Getting Rid of Cable - How Does the Antenna Thing Work?

[BWV Dreamin]

Ok, not me, but my brother just got rid of cable. Wanted to cut the cord. He is looking into getting an antenna. How does that work? Can that be self installed? How do all of the TV's in the house get it, or can they? Is it against Home Owner Assoc. rules? (I know they changed it about the Dish and now they are allowed).

 

[PinballFamily]

We did this years ago - one of the best budget moves we've made - especially since we watch very little tv! Bought a wireless antenna from Amazon (about $30). It is about the size of a legal-sized piece of paper (11x14-ish) and is pretty much just a wire grid. We put it on the floor of our attic crawl space and get all of our local stations just fine. You sort of point it towards the general area where the signal comes from - might have to spin it around a bit to get the right placement. You have to follow the directions with your tv set(s) to set that/them up for "antenna" rather than "cable" but that took about 30 seconds for us (one tv). Our only issue is that when it gets VERY windy, sometimes some of the stations/shows might cut out for a second or two. Doesn't bug us since it happens so rarely.

Good luck to him!

ETA: I don't know anything about HOA restrictions (don't have them here), but our antenna is inside our house, so wouldn't be an issue anyway. Maybe one of those honkin' big/tall ones mounted to a roof would be. Also, there is a LOT of info online for antenna hook ups - he can just do a Google search and find what he needs, too.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

We did this years ago - one of the best budget moves we've made - especially since we watch very little tv! Bought a wireless antenna from Amazon (about $30). It is about the size of a legal-sized piece of paper (11x14-ish) and is pretty much just a wire grid. We put it on the floor of our attic crawl space and get all of our local stations just fine. You sort of point it towards the general area where the signal comes from - might have to spin it around a bit to get the right placement. You have to follow the directions with your tv set(s) to set that/them up for "antenna" rather than "cable" but that took about 30 seconds for us (one tv). Our only issue is that when it gets VERY windy, sometimes some of the stations/shows might cut out for a second or two. Doesn't bug us since it happens so rarely.

Good luck to him!

ETA: I don't know anything about HOA restrictions (don't have them here), but our antenna is inside our house, so wouldn't be an issue anyway. Maybe one of those honkin' big/tall ones mounted to a roof would be. Also, there is a LOT of info online for antenna hook ups - he can just do a Google search and find what he needs, too.

Thank you soooo much!! I just called him. He is going to Amazon right now! Does the box come with adapters to put on your tv so that it picks up the wireless signal or are those a separate cost?

 

[ssawka]

Can that be self installed?

Yes, of course it can. Depending on where he wants to place it and how brave he is!

He should start by researching antennas and find one that is suitable for his area. The first thing that he should know is that there is no such thing as an HDTV Antenna. HDTV relates to the signal not to how it is transmitted, thus in most areas a standard UHF is all you need.

TV antennas are however color coded. To determine the colors he needs, he should go to http://www.antennaweb.org/Address.aspx and enter his zip code. This will show the TV stations that broadcast in his area, the direction of the transmission, and the color code needed to pickup a particular station in an area. If he is near a city, almost all signals should come from one direction. If not, he may need an omnidirectional or rotating antenna.

How do all of the TV's in the house get it, or can they?

For connecting the antenna to the whole house, if the house is already wired for cable, he should be able to connect the antenna lead right to the cable wiring and transmit the signal throughout the house. If the run is long, he may need to add in a signal amplifier.

Is it against Home Owner Assoc. rules? (I know they changed it about the Dish and now they are allowed).

For the answer to that, he would need to check with his HOA. All of them have different rules and regulations. Antennas come in many shapes and forms. The one that I used to use was actually round and plastic and looked like a satellite dish. Last year I added the FIOS TV service since it only costs me $15 a month more than Internet alone.

 

[Nayan]

Besides antennaweb and tvfool, I would ask him to take a very good look outside. Are there trees, buildings, etc. that would be in his line of sight? Many people think that because these sites say they can get all of the listed channels they will. I should be able to pick up about 30 channels according to what they say. The reality, because of obstacles, I can only get 2 even with an outdoor antenna.

 

[hops&dreams]

This is the FCC's site on it:
http://dtv.gov/

We did this about a year before the conversion, when the gov't was giving away $40 vouchers for digital converter boxes. When we bought our house 3 years ago, one of the first project we did was re-wire the interior of the house for TV (fishing co-ax through the walls from the attic and from the basement), set up a AV hub in the basement, and push the signal. We have just an old set of radio shack bunny ears in the attic. That picks up the signal and it goes down to our hub in the basement. It's then amplified and pushed out to the individual jacks (in each bedroom, family room, etc.).

DH and I did this whole thing ourselves. We don't watch a whole lot of TV (we didn't have a TV in our family room for over 2 years!). Now we have this for local TV, and we do find a lot of programming we like on PBS. We also have Netflix (streaming only, we just discontinued the actual DVD's last month) that we only pay 7.99/month for. We are able to watch this on our large family room TV. We hard-wired our home network so there's a network jack right behind our TV for that and our Blu Ray player. We are able to watch Netflix through our TV, BluRay Player, or our Wii (different tv... it's in the basement.) We're also able to watch Netflix on our computers (wired or wireless laptop, and now I'm able to watch on my new smartphone as well. Pretty good for $7.99/month. I do have to say, we still don't watch a whole lot of TV/Netflix, but we do watch Phineas and Ferb on Netflix as a family - ! We're more of a read a book, go on a walk, play a board game type of family.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Besides antennaweb and tvfool, I would ask him to take a very good look outside. Are there trees, buildings, etc. that would be in his line of sight? Many people think that because these sites say they can get all of the listed channels they will. I should be able to pick up about 30 channels according to what they say. The reality, because of obstacles, I can only get 2 even with an outdoor antenna.

Not a tree on his lot!! He is up somewhat on a hill as well, so I'm thinking that will help a bit. I am passing all of this on to him. I myself am just a tad confused. To give it down and dirty would help! So, buy an antenna for the inside of the attic. Does it need to connect to power (I'm thinking yes). Next it needs to feed into the tv cabe that is already in the wall. Then how do the other tv's connect? Does the TV just need to be connected to the cable tv wire (like they would having cable) and then set the tv to antenna? No extra stuff for the tv?

My brother has all newer tv's so they are already digital/HDTV.

 

[geckodani]

We got rid of cable a few years ago and don't miss it! You can get whole seasons of shows on Netflix (yes, you have to wait until they are done with the season, but then you get to watch them all at once) and for $7.99 a month we are Hulu Plus members, so we can keep up on a lot of current shows.

We have a small antenna for each TV, as opposed to a larger one for the whole house. It just hangs out next to the TV. It's flat, takes up little space, and hooks right into the coaxial cable port.

 

[ssawka]

Not a tree on his lot!! He is up somewhat on a hill as well, so I'm thinking that will help a bit. I am passing all of this on to him. I myself am just a tad confused. To give it down and dirty would help! So, buy an antenna for the inside of the attic. Does it need to connect to power (I'm thinking yes). Next it needs to feed into the tv cabe that is already in the wall. Then how do the other tv's connect? Does the TV just need to be connected to the cable tv wire (like they would having cable) and then set the tv to antenna? No extra stuff for the tv?

My brother has all newer tv's so they are already digital/HDTV.

Yes, the existing cable connections in his house (if he has them) are a closed circuit. This means that if you plug the coax from the antenna into one of the cable jacks, the signal will be carried to all of the other jacks. So at the other TVs, all he will have to do is run a coax wire from the wall to the TV, assuming the TVs are all digital. If not, he would have to have a converter box for all non-digital TVs.

For a standard antenna, no power source is required. The only time you need power for a TV antenna is if you need to use an amplifier.

 

[Nayan]

Okay, down and dirty it is!

If he has existing cable and it goes to all the other TV's, then all he has to do is connect the main cable to the antenna and all the other TV's should be able to pick up channels. The easiest way to do that would be to go to the box where the cable comes from the line outside to the house, disconnect that and connect the cable from the antenna in it's place. Just make sure he has a long enough cable from the antenna to reach the cable box.

 

[mrsklamc]

We love this...though it would be nice if we could still get the Discovery Channel. But we get a lot more channels than we thought we would. We also watch better quality TV now...DH picks up how to do home improvement stuff on PBS, for example, and it turns out Hugh Laurie from House is actually an amazing jazz musician. And we get TV series on DVD, which is way better for me...the last season finale of Burn Notice was in December, for example, and there will be a new episode on sometime next week I think. Who has the attention span anymore to care about a TV show six months later?

 

[Tower]

We've used a Channel Master 4228 antenna for the past several years. Yes, you do not get the pay channels, just the networks, but it all comes in digital feeds. Our Sony HDTV has the ATSC converter so you just plug it directly to the back of the TV and you're there.
www.tvfool.com works well for orienting the antenna to your most desired station(s). If you have a more directional antenna, you may be able to only pick up a select few stations depending upon where you are with respect to the various broadcast towers.
I our case, we're in Canada, about 90 miles away from Buffalo, NY. Because most of the American stations we want are in Buffalo, we simply directed the antenna at that azimuth and we're getting the networks there plus the closer Toronto stations are right along the same line and we get those too! 26 digital channels all for free!

One tip, I used RG22 cable. It's thicker, but has less resistance than the standard RG6 cable. IF you have particularly long lengths of line, you'll get more resistance (though the most resistance happens at the connections) and decrease your signal input to the TV. You may also need a booster on your splitters if you're feeding more than 1 TV.

 

[seashoreCM]

If you have an existing antenna that should work for stronger or closer current (digital) TV stations.

If you have coax cable running through the house and there are splitters here and there for multiple TV sets, it is possible that the digital signals will be too weak for the TVs even though the older analog signals came in fine.

Landlords and homeowners' associations may prohibit putting antennas on roofs or outside walls.

 

[disney1990]

He doesn't have an older televisions does he. He will need an HDTV for this to work.

 

[danceintherain]

I REALLY want to do this, but we've always lived in bad locations. It looks like we won't be able to do it in the next place either, but at least we can get Netflix!

My sister and BIL have done it for years, and he even has a DVR set up to record everything.

EDIT: It looks like I was putting in the wrong zip code, so it MIGHT work. At least now DH is convinced it's a real thing, he wasn't until he got some friends who do it.

 

[starry_solo]

I just use the rabbit ears antenna connected to the TV and it works fine.

 

[seashoreCM]

He doesn't have an older televisions does he. He will need an HDTV for this to work.

The antenna works for non-HDTVs including black and white TVs also provided you connect a converter box in between in a manner similar to connecting a VCR. You leave the TV tuned to channel 3 or channel 4 and the remote control that comes with the box is used to change channels.

Some converter boxes are still being sold in stores like Best Buy for as low as about $40. although they don't have any more red plastic coupons that allow you to get the box for free.

 

[letsgoreds]

I think all of the questions have been answered...but wanted to add that we went this route maybe a year ago, and it was the BEST decision. There are a ton of PBS channels, and some really interesting stuff on there. LOVE the Nature specials, and tons of kid stuff. We have the whole house antennae (larger one) in the attic, routed to the basement and then split out.

We splurged on a HD TiVo with lifetime service (no monthly fees) to record Survivor, Amazing Race, etc. Love it too. It is connected wirelessly to our computer for additional shows, videos, music, etc. There are a bunch of machines out there that do this, I am just partial to the TiVo interface.

Good luck!

 

[vettechick99]

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[tzeitel]

vettechick99 - better than mine! I just checked and we would get 1 channel in the green zone and 6 in gray - that's it