Digital TV Antennas Find Frugal Young Fans

NY Times ^ | December 5, 2010 | MATT RICHTEL and JENNA WORTHAM

[brityank]

Rabbit Ears Perk Up for Free HDTV

Julie and Anthony Bayerl of St. Paul, Minn., love watching prime-time shows on the sleek 50-inch television in their bedroom. They also love that they pay nothing for the programming.

The only thing they do not love is how a low-flying plane, heavy rain or just a little too much movement in the room can wipe out the picture.

“If someone is changing in there, it messes up your reception,” said Ms. Bayerl, a legislative assistant. “We try to stay very still when we watch television.”

The Bayerls are using an old technology that some people are giving a second chance. They pull free TV signals out of the air with the modern equivalent of the classic rabbit-ear antenna.

~ ~ ~ snip ~ ~ ~

“My husband’s best friend thinks we’re big dorks for having rabbit ears and not cable,” Ms. Bayerl said. But when their introductory price for cable TV and Internet access expired this year and the bill soared to $150, the couple halved it by cutting TV. “It wasn’t something we were willing to pay for,” she said.

Many pay TV customers are making the same decision. From April to September, cable and satellite companies had a net loss of about 330,000 customers. Craig Moffett, a longtime cable analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein, said the consensus of the industry executives he had talked to was that most of these so-called cord-cutters were turning to over-the-air TV. “It looks like they’re leaving for the antenna,” he said.

[brityank]

I canceled my cable back in '96 when my provider wouldn't lock-out certain channels, and their box didn't have the capability either. Haven't really missed it, but do like the added HDTV fare since the change-over.

[brityank]

Found this as an adjunct to the discussion on PBS. I keep getting hit by both Verizon and Comcast, and occasionally the satellite guys, to waste more money with them. Too many hands in my pockets now - don’t need another!

[camerongood210]

Cancelled my TV last year and haven’t really missed a beat thanks to the advent of Hulu and other similar websites. I don’t regret a thing.

[rllngrk33]

I've seen several stories like this recently. The one thing they don't mention is the fact that there's a recession going on with high unemployment.

When people don't have jobs they can't afford the high price of cable.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

I tried to use the DTV antena box but not many channels came in. The NBC channel was very unpredictable on the reception. I’d love to be cableless but the reception with the DTV box just wasn’t good enough. Of course nowadays one can go without tv at all for sports. You can see all baseball, football, basketball and hockey games LIVE over the internet. I’ve had some times when I did not have cable and just used the antenna (before the DTV thing) and it was OK althought the reception was of course inconsistent. You definately do alot more reading when you dont have cable plus it was really nice not to have to write that check for 50 or 60 bucks to the cable company.

[noblejones]

We switched to grabbing stuff from iTunes and are building up a library of things we actually want to watch. Paying for 120 channels that have no value to me to get 3 that sometimes do makes no sense.

[Uncle Miltie]

And Netflix. If you have a nice 10gb line, you can stream in HD.

[Inyo-Mono]

We can’t pick up anything off the air where I live, too rural and remote. We used to get a fuzzy signal from KOLO in Reno but when they went digital, that disapeared.

[Mygirlsmom]

So let me get this straight...... we’re not the only family on the planet that doesn’t have cable? My kids will be disappointed to discover that they have been gravely mistaken :-D

[Spunky]

I use the HD rabbit ears. I was having lots of problems with the one in my bedroom every time the cars went by so I went a purchased another HD rabbit ears that had more strength.

[antidemoncrat]

If someone wants to sell you a “digital” TV antenna, one that costs a lot more than a normal TV antenna, ask them to explain, and put in writing, the difference between a digital TV antenna and a an analog TV antenna.

[Uncle Miltie]

I’ve never had cable. It always struck me as outrageously expensive.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Not to mention that windy days will ruin most rabbit-eared-digital reception.....

[Paladin2]

I believe that the over the air signals have less video compression than the same channels on cable.

[Zeppo]

“My husband’s best friend thinks we’re big dorks for having rabbit ears and not cable,” Ms. Bayerl said.

No.

You're big dorks for having rabbit ears instead of having a real antenna...

[Tagurit]

How to build an antenna.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8jsDxNgHn4

[brityank]

Yeah - Will admit being out in the rural areas makes it tougher to get. I’m near Philly, so have lots of choices.

[Paladin2]

We got rid of cable a decade ago when the last kid started HS.

[Paladin2]

I use an amplified rabbit ears antenna upstairs (really just the UHF circle in the middle) feeding another amplifier just before hitting the TV.

[brityank]

Now don't you feel just a little bit guilty quashing their pre-conceived notions like that!     ;^)