A lot has changed since I made that post for my TV needs. I moved a short while back to a new place and we decided not to get cable TV because.. well... it sucks and cost too much for what we get. All of the shows I liked on cable only I can simply just watch online a few days later anyways, and even some of them live on the internet, so why bother with paying for cable?
That antenna I posted in that thread above has changed a bit over time since I originally made it. I rebuilt it onto PVC pipe instead of wood for obvious weather related issues using that material. Put it up on a 30 foot telescoping poll, ran the coax into my place and to a splitter that runs to both TVs.
Our TVs are new enough (flatscreen LCDs) that they have built in DTV tuners.
At first scanning we get 22 channels total, sometimes a few less when reception isn't great. Not bad for free!
After a few months I find a 26db antenna booster with two outputs at a thrift shop for 2$!!!, so it's like two 26db amps in one. Built for FM/VHF/UHF. Was damn near a steal for that price. Well it's UHF amplification wasn't great, but after opening it and tweaking a few coils it works good on UHF now. Best of all it gives both TVs 26db of gain compared to the splitter it replaced which had 3db of loss!
We now get 25 channels free with no digital hash or disruption! 12 actual channels, but 25 channels when you include the dot/dash subchannels.
Next up is getting a FTA satellite dish. I hear there are hundreds of free to air satellite channels, many with music, local feeds, major news networks and only with a one time fee of buying the dish and your FTA converter box. In other words no subscription fee, and it's legally free.
Anyone here FTA or DTV fans? What's your setup? There is just something magical about setting up (or even building) your own antenna, running cable to your TV and getting channels for no cost in digital high definition quality.
FTA dish sounds a lot like shortwave radio of the TV age. From what I read you can pull in lots of foreign feeds that you can't find anywhere else. Also see live broadcast feeds before it even gets to the stations studio, as in you can watch reporters prep for the camera and get ready before the station itself even broadcasts them from their remote location.
I will post some pics of my new DB4 4 bay bowtie antenna rebuild once I snap a pic in the next day or two.
I am very interested in hearing about your TV setups if you have something other than a subscription service. Also any online free to watch TV channels (legal) are welcome to be linked here.
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