On page 21 of today’s Daily Times is a full page advertisement that looks like a real newspaper article. It describes the little known concept of Free Over the Air HD TV and it advertises a particular $49 antenna they sell that will get you that free TV.
I wrote a blog post on that same concept 3 years ago (May 24, 2010).
The Daily Times advertisement is mostly informational but not completely factual.
The good news is that most of the information is true and correct. You can watch ABC, CBS, NBC, WHYY, most of the UFH channels (17, 29, 57, etc) and some stations you never knew existed. Most stations have more than one broadcast. For example, if ABC is channel 6, there is a 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3. In this area, you can get approximately 50 free TV stations. And they do broadcast in HD. You won’t believe how clear the picture is even on the old tube TV you may have stored in the garage.
The bad news is that their indoor antenna will probably not work for most of you.
In the final days of George Bush’s administration, they approved moving the TV signals that we used to use to watch TV with rabbit ear antennas away from us forever. In its place, you either needed to get cable (or a dish), or you had to purchase a converter box with an antenna.
It was in the Obama administration that all this finally came to pass. Obama gave households two $49 vouchers for you to go out and buy those converter box antennas if you asked for them. The public was so confused that Obama had to extend the deadline because he knew not enough people understood what was going on based on the number of request for converter box vouchers.
Finally, he made the switch, and overnight those without cable were without television if they didn’t get the converter box or didn't have cable.
Being the nerd that I am, I told a few of my cable subscribing friends to request the vouchers and give them to me. I got about 10 converter boxes from those vouchers, knowing someone would need one when their TV was cut off.
Even though I have DirecTV, I have a spare bedroom that’s rarely used and tried the converter box and indoor antenna on an old tube TV so a guest can watch at least a few stations.
Now, the Bad News on Free TV
Most of the indoor antennas don’t work that well. They have a hard time penetrating windows and walls. You will receive the few strong signals but you won’t get all the stations.
Antennas prefer direct lines of sight, that’s why the best solution is to put the antenna on your roof.
My Outdoor HD roof Antenna experience
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| My roof antenna. It's about 20" high. |
As I said above, the indoor antenna wasn’t too effective. I got a few stations but no where near as many as I do now that I installed an outdoor antenna on the roof.
When Sunoco kicked us out of Marcus Hook and put me out of work, I was preparing to get rid of DirecTV, so I installed an outdoor antenna.
It works perfectly. I get over 50 crystal clear stations. I purchased the antenna in a combo with a Tivo receiver for $99 at Best Buy. The combination is more than the regular viewer would need, but remember, I’m a nerd.
I got lucky and found a job within 4 months so I never got rid of DirecTV, but if push comes to shove again, I’ll still be able to watch TV for free. And my infrequent guest can now watch TV in the spare room.
I've had HDTV 2 years now and it's no big deal, only thing you get a lot of channels you wont watch other then that it beats paying for cable btw, you don't need a converter box if you have a HDTV just the antenna I have the ClearStream4 HDTV Antenna
ReplyDeleteit's about 90 dollars Amazon.com
....Lamont2086
Great. Glad to hear someone out there is doing this.
DeleteOver the air HD TV is free but you obviously don't get the cable channels that some folks can't live without.
You only need a converter box for the tube (analog) TVs and the very early flat screen digital TVs. Any TV purchased in the past 4 years already had the converter built in.