Cutting cable and local channels ques

[Deleted]

If you cut cable, how did you get your local channels? Did you get decent reception or did you install an antenna?

I still want my local news and football. Pretty sure we're deep enough in the woods where the reception might not be the greatest but I don't want to cut it and then find out!

[arch01]

Just unhook the cable and see what you get.

We have a digital antenna upstairs and rabbit ears downstairs. We get CBS, ABC, PBS and a few other randoms reliably. FOX and NBC take a bit more finagling. Last night I had to move the antenna to a new position (we have 3 that we try out regularly depending on what channel we want) to get FOX to come in.

[Deleted]

Jan 5, 2015 12:50:55 GMT -5 arch01 said:

Just unhook the cable and see what you get.

We have a digital antenna upstairs and rabbit ears downstairs. We get CBS, ABC, PBS and a few other randoms reliably. FOX and NBC take a bit more finagling. Last night I had to move the antenna to a new position (we have 3 that we try out regularly depending on what channel we want) to get FOX to come in.

Lol. I didn't even think of this!

[niq]

If you don't get good reception, antennaweb.org can help you figure out what you need to install.

[arch01]

Jan 5, 2015 12:55:06 GMT -5 @jax said:

Jan 5, 2015 12:50:55 GMT -5 arch01 said:

Just unhook the cable and see what you get.

We have a digital antenna upstairs and rabbit ears downstairs. We get CBS, ABC, PBS and a few other randoms reliably. FOX and NBC take a bit more finagling. Last night I had to move the antenna to a new position (we have 3 that we try out regularly depending on what channel we want) to get FOX to come in.

Lol. I didn't even think of this!

Sometimes the best answers are staring you right in the face

We also tried an amplifier but it didn't do jack for us. We were going to do a whole house antenna, but that would've involved way more work than we were willing to put into this. We're coming up on 5 years cable free and I don't miss it one bit.

[irene adler]

I have nothing to add other than I adore your avatar, @jax

[soozy87]

We have an indoor antenna. When we moved here we just had the rabbit ears and only got 1 channel. We got a "fancier" antenna ($30) and now get 9 channels.

[iheartbanjos]

An HD antennae should do the trick to get most local channels.

That being said, will you have internet at home and if so, how are you getting it? For us, when we "cut cable" (we only have cable during football season)we still get the basic channels, just no HD package, DVR, or any of the additional channels. It's actually cheaper to bundle the internet with that package than to just pay for internet alone.

[Emerald1486]

We have an indoor antennae for our TV. I haven't had cable in nearly 6 years. Netflix, Hulu, and local channels. Until I got a newer TV I did have to have a converter box.

[Deleted]

Jan 5, 2015 13:14:03 GMT -5 iheartbanjos said:

An HD antennae should do the trick to get most local channels.

That being said, will you have internet at home and if so, how are you getting it? For us, when we "cut cable" (we only have cable during football season)we still get the basic channels, just no HD package, DVR, or any of the additional channels. It's actually cheaper to bundle the internet with that package than to just pay for internet alone.

We currently have Internet through Time Warner and cable through DirectTv. Thinking of just dropping DirectTv but may start by downgrading our package. I always meant to compare bundling and never got around to it. I probably should get on that.

[savan]

We have an antenna.

[onomatopoeia]

Jan 5, 2015 13:49:02 GMT -5 @jax said:

Jan 5, 2015 13:14:03 GMT -5 iheartbanjos said:

An HD antennae should do the trick to get most local channels.

That being said, will you have internet at home and if so, how are you getting it? For us, when we "cut cable" (we only have cable during football season)we still get the basic channels, just no HD package, DVR, or any of the additional channels. It's actually cheaper to bundle the internet with that package than to just pay for internet alone.

We currently have Internet through Time Warner and cable through DirectTv. Thinking of just dropping DirectTv but may start by downgrading our package. I always meant to compare bundling and never got around to it. I probably should get on that.

We just downgraded our package today and will save $70 a month.  We've been with them forever and have slowly lost all our perks and freebies, and realized we were paying a fortune ($140) for cable that included all these premium channels that we watched, but certainly didn't "need".  I'm actually embarrassed that we paid so much for so long - our bill is included with verizon cell, internet and home phone so we didn't really parse it out until now.  (We did keep some HD/DVR/local sports networks and some cable channels - you could get it cheaper than we did).

DirectTV rates are increasing in February so now is a good time to call.

[curbsideprophet]

We paid about $11 a month to get the local channels from the cable company (time warner). This was in 2011. We don't do this now so not sure how much it would cost today.

[iheartbanjos]

Big news in the Banjo family:
www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2015/01/05/espn-goes-streaming-through-dishs-sling-tv-no-cable-required/

Pretty soon we'll just pay for this and HBO alone. Good riddance, cable companies!

[Deleted]

DH just put up an antenna this weekend. It is an outdoor antenna (make sure to check if you need a mounting bracket if you buy one) and we get 41 channels. Many of those aren't stations that we watch but we have all the major affiliates included. We tried an indoor antenna and it had to be stuck on the wall about two feet above the tv to get any reception. It was a real eyesore and the outdoor antenna gets better reception.

[cinco]

We have bunny ears. We live in a rural area (Balt and DC are over an hour away) so we only get local NBC and PBS. I only watch "real" TV during the Olympics. DH sometimes watches Football if there is a game on NBC.

[kitty]

Jan 6, 2015 8:44:06 GMT -5 iheartbanjos said:

Big news in the Banjo family:
www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2015/01/05/espn-goes-streaming-through-dishs-sling-tv-no-cable-required/

Pretty soon we'll just pay for this and HBO alone. Good riddance, cable companies!

This deserves its own post!!! Particularly since I looked more into it and it also includes hgtv so this is mighty tempting for both me and DH!

[spanikopita]

I don't get local channels. We tried an antenna but apparently I drew the short straw... We are BFE enough to get nothing.