# Cutting the Cord



## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

I jumped on the cord cutting bandwagon. I bought a just under $100 antenna to save $900 a year. TV Bill just keeps going up and I watch more broadcast channels than anything so I decided to try an Antop antenna. I plan to mount it outside but it's raining right now so I just hooked it up in the living room. Getting strong signals despite the weather and being on the floor. It is 2' tall and I tried it behind the tv but it cut out. So far I'm satisfied.

I already have Netflix and PrimeTV (came with Amazon subscription). I have Prime for the shipping and because I will soon be ordering diapers again, it's cheaper on Amazon. I figured I'll buy al la carte channels and still come out ahead. What are the better streaming bundles for sports channels?


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Can't help on the steaming bundles......but I've installed a many antenna in my day. We r kinda far from the antenna sites and they're 360 degrees around us so a rotator is the best bet, we also have to have "deep fringe" so a bit larger. 
You will notice this.....first, some tvs don't have tuners in them anymore....probably a majority now. (If obummer was still in office the gov would provide you with one  ). Secondly, once installed you'll notice a better picture quality than any other media you may be presently using. Make sure to provide a suppressor grounded to earth for protection against lightning strikes once installed.....
I should do the same....if you still have your other media connected, do a AB comparison on the quality of the feed......quite amazing.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Rain train extends southward.....with 25 acres still "curing"


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

One of the stations I like is just outside the fringe of this antenna's range and I'm drawing strong signals. Picture clarity is definitely better.

The suppressor you are talking about like an inline fuse?


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Ya sorta....you'll find them with the antenna stuff at Lowes or local electronic store....(if there are any left in your area) it has a female F connector on each end and is about 1.5" long, most have mounting tabs to mount them and a ground connector to run to a water pipe/ground. May include one with the antenna, they should....I couldn't get the pic to blow up (or the software probably woulda blown my computer up if I had waited for it to expand) is that a channel master antenna? They usually provide them with the hardware, but I've installed some that don't.....


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

The only stuff that came for inline was an amplifier and a power supply.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

For some reason I can't get those pics to blow up.....but I'm not a fan of amplifiers, if the unit needs an amplifier, you probably need a larger antenna. The problem with amplifiers is they amplify everything, noise and signal....but, I have used amplifiers in the past when we had a house full of tvs and we needed to amplify the signal throughout the house, every connection has a db loss so sometimes they are a necessary evil. But in terms of amplifying the signal from the antenna to a single TV it shouldn't be needed. But.....I have seen time when the manufactures would mute the reception when the "booster" was off so that the difference appeared to be phenomenal...if you just took the amp out it was the same as with the amp on . Tricky dicky those guys are.....
You should be able to find a lightening suppressor, may have to go on-line.....it's a serious source for lightning strikes. It should be mounted where the penetration occurs to go into the house. Usually a hose bib there to ground to....if you can't find one right now, you could use two coax cables and have them meet where you would mount the suppressor and install a barrel connector (F type) that way it's easy greasy to install once you have one....I would think HD or Lowes would have them but I haven't been in that section in a while. I know they used to market "digital ready" antennas.....doesn't matter if it's digital ready or not.....marketing gimmick


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

The picture quality is quite amazing....compression and decompression of signals, while necessary in order to achieve enough bandwidth is not conducive to picture quality......and the more times it happens, the worse it is.....
Truth be known.....we would probably all be better off to throw the damn tv in the closest dumpster 
Except during college football season, baseball season, and women's beach volleyball


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

somedevildawg said:


> Except during college football season, baseball season, and women's beach volleyball


Did I miss the volleyball season (again)? It's a great exercise for my eyes it seems.  

Larry


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## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

I'm ready to cut the cord myself - TV and phone. Cable bill just keeps going up and up and I only have basic cable. Rarely watch TV and never answer the telephone landline.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

I agree, I pay 210 a month for cable/internet from Mediacom. They've been here a long time providing service. I'm good with the service for the most part, especially the Internet....but I can't help but feel I'm paying for 250 worthless channels that I don't want and don't want my money going to.....I've longed for a la carte forever but alas, that's not financially feasible, I guess.....ain't never happened anyway, until now there wasn't much available, but with today's streaming capabilities, if one has high speed internet (perhaps ultra high speed) most programs, especially the ones I like, are available thru providers like net Flix. Live sporting events not covered by the big three can get tough but usually doable, albeit sometimes not the best camera equipment/operators. But even in my hillbilly gnat, snake, democrat infested area...with a good antenna I can pick up all three and about 5-6 smaller somewhat local stations....they have some real interesting programming sometimes  one of them had rasslin' up until a few years ago 
I could get just the Internet for about $90 a month......I think the ultra is a bit more, haven't checked, $90 is high enough. I do have an antenna at about 30' I wish I had a tower....it's one of those things I always am looking for, gotta be cheap....like in you pay me to take it down and remove it cheap


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## HayMike (Mar 22, 2011)

Check hulu live for sports, gives broadcast too. Free trial.


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## VA Haymaker (Jul 1, 2014)

We cut the cord a few years ago and don’t miss cable or the bills. We have a small wall mounted 50 mile antenna, we have Apple TV and several channel apps and we have Sling TV (mostly for sports for our kids to watch) that just went up to $25/month.


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## Swv.farmer (Jan 2, 2016)

I cut the cord 6 year's ago and I don't miss those big cable bills at all.
When you get use to watching what is available you forget all about cable.
I get about 20 channels and that's about 15 more than I watch I miss discover and national geographic but that is the worst of it.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

I refuse to trim money from my equipment coffers, so TV service has to go lol. Been out of contract for over a year and at the end of this month the plan was being raised $20 a month. I thought, 'nobody gives me anymore money for the same service with no value added.'

I'm already liking my options. I did see the Sling went up a to $25. Netflix went up a few months ago. Before long streaming services will be as bad as cable and satellite, reel you in, set the hook, and bam more money. Such a vicious cycle because Redbox and Netflix helped do in Blockbuster. Used to be what $4.99?


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

Cord is cut. When dumping TV from the bundle the sneaky snakes irritated me. Long story short I could not keep my 200 mbps but I could get 100 or 400 and that was it. 100 would be same price as I was currently paying and 400 would be $20 more. I told them it was horse hockey that if I was currently getting 200 I should still be allowed to have it. Nooooooo because of the acquisition, changing my package would mean leaving the previous company's canopy. I did some research and found 100, 300, 400, and 940 was available to me. The peculiar thing is 300 was $40 more than 400.

I decided I'm going to try the 100 and if I don't like it, I would upgrade to 400. So far I streamed 2 TVs, an iPad, and phone for the last 3 hours. So far it appears to be going off without a hitch.

Now I have the quandary of where to spend the savings  Too bad it's not enough for a new side by side. Maybe I'll buy one at the farm show this winter, baler will be paid off.


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