Ditched the Satellite for an Antenna

[marlin39a]

I'm 120 miles north of Phoenix, and have always (18 yrs) had Direct TV, or more recently, Dish. I got sick of the high price. I took a chance on a cheap $25.00 antenna off EBay, with a rotator. I just hooked it up in the house, and getting lots of great digital programs. Cut the cord!

[TXGunNut]

Did so about ten years ago, haven't gotten around to putting up an antenna yet. TV is one of the biggest wastes of time and money known to man. Ditching the satellite dish only solves half the problem, IMHO.

[RED BEAR]

really been thinking of doing same thing. get 23 channels here some have old sitcoms so e run westerns. and thats with rabbit ears neighbor says he gets even more channels with cheap outside antenna. not bad for free.

[aws1963]

Did so 9 years ago. No regrets. Prices kept going up and up. 6 channels I watched and 580 I did not give a rip about. Not a good return on investment.

[bangerjim]

But........OTA broadcast TV is just a bunch of liberal talking heads! I could not survive on the alphabet networks only. That’s why I have DirecTV right here in town.....where I can get at least 25 or more digital carp stations off an antenna. Commercials and all. It’s like back to the 70’s. No thanks.

Do what turns you on. The $$ I spend on Satellite (with 7 channels of DVR) is well worth it for me and my family.

[osteodoc08]

Only reason I have cable is for my kids to watch cartoons from time to time. I have a few shows I DVR, but rarely watch TV.

[high standard 40]

I have two residences. My main home in south Louisiana and a modest, rural property in the north of our state. My wife is addicted to TV. Besides the grandkids, TV is what she lives for. Fiber Optic cable at our main home provides her "fix" along with a DVR. I almost never watch TV at home. Couldn't care less. My rural retreat is far removed from any cable options. A dish would be my only hope but I opt to not have any TV there. I bring a small personal DVD player and watch some movies now and then......or DVD box sets of older TV shows from back when TV was worth watching. Mostly I read when I'm not working around my property.

[Uncle Grinch]

We have both Dish and a digital antenna. I get a sharp picture on the antenna but it’s limited to local channels. My version of Dish has over 200 viewable (no additional fee) channels of infomercials or duplicated (HD or regular) channels. Unfortunately my rate has risen from $49 to $90+.

I wish congress would allow us to pick and chose the channels we want.

[bob208]

we cut the cable about 10 years ago. we got an antenna about 3 years ago. after seeing the programing out there now I an glad we don't pay for it. through the week is not bad but the weekends is the pits.

[Uncle Grinch]

We have both Dish and a digital antenna. I get a sharp picture on the antenna but it’s limited to local channels. My version of Dish has over 200 viewable (no additional fee) channels of infomercials or duplicated (HD or regular) channels. Unfortunately my rate has risen from $49 to $90+.

I wish congress would allow us to pick and chose the channels we want.

[pertnear]

I cut the cord many years ago & we get plenty of channels & TV. One of the biggest problem with dropping cable or sat is you lose the nifty EPG (Elec Prog Guide) & the ability to look ahead, record, pause/resume live TV, watch one & record another (PVR), etc.

There is a gadget called Tablo that lets you do all this with OTA (over-the-air) TV. It's available at Amazon & various electronic stores.

FWIW

[Cosmic_Charlie]

We ditched cable about 8 years ago. Could not find anything decent to watch. Now we use the TV for movies.
I tell my elderly parents to quit watching television. Garbage and propaganda, bad for the head.

[DougGuy]

I went to an antenna too, but I'm 35mi from the towers so I tried a couple of them with no luck, finally got this 6' long contraption off Craigslist with an amplifier, converter box, surge protector, etc, and put it in the attic. Laying the phone on it with the compass let me dial it in on 198 degrees which points at the towers 35mi away tuned it good enough that I can live with it. I only wanted local channels anyway for news and weather.

I have cable internet and use a Firestick to get more channels but I don't want their TV bundles or their high bills. 200mbit cable internet runs me 44.99/mo and I can live with that.


Before I moved I was paying 230/mo for high speed internet and my (and gf's) AT&T phones. I went to AT&T prepaid and my current internet togther is now 77/mo down from 230/mo so I am happy..

[45-70bpcr]

Turned in all my cable boxes a couple months ago and it felt great. Antenna gets me local news, weather, "Grit" for old westerns, "Cozi" that has old '70's reruns, some good, some not sure how I ever watched them but free. I also stream with "Philo" that has a good package for $16 a month. https://help.philo.com/hc/en-us/articles/115013842447-Channel-Packages

YouTube channel, Roku channel for free if you have internet plus tons of other free channels. I still have NetFlix but it is on borrowed time. I can look for a long time on it anymore without finding anything of interest.

[FISH4BUGS]

We murdered our TV 25 years ago....literally. My then 10 year old son and I went to the range and machine gunned the TV and finished it off with a 20 ga. (yes we cleaned up the mess)
He wasn't doing his homework and always argued about what to watch and when. I told him the next time he blew off homework for watching TV we would kill the TV.
For 25 years we have had no TV, no cable, no dish, no satellite. Nothing.
That gives me time to cast, reload, garden, do yard work, write and read.
You should try it. It really is heaven. You would be surprised at how much you can get done when you don't become a rutabaga in front of a TV.
Radio is your friend.

[Rick Hodges]

I'm 120 miles north of Phoenix, and have always (18 yrs) had Direct TV, or more recently, Dish. I got sick of the high price. I took a chance on a cheap $25.00 antenna off EBay, with a rotator. I just hooked it up in the house, and getting lots of great digital programs. Cut the cord!

Which Ebay antenna? I need to try one for my cabin in the North woods.

[RogerDat]

Been working on wife to make a change for 10 years now. We started with the sub-basic cable package, the one when you call they will try to say they do not offer BUT as part of getting access for cables on public road easement they have to provide a really cheap version of local broadcast stations at a low enough price anyone can afford it. Stations in package are what you would get from a good rotator antenna on the roof, plus local community channel for council meetings etc. Less than $20 last time I looked. Every time I used the word "basic" they quoted their basic bundle, not the true basic cable. Eventually when I made it clear I knew exactly what I was talking about and I got the basic.

Then one sad day wife "upgraded" us. Been a running battle since then. Now we have high speed internet and I pointed out if we added an antenna for the main stations AND subscribed to a streaming service for our internet enabled TV it would save us big bucks. She likes the singing and dancing competition shows which the antenna would get, BUT we would not get the food channel which is here drug of choice. Sigh. Addiction is a terrible thing.

Every so often I sign up for HBO online and binge watch a few series on the laptop, then cancel. Game of Thrones, or Rome were both good. Amazon prime has some online content we can watch for free, or rent but if it is good I would rather buy the DVD and own it for $15 when it goes discount instead of rent it for $5 now. Still from time to time a streaming rental is a nice diversion.

I too would like to be able to order stations in custom cable bundles and I don't think it is the government preventing it.

The cable / dish company is paying a flat rate per household or TV subscriber to the content stations. This allows the cable company to maximize profit by getting people to buy high end bundles because the cable company is already paying a small fee for every subscriber. Even if that subscriber doesn't sign up. The content provider likes the arrangement because they will get a known payment per subscriber irrespective of who signs up for their content.

HBO would rather get 35 cents per subscriber than 2 dollars only from cable subscribers that sign up for HBO. This was why the liberal station that Gore sold to Al-Jezzera had value, not enough viewers for advertisers or to create content but at so many cents a month from the cable carriers for 100% of the cable subscribers meant the station made money irrespective of actual viewers. Al-Jazzera already has content it creates for broadcast, so they can re-broadcast on the cable for little cost. Making money off the few cents per cable subscriber and a bonus for any advertising specific to the cable market.

PS. I have held the line at putting a TV in the basement, lost on having one in the bedroom. I fear a malfunction is in that bedroom TV's future.

[RichardF]

Five years ago my wife and I cut our bill for cable tv and internet from over $200 a month to $97 and change by reducing the channel options from 230+/- to around 75. Spectrum bought TWC and gave us the same package deal with faster internet speeds. WooHoo!! They just raised their rates by a little over 4 bucks so I am looking at cutting the cable cord altogether.

[CIC]

I got rid of satellite about a decade ago. Never regretted it once. I have an antena and don’t often watch it unless it is for a severe weather event. Wether satellite or network tv,it is all a huge waste.

[Biggin]

Did so about ten years ago, haven't gotten around to putting up an antenna yet. TV is one of the biggest wastes of time and money known to man. Ditching the satellite dish only solves half the problem, IMHO.
Amen brother!!! Almost got the wife converted too. !! Got more time for beer drinking and casting/reloading. Not at the same time of course.

[marlin39a]

Which Ebay antenna? I need to try one for my cabin in the North woods.
Just do a search for - digital antenna 150. You'll come up with several.

[JoeG52]

Here is a good forum for information on over-the-air (OTA) television. There is a lot of good information on antennas and setting them up.
http://www.avsforum.com/forum/index.php

[muta4warrior]

I sent all my Dish **** back to sender almost a year ago, between my DVD collection and streaming services, I am more then good.

[sparkyv]

Cut the cable over a year ago. Antennae TV is enough. I hated paying for programming and advertisement that went against my Christian faith. That horrible stuff still comes on antennae TV, but I simply change the channel happier that at least my dollars aren't paying for that hogwash.

[OldBearHair]

I negotiated with Direct tv down to the fewest channels and $33 dollars. Told them if and when it goes higher they may come and get their property. It has been like that for about four years now. I have tried four antennas that do not work. Huge trees all around may be the reason. I have a fifty foot tower that I will not climb or pay someone to do it. Eighty Three and counting. Now hunting is a different matter. I have a good climbing rig that should the whole tree stand fall I can lower myself to the ground slowly and very easy. To begin, I shoot a small line over a chosen limb, tie to a larger line, etc until the main line is positioned and secured. Then I climb the homemade one and a half inch tubing ladder while adjusting the tension on the main line each step up. Never did cotton to just a safety rope only for when and if something broke, there you are hanging in the tree. How do you suppose you can get down. Hope you have friends nearby to check on you.