Success Cutting Cable!

[OSUBearCub]

Previously, though having cancelled my cable subscription, I was using the existing cable line for the free access to over-the-air channels.  (Broadcasting this over-the-air content via cable is completely up to the cable company and, I guess, a courtesy - I was not stealing cable.)  This worked great for about a year until our local cable provider made a change.  My 24 channels dropped to 4 - no NBC, ABC, CBS, or PBS which sucked.

I bought a $15 flat indoor antenna from Big Lots after hearing a lot of good reviews from other cable cutters.  It's similar to this one http://www.walmart.com/ip/AudioVox-RCA-ANT1400R-Multidirectional-HD-flat-passive-antenna/10983716 but in black. 

After running a channel scan with the new antenna plugged in...BLAM!  49 digital channels!

Now I just need to decide if Hulu or Netflix will be next to die. :-)

[hodedofome]

Glad you can use an antenna. For some reason in my area you can never get all the channels with an antenna. I tried in-room, in-attic nice antennas, and finally the really large directional antennas on the roof and I could never get them all. I ended up switching cable companies just so I could get all the channels back that time warner cable stopped broadcasting!

You and I are probably the one 2 people on the planet that know what a QAM channel is.

[YK-Phil]

I tried all sorts of antenna, without success. I could not even get one channel. I might try again with that type of antenna but there is no rush as we do not watch TV and I keep our TV to hide a really bad drywall repair I did a few years ago :)

[OSUBearCub]

You and I are probably the one 2 people on the planet that know what a QAM channel is.

Ha!  So true.  Most people I've chatted with about this are convinced I was somehow stealing cable. 

I tried all sorts of antenna, without success. I could not even get one channel. I might try again with that type of antenna but there is no rush as we do not watch TV and I keep our TV to hide a really bad drywall repair I did a few years ago :)

I got really lucky.  I'm less than 10 miles from all the broadcast towers, my apartment windows face east toward them, and I have minimal obstructions to the towers - one building, train tracks, and a string of little lakes. The picture gets wonky when a long train decides to lumber past.  The goal is to reduce my tv viewing by half in the coming 12 months.  For an English major, I read pitifully few books each year.

[falcondisruptor]

I'm jealous that you get so many channels.  I'm happy with our 4 or 5 English ones!

[StangStache]

Solid.

I live in a hilly area where it's very difficult to get antenna reception.  Fortunately i'm on high ground and am able to get all major networks but one with an attic-mounted antenna.

Even more mustachian, I built my antenna myself.  Plenty of plans you can follow with a well-placed google search.

[SingleMomDebt]

Previously, though having cancelled my cable subscription, I was using the existing cable line for the free access to over-the-air channels.  (Broadcasting this over-the-air content via cable is completely up to the cable company and, I guess, a courtesy - I was not stealing cable.)  This worked great for about a year until our local cable provider made a change.  My 24 channels dropped to 4 - no NBC, ABC, CBS, or PBS which sucked.

I bought a $15 flat indoor antenna from Big Lots after hearing a lot of good reviews from other cable cutters.  It's similar to this one http://www.walmart.com/ip/AudioVox-RCA-ANT1400R-Multidirectional-HD-flat-passive-antenna/10983716 but in black. 

After running a channel scan with the new antenna plugged in...BLAM!  49 digital channels!

Now I just need to decide if Hulu or Netflix will be next to die. :-)

Thanks for the link. My free cable via coax cable from time warner just dropped a bunch channels too. This time they are not coming back. I was just about to buy a $50 antenna. So this frugal recommendation just in time!

[TheFrugalFox]

I'm jealous that you get so many channels.  I'm happy with our 4 or 5 English ones!

Even worse here - 4 channels, 1 english, 1 mainly english and 2 with about 10% english.

[MoneyCat]

As soon as someone gifts me another gift card for Target or Amazon, I'm going to get an antenna for our TV.  We typically watch our shows on the networks' websites instead of watching them live over the air, but it would be nice to be able to watch some live sports outside of the out-of-market streaming packages we subscribe to. 

By the way, The CW has a wonderful website for watching their shows legally.  That's how we got hooked on watching the fantastic superhero shows "Arrow" and "The Flash."

[StangStache]

As soon as someone gifts me another gift card for Target or Amazon, I'm going to get an antenna for our TV.  We typically watch our shows on the networks' websites instead of watching them live over the air, but it would be nice to be able to watch some live sports outside of the out-of-market streaming packages we subscribe to. 

By the way, The CW has a wonderful website for watching their shows legally.  That's how we got hooked on watching the fantastic superhero shows "Arrow" and "The Flash."

Good call about the networks' free online content.  Lots of them do this. 

I have my antenna fed to my home theater pc and DVR network TV through windows media center.  Even better: lots of that free network online content is funneled into a nice add-on for XBMC, making it fairly trivial to search for recent episodes and legally watch them, all in a 15 foot experience. 

HTPCs are very mustachian in my opinion, and are a natural partner to an over the air antenna. 

[Daley]

Previously, though having cancelled my cable subscription, I was using the existing cable line for the free access to over-the-air channels.  (Broadcasting this over-the-air content via cable is completely up to the cable company and, I guess, a courtesy - I was not stealing cable.)  This worked great for about a year until our local cable provider made a change.  My 24 channels dropped to 4 - no NBC, ABC, CBS, or PBS which sucked.

Most people I've chatted with about this are convinced I was somehow stealing cable.

Sorry chum, but let me introduce you to 47 USC §553 - Unauthorized reception of cable service passed in 2009.

(a) Unauthorized interception or receipt or assistance in intercepting or receiving service; “assist in intercepting or receiving” defined
(1) No person shall intercept or receive or assist in intercepting or receiving any communications service offered over a cable system, unless specifically authorized to do so by a cable operator or as may otherwise be specifically authorized by law.

Layer this with the FCC 12-126 ruling in 2012 (which is why you lost access), and the fact that the Supreme Court ruling against Aereo this year involved them not paying for rights to rebroadcast OTA programming as a cable operator...

Cable companies have to pay licensing for and additionally bill for these services, even for the stations that are broadcast. Just because one of their field reps was too lazy to put the filter in place on your connection doesn't imply access permission. If you're not paying, you don't have specifically authorized permission for access by the cable operator. Under the current legislation and the methods by which cable operators define their services, if you don't have specifically authorized permission for access, you're breaking federal law by watching QAM video transmitted over their cable without paying them for access to those stations, even if they're available over the air.

Your friends may not be as intimate with the law as I am, but they were right. I may not wholly agree with the legislation on the book, but what you were describing was technically theft.

[OSUBearCub]

Previously, though having cancelled my cable subscription, I was using the existing cable line for the free access to over-the-air channels.  (Broadcasting this over-the-air content via cable is completely up to the cable company and, I guess, a courtesy - I was not stealing cable.)  This worked great for about a year until our local cable provider made a change.  My 24 channels dropped to 4 - no NBC, ABC, CBS, or PBS which sucked.

Most people I've chatted with about this are convinced I was somehow stealing cable.

Sorry chum, but let me introduce you to 47 USC §553 - Unauthorized reception of cable service passed in 2009.

(a) Unauthorized interception or receipt or assistance in intercepting or receiving service; “assist in intercepting or receiving” defined
(1) No person shall intercept or receive or assist in intercepting or receiving any communications service offered over a cable system, unless specifically authorized to do so by a cable operator or as may otherwise be specifically authorized by law.

Layer this with the FCC 12-126 ruling in 2012 (which is why you lost access), and the fact that the Supreme Court ruling against Aereo this year involved them not paying for rights to rebroadcast OTA programming as a cable operator...

Cable companies have to pay licensing for and additionally bill for these services, even for the stations that are broadcast. Just because one of their field reps was too lazy to put the filter in place on your connection doesn't imply access permission. If you're not paying, you don't have specifically authorized permission for access by the cable operator. Under the current legislation and the methods by which cable operators define their services, if you don't have specifically authorized permission for access, you're breaking federal law by watching QAM video transmitted over their cable without paying them for access to those stations, even if they're available over the air.

Your friends may not be as intimate with the law as I am, but they were right. I may not wholly agree with the legislation on the book, but what you were describing was technically theft.

I wasn't promoting the former (apparently illegal) method, I was promoting the latter (totally legal antenna).  Thanks for bringing this to my attention.  It never came up in my cable alternatives research.  There are assuredly folks in this forum that haven't made the jump to a good old fashioned antenna.

Sorry to raise your hackles, chum. ;-)

[Daley]

I wasn't promoting the former (apparently illegal) method, I was promoting the latter (totally legal antenna).  Thanks for bringing this to my attention.  It never came up in my cable alternatives research.  There are assuredly folks in this forum that haven't made the jump to a good old fashioned antenna.

Sorry to raise your hackles, chum. ;-)

I know you weren't, and my hackles weren't raised. Due to your exchange between yourself and hodedofome, I was just pointing it out to help you (and others) understand that what you were doing before the switch (and what others may currently be doing) is technically stealing cable by the letter of the law and the operation of the cable company... sometimes the herd knowledge is correct, even if they can't cite why.

[usmarine1975]

I cut the cable cord going on 20 years ago.  Every time I spend a night in a hotel I am reminded why I cut it.