[Discuss] Comcast goes all encrypted video in Cambridge

[kentborg at borg.org (Kent Borg)]

On 08/16/2013 10:54 PM, Bill Bogstad wrote:
> Any advice on cord cutting or good HDTV antennas?

The good news is that tuners in recent TVs are a *lot* better than the 
first ones.  Also, you only need a decent antenna.  Nothing HD about 
it.  I have a VHF/UHF root-top antenna, I bought from Radio Shack a 
zillion years ago, in my attic.  Pointed towards the stations in 
Needham, and it works.  There are a few other stations in town that 
aren't in that direction that I don't get--some possibly interesting 
low-power stations--but I haven't bothered to do anything about it.

There are web sites that will help you aim your antenna.

The over-the-air picture is usually better than you will get from cable 
or direct broadcast satellite.  The local station doesn't do as heavy a 
lossy compression as do the multi-channel folks.

We cut the cable when RCN took away analog signals.  We save a lot of 
money.  We don't watch as much TV.  Both of those are good.

In fact the most frequent program we watch is NBC's Nightly News, and we 
watch that via video podcast, just before bed.  We can go for weeks 
without tuning an actual TV broadcast.

The TV industry, by being so expensive and now so complicated, is 
putting itself at risk.  Cool.

-kb