How to Watch TV Without Cable

[W2R]

Interestingly I put a tv in my office at home and hooked up some wires, added more wire, some aluminum foil and got all of the local channels. Great! So I bought one of those fancy dancy paper thin hang on the wall antennas. Hung it on the wall and guess what? Had better reception with those ugly wires and foil my wife made me throw away.

Frank is a ham and made me an indoor antenna several years ago out of a piece of wood and some wire. It is fabulous and I get over 40 channels with it. I can't imagine that any fancy dancy commercial antenna could possibly work any better.

I found that no matter how I bend or smoosh the wire, it still works really well. It really got bent up during my move, and looked like it was ruined, but no problems at all. However the angle it is at (how I tilt the 4'-5' long piece of wood that the wire is attached to), makes a difference. It helps to have it fairly high up. I have it up on my TV stand, leaning against the wall behind the TV and that works nicely. It doesn't look too ugly back there because it's behind the TV.

 

[Dawg52]

Here's what I have. I placed it in front of the TV(flat) on the entertainment center top. No one notices it. Can be hung on a wall if needed for good reception, but luckily I don't have to do that. I pick up every channel I'm suppose. Perfect picture.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/36606756...75035&wl11=online&wl12=36606756&wl13=&veh=sem

 

[UnrealizedPotential]

A lot of what determines how far a TV signal will travel is how high the transmitter is, and the surrounding terrain. When I lived in California I could get the Los Angeles stations from high atop Mt. Wilson, I think its like 5700 feet ASL. Something like that. 120 miles away San Diego stations are only about 1000 feet ASL for VHF, and 2500 feet ASL for UHF. The San Diego stations are pretty limited to San Diego county while LA TV signals travel around 75 miles in almost every direction except north. So transmitter height has a lot to do with what stations you will get along with how far away you live. Some people just can't get a TV signal. Too far away and too many hills in between.

 

[ReadyAimFIRE]

I know the initial Direct TV NOW reviews were pretty bad, but I assumed/hoped they'd address the issues pretty quickly. So after two months in - is anyone having better current experiences with Direct TV NOW? It would meet our needs well enough given the price so we'd like to try it, but the reviews I've found from as little as 13 days ago are still primarily unfavorable. I don't want to sign up for a free trial until they seem to have the bugs worked out.

Streaming will wholly replace cable and satellite eventually IMO, but so far they haven't been quite ready.

I did a three month trial of DirecTV Now. It was fine really and I didn't have problems with streaming and quality was good. It had all of the ESPN channels and BTN in my area so my sports were covered for the most part. It did not have a DVR capability which was a bit of an issue but not insurmountable.

Then...I checked out PlayStation Vue. Not sure why I had completely ignored it at first. Probably because I thought you needed a PlayStation to use it. You don't. You can use an AppleTV, FireTV, or Roku device to run the PlayStation Vue app. I use the FireTV and with my Amazon Prime membership it dovetails nicely with that. PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now both had each of the channels I cared about. But the PlayStation Vue had one more capability that made it perfect for me. Your PlayStation Vue subscription is treated like a TV Provider when logging into other TV Everywhere apps (WatchESPN, NBCSports, Fox Sports Go,Watch ABC, plus many more). You can tell by me listing sports watching apps that getting live sports on TV was important to me.

This was the kicker for me...having PlayStation Vue be considered as a TV Provider for these apps sold me. Having DVR was a major plus. And great integration with Amazon Prime since I'm using the FireTV devices is great.

YMMV obviously but I am cancelling my DirecTV satellite service this week after testing this setup the last month during basketball and football season.

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

San Antonio of course! And if you don't like the one place you are at, walk next door to the next one.

My DD just moved to San Antonio and did a Taco Biking tour, 4 taco huts, less than 2 miles on the bike.

 

[Throwdownmyaceinthehole]

And I get some channels in one room and other channels in the other room, they are on two different antennas. I get more on the little cheap antenna than the attic antenna.

 

[RobbieB]

Do it right and put up an outside antenna with a rotator.

 

[RonBoyd]

Do it right and put up an outside antenna with a rotator.

https://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Antenna-Remote-Control-Digital/dp/B00FAYOWXM

 

[dasranger]

https://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Antenna-Remote-Control-Digital/dp/B00FAYOWXM

Save the packaging. You'll most likely send it back.

Your existing cable won't work. You'll have to run theirs.
Many people said it stopped rotating after a short time. Mine stopped working after two weeks.

 

[John Galt III]

You know what would be a really cool app (or website) for people interested in cutting the cable? Something that would ask you to enter your favorite channels and/or shows and rank them in the order of how critical they are to your TV watching habits. It could also ask things like what your favorite sports and teams are, what your ZIP code is, and how much you're willing to spend per month. And then, after getting all that info, it would spit out the best combination of satellite / cable / streaming services and packages that would be the best fit for your life.

I wonder if there's anything like that out there now. Anyone ever come across something like a "cord cutter optimizer" app? If not, seems like it could be an interesting little "hobby" project for a retired software developer. Hmmmm....

+1. That would be nice. I haven't seen anything like this yet.

 

[mpeirce]

Do it right and put up an outside antenna with a rotator.

We had one of those when I was a kid.

My Dad's company had a radio tower for truck communications. A bad storm brought the tower down and my Dad salvaged enough of it that we had the tallest antenna tower in the neighborhood! We'd rotate it to get the best reception from certain channels.

I loved playing with it - it made a wonderful clunking noise as it stepped.

 

[sengsational]

If you want decent sports, you'll probably need to pay.

If you are an aspiring cord cutter, you can go to antennaweb and see what stations you might get (given the proper antenna), if you put in your zip code. Click on the "TV Listings" link and it will take you to titantv with a default lineup. Make a sign-on (free) and you can pick your lineup by selecting "broadcast stations" and removing Uverse or whatever the default is. Now you can peruse the listings to see if that would be worth the one-time cost of an antenna and installation for it.

I don't watch live TV, so I have several HD Home Run devices, each with several tuners, in the attic, right next to the several OTA antennas up there. Those tuners are on ethernet cat5 cable, so no signal loss getting down to any TV I want.

 

[audreyh1]

Ok, I'll bite: What city does have the best Mexican food? (Outside Mexico, that is.)

Austin - Fonda San Miguel is just fantastic. And there are several other outstanding restaurants.

 

[RonBoyd]

If you are an aspiring cord cutter, you can go to antennaweb and see what stations you might get (given the proper antenna), if you put in your zip code.

I don't watch live TV, so I have several HD Home Run devices, each with several tuners, in the attic, right next to the several OTA antennas up there. Those tuners are on ethernet cat5 cable, so no signal loss getting down to any TV I want.

TV Fool is also a good website to research TV signals in your area.

I actually, use the "AD D8Be Multi Directional Antenna" (https://www.amazon.com/High-Bowtie-Indoor-Outdoor-Antenna/dp/B000EHWCDW) because the ION TV Station is at a right angle to all of the other local station's transmitters... and fifty miles away. This antenna has a splitter and can receive from two directions at the same time.

I, also, have four HDHomerun units (8 tuners) (http://www.silicondust.com/) and can confirm that is the way to go with OTA TV.

 

[audreyh1]

I'm glad we don't mess with OTA TV anymore.

Internet streaming only. I love being able to watch what I want, when I want (on demand).

And I don't need a DVR to do it.

 

[RockyMtn]

for those interested in streaming see the article below. Chromecast's are on sale!!!

Google Chromecasts Now on Sale, Including $10 Off Ultra

 

[sengsational]

I'm glad we don't mess with OTA TV anymore.

Internet streaming only. I love being able to watch what I want, when I want (on demand).

And I don't need a DVR to do it.

We split our watching with OTA, Internet streaming, and occasionally downloads (icefilms, etc). We love the true HD you get from PBS OTA. We usually wait for a whole season, then binge watch. "Victoria" is getting recorded every week now, and we've not started on it yet.

But yeah, we never tune-in at a specific time, except for the very occasional sporting event.

 

[sengsational]

...the ION TV Station is at a right angle to all of the other local station's transmitters... and fifty miles away. This antenna has a splitter and can receive from two directions at the same time.

Right angles have been less of a problem than 180's because if you join two antennas pointed in opposite directions with a passive 'splitter', you get zero signal (hits the front of one antenna, the back of the other and "poof" zero).

I, also, have four HDHomerun units (8 tuners) (http://www.silicondust.com/) and can confirm that is the way to go with OTA TV.

I've got stations in 4 different directions, so have 4 antennas (ok, I actually have more than 4, hehe!), and thus the need for separate tuners. Me loves the HDHomeruns! Mine are "first gen" boxes, but still performing great. With 8 tuners, you must have an interesting organizational set-up to keep track of which tuner has the best signal for which stations. Even with 4 tuners, I'm left scratching my head occasionally.

 

[dixonge]

Frank is a ham and made me an indoor antenna several years ago out of a piece of wood and some wire. It is fabulous and I get over 40 channels with it. I can't imagine that any fancy dancy commercial antenna could possibly work any better.

I found that no matter how I bend or smoosh the wire, it still works really well. It really got bent up during my move, and looked like it was ruined, but no problems at all. However the angle it is at (how I tilt the 4'-5' long piece of wood that the wire is attached to), makes a difference. It helps to have it fairly high up. I have it up on my TV stand, leaning against the wall behind the TV and that works nicely. It doesn't look too ugly back there because it's behind the TV.

Surprised Frank didn't mount it in the attic!

 

[dixonge]

I did a three month trial of DirecTV Now. It was fine really and I didn't have problems with streaming and quality was good. It had all of the ESPN channels and BTN in my area so my sports were covered for the most part. It did not have a DVR capability which was a bit of an issue but not insurmountable.

Then...I checked out PlayStation Vue. Not sure why I had completely ignored it at first. Probably because I thought you needed a PlayStation to use it. You don't. You can use an AppleTV, FireTV, or Roku device to run the PlayStation Vue app. I use the FireTV and with my Amazon Prime membership it dovetails nicely with that. PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now both had each of the channels I cared about. But the PlayStation Vue had one more capability that made it perfect for me. Your PlayStation Vue subscription is treated like a TV Provider when logging into other TV Everywhere apps (WatchESPN, NBCSports, Fox Sports Go,Watch ABC, plus many more). You can tell by me listing sports watching apps that getting live sports on TV was important to me.

This was the kicker for me...having PlayStation Vue be considered as a TV Provider for these apps sold me. Having DVR was a major plus. And great integration with Amazon Prime since I'm using the FireTV devices is great.

YMMV obviously but I am cancelling my DirecTV satellite service this week after testing this setup the last month during basketball and football season.

Great overview of the three main competitors in this area from CNET. They agree with your conclusion. https://www.cnet.com/news/playstation-vue-vs-sling-tv-streaming-live-tv-compared/

 

[exnavynuke]

I'm glad we don't mess with OTA TV anymore.

Internet streaming only. I love being able to watch what I want, when I want (on demand).

And I don't need a DVR to do it.

Kodi and some add-ons can pretty much get anyone any show/movie they want. Now, I won't swear to the exact legality of some of those add-ons

 

[RonBoyd]

Me loves the HDHomeruns! Mine are "first gen" boxes, but still performing great. With 8 tuners, you must have an interesting organizational set-up to keep track of which tuner has the best signal for which stations. Even with 4 tuners, I'm left scratching my head occasionally.

I never really thought about matching the Tuner to specific stations. (Now, I have one more thing to wrap my head around. Ugh.) My HDHomeRun units are the same (most current) version -- the "Connect" -- so it didn't dawn on me that they would have different frequency sensitivity.

As I've mentioned before, I use SageTV as my OTA receiver (yeah, discontinued 6-7 years ago but will spring back to life in the near future with an up-to-date version... including Support). This program lets me set in which order the tuners are activated, however, so that conflict is mostly avoided -- "mostly" in that I occasionally get the warning message that a tuner is off-line or missing but it is always self corrected before I can react.

FWIW, I finally gave up on using Windows Media Center on non-HTPC platforms (laptop, etc.)-- it became much too big a hassle with Windows 10 "updates." I , now, use the HDHomeRun App (DVR Service - Silicon Dust) which is the reason I have the current version of the Tuners. I am happy with that program. (It uses the same HDHomeRun Tuners when I am at our Stick house.)

 

[Carpediem]

I cannot believe all the different options and setups that are available. My head hurts! In general, how many different remotes do ya'll have to use? I'm currently with Dish and would love to reduce our monthly expense but I'm concerned that it will become overly complicated to simply watch TV if I get rid of them.

 

[RonBoyd]

I cannot believe all the different options and setups that are available. My head hurts! In general, how many different remotes do ya'll have to use? I'm currently with Dish and would love to reduce our monthly expense but I'm concerned that it will become overly complicated to simply watch TV if I get rid of them.

Remotes are not a problem. I use a URC-R40 Universal Remote (URC-R40 - Universal Remote Control) I have had this remote for ~10 years and it has recently been discontinued. In any event, one simply switches to whatever device you wish to operate by selecting it on the (universal) remote. I added this Link because I am sure they have a much improved version now.

I, also, have a Logitech Harmony One (Harmony® One Advanced Universal Remote - Logitech Support) that I bought around the same time as the other one. I was (am) very impressed with it but just felt more comfortable with the URC device.

In any event, you need to keep the OEM Remotes handy (at least, not thrown away) because you really don't want to clutter your universal device with obscure or rarely used options.

 

[ERD50]

... if you join two antennas pointed in opposite directions with a passive 'splitter', you get zero signal (hits the front of one antenna, the back of the other and "poof" zero). ...

Wouldn't that only happen if they were well matched and 1/2 wavelength apart (or an even wavelength apart if being backwards actually inverted the signal) ?

-ERD50