Ditching cable TV for antenna

[Pool Hall Ace]

Can anyone shed some light on choosing an HDTV antenna? My husband and I have decided we are through with cable. He would like to see local news and PBS. I could do without the idiot box entirely. I can see pretty much whatever I want online.

There are indoor antennas, outdoor antennas, and at a variety of price ranges. Neither one of us has a clue on how to choose one. Any insight is appreciated!

[Brother Buzz]

1. We use the old rabbit ears and a UHF loop cobbled together and feed through a converter box

It works well enough for our needs.

[lunatica]

2. Why don't you just keep your basic cable?

[Pool Hall Ace]

4. We do have basic cable.

But money is tight, and it's just $20 a month that I would rather not spend.

I don't care about TV at all. The local news drives me nuts; they seem to report the same stories a few times an hour, and then for seemingly days on end with no new details. I'd rather just read it online.

[hunter]

3. Been a couple of posts on DU about it.

Here's Fumesucker's antenna:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1128752

My antenna is even simpler, a 7 1/2 square of wire attached to the matching transformer at the open corner.

But my situation may be uncommon. The transmitters are on mountains I can see from my house.

[GoCubsGo]

5. This site should help you.

http://www.antennaweb.org/, also http://www.tvfool.com/.

The type of antenna you need will depend on where you live in relation to the transmitter. If you are fairly close, an indoor antenna should be sufficient. These sites will help you determine that. As for brands, I don't really have any suggestions. I'm using my old rabbit ears, and they're doing okay.

I like the broadcast TV. There's not much on cable that I miss, and with digital, PBS has 3 channels, instead of one. Since I get both Georgia and South Carolina PBS, I get 6 channels. The SC PBS carries Create, which is mostly cooking, travel and crafts shows. I like the cooking shows way better than those on the Food Network, for the most part.

[Pool Hall Ace]

7. Oooh, tvfool is a very helpful site!

antennaweb.org is a dead link, unfortunately, but tvfool is very helpful -- thanks!

It appears that with an indoor "set top" antenna, I should be able to get every channel that I need.

[GoCubsGo]

8. Let's try again...

http://www.antennaweb.org/default.aspx , although it sounds like you've found what you need.

[Pool Hall Ace]

12. That's better! Thank you!

[UTUSN]

6. Don't know the type/brand name, got it at a flea market

It rotates on the roof from an inside little box with remote control. Usually doesn't need adjusting/rotating after the initial finding of the sweet spot for all the channels, until a few weeks.

[Pool Hall Ace]

13. So fleas are helping with your TV reception?

Obviously, no fancy equipment is necessary. Good to know!

[marigold20]

9. We bought an outdoor antenna, attached to the house

We are forty miles from the nearest "big" city and we get 14 or 16 channels, depending on weather or something. We really don't miss cable except for the occasional sporting event on ESPN. We subscribe to MLB TV so we can watch a lot of baseball if we want. The NBC channel doesn't come in reliably but whatever. We also got rid of our land line so we now pay for just internet. I can get my Breaking Bad fix by buying episodes on Amazon.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. I live in the Minneapolis city limits, and I get by just fine with a

32" Samsung TV and a GE indoor HD antenna that costs about $30. It's a flat panel about the size of a Kindle with two antennas. And while it's true that I live in Minneapolis, there's practically the whole city between me and the area where the local stations have their transmitters.

I watch only PBS, DVDs (years ago, I got a multi-region player that upconverts if connected with an HDMI cable), streaming services (Acorn TV, MHz Worldview, Netflix, Hulu Plus), and occasionally MeTV, which wasn't available on cable but broadcasts old shows from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Really, even without cable, I have more content available than I could ever watch, and I don't have to pay for shopping channels, loony fundamentalist channels, reality shows, or sports channels.

[2Design]

11. RCA amplified indoor tv antenna

I bought one at a yard sale for $2

rca amplified indoor tv antenna ant 200

Here is a list on amazon of lots of them (newer than mine)

Amazon.com : rcA amplified indoor tv antenna http://www.amazon.com/s/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=httpwwwarti09-20&linkCode=shr&camp=213733&creative=393193&rl=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=rcA%20amplified%20indoor%20tv%20antenna … via @amazon

[LTR]

14. Any antenna should work

There's no such thing as an "HDTV antenna". If you live in a good reception area, any antenna should work. You could probably jam a wire coat hanger in the back of it and pick up stations. But that's pretty hillbilly.

Hint: Most TV stations broadcast their signals via UHF (even though they may show as VHF - long story).