I hope this is a good place to post...
I've always been curious on how this is done. I currently have tv, phone and internet through version fios.
If I were to cancel the tv portion, how would I get things like (fox sports, ESPN, etc), (SyFy, BBC America, amc, and, etc), (NBC, CBS, ABC, fox), ( home and garden, velocity, those types)?
I have a tivo, Netflix and Amazon prime, but cant see a clear and simple path to it.
I currently have phone, 150/150 internet, and the 2nd highest level tv package. Costs about $150/month.
I've always been curious on how this is done. I currently have tv, phone and internet through version fios.
If I were to cancel the tv portion, how would I get things like (fox sports, ESPN, etc), (SyFy, BBC America, amc, and, etc), (NBC, CBS, ABC, fox), ( home and garden, velocity, those types)?
I have a tivo, Netflix and Amazon prime, but cant see a clear and simple path to it.
I currently have phone, 150/150 internet, and the 2nd highest level tv package. Costs about $150/month.
Some of the feeds such as NBC, CBS etc may be available OTA (over the air).
Any newer tv with an ATSC digital tuner should be able to pull in digital channels broadcasting within 25 miles or so.
If you are lucky enough to live close to the Canada/US border, you might be able to get quite a few channels.
Where I live, we can only receive 6 digital OTA channels, 2 are 720p and the rest are 1080i.
Picture quality is usually amazing on what you get, noticably better than most cable or satellite services.
Almost anything works for antenna, I use a modified coat hanger design that I found on youtube.
I placed it in the attic and angled it to get best reception for all local broadcast towers.
That will at least get you all the local news and sports, plus some of the feeds mentioned above.
Any newer tv with an ATSC digital tuner should be able to pull in digital channels broadcasting within 25 miles or so.
If you are lucky enough to live close to the Canada/US border, you might be able to get quite a few channels.
Where I live, we can only receive 6 digital OTA channels, 2 are 720p and the rest are 1080i.
Picture quality is usually amazing on what you get, noticably better than most cable or satellite services.
Almost anything works for antenna, I use a modified coat hanger design that I found on youtube.
I placed it in the attic and angled it to get best reception for all local broadcast towers.
That will at least get you all the local news and sports, plus some of the feeds mentioned above.
I have an old Channel master antenna up on a mast with a rotator.
As you can see int he picture, I'm down in a hole. The antenna just clears the hill in back of my house, but is obscured by trees.
I pick up 18 channels including ABC, NBC, CBS, COZI MeTV, LAFF, Escape, GRIT, BOUNCE, Heros, MOVIES, and one religious channel.
If I could get another 20' in elevation, I think I could get PBS and a couple more channels.
Reception is sporadic at times due to atmospheric conditions and the trees/leaves attenuating the signals. I get better reception in the winter.
I use a ROKU for other programming.
Most of the small powered/amplified antennas don't pull in enough signal at my location to be useful.
As you can see int he picture, I'm down in a hole. The antenna just clears the hill in back of my house, but is obscured by trees.
I pick up 18 channels including ABC, NBC, CBS, COZI MeTV, LAFF, Escape, GRIT, BOUNCE, Heros, MOVIES, and one religious channel.
If I could get another 20' in elevation, I think I could get PBS and a couple more channels.
Reception is sporadic at times due to atmospheric conditions and the trees/leaves attenuating the signals. I get better reception in the winter.
I use a ROKU for other programming.
Most of the small powered/amplified antennas don't pull in enough signal at my location to be useful.
Attachments
You might want to try one of the station locator services like this one from the FCC:
https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps
https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/dtvmaps
Looks like I can get a bunch of channels. Most of them seem to be the old VHF channels 2-13 (ask a millennial about that! We know the proper way to count is 2,3,4...11,12,13, U, then switch knobs...
). But there are some others i don't recognize offhand. ETN, IND, TBNCan you expand on how you use the roku? I have one of them and an Amazon fire tv. But it seems like I need the cable channel in order to get it through streaming - it always asks me to log in to Verizon first to confirm a subscription.
OTA TV often still uses familiar VHF channel names even though most of them have actually moved to the UHF range.
Cutting the cord generally means giving up on most cable networks and using streaming services like ROKU, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon prime, chromecast, firetv, etc.
Honestly, paying for Cable TV is like paying someone to waste your time. Try cancelling it for a few months, if you don't like it, they will probably give you a sweet deal to come back...
Cutting the cord generally means giving up on most cable networks and using streaming services like ROKU, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon prime, chromecast, firetv, etc.
Honestly, paying for Cable TV is like paying someone to waste your time. Try cancelling it for a few months, if you don't like it, they will probably give you a sweet deal to come back...
Thanks for all the info. Based on that I don't think it's worth cutting the cord. After some digging I found that I pay about $40/month for tv. That's after lots of discounts (triple play bundle, good customer, I called and complained a few times, etc.). So cancelling my tv service could actually raise my bill. And as Ron E says, I'd give up cable networks.
I pay around $50 Cdn per month for unlimited cable Internet. I have a high gain outdoor TV antenna, which provides phenomenal picture quality. I have an Android box for all the rest of the content I want. No more being gouged by the corrupt big telcos.
Sent from my phone. Please excuse any typpos.
Sent from my phone. Please excuse any typpos.
About 3 years ago I noticed I could just barley receive wifi from my local library. About a year later I decided to try this again with a better antenna but now I couldn't pick this wifi signal up at all. It took me a little time to figure the problem was that a building right between this wifi hot spot and my house had put on a new but this time they didn't replace the asphalt shingles but went for a new metal roof instead.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.