Posted on 01/15/2019 2:40:05 PM PST by Openurmind
We know about all that. We live about 40 miles SW of Cody, Wyoming and our place can’t be seen from anywhere else due to the hills. So if their wireless thing works for us that will be really impressive! We don’t even get cell coverage here.
They will too. It’s still broadcast at the same frequency.
If it's old show you want then you definitely want to look at going over the air. Lots of those channels playing "classic" TV on your cable you probably can also get with an antenna, especially if you are within 50 miles of a city. The airwaves are full of small TV stations that run the old stuff now.
I get a lot like H&I, This, COZI, ME, Movies and literally dozens of others.
Hey, some of the best programming was in black and white. I was watching our 23” Zenith into the ‘80s, getting up at 4:30 to watch Secret Agent or staying up until 12:30 for Burns and Allen.
Outfits like H&I and METV are great for Boomers. If tou can deal with the ads for catheters, final disposition insurance, and Consumer Cellular you can get a pretty good movie selection on Movies, ThisTV, and Grit which are available as digital add ons. The only things I really use fios for is sports.
> There are a couple of channels that show old shows that I really don’t want to let go, through. <
I cut cable a couple of years ago, and got an over-the-air antenna. I can get a couple of channels that have the old shows. “Have gun Will Travel”, MASH, NYPD Blue, etc.
Go to www.titantv.com
You’ll see a white plus sign near the middle of the page. Click it, then choose Broadcast. Put in your zip code, then select the closest city that comes up. Then click Save.
You’ll get a list of all your local over-the-air channels. But because of reception problems, you certainly won’t be able to get all of them. I get about 2/3 of the ones on my list.
But it’s free. So no complaints.
Youtube (or vimeo) is the new ‘music channel’ for videos both old and new and even parody
Absolutely! If you don’t mind I will PM you rather than go off topic too much here. Is that fine?
Any states range that relies on an amplifier is exagerrated. You cannot amplicy what isn’t there. A lot depends on topography, elevation, large obstacles (skyline, mountains). A good roof antenna (Channel Master, maybe Winegard) may make the difference.
> if you get a strong signal, quality will often be better than cable or satellite <
That’s true. I’ve read that’s because cable signals are compressed. But over-the-air signals are not.
I’m getting all those on free satellite. :)
You can still use C band? Cool!
All the others no longer come in (ABC, NBC, PBS and a bunch of others). I refuse to go to having a box on my wall from the big two cable providers but they're pulling up all copper wires in my area so everybody has to make a choice, antenna TV or go with the biggies. Verizon has cut off anybody in my area who wants to keep a landline phone without having FIOS installed, same for the DSL internet service, it's gone. You have to get the box on the wall.
“Besides being free, how are the programs on broadcast television any better than cable?”
—
Good question. Some of it is old programming recent-to-classic you would not otherwise see. Also there are entire channels devoted to one area - e.g. westerns, science fiction, classic films and so on.
On cable/Pay TV there’s mountains of moronic “reality” shows as they are cheaper than producing quality programming. I’m so old I remember when there was no “reality tv” on History, Discovery and Learning Channels. Now, it fills their schedules. Even if there Pay TV had no commercials, I wouldn’t watch those “programs”
There’s little, if any, such nonsense to wade through on freebie TV.
You can find out what’s available to watch in your particular area by googling your zip code along with “ota channels”.
Old cable guy here...
When you get a signal off air, it is as clean as it will be.
Shove that through a few miles of copper and it loses some of its mph. It’s gotten better with fiber and digitized systems. But it still gets degraded.
In the early 90’s I was less than 20 miles from Asheviile in the mountains. It was just a Summer job and I did not have an antenna. I had a small portable TV and it would barely get two channels on it’s built-in antenna.
Once on a trip to Mt. Mitchell, I took along a pocket TV just to see what it would do. I expected to get a lot of interference but was literally blown away.
It picked up every channel from 2-69 and they were all clear.
I cut the cord almost 20 years ago when I realized that I was paying to watch commercials.
Sure. Thanks.
There’s plenty to watch on broadcast TV. Don’t watch the new network programming trash. Metv, Grit, Movie Network, Antenna TV, This, Heroes and Icons, Cozi, etc. show quality movies and old TV programming. Those channels I mentioned will net you much more quality than 200 channels of $100/month garbage.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.