We have always had antenna and never had cable. There is plenty to watch, although I always dive into CMT when in hotels. …
But to rest worries about tuner-free TV’s, you can buy a tuner that you can hook into ethernet on your computer and drive it with software such as eyeTV. And as a bonus, eyeTV will record so you can have an alternative to TIVO. (both hardware and software are more for a techie type, but it CAN be done).
I thought there’s an upcoming date at which OTA reception is no longer mandated.? I’m a little rusty on this but there was another thread where the OP was satisfied with basic on an antenna and I had checked my reality.
We got rid of cable 5 months ago and no regrets. We have a Mohu Leaf indoor antenna attached to the window closest to the TV. We get all the networks and PBS; overall we get over 30 channels, although a bunch are Spanish speaking. We also have a Sling account which gets us ESPN, ESPN2, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV, and Food among others.
There are times the antenna doesn’t pull in all the channels it should. I’m assuming something must be interfering with the signal, but overall it’s been more than worth what we’re saving in cable costs.
Analog transmission is no longer available. Only digital. Is that the deadline you were thinking of?
@shellfell if you don’t mind me asking…how much do you pay sling for all,those channels per month?
@thumper1, putting an outdoor antenna in the attic will degrade its performance due to attenuation of the signal by the roof (wood and shingles). I had one in my attic too and it performed poorly. A good outdoor antenna can pull in signals from 100+ miles. Outdoor antennas are can also be rotated to get the direct line of sight to broadcast antennas, and you can add electronic signal boosters to increase the signal to noise ratio.
Our antenna is drawing channels from far enough away to give us all the networks…and PBS. It can be rotated a bit.
Really for $240 for the antenna and amp, we are mighty happy. It totally beats dealing with the bad cable company that kept increasing our rates, and decreasing our service.
In our climate, it would be no fun securing an antenna outdoors. And anyway…we have what we want…with it mounted in our attic.
Might not work for everyone but it totally works for us.
I wonder how Sling would work in an area with weak internet? We have a home where there is no cable anywhere nearby and have used an outdoor antenna attached to the chimney that does pretty well in most weather. We’ve only lost an antenna once in a storm so it’s a pretty safe way to pick up signal. Internet is driven from a Mifi hotspot and works similarly…some weather conditions the signal is weak and the internet is weak…If sling would work that would solve the problem of having to drive a bunch of miles to the bar for sports programming 
I can handle not having the TV going, but my H is unhappy spending time there during certain sports seasons. Perhaps I’ll try the 7 free days Sling trial run and see if it works.
We still have cable at our main home…and it is getting super pricey. I’m very close to cutting those ties, too. None of my adult kids have cable. They all use different streaming configurations, but cut the cable cord when they moved out of the dorms back in their college days. So we have a generation growing up that doesn’t “need” cable. I see the future for the cable companies and it isn’t continuing to raise prices for us old folk.
We just bumped up our internet. When we tried sling last year, it was very choppy. We will try it again…for the right price.
I watch very little that’s shown on the networks, find that most of it is inferior to the what’s available elsewhere. (And the ever-diminishing ratings for the big three shows I’m not alone.) So I’d have to find an internet solution to access all the other sources I enjoy if I wanted to eliminate cable and rely on an antenna. It all sounds way too complicated!
I lived in an area growing up where, if you were antenna only, you got two channels, ABC and CBS. Almost everyone had that, but we were a cable family, pulling in about 10 channels including doubles of ABC and CBS.
I love TV - movies, sports, political channels. To me, it is worth it to have cable and I’d rather spend my entertainment budget on that than going out.
We got rid of cable almost 2 years ago and haven’t looked back. We just used the antenna that has been on our roof for years (at least 25, probably 40). Replaced the DVR with TIVO and get our moves from Netflix and Amazon (since we are prime customers). Works for us.
thumper - we pay $20/month for the Sling package we have. They do have a different package that gets some different channels (mainly various Fox channels) but doesn’t get ESPN. I believe that package costs $25.
At first, we had some issues with Sling freezing and buffering on occasion, but the problem was our router. Since we replaced that, we’ve had very few issues with Sling.
Thanks. $20 might be worth looking into.
Hey! We just got an HD antenna too! We are going to cancel our Xfinity cable and get internet though our town instead. They do not offer content, just internet. We also got Sling and have Netflix as well as Amazon Prime. We also got a Roku which comes with Netflix and Amazon buttons on the remote. We’ve had a Chromecast for a while now for streaming YouTube to the TV from our phones and laptops.
@Lbowie great! We are SOOOO happy to be done with our cable company. They were impossible to work with…and their service was awful. Our HD antenna gives us far better reception and more channels than our basic cable did.
I had almost forgotten about antennas, when we were helping our son set up his Phoenix apartment. He has Netflix and said he didn’t care about t.v., but we visit for a month each winter and WE wanted the local stations. For less than $50, Walmart sold us a 6" box and cable, which sits right behind his new t.v. It gets around 40 channels (10 in Spanish) and very good reception except when a plane flies overhead.
Not a big TV person, but we switched to an antenna/Amazon Fire/Netflix combo last year and are very happy with it. Cable company wanted $150+/mo just for basic local channels after promotion pricing… they are insane.
@thumper and the rest of the gang
I know it is really regional but are you guys paying that much less for Internet alone than some combo package with cable?
It is pretty frustrating to tease it all out. Last year when we tried to get rid of cable we ended up with a cable package anyway as cable ended up being about $15 more a month total for us. ( including taxes and set top basic box).its a verizon fios package that lets you pick different groups of channels. You can switch these monthly for no charge.
Of course that’s for first 2 years. Then we have to shop around again and probably change providers.
It’s really nuts. I look at adding sling,netflix, Amazon etc but that brings your monthly bill back up. Right now we mooch off daughters netflix which I think costs her $8 or $10 a month.
Anyway I’m paying $84 a month total and that’s the best deal we could put together at that time. Internet alone was going to be about $70. We have 1 tv hooked into cable. The extra $15 a month gives us some local sports ,espn sports, comcast sports network along with some additional channels (20-25?) that antenna cant get.
Anyway, just grousing.
Happy for Thumper and everyone else that’s worked things out with their antenna. Gets me thinking about cost cutting again.
I think my son pays $19.95/mo for internet service and also mooches Netflix. A recurring cable charge just wasn’t worth it and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I could find on the “free” channels.
We’re saving $85/month to the cable company. Even taking our Sling subscription into account, we’re still saving $65/month. The cable company wasn’t really willing to extend our promotional pricing with them, added in new charges after the promotional period ended, and I was tired of trying to negotiate with them. Not having to deal with them is worth any savings to me, no matter how small.