One week ago this morning, Charter came out and blithely disconnected my cable TV service (and internet service, temporarily). The next evening, I made the final connections to serve the free over-the-air TV I was pulling from my new antenna to the TVs in the house. And thus our experiment began.
Immediately upon unplugging the cable and installing the antenna, our viewing habits changed. Instead of the 70-some-odd channels we had with cable, our TV “experience” is now limited to 12. All of the channels we see are digital and some are even in High Definition, which will be especially nice when we finally get a high-def TV. We receive Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS (plus an all-local weather sub-channel), PBS (plus 3 sub-channels), CW, a local religious channel, and something called “My” TV.
Yes, you read that correctly: Sub-channels. In digital over-the-air broadcasts, the broadcaster has the option to segment their signal into multiple streams. For instance, our local PBS station broadcasts the “regular” PBS in HD, has a 24-hour PBS Kids channel, an arts/food/crafts channel, and a second non-HD PBS channel with a different schedule. So while we only really pick up 8 stations, we benefit from this segmenting with 4 extra channels.
All of the national TV stations broadcast in HD. As I’ve stated before we don’t have a HD TV, but you can still tell the difference on high-visual impact shows such as Heroes. Since moving to the antenna, we get a much better picture on the same TV we’ve had for 7 years. Apparently, Charter was really holding out on me…
We definitely enjoy the content we’re receiving more than before, but not everything about the switch has gone smoothly. My two-year-old daughter is starting to miss some of her favorite shows from the Disney channel. New shows, such as Imagination Movers, aren’t available on DVD yet and we’ve run out of recorded material. The PBS Kids channel is doing a decent job of replacing her favorites, but she still misses her Little Einsteins and Handy Manny. Netflix is helping to fill the gap, but it isn’t a perfect fit yet. In time, she’ll adjust, but it has been a bit of a problem so far.
And this past Saturday, I realized what I’m going to miss most: My favorite sports teams. In the winter, the only place I can watch my favorite college team is on Fox Sports. So if I want to catch my Missouri Tigers beating up on their latest opponent, I have to trek down to my father’s house or to a local sports bar. In the rest of the year, if the St. Louis Cardinals aren’t on the local Fox affiliate, I’m stuck in the same predicament. Of course, I can always tune into the radio to hear the game, but it isn’t quite the same as seeing the action unfold before your eyes.
Now that we’re watching less TV, other individual and family activities are getting more attention. Avoiding the distraction of TV has allowed me to finish reading my latest book, has given my wife a chance to really advance her knitting, and has given our whole family more play time together. No more mindless channel surfing with mediocre content. Now we watch TV only when we know one of our favorite shows is on. (I have yet to get a new capture card for my media server to be able to record from the antenna signal…)
So far I believe the experiment is a success. We’re saving over $30/month from our previous cable plan, which will quickly pay for our antenna and other equipment and eventually will go toward running down our debt. And while we’re watching less TV, we’re enjoying it more. It really seems to be a win-win situation!
Photo by: j.meunier
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I use ESPN 360 to watch sports online. That helps with my college fb fix.
I miss MNF though.
Is the antenna outside or in the attic? Also, how do you determine how far you are from the transmitters?
I use a very basic hdtv antenna connected direct to the tv. Cost $13. I get CBS and FOX HD perfect. ABC is so so. NBC I don’t get at all. I’ll at least ride it out till the baby comes along. Then I think I might need cable again. Here’s hoping at&t uVerse is up and running by then,
Mine is in the attic with a preamp to boost the signal. I get all my channels clearly – it helps when they’re all about the same compass direction from your house.
You can go to http://www.antennaweb.org to determine the nearby transmitters and their distance and direction from you. And remember, any antenna can pick up HD signals, so don’t pay an unnecessary premium to get a so-called “HD antenna”.
I just don’t know if my wife and kids could do it. We generally all watch ESPN, Discovery, the History Channel, Food Network, and HGTV and that’s about it! What would really be cool is if they would let us pay ONLY for the channels we watch.
I will miss Discovery, Food Network, and HGTV for sure. But I remind myself that it’s just TV. If I miss Food Network strong enough, I can always use the time I save to go into the kitchen myself. :)