Those of you who don't have cable

[4HppyCamprs]

I get my weather from my phone. It has gone off several times in the past year. I get those tests on my tv from the local broadcasting station but I have never received a actual weather alert via tv.

 

[angierae]

We have an emergency weather radio sitting in our tv room. It goes off if there's an alert in our area and you can hear it through the ENTIRE HOUSE (it is so loud.)

 

[xie]

For those of you who dropped cable and are now using hula,netflicks or other substitues, how do you know about bad weather? Usually if tornato activity is going on, a warning runs across the screen. A lot of the times I didn't see any bad weather for us to be worried but it showed on the tv. We were looking into dropping cable but would I need to get a weather radio then?

We haven't had cable in 7 years. We use internet to access Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime video. I usually check the forecast either on my phone or online so I know if there's going to be bad weather in advance.

We have government alerts turned on on our cellphones. They will sound anytime there is a weather or amber alert. This has worked fine for us, and is especially handy for tornado warnings. Most other types of weather have enough warning that you hear people talking about them anyway.

You can also buy a weather radio for your home, that will sound the emergency alert and verbally warn. I don't think they cost much. Certainly less than 1 month's cable bill.

 

[JB2K]

For those of you who dropped cable and are now using hula,netflicks or other substitues, how do you know about bad weather? Usually if tornato activity is going on, a warning runs across the screen. A lot of the times I didn't see any bad weather for us to be worried but it showed on the tv. We were looking into dropping cable but would I need to get a weather radio then?

...an antenna, so you can receive your local network affiliates (ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX), plus a large number of new "digital subchannels" that you've probably never heard-of (examples are "MeTV" and "Antenna TV", which air classic shows from the past).

If there's severe weather in your viewing area, you'll still get the same alerts from your local stations.

IMO, Netflix and Hulu isn't everything...

 

[tvguy]

How far do you live from a location that broadcasts signal?

We are about 25 miles away from the signals, and we live in a bit of a valley surrounded by 70 foot tall trees. I thought we could never get signal. We certainly could NOT with an indoor antenna.

However, once we got a very good quality antenna, with an amplifier, we were able to get all the channels we needed. It had to be mounted on the roof though. Anything lower got signals that went in and out.

Dawn

Our viewing area covers 150 miles out from our transmitter. We are in a valley. 25 miles is almost next door to the transmitter. Actually, we have had people claim they could not get our station, when they could see the tower from their house.

 

[libinatorsmom]

We just use plain old antenna TV - so we get all the local channels - we also have a weather radio and alerts that come to our phones! So we are covered! And living in Iowa we need to be aware of what is coming our way!!!!

 

[Sinderelly's Prince]

We moved to a rental while we are building a new house, and our old cable provider is no available. I despise Comcast, and did not want to sign with a company wanting a 2 year contract. We have Hulu plus, and Amazon Prime, but I miss live TV, mainly for sports. We live more than 50 miles from any metropolitan area. I have tried 3 different indoor antennas (all returned). The last was a Clearstream with an amplifier and a reflector (not exactly cheap) - still no local networks, just the small unaffiliated and religious programming. When I called for assistance tech support said he could not recommend an antenna for our area.

So what gives? Are those of you using antennas less than 25 miles from your stations and transmitters? I guess I can try a cheap set of rabbit ears, since they can still be returned. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[pat fan]

So what gives? Are those of you using antennas less than 25 miles from your stations and transmitters? I guess I can try a cheap set of rabbit ears, since they can still be returned. Any suggestions are appreciated.

I think it just depends where you live. I tried a BIg roof antenna and still got bubkis. I think we are going with suspending DTV after football/Olympics and turning it back on in the fall. Will we last? I don't know. My DH is a news junkie, so we'll see.

Did you try putting your address into antenneweb or tvfool?

 

[hsmamato2]

an ordinary antenna works fine for local channels/news/forecasts....

 

[hsmamato2]

try tvfool .com and antennaweb .com for ideas.... we bought a decent antenna that we installed in the attic,and get around 10 locals on it.... you should be able to find something that pulls in at least a couple of channels.... we live in an odd geographic area, so I use a little (less than 10.00) antenna upstairs,it looks like a piece of paper that works fine, but for our LR tv, we have the big attic setup...no real issues.... I tried a couple of different models before we found one we liked

 

[Sinderelly's Prince]

Sorry to sound so negative. It is a little frustrating to think we live so close to Indianapolis, in a fairly flat area, yet no network TV stations are available without cable or satellite dish. I haven't even considered the antenna route for years, but I do remember when everyone watched broadcast TV (all 4 channels!). Makes me sound older than I am!

I did check antennaweb and TVfool, and both say we need a roof antenna. We are in a short term situation where we are renting in a duplex while we build a new house. Neither a roof antenna or the attic is an available option. Our old cable and internet provider does not service where we rent. In about 6 months we will be back with a package of cable/internet, but I was exploring alternatives. It sounds kind of nice to "cut the cable" and go the free route, but that seems less likely an option.

I have found a site, "iLive" which live streams some channels(we watched the Disney Christmas parade on ABC that way), and I am figuring out how to connect laptop to TV, etc. It isn't a complete fix. We hoped to watch the Destination America program "Re-imagining the Magic" tonight, but so far no luck. I am hoping it gets aired on their website sometime after it airs.

FYI if anyone does use one of the many sites online claiming to live stream for free be extremely careful. If the site claims you need to update anything on your computer, malware or virus is what they are selling! I ignore all those messages on iLive.

Thanks for all the ideas.

 

[erinmomof2]

I didn't read all the replies so this might have been mentioned, but we dropped cable this summer and now use a service called Aereo. Plans are either $8 or $12 a month and you get all the basic channels plus a few others as well as DVR (the amount of space in the DVR is what separates the plans). We have a roku that we run it through. We also have Netflix. Between the two we have more than enough to keep us entertained and we save a bundle each month. I like having the basic channels and being able to watch the news.