TV
 

Has anyone tried using an HD antenna to avoid paying for cabel? What kind of reception did you get? What channels? What HD antenna did you purchase?

There is a ToTV advertiser who will probably reply to this and line you up.

But, I did go to Best Buy and purchase $100 antenna. There are about 40 channels...........1/2 Spanish, 1/5 preachers. I actually net about 8 to 12 usable channels.

Four or five local, three or four oldies and misc others.

We have enjoyed it.

We might be to far away from major area like Orlando to have success with that. However family members who live about 25 miles away from Boston use one and have good reception and a decent amount of channels. But mostly using Roku or something similar gives you many more options, of course that requires internet connection.

Long list..............you don't get them all, but here you go (bold is what we get):


WESH – Hearst-owned NBC affiliate

2.1 WESH-NBC (1080i)
2.2 MeTV (480i)

WKMG – Graham Media Group owned CBS affiliate

6.1 WKMG-CBS (1080i)
6.2 Cozi TV (480i)
6.3 Decades (480i)

WFTV – Cox-owned ABC affiliate

9.1 WFTV-ABC (720p)
9.2 Laff (480i)
9.3 Escape (480i)

WSWF – Low-power independent

10.1 Rev’N 720p)
10.2 American Sports Network (480i)
10.3 Biz TV (480i)
10.4 Jewelry TV (480i)
10.5 Info Co (480i)

WDSC – Daytona State College educational station

15.1 WDSC-Educational (1080i)
15.2 Florida Channel (480i)
15.3 WorldView (480i)

WKCF – Hearst-owned CW affiliate (sister to WESH)

18.1 WKCF-CW (1080i)
18.2 This Orlando (480i)
18.3 Estrella (480i)

WUCF – University of Central Florida PBS affiliate

24.1 WUCF-PBS (1080i)
24.1 WUCF Create (480i)
24.3 WUCF PBS Kids(480i)
24.4 NHK World News from Japan (480i)
24.5 World (480i)

WVEN – Univision

26.1 WVEN-Univision (1080i)
26.2 LATV (480i)

WRDQ – Cox-owned independent (sister to WFTV)

27.1 WRDQ-Independent (720p)
27.2 Antenna TV (480i)
27.3 xx Not Active
27.4 Grit TV (480i)

WRCF – Low power independent

27.1 Retro TV (480i)
27.2 xxx
27.3 Orange County TV (480i)
27.4 Grit TV (480i)

WTMO – Telemundo affiliate

31.1 XX Not Active
31.2 WTMO-Telemundo (480i)

WOFL – Fox-owned station

35.1 WOFL-Fox (720p)

WOTF – UniMas

43.1 WOTF-UniMas (1080i)
43.2 Get TV (480i)
43.3 Bounce TV (480i)
43.4 Escape (480i)

WTGL – Religious

45.1 WTGL-Religious Independent (720p)
45.2 Nacion (480i)
45.3 Aliento (480i)
45.4 CTNi (480i)

WDTO – Independent

50.1 WDTO-Daystar (1080i)

WHLV – Religious/TBN

51.1 xxx
51.2 xxx
51.3 TBN (480i)
51.4 Hillsong Channel (480i)
51.5 Smile (480i)
51.6 Enlace (480i)
51.7 Salsa (480i)

WACX – Religious

55.1 WACX Religious Independent (480i)
55.2 God.TV (480i)
55.3 GEB America (480i)
55.4 SBN (480i)
55.5 Vida Vision (480i)
55.6 QVC 2 (480i)

WOPX – ION Network

56.1 ION TV (720p)
56.2 Qubo (480i)
56.3 IONLife (480i)
56.4 Shopping (480i)
56.5 QVC (480i)
56.6 Home Shopping Network (480i)

WRBW – Fox-owned MyNetwork TV station

65.1 WRBW-MyNetwork TV (720p)
65.2 Movies! (480i)
65.3 Heros and Icons (480i)
65.4 Buzzr (480i)

WEFS – Educational TV from East Florida State College

68.1 WEFS-Educational (1080i)
68.2 ARTS (480i)
68.3 NASA TV (480i)
68.4 Florida Channel (480i)

Thank you. What Village do you live in? Which antenna did you buy? Was it hard to set up?

South of 466a............we aim it towards Orlando.

Not sure the brand or model..........it's been three years. Best Buy Boys can help, but it is an outdoor antenna. Very easy to set up.

With a splitter, you can connect a couple TV's in the box in your garage. You will need to get a signal power booster if you want to connect the entire house.

Keep in mind, weather impacts the quality and channels. I was shocked how clear the HD channels are.

Good Luck.

There are a couple of internet sites where you can put in your address of zip code and see the channels that are predicted to be able to be picked up with a 50, 60, 100 mile antennae. One is:
Antennas Direct | TV Transmitter Locator and Mapping Tool

I happened to bring a 60 mile radius antennae with me from NJ and the channels were not worth it to me. I live near Spanish Springs. If you are happy with just a few channels in combination with a service like Netflix or Hulu....it would be very inexpensive. Direct TV is expensive, but I wanted the channels....so I pay.

dewilson 58's list of channels is perfect.

I converted last year and get all of his list perfectly clear. I tried several antennas and gave up on the store bought antennas. I found an engineering company in Kentucky and you can google Free Signal TV to see their antenna and info. Also you can search on YouTube to watch an install. The antenna was about twice as much as Best Buy antennas. It cost $170, but is far superior to the store bought ones. I mounted mine inside of my attic and pointed it ESE 120 degrees towards Orlando. It is excellent. I like it so much, I converted my home in NY. I only pay for internet here in Florida.

I use the TV input source for over the air digital channels (all major ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, FOX networks) and I use Roku navigation to watch Playstation Vue for all the normal cable channels that I used to watch (like Cable News channels, ESPN, other popular cable shows). I also went to Best Buy and bought universal remotes for each TV that had buttons just for TV channel navigation, and color coded buttons just for Roku navigation for watching the cable shows streamed over the Internet to your TV.

I now pay $50 for Internet and $35 for Streaming PlayStation Vue cable shows over the Internet to the TV.

It took my wife about 1 week to get used to switching between TV channels and over to Roku and PlayStation Vue for all other cable programs. We are very happy.

Best of all, I never have to talk to a cable company again. If I don't want to stream PlayStation Vue content anymore, I just go to my online account and turn it off. No contracts and no waiting on the phone for an hour with anyone. Like an anchor off my back.

I got my ant. from Walmart online about 35 bucks , and set it up in the attic and get all that dewilson58 [ above ] gets.

That's good to know............wasn't sure how it would perform in an attic.........I have mine outside.

Antennas Direct DB8e
 

Dewilson description is pretty accurate.
I installed an "Antennas Direct DB8e" antenna in the attic. Live south of 466A and pointed it towards Orlando.

Amazon.com: 8 Element Bowtie Indoor/Outdoor HDTV Antenna - 70 Mile Range: Home Audio & Theater

I see that others are satisfied with less expensive models too.

Ran the coax cable from attic directly down into the Leviton box in garage that contains the irrigation timer (and other CATV cables) and connected it directly to the coax cable that goes to the living room wall where TV is. No splitter. No fishing wires.

Also use a Roku for streaming over WiFi.
Antenna HD picture quality is excellent, but the antenna channel selection leaves something to be desired.

Walmart $ 29.99 150 mile range you cant beat the price for this ant.

I bought this antenna from Amazon for $33 and free shipping in July and we get all those channels. We have Directv on our LR and MBR TV and for the guest BR we hooked up this antenna as a backup in case Directv goes out. We installed it in the attic, our house faces south and in our CYV the garage is in the front. So we just had to go up the attic steps and mounted in the southeast corner of the garage, I believe 115 degrees picked up most channels.

Village AV has an antennas, cable, connectors, and the know how and has installed hundreds of attic antennas in garages here in TV's. I believe he charges about $200 to $250 parts and labor. I had them come and assist me with my hookup because at the box the Directv installer had hooked all the outlets to the satellite, he came by and finished the job and made sure everything was good.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....L._SL1500_.jpg

Amazon.com: HD Digital TV Antenna 150 Miles Range with Motorized 360 Degree Rotation, UHF/VHF/FM Radio with Infrared Remote Control

If money is no object and you don't feel like getting your hands dirty, call Tom.

Home Audio Video Sales & Installation in The Villages, Florida

that's the same as my Walmart ant. above picture

I also get all those channels with attic installed antennas. I have the previously mentioned Antennas Direct DB8e and a dedicated VHF Clearstream 5 antenna for NBC (WESH 2.1 / VHF Channel 11). NBC has the weakest signal & is the most tricky but I do get a good signal the majority of the time. Outside antenna would improve the signal. From the comments above it looks like I might have been better off with a cheaper system but Antennas Direct & anyone else I spoke to told me NBC was very difficult with an attic antenna without a dedicated VHF antenna.

Aren’t we going back in time. Pre 1975 ?


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no problem for nbc in my attic ant.

I have an antenna in the attic by The Villages Audio Visual. Receive about 60 channels. Some Spanish and Religious. Couple with a NETFLIX or HULU and your yearly cost will be less than a MONTH of cable or direct tv. Call Villages AV. You'll get the truth, no pressure.

Would love to have that on the front of my golf cart............nasty looking coming down the path.

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I have my eye on the Free Signal TV Marathon model. I have DISH and it appears you can install it right where the DISH used to be using the same cables ... it also says it will service I believe 4 tvs in your house and for another 50.00 they sell the DVR that will work with the Marathon. I have an andriod box for all other items from my internet stream. DISH is a good product but we were paying quite a bit of money and sometimes still could not find things we wanted to watch.

I have watched all the YouTubes, read the reviews, there were two models I looked at, the Marathon and the Max4 from DirectAntenns.com. They are both about the same price but the Marathon comes with the multiple tv option and just looks a lot better if you are going to put it outside.

If anyone has pulled the trigger on these models I would appreciate your input and result.

Tom, have you seen this product?
Mohu AirWave
It looks like it might make integration of antenna and streaming services a lot easier? Thoughts?

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yes, with 1975 prices and with incredible HD reception now.

Agreed. Ty

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Youtube TV recently became available in The Villages. For $35 a month, you get all the local network stations, all the espn's - including SEC and Big10, both Fox Sports channels, Fox News, and the Disney suite of channels. I've had it for a couple of weeks now and it's rock solid in delivery. Of course it requires an Internet connection. At this point, you have to use a ChromeCast on your TV and cast from an android or IOS device but a Roku version is expected by years end. If you want to greatly reduce your cable TV bills but still want sports and networks - it's a very good alternative.

When you add the cost of the internet connection and include the taxes and fees, what is the total? How much less than $140 per month is it? That is what your really trying to beat. Almost half of that is the internet access. The question I have is this worth it for $10-15 a month? The discussion on antanna’s is interesting, but are you really going to be satisfied with only those channels? Is there another combination that leads to a better cost picture?

Same experience. We purchased a highly rated antenna out of Canada, got a lot of channels that I'd never watch! To me, it was a waste of time and a lot of frustration. It was always cutting out either due to Comcast internet (from what other people told me) or weather or trees. I have DirecTV now, not happy with the cost but happy with the product.

I couldn't agree more.

While I have a lot of empathy for those that need to pinch every penny to be able to afford to live here...I count myself fortunate that I'm not in that situation.

Tom,
Are there any plans for Xfinity to offer The Big Ten Network any time soon, that you are aware of? Thanks in advance.

They offer BTN now.

I've checked their channel list for all packages and maybe I missed BTN. I'll check again, thanks!

I get all of the same channels very clear. I use signal amplifiers on each set. Occasionally I get some pixeling. Any way around this??

BTN HD is channel 472 on Xfinity.

I saw that. I think maybe it's an extra through their sports and entertainment package as I don't see that channel in any package line up. Time for me to call Xfinity. Thanks for the info.