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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 25, 2015 19:42:11 GMT -5
I "cut the cord" (and the cheese ) 3 weeks ago and for the first time since 1992 I don't have a cable or satellite TV bill. Mind you I didn't jump into this blindly and spent a year experimenting and nailing things down but I'm damn glad I did it. Not one complaint from the family either despite several warnings of mutiny from my children and I learned a lot in the process too. One of these days I'll put up a detailed post about "what I'm running", but for now I wondered if anyone has noticed any TV antennas going up in their area? cjonline.com/news/2015-02-14/television-antennas-making-comeback
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Sandbagger
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 25, 2015 21:40:42 GMT -5
I "cut the cord" (and the cheese ) 3 weeks ago and for the first time since 1992 I don't have a cable or satellite TV bill. Mind you I didn't jump into this blindly and spent a year experimenting and nailing things down but I'm damn glad I did it. Not one complaint from the family either despite several warnings of mutiny from my children and I learned a lot in the process too. One of these days I'll put up a detailed post about "what I'm running", but for now I wondered if anyone has noticed any TV antennas going up in their area? cjonline.com/news/2015-02-14/television-antennas-making-comebackIt's a bit late right now, so I don't have time to get into any details, but this might be an interesting topic to throw around.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 26, 2015 7:38:21 GMT -5
Over the last year as I was doing my homework the biggest thing that held me back from finally canceling my Dish account was the DVR feature, which we rely on heavily and I refused to give up. First I tried a fairly well reviewed Mediasonic HW-150PVR I picked up on Amazon for around $40. It requires an external hard drive, which is no big deal, but the Mediasonic interface was "clunky" and not very user friendly. I looked at Tivo, but they charge a monthly fee or a BIG upfront lifetime fee. What I settled on is the Channel Master DVR+ and I love it. It works just like a cable or satellite box/DVR and there's no monthly fee. It requires an external drive, but I chose the 16GB version because it was cheaper to buy it and a TB hard drive separately, and I can disconnect the hard drive and plug it into the Mediasonic box which we're using in our room upstairs and watch recorded content there. More later...
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Post by No Streak on Mar 26, 2015 7:48:52 GMT -5
Well 5 years ago that's what I did, dropped Directv. And 56 channels later couldn't be happier. That God for Netflix streaming 8 dollars is sure better than $56.00 dollars a month and that's for nothing. That takes care of what we cannot get OTA. And my wife loves Antenna Tv which we get free OTA. It sure isn't like in the analog days picture is better than cable ever was and it's free.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 26, 2015 7:56:53 GMT -5
Well 5 years ago that's what I did dropped Directv. And 56 channels later couldn't be happier. That God for Netflix streaming 8 dollars is sure better than $56.00 dollars a month and that's for nothing. That takes care of what we cannot get OTA. And my wife loves Antenna Tv which we get free OTA. It sure isn't like in the analog days picture is better than cable ever was and it's free. We're doing Netflix too, and I picked up a Roku last year which allows me to get tons of "programming" off the web.
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Post by cbrown on Mar 26, 2015 8:34:12 GMT -5
I wondered if anyone has noticed any TV antennas going up in their area? Most people in this are have satellite (some multiple dishes) or cable. It's a rare thing to see a TV antenna on the roof. Heck, it's a rare thing to see any antenna on a roof.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 26, 2015 9:33:50 GMT -5
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Post by No Streak on Mar 26, 2015 9:46:50 GMT -5
One thing I can say is you get a great picture better because it is direct feed so HD blows you away! And it's all free you can't beat free! I have a large Windguard antenna myself and a signal booster,maybe a little to big. But someone gave it to me.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 26, 2015 10:22:28 GMT -5
One thing I can say is you get a great picture better because it is direct feed so HD blows you away! And it's all free you can't beat free! I have a large Windguard antenna myself and a signal booster,maybe a little to big. But someone gave it to me. I didn't realize how crappy the SD picture Dish gave me was until I hooked up the antenna. I'm currently running an Antennacraft VHF/UHF combo and a separate 8 bay UHF antenna into an RCA mast mount amplifier. I'm still not completely satisfied with reception of PBS and a couple independent stations which are all on VHF, so I may still upgrade
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Post by No Streak on Mar 26, 2015 10:37:39 GMT -5
Yeah sounds like your setup right monkeyman and did your homework. Like I said cutting the cord is a lot easier with Netfix because of the shows you can't get on OTA. But if you like the 1970's and 1980's shows you can get them with Antenna TV and Cosy TV, Retro TV, This TV, MeTV, Oin channel. So you really have some good selection.
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 26, 2015 13:32:23 GMT -5
Over the last year as I was doing my homework the biggest thing that held me back from finally canceling my Dish account was the DVR feature, which we rely on heavily and I refused to give up. First I tried a fairly well reviewed Mediasonic HW-150PVR I picked up on Amazon for around $40. It requires an external hard drive, which is no big deal, but the Mediasonic interface was "clunky" and not very user friendly. I looked at Tivo, but they charge a monthly fee or a BIG upfront lifetime fee. What I settled on is the Channel Master DVR+ and I love it. It works just like a cable or satellite box/DVR and there's no monthly fee. It requires an external drive, but I chose the 16GB version because it was cheaper to buy it and a TB hard drive separately, and I can disconnect the hard drive and plug it into the Mediasonic box which we're using in our room upstairs and watch recorded content there. More later... This is interesting because I am currently in a similar predicament. I pay a king's ransom for cable each month, but I usually only end up watching network channels as it is. I also have a subscription to netflix. My problem is that I can't really completely "cut the cord" because cable is my internet source (and the source for my VoIP telephone). But I could completely do away with video services. The BIG problem for me (and I suspect many other people in newer developments), is that external TV antennas (with the exception of small "dish types") are expressly prohibited from being mounted above the roofline level due to deed restrictions. I am exercising a loophole with my CB antenna because it's not technically mounted on the house, it's on a detached garage which no one else has in the neighborhood. But CC&R's can be a problem for those seeking to go back to OTA Television. What may save me is that I am at 400' ASL, and have a fairly clean shot toward Phila, where the TV transmitters are. My other beef, like you, is an addiction to DVR and auto recording via TV guide input. I can never watch programs at their broadcast time (I prefer FF'ing through commercials too), so I end up DVR'ing several programs and then watching a bunch of them, when I get a free night. I'll have to look into that channel Master DVR box, if and when we decide to "shrink the cord". The only other potential issue would be the loss of the ESPN's and other sports channels, which carries college softball, which my daughter loves to watch. Don't know if I could find an internet source for those. I'll have to check. A lot has changed since the days of analog TV. There used to be snowy pictures, ghosting, and beats (lines) visible in the picture. But with the new HD Digital formal (8VSB), you either have a completely clear picture, or you have nothing. There is a very small transition where a marginal picture will macro-block or pixelate. But you are running right on the hairy edge. The other nice thing about digital is that several programs can be carried on one RF "channel". So instead of 6 local OTA channels, you have several subchannels on each RF channel. The OTA digital signals are usually 1080i resolution, so they are pretty sharp.
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 26, 2015 13:43:17 GMT -5
I remember it all like it was yesterday. I didn't even have a color TV until the late 70's.......
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Post by BBB on Mar 26, 2015 14:13:08 GMT -5
No addiction to DVR here... what is that? I'm lucky I have time to watch the news and Verizon did away with my nerdy Weather Channel, bye bye. I've been using good old Mr Rabbit Ears when we loose power. My shack TV is set up on Chrome Cast that my laptop, tablet or smartphone control. We also have a full sized beam TV antenna splayed out in the attic facing S.E. towards Roxboro. Out of sight I've already planted the seed to cancel Verizon Fios TV with the family. Only delay is we don't get 4G LTE wireless service here yet to use with my unlimited data plan on the smart phone. The "cable" TV providers have known this was coming for some time now and have probably delayed implementing 4G in the country for that very reason. Next is the phone land line
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 26, 2015 14:49:11 GMT -5
I remember it all like it was yesterday. I didn't even have a color TV until the late 70's....... I do as well. I remember as a pre-teen/teen trying to pull in a music video program, I think was on channel 17 on Friday and/or Saturday nights. I had to unhook the UHF leads from the splitter and hook up a set of rabbit ears which I slid out the window. This was every week. Then of course the skip during the summer when channel 2 from D.C./Baltimore would come in and wipe out channel 3. Lets not forget being yelled at for turning the channel selector too fast.
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 27, 2015 6:33:17 GMT -5
I remember it all like it was yesterday. I didn't even have a color TV until the late 70's....... I do as well. I remember as a pre-teen/teen trying to pull in a music video program, I think was on channel 17 on Friday and/or Saturday nights. I had to unhook the UHF leads from the splitter and hook up a set of rabbit ears which I slid out the window. This was every week. Then of course the skip during the summer when channel 2 from D.C./Baltimore would come in and wipe out channel 3. Lets not forget being yelled at for turning the channel selector too fast. Yea, when I was a kid, we didn't even have an outside antenna (my mother was afraid it would attract lightning), so I had to do all the neat and convoluted tricks with rabbit ear antennas indoors. So pictures almost always had ghosts, snow, and vertical rolls, and the audio always had traces of video buzz in it.
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Post by tecnicoloco2000 on Mar 27, 2015 7:24:34 GMT -5
I do as well. I remember as a pre-teen/teen trying to pull in a music video program, I think was on channel 17 on Friday and/or Saturday nights. I had to unhook the UHF leads from the splitter and hook up a set of rabbit ears which I slid out the window. This was every week. Then of course the skip during the summer when channel 2 from D.C./Baltimore would come in and wipe out channel 3. Lets not forget being yelled at for turning the channel selector too fast. Yea, when I was a kid, we didn't even have an outside antenna (my mother was afraid it would attract lightning), so I had to do all the neat and convoluted tricks with rabbit ear antennas indoors. So pictures almost always had ghosts, snow, and vertical rolls, and the audio always had traces of video buzz in it. Oh well " The Old Days of Television " Now days more options available with IPTV: Google Stick,Roku,Amazon TV,Android TV,etc....
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 27, 2015 8:13:52 GMT -5
One odd thing I have noticed with my install, and I'm sure someone here may have some insight. The antenna farm at Roxborough is about 26-27 miles Southeast of me in a direct straight line off the back of my house, although the cooling towers at Limerick are DIRECTLY in the path at about 6 miles out. I was having trouble VHF RF channel 2 where I was getting a very strong signal level, but very low to no signal quality with the antenna pointed directly at Roxborough towers. I resolved (mostly) the issue by turning the antenna about 30 degrees Northward away from the towers, that's when the signal quality jumped up with little effect on the signal level. I also saw an improvement on RF channels 6 and 12. My guess is it has something to do with the Limerick cooling towers. In the 80's my grandparents lived adjacent to the power plant in a literal hole, but they got fantastic TV reception from channels that were nowhere close to being in line-of-site, channel 8 from Lancaster was one of them. My poppy swore it was because of the cooling towers and the signals bouncing off of them.
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 27, 2015 8:46:09 GMT -5
One odd thing I have noticed with my install, and I'm sure someone here may have some insight. The antenna farm at Roxborough is about 26-27 miles Southeast of me in a direct straight line off the back of my house, although the cooling towers at Limerick are DIRECTLY in the path at about 6 miles out. I was having trouble VHF RF channel 2 where I was getting a very strong signal level, but very low to no signal quality with the antenna pointed directly at Roxborough towers. I resolved (mostly) the issue by turning the antenna about 30 degrees Northward away from the towers, that's when the signal quality jumped up with little effect on the signal level. I also saw an improvement on RF channels 6 and 12. My guess is it has something to do with the Limerick cooling towers. In the 80's my grandparents lived adjacent to the power plant in a literal hole, but they got fantastic TV reception from channels that were nowhere close to being in line-of-site, channel 8 from Lancaster was one of them. My poppy swore it was because of the cooling towers and the signals bouncing off of them. Yea, large objects, like buildings and hills will reflect signals. The result is multipath distortion, where the direct signal hits, while the reflected signal hits a microsecond or two later. This is what caused ghosting on analog signals. But with digital, it can create increased bit errors. To reduce the effects of multipath, you can often point the receive antenna to a different direction which better aligns the phase between multipath signals, so they appear as a single signal. You may actually lose a little in signal strength, but the quality will improve.
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 27, 2015 10:35:46 GMT -5
The only other potential issue would be the loss of the ESPN's and other sports channels, which carries college softball, which my daughter loves to watch. Don't know if I could find an internet source for those. I'll have to check. While not quite "cord cutting", this may be a cheaper alternative to what you have now with access to ESPN... www.sling.com/
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 27, 2015 10:40:28 GMT -5
No addiction to DVR here... what is that? I'm lucky I have time to watch the news... Recording shows is great, but in my opinion THE best feature of a DVR is the pause and rewind of live TV. Got to take a leak? Pause. What the heck did they just say? Rewind. Then skip through the commercials to catch up. The greatest invention since the light bulb. Well maybe not, but...
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 27, 2015 13:48:29 GMT -5
One odd thing I have noticed with my install, and I'm sure someone here may have some insight. The antenna farm at Roxborough is about 26-27 miles Southeast of me in a direct straight line off the back of my house, although the cooling towers at Limerick are DIRECTLY in the path at about 6 miles out... Cooling towers are actually 3.6 miles out from my place and the red line in the pic is line-of-sight from my antenna to the tower at Roxborough that channel 2 is located on...
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 28, 2015 9:41:28 GMT -5
It would appear that there is a federal exemption to CC&R based antenna restriction for those who wish to receive OTA TV. Of course we all knew that those rules were designed solely to discriminate against ham and CB radio guys..... www.fcc.gov/guides/over-air-reception-devices-rule
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 28, 2015 10:22:26 GMT -5
Something else to consider when contemplating a move back to OTA reception, the rules and frequency allocations were in flux for a period of time, and the result of that uncertainty caused problems for receive antennas. When the DTV standards were first proposed, the idea was to completely vacate the VHF band and move all TV stations to UHF. So there were a great many antennas made (and accompanied by slick advertizing) that were "optimized" for DTV, which really meant "UHF only". The problem is that when DTV finally became reality, instead of moving everyone to UHF, they lopped off and re-allocated the frequencies above channel 52 and had to "re-allocate" the VHF spectrum so there would be room for all TV stations. So as a result, we have WPVI still transmitting on VHF channel 6 and WHYY still on channel 12. If you went out and bought one of those "DTV Optimized" UHF-only antennas, you might have problems receiving those two stations. You would be far better off installing an "old school" VHF/UHF TV antenna. Here's is a list of Phila area TV stations. The actual RF channel is listed in parenthesis under the virtual channel number if it differs from the actual channel frequency: www.stationindex.com/tv/markets/philadelphia
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 28, 2015 13:43:31 GMT -5
Something else to consider when contemplating a move back to OTA reception, the rules and frequency allocations were in flux for a period of time, and the result of that uncertainty caused problems for receive antennas. When the DTV standards were first proposed, the idea was to completely vacate the VHF band and move all TV stations to UHF. So there were a great many antennas made (and accompanied by slick advertizing) that were "optimized" for DTV, which really meant "UHF only". The problem is that when DTV finally became reality, instead of moving everyone to UHF, they lopped off and re-allocated the frequencies above channel 52 and had to "re-allocate" the VHF spectrum so there would be room for all TV stations. So as a result, we have WPVI still transmitting on VHF channel 6 and WHYY still on channel 12. If you went out and bought one of those "DTV Optimized" UHF-only antennas, you might have problems receiving those two stations. You would be far better off installing an "old school" VHF/UHF TV antenna. Here's is a list of Phila area TV stations. The actual RF channel is listed in parenthesis under the virtual channel number if it differs from the actual channel frequency: www.stationindex.com/tv/markets/philadelphiaIt most definitely has been a learning experience for me, even with all the homework I did. First I purchased a UHF only antenna, then once I realized what I had done I bought a VHF/UHF combo. WHOOPS, it was only VHF hi band so I replaced that with the Antennacraft 5884. A few other things I learned was that the LED bulbs I had on my back porch and cellar steps were killing my reception when they were on. I also found that our cheap-ass Walmart/made in China coffee maker was hosing up VHF lo reception by simply just being plugged in. So now we only plug it in when we want to brew, then unplug it but I'm on the hunt for a new one.
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 28, 2015 15:47:15 GMT -5
Something else to consider when contemplating a move back to OTA reception, the rules and frequency allocations were in flux for a period of time, and the result of that uncertainty caused problems for receive antennas. When the DTV standards were first proposed, the idea was to completely vacate the VHF band and move all TV stations to UHF. So there were a great many antennas made (and accompanied by slick advertizing) that were "optimized" for DTV, which really meant "UHF only". The problem is that when DTV finally became reality, instead of moving everyone to UHF, they lopped off and re-allocated the frequencies above channel 52 and had to "re-allocate" the VHF spectrum so there would be room for all TV stations. So as a result, we have WPVI still transmitting on VHF channel 6 and WHYY still on channel 12. If you went out and bought one of those "DTV Optimized" UHF-only antennas, you might have problems receiving those two stations. You would be far better off installing an "old school" VHF/UHF TV antenna. Here's is a list of Phila area TV stations. The actual RF channel is listed in parenthesis under the virtual channel number if it differs from the actual channel frequency: www.stationindex.com/tv/markets/philadelphiaIt most definitely has been a learning experience for me, even with all the homework I did. First I purchased a UHF only antenna, then once I realized what I had done I bought a VHF/UHF combo. WHOOPS, it was only VHF hi band so I replaced that with the Antennacraft 5884. A few other things I learned was that the LED bulbs I had on my back porch and cellar steps were killing my reception when they were on. I also found that our cheap-ass Walmart/made in China coffee maker was hosing up VHF lo reception by simply just being plugged in. So now we only plug it in when we want to brew, then unplug it but I'm on the hunt for a new one. If those devices that you mentioned were disrupting your TV reception, just think of the noise level they are probably throwing out on your CB.....
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 30, 2015 8:52:12 GMT -5
It most definitely has been a learning experience for me, even with all the homework I did. First I purchased a UHF only antenna, then once I realized what I had done I bought a VHF/UHF combo. WHOOPS, it was only VHF hi band so I replaced that with the Antennacraft 5884. A few other things I learned was that the LED bulbs I had on my back porch and cellar steps were killing my reception when they were on. I also found that our cheap-ass Walmart/made in China coffee maker was hosing up VHF lo reception by simply just being plugged in. So now we only plug it in when we want to brew, then unplug it but I'm on the hunt for a new one. If those devices that you mentioned were disrupting your TV reception, just think of the noise level they are probably throwing out on your CB..... Surprisingly none were an issue with the CB. I did have an LED bulb in the master suite where the radio is located that caused a little noise, nothing major but I swapped it out for a good ol' fashioned incandescent bulb.
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 30, 2015 11:29:38 GMT -5
If those devices that you mentioned were disrupting your TV reception, just think of the noise level they are probably throwing out on your CB..... Surprisingly none were an issue with the CB. I did have an LED bulb in the master suite where the radio is located that caused a little noise, nothing major but I swapped it out for a good ol' fashioned incandescent bulb. Interesting that you saw more problems with interference on high VHF/UHF TV frequencies than on 27 Mhz CB. Usually this kind of broadband noise tends to drop off slowly as frequency rises. And yea, never had an issue with an Edison bulb.......
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Post by doctor on Mar 30, 2015 16:37:31 GMT -5
If you have a land line phone and use a WALLY WORLD power supply, it is great it wipes out a few channels on your cb radio. This CHINESE stuff has no filtering at all, although their H/T radio are good quality, I had one in my hand last weekend, well built and the UHF model worked good, and no I did not buy one for $30... DOCTOR/795
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Post by Sandbagger on Mar 30, 2015 18:27:11 GMT -5
If you have a land line phone and use a WALLY WORLD power supply, it is great it wipes out a few channels on your cb radio. This CHINESE stuff has no filtering at all, although their H/T radio are good quality, I had one in my hand last weekend, well built and the UHF model worked good, and no I did not buy one for $30... DOCTOR/795 Most of the newer wall wart style power supplies that are over 1 amp, are of the switching variety, and you never know what kind of noise you're going to get from them. It may be nothing, or it may wipe out the entire spectrum. Cheap Chinese junk.....
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Post by MonkeyMan on Mar 30, 2015 18:43:23 GMT -5
Forgot to mention, after canceling my Dish account I'm still receiving a bunch of channels at no charge. Most are of no interest to us, but we saved a few to our guide and they're F-R-E-E. They didn't want my equipment back because they deemed it "obsolete", so my guess is that they leave me with some service while they bombard me with offers to come back and if I bite they just turn it back on.
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