Almost ready to cut the cord

I powered up a Winegard antenna in the living room yesterday and picked up 15 channels. NBC and CBS are the sharpest I have ever seen on our TV. Hopefully next weekend I can get the antenna mounted outside and hooked up to the used TiVo I bought on eBay. The goal is to only pay for high speed Internet...no more cable or DVR fees. Pictures to follow.

Never mess with a Coal Guy breaking the binders and shackles of our own making. I think more Folks are getting real tired of what they're actually spending on Media & Entertainment access fees. Biggest problem can sometimes be we don't take a minute and see what we're getting for what we're spending !

It adds up to a lot of $$....especially for 200 hundred channels of junk. For $8 per month I can get Netflix streaming, and all the major networks for free via the antenna.

Rob R. wrote:It adds up to a lot of $$....especially for 200 hundred channels of junk. For $8 per month I can get Netflix streaming, and all the major networks for free via the antenna.

How much was the antenna?

With my antenna I get 9 channels--all the locals from Binghamton & some Syracuse & 3 PBS. Sports, etc. I'm sure I would get more if I got the remote turning thingy. Biggest problem is the hellatious wind here on the hill. I'm going to look into the one like Rob got. PIX huh???? Mine cost around $100.00 with mast & mounting brackets & coax cable That's about 1 & 1/2 months of what dish was charging--oh yeah, great start up at $19.99--that didn't last long:(

You could do what I did about 8 years ago. Get rid of the TV.

lsayre wrote:You could do what I did about 8 years ago. Get rid of the TV.

NOT HAPPENING here lol... Kids and wife wouldn't go without the TV...

Lightning wrote:

Rob R. wrote:It adds up to a lot of $$....especially for 200 hundred channels of junk. For $8 per month I can get Netflix streaming, and all the major networks for free via the antenna.

How much was the antenna?

$60....but you might as well say $100 because I had to buy a different mount and some things to go with it.

I bought mine from solidsignal...great price and fast shipping. They offer a lot of different models, it is a good idea to call them and see what they recommend for your area.

This is the same antenna I bought but with a mount included: http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?p= ... ms-2000%29

lsayre wrote:You could do what I did about 8 years ago. Get rid of the TV.

I still enjoy a few select programs, and I also like watching the local news.

I don't think so Larry. I keep it in perspective & keep it in the entertainment catagory. Hell, I wouldn't want to miss Person of Interest or Big Bang Theory, plus local happenings

lsayre wrote:You could do what I did about 8 years ago. Get rid of the TV.

Rob R. wrote:I powered up a Winegard antenna in the living room yesterday and picked up 15 channels. NBC and CBS are the sharpest I have ever seen on our TV. Hopefully next weekend I can get the antenna mounted outside and hooked up to the used TiVo I bought on eBay. The goal is to only pay for high speed Internet...no more cable or DVR fees. Pictures to follow.

Heres idea Rob, if you have hi speed internet just stream movies, tv shows etc. from pc to tv. That's what we do. If you want I'll pm sites I use. Streaming is 100 % legal too.

Last year we got rid of cable and only pay for high speed internet. We bought a ROKU and stream Netflix and Amazon plus. ROKU is about $40 one time cost. Netflix is $8/month and Amazon Prime is like $75 a year, but you get free shipping from almost anything you order from Amazon. It is amazing! We love it! NO commercials!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those two have more movies and TV series than you could possibly ever watch. I hate commercials!!!!!!!!!!! We also bought a digital antenna from Walmart for something like $30-40 and we get around 15 channels all in HD. We cut the cord and did not look back. Lovin it! Only thing I miss is Fox news, and you get some of them on Netflix.

Rob R. wrote: NBC and CBS are the sharpest I have ever seen on our TV.

Probably depends on the cable company but HD over cable isn't exactly the greatest becsue they compress it a lot to save on bandwidth, not an issue with OTA. Also keep in mind the streaming services over the internet are going to be even more compressed. It might not be noticeable on a lot of things but if for example you have something with a lot of action you're really going to notice it. For example I was watching a on demand movie the other day and it had a lot of scenes with flickering lights and that was possibly the very worst video I've seen. The macroblocking was terrible, for me it's worse because I know what I'm looking for and often times find my self analyzing how bad the encoding is. This is macroblocking:

Lightning wrote:
How much was the antenna?

As long as your TV is newer one with a ATSC tuner which is any TV bought after 2007 any antenna will do as long as your getting reception. There is no benefit to a better antenna or "digital antenna" if you get reception with a $5 antenna. Of course if you have poor or no reception a better antenna might help.

If you now have cable, when you drop the tv package, internet price alone often goes up. Our 5meg internet cost about $37.95 , if i drop the tv channels ($57.95)the internet goes up in price through the roof. I can't get dsl even here. Sick of seeing the bill go up every year. We have a Roku and Netflix so seeing movies and yesterdays tv programs are no problem, i just am not paying $50-60 for semi slow internet.

My name is Chris, and I have been Satellite-free for over 2 years.!
Yes, it can be done, with the introduction of Digital signals.
We pull in 33 channels, and we are about 70 miles from the nearest transmitter.

Hey Fred, we get the Big Bang Theory too!

mozz wrote:If you now have cable, when you drop the tv package, internet price alone often goes up. Our 5meg internet cost about $37.95 , if i drop the tv channels ($57.95)the internet goes up in price through the roof. I can't get dsl even here. Sick of seeing the bill go up every year. We have a Roku and Netflix so seeing movies and yesterdays tv programs are no problem, i just am not paying $50-60 for semi slow internet.

Same thing here...but it is still a decent savings. Next on the chopping block is my home phone service.