On the third try, I found an antenna that picks up the major Denver stations and their subchannels.
I mostly watch news, movies, and sports.
Local news - check. National and international news come from the internet.
Movies - check. Three of the local stations carry on a subchannel MeTV, ThisTV, and AntennaTV, which carry a variety of old TV shows and old movies. There isn’t always something on I want to watch, but the same thing can be said about the hundreds of cable channels I used to get. (Also, for the first time, I have begun checking out DVDs from the library. Times change, I guess, I used to complain about the library spending money on DVDs instead of books!)
Sports - well, not so much of a check. Sports is going to be limited. Fortunately, I’m mostly a baseball and hockey fan, and am a fan of the local teams in those sports, and radio works just fine for them.
We spent a little over a year without cable. My 7 year old is the biggest Mary Tyler Moore fan on the planet, and she’s got a huge crush on young Dick Van Dyke.
I really missed The Daily Show, though. And Good Eats.
Yep. I dumped cable somewhere around 5 years ago. I haven’t missed it. I have a really nice terra-receiver (bought before my HD monitor) that receives HD signals and looks beautiful on my 37", which is also hooked up to my desktop in the living room. So streaming online stuff in full-screen mode looks just like cable or DVD. I just finished season 2 of Downton Abbey streaming on PBS.
That’s what I found. I figured out the placement on the first (passive) antenna, but it’s reception was inconsistent. The second (an amplified version of the first) was better but still inconsistent, and the third (a completely different amplified version with a modified rabbit ears) has clear and consistent reception on all major Denver channels except for the second tier PBS station.
Nice job! I pulled the plug on television altogether when I was 22. I’ve found it’s easily supplanted by a decent computer with internet. I don’t know how people afford cable bills.
When we moved here I ordered cable broadband and the basic package. We don’t watch much TV but it’s what we’ve always done.
Then I realize that months had gone by without watching anything on cable. So I killed it, upped the broadband to 50Mbps, got Netflix streaming for movies, and saving $60/month.
I watch a lot of golf, and there’s just no substitute for the Golf Channel, even online, so antenna is not an option for me.
I also couldn’t do without the Daily Show and Colbert, both on basic cable, but those are easier to find online.
I did recently save about 40 bucks a month by switching from DirectTV, which forces you to get one of its most expensive packages for GC, to Charter, which includes GC in one of its least expensive packages. The Charter DVR is retarded, but overall I’m happy with the decision.
it gives signal strength (at what height you specify for your antenna) and your location (using zip, address or coordinates). it gives direction to aim your antenna for each station. it also gives the real channel number (the channel the signal actually is on) to base the type of antenna needed (UHF or UHF, VHF HI or UHF, VHF HI, VHF LO).
I don’t think cable TV is worth it these days with all the video you can get on the Internet, and Netflix. You can rent movies on Netflix for less than cable costs, and all the good cable dramas and so forth end up on DVD eventually.
That looks pretty accurate. I get almost everything coming off Lookout Mountain that is within 20 miles, and almost nothing else. It also explains why I don’t get the second PBS station–while it’s coming from the direction of Lookout Mountain, it’s over 30 miles away. It could stand to make its color-coding a bit more blatant though, for those of us who are mildly color-blind.
I got rid of my cable years ago after one of my moves. That was when Netflix was first taking off, before streaming. Frankly, I don’t miss cable and can’t keep up with my viewing as it is. If I had cable, it would mostly go to waste. If I could personalize what I channels I could get I’d consider it. For example I would like TCM and no sports channels, yet I can’t choose that option and adjust the payment depending on my choices.
Especially now that they’ve done away with analog channels, and everyone has to have a box to recieve cable TV, the old excuse of “we don’t have the technology” won’t wash. There is absolutely no reason that one should not be able to buy cable a la carte.
Course, I’d still have to skip out on sports, as they’re the most expensive.
Television is one of those things I didn’t realize how little I’d miss it until I didn’t have it.
I’m in a country where 99% of television isn’t airing in my language, I’ve found that I don’t miss much at all. My attention turns to other things like, well… life.
Not to say that those who soak up a lot of TV don’t have a life, but the TV seems to be a major defining factor in how one lives.
I’ve also lost 10 kgs since I’ve been here (about 4 months). There’s probably some causation in there somewhere.
I got rid of my cable in June, while I was unemployed. Now I’ve had a job since August and I have no intention of going back. Probably the biggest difference in my life is I now make a conscious effort to watch a TV show, instead of having my TV on all the time. I’ve culled a lot of shows from my schedule just by going “is this really worth my time to watch?”
A coworker recently lost her cable through stupidity (ditched Comcast [good idea] before checking to see if Dish or Direct was available to her building [bad idea]), and has been attempting to infer superiority in TV viewing conversations by proclaiming “I don’t have a TV”. We have swiftly disabused her of this bullshit. Same cube is inhabited by a woman that has never had anything but an antenna, and you cannot pull that routine successfully here.
