3,200.00 since then.

Cable TV? Not only "no", but "H*** no!".

[radotvguy]

I guess its just preference of who wants and needs cable . If you could live without it and get a few descent channels with a roof antenna and converter box then you will be saving a nice sum of money every year . Having cable tv is a luxury .

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by radotvguy

I guess its just preference of who wants and needs cable . If you could live without it and get a few descent channels with a roof antenna and converter box then you will be saving a nice sum of money every year . Having cable tv is a luxury .

I live in an apartment building in an area of Ohio where indoor TV antennas do not work well, and outdoor ones are not allowed. Cable is not a luxury where I am; in fact, not having cable in this area (if you want decent television reception) is not an option. Here, you either have cable or satellite or you do not get more than one channel good enough to watch (analog). Digital? Given the all-or-nothing nature of DTV, I have to say that it probably (even likely) won't work here either without cable. The cable works very well 99.9 percent of the time; I get wonderful reception from all seven Cleveland stations, but it sometimes goes haywire for no reason at all. I had no picture on one cable channel for the longest time, then when it came back on, it was a jumbled mess. Pictures sometimes freeze and break up for no reason as well. This sort of thing never happened when the cable in this area was all analog, twenty-odd years ago; the cable system here converted to 100-percent digital early this year, which is when all this intermittent trouble started.) If this is how our cable service looks now (all Cleveland TV stations will be transmitting analog and digital signals until June 12), I hate to think what a mess the broadcast channels may be when the analog ones leave the air.

Bare-bones basic cable (local channels only) is the lowest level of service my area's cable operator (Time Warner) offers. In this area it costs $11.97 a month, although in another city about 60 miles south of here it is only $6.61. I don't know why there should be such a difference in rates between two areas over 50 miles apart. Hmmm.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by ChrisW6ATV

ME!

I dumped satellite TV in December 2005 after they replaced Music Choice with simulcast satellite radio (yuck!) among other reasons to cancel it. Lets see, I have saved over US$3,200.00 since then.

Cable TV? Not only "no", but "H*** no!".

I don't know where Hayward, California is, but if it's anything like the wide spot in the road in which I live, I am amazed you get any kind of analog TV reception at all without cable or satellite. After June 12, you're going to need one or the other if you don't want to wind up with just one channel good enough to watch, as is the case (using an antenna) in my area.

What is wrong with "simulcast satellite radio" on your satellite service? I'm sure Music Choice must get its programming as well via satellite, so there shouldn't be any difference at all between the two services.

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I live in an apartment building in an area of Ohio where indoor TV antennas do not work well, and outdoor ones are not allowed. :

Might want to take a look at "Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule, Preemption of Restrictions on Placement of Direct Broadcast Satellite, Broadband Radio Service, and Television Broadcast Antennas" specifically pertaining to your apartment situation "Effective January 22, 1999, the Commission amended the rule so that it also applies to rental property where the renter has an exclusive use area, such as a balcony or patio.."

[wajobu]

Me, I use one of those coat-hanger DTV antenna contraptions, and it works! Some networks gained and some lost, but for the stations strong enough, the quality is quite good.

[OvenMaster]

I've had a small TV/FM combo unit up on a 25' mast for ten years. I have never paid monthly television cable or satellite fees and never will. "Free" is about what TV is worth to me.
I much prefer paying for DSL... $20/month is perfect.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I don't know where Hayward, California is, but if it's anything like the wide spot in the road in which I live, I am amazed you get any kind of analog TV reception at all without cable or satellite. After June 12, you're going to need one or the other if you don't want to wind up with just one channel good enough to watch, as is the case (using an antenna) in my area.

What is wrong with "simulcast satellite radio" on your satellite service? I'm sure Music Choice must get its programming as well via satellite, so there shouldn't be any difference at all between the two services.

Jeff-

Hayward is in the middle of the San Francisco Bay Area, with S.F. and San Jose about 30 miles away each, in different directions. NTSC reception is quite good with a roof antenna on my house, but not from both cities at once. (I didn't care enough about the S.J. stations to install a rotator.) With an indoor antenna, reception is mediocre as it has been on most channels everywhere I have lived in the past 30+ years since I got my first TV.

Digital (ATSC) reception, that is another story. I found a position to point a small roof antenna Channel Master Stealthtenna halfway between both cities and get all the digital stations nicely, in HD with Dolby sound and all. Later, when I got a couple of the new digital converter boxes (Zenith and Channel Master), I decided to try some 60's rabbit ears with the box, sitting on top of my RCA CTC-16 combo console. I get every Bay Area digital station with rabbit ears!, with only a bit of rotation of the antenna base to clear up a couple of stations that otherwise break up on screen somewhat. I sympathize with people who have little choice but to have to accept cable TV; I simply have big problems with the business practices and service quality of the cable-TV industry. Satellite TV is not much better.

Regarding music from a satellite-TV company, the big difference was that Music Choice was a multi-channel service that just played music in 30 or more formats, with nothing but music for audio. The song and performer names appeared on screen (or on the front panel of some DirecTV receivers). It was replaced with XM Radio in late 2005. XM, like Sirius, emulates actual radio stations (but without commercials, other than for the service itself). That means it has jingles and announcements, and some channels even have disk jockeys and so on. I hated that stuff. Music Choice is/was pure music, like an endless stack of records playing (or a portable MP3-type music player). I enjoyed MC so much, I was considering getting one of the vehicle satellite-TV dishes to receive it.

[classictv80s]

I got rid of the satellite in March 2008, never again will I go back to pay television.

[drz01]

I use a antenna for my HD local and Buffalo stations. The picture is so much better no compression. THe first one I made for $10 and now I have a 8 bowtie high gain uhf beast.

[wilkes85]

My house has a big areal on the roof, so I use it to watch TV in my room.

We also used some rabbit ears to watch TV at the ice fishing shack.

[automojo]

We still use a antenna-with the digital convertor-$20 with the coupon- I get 25+ channels-all the major networks-with a set of rabbit ears to boot-no static-snow, plus it's free. I persoanlly thing DTV is a great thing-way better conceived than HD radio. I don't watch enough to justify rising cable rates-or satellite rates for that matter. Suits me and the wife fine-netflicks for movies.
I dig free TV!!
The FCC still needs to leave free communications for the public-it's more important than you may think.

[Ohighway]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

Who uses TV antennas anymore?

Well.... up until about a week ago.... me. Even though we're close to a major metropolitan area (Baltimore/Washington) we only had one TV/internet choice up until recently. Comcast. And based on the input from the neighbors who claimed horrible service,-plus- the fact that Comcast wanted about $3k to run their cable down my long driveway to my house.... I said NO WAY.

Verizon FIOS service -finally- reached our area, and now we're hooked up for internet and basic TV. (No charge to run their wire to our house) The internet connectivity was the only thing I was really interested in... but with package prices basic TV service was only a few $$ more, and gave the kids access to Nickelodeon, etc.

However I'm not at all a big time watcher of TV. If there was no one else in the house to consider, I'd just hook my TV to my cheapy DTV box and amplified antenna, and leave it at that.....

[Adam]

The place I just moved to here in Michigan has a big vhf/uhf antenna with a rotor on the roof, and I'm looking forward to watching the last few months of analog TV with a good antenna hooked to my sets. But so far I haven't found any stations out here showing any older shows, are there any?

[Robert Grant]

Not if you're still analog-only.

Assuming you get Channel 50 well (moderate or less snow, no severe ghosting, and NO selective fades, color dropouts, sound dropouts nor picture rolling), you should be able to get This TV (4.2/45.4) and Retro Television Network (7.2/41.4) from Southfield.