Dumping cable and sat TV. Is it possible?
 

That is: Is it possible and still have access to quality programming?

I currently receive about 900 channels but I only watch about 20 at the most. There are only five cable channels I view and the rest are broadcast ones.

So my questions are: What type of antenna would I need to pick up a signal from 100 miles away? I live out in the country and the nearest broadcasting towers are that far off.

Is it possible to get the rest of the most common programming via a free service such as HULU or something like it I don't know about? I understand a computer is necessary for all of this but I currently have that covered and then some.

If I can ditch the Sat I could save $85 a month. I see that as 800 300D miles I could be driving each month.

I am sure I could pull this stuff off the net, but can anyone offer their real world take on doing this?

I stream all of my TV/Movies.


Every TV show that I watch is available streaming online, usually a day or two following it being aired over cable/air. I find that streaming online has less advertisements, which is a nice plus.

My only beef - some networks compress the he!! out of their streams, and picture quality suffers.

HULU has gone down the tubes. Little is free on there and the pay-for is not much better. Shows like Ghost Hunters are totally gone from there now.

I only watch over-the-air myself. Cable and sat is just over-priced for what I use. I actually figured that it would be cheaper for me to BUY all my shows via iTunes than have a cable or sat package.

Of course some shows are lost to me now. And new shows I may not discover. But for me, the antenna works fine and everything else I pickup online.

The only thing I hate about antenna, is that its now like satellite. Actually worse. Before digital one could watch a weak signal just fine. Maybe a little static here and there, but it was watchable. Now with digital, the receiver wants a crystal clear transmission. Just like sat. And if it does not get it, it drops the station a lot or simply refuses to show.

I would suggest getting a box and a good antenna to test drive it. Its cheap. Then decide.

We have been watching OTA since 2001. Actually only had DISH network for 2 years and that was basically to keep the y2Kid entertained ( and she's 11 now and engaged in school) . Its a wasteland anyway you look at it so why bother to pay? We are about 35 miles from the towers. I am pretty sure you should be able to get a signal at 100 miles with the right equipment. The thing about digital is you either get it or you don't- there no in between like analog. I forget the website , but there is one that tells you where the towers are from your location and suggests what you need to do to get a signal. Ah here it is...

AntennaWeb

I have the apple tv, you can download the whole season of top gear for 14 bucks, or a couple of dollars an episode. Quality picture, NO commercials, and you own it.

Movies can be rented for 3-4 dollars.

The only reason I have cable, is because the wife insisted on it.

I'm trying to figure the same thing out. I'd love to dump Satellite, but it seems that streaming's just not there yet for us at least.

I'm waiting for Apple TV to get "Siri" as the controller.

I havn't had cable in years, just stream from my computer.

Cable TV is so full of crap, and you have commercials.

No cable here. been doing it for years. in the years before streaming shows online I would buy used DVDs from the local record store. if i liked them I'd keep them and if not I'd sell them back to the store. It was cheaper then renting at the time and I got to keep the shows I like. Today I stream a lot of stuff, but sill watch my DVD collection. My new roommate has netflix, I'm not hooked up with that yet, but it seems like a decent service. As with Hulu I think its going down hill. but I'm not paying for it, so thats ok with me.

I haven't had any TV for over 11 years and I don't miss it at all. You guys should try it! On the rare occasions that I watch TV somewhere, like at a friends house or in a hotel, I can't help but think- how can anyone spend any amount of time watching this crap? I can watch movies though, but even those have a bunch of commercials now.

Same here. No TV for the last 4-5 and before that we barely ever watched the stupid thing. When we moved out here to the farm I put the beast into the storage container and never looked back.

Sometimes I'll switch it on when we're in a hotel and the first thing I say to myself is: "What a friggin' waste of time." It gets turned back off right after that.

Seems like streaming is a no brainer if you have ONE TV. How do you hook up multiple sets without dragging your PC from room to room or buying multiple devices like the Apple TV box?

I watch all of my sport here: Sport Lemon - From Sport - Watch Live Sports Online - FromSport
For everything else you can download from the Net. Even all the main news chanels are available on line now, so no issue to keep on the top of what is going on around. Some of the latest movies are available on line before they hit your local theater :D
And whoever is going to say anything about copy rights can save it. In my humble opinion no movie start should be paid 10/20 millions for 5/6 weeks work. Family of 4 on Sat night easy can top 70/80 bucks on the movies. No thank you....

I heard about this on the radio the other day.

TV,Satellite & Cable | www.clarkhoward.com

I think this link will get you to what I heard. I never went to those lengths, but thought it sounded interesting.

Ditched satellite and cable and never looked back. I get 37 or channels over the air here, but we move around a lot and have had only a handful of channels in some locations.

We buy DVDs for $2 at pawn shops sometimes and buy sitcoms on DVD on sale, then almost never watch them.

If Monday night football is a particularly good game we go watch it at a bar maybe a couple times a year. Never go to bars so it is fun for a change.

I watched "On Any Sunday" on Hulu for free, never went back.

TV really is a waste of time and usually puts me to sleep.

Quite possible to dump both. Darling Wife and I have Netflix streaming for the occasional (once every couple weeks maybe) movie night which inevitably winds up being something old from BBC or PBS.