Poll, How do you receive TV?
Earlier this month the U.S. completed the decade long transition to digital television. The weekly poll, located in the right sidebar, asks how you receive television. Over the air, internet or a paid option? From an urban perspective it doesn’t really matter. Or does it?
At two prior residences I had satellite service. In both cases I had the installers located the dish out of sight. But we’ve all seen places with an out of place dish.
When I moved downtown in November 2007 I didn’t move a TV. A few months ago I purchased a small HDTV. But rather than spend a ton on cable or satellite I stuck with free channels over the air. I was fine with not having tons of channels except that my reception wasn’t so good. Some channels wouldn’t come in. With a digital signal it is either all or nothing. On some channels I had nothing. My old antenna just wasn’t doing the job it had done with digital.
I recently received a digital antenna from antennasdirect.com for review. The ClearStream antenna (Cleastream 1 Convertible, $79.95) is compact and is discrete. Once I rescanned the channels they all came in.
PBS in St. Louis has four channels – World (9.3) and Create (9.4) are awesome. It is said over time each region can expect up to 60 free channels.   With this news I have no regrets about receiving free television rather than pay huge monthly fees. Now if I can just get Charter Communications to stop mailing me solicitations to get cable.
– Steve Patterson
The real issue with our new digital airwaves is not being publicized: THE RECEPTION SUCKS! It continuously shorts out and pixelates. Most viewers acknowledge this, but don’t seem bothered by it. Why?
This changeover obviously has advantages for broadcasters, but it’s a downgrade for the American viewers.
I’m told that if you have cable or satellite, the reception is much better. Meaning, it doesn’t short out and pixelate AS MUCH, but it still does.
So now I watch even less TV than before because the crappy quality is unacceptable, especially when anything I want is on the internet in high quality.
Free over the HD channels are great. I have been using them for over two years. Other than channel 46 I receive all the channels in the area perfectly with no loss other than for weather disruption and I am almost 30 miles from the towers. 9.4 Create is a great bonus channel. I miss 11.2 the Tube, it was a great music channel.
And I have tried to get off of Charter’s mailing list. Unfortunately I have been told a third party company handles the mailing and the people you call on the phone have no control over their list. I guess I will have to continue to recycle the two mailings a week along with AT&T’s offer for U-verse.
People who pay for 100 channels they don’t watch must not care how they waste their money.
I watch my TV online. If the network does not offer the show to be watch streaming online I will pirate it from torrent sites. Example is the BBC. They block people outside the UK from watching it online. Even British expats can’t watch it.
As a Charter Cable subscriber, I apparently don’t get the extra digital channels. For example, I get Channel 9.1, but not 9.2, 9.3, or 9.4.
I never subscribed to cable before buying a condo where cable was part of the homeowner’s association package. As a member of the association, my options are limited. I can’t install an antenna, for example.
So, am I out in the cold on these new channels or can I get them with rabbit ears, for example, if I buy an HD TV? I would like to get some better TV. I usually just bypass the cable channels and watch TV shows I really like by ordering them from Netflix. You don’t see them right away, but you can get them. For example, a great series is Madmen from the AMC channel. I mainly do this to avoid having to watch commercials and to be able to watch the shows when it’s convenient for me, without paying extra for DVR.
100% of my television comes from the internet. Adultswim.com, Hulu, and Youtube.
I don’t understand why anyone owns a television at this point. The amount of television available on the internet is more than enough. If you need to watch more than a few television shows a week you are not making the most out of your life.
Angelo – When Hule or Youtube will let me watch Cardinals game live in HD on a Sunday afternoon, maybe they will compare to over the air.
I’m with Saint Chuck. I use DirecTV, but primarily because I love watching sports and it’s impossible to get almost any quality sports programming for free – especially if you want to watch east coast teams. I watch about 2 hours of non-sports programming a week (if that), and wish I could ditch my satellite.
Luckily for me; I find sports to be extremely boring. I never did quite understand the appeal.
As for as MLB games. The now broadcast online in HD. FYI
http://blog.streamingmedia.com/the_business_of_online_vi/2009/03/mlbs-hd-video-using-3mb-stream-h264-full-720p-at-1280×720.html