Digital Converter Box & Antenna?

[Emme]

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We just got the $40 government coupon for the digital converter box and I ordered a converter box with a free antenna online. The whole purchase cost me nothing not even shipping .We presently have BASIC cable and it costs us $65 a month.

I really would love to ditch cable completely and that is what we hoping to be able to do once the box comes. The $65 a month could be put away nicely for something more important like DISNEY!! My question is how many of you use the converter box and do you get many channels? Does the reception go out in bad weather? For those who live in the mountains do you use a roof antenna as well?

We are NOT avid TV watchers but I do enjoy having some shows in the winter time. Even 4 or 5 channels would be fine. Winters are long here in NY...lol. So what is your experience with antenna only TV ? Thanks!
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[hrslvr142]

I was tired of hassling with Direct TV so cancelled a couple of months ago. I do have the converter box plus an antenna and live in Indianapolis so should get several channels but I don't (no doubt operator error, lol). I love saving the money with no cable don't miss it most days but live by myself and sometimes I miss the noise but find myself only wathing about 2 hours of tv a week. To be truthful I will probably have it cable (uverse) in the fall installed for the winter months but really not missing it right now.

 

[mom of 3G's]

We haven't had DirecTV for years and relied solely on basic antenna TV. We were pretty upset with the conversion as we are at least 70 miles away from a TV tower and were worried about reception. We did install a new tower antenna on our roof along with the digital conversion box and we are able to pull all stations in except NBC. On really foggy days or days with extreme overcast the shows do tend to "freeze" and cause disruption in reception, but maybe that wouldn't happen if we were closer to the tower.

 

[A Mickeyfan]

what type of antenna did you guys purchase? I currently have Dish Network and just got my coupons in the mail. I would love to cut Dish out and save the $65 per month, especially since every time it rains, or even clouds up Dish goes out on us. They tell me that is not normal yet everyone I know that has it here has the same problem Since I live in FL, it rains here every day in the summer.. so everyday, we are without TV for at least 30-45 minutes... and I never get a credit..
I would rather spend the money on a good "indoor" antenna. I am about 2 miles(FOX) from one stations tower and about 6-8 miles from ABC, NBC & CBS's towers.. so I think I can get away with an indoor antenna.. but a good one.

 

[DisneyDebbie]

I have 1 tv with cable and another 2 with an indoor antenna and converter box. It does take a while to switch stations because it always has to tune the digital broadcast. I get NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and some others I can't remember. Sometimes the weather does affect the signal, but not too often. if I really want to watch something (and missed it), I can usually find it on you tube, or the network website. my antennas are not really good ones, but they work fine in my neighborhood.

 

[DISfan0829]

We did this. We live in NY and it works great. I had to spend a bit of time adjusting the antenna so I could get all the stations. Check out the dtv.org web site and look at your reception for your area. It was pretty accurate and will tell you what stations you can get. Make sure you buy an antenna that has both UHF and VHF reception capabilities.