Free cable?

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by centralradio

I'm only paying, US $35 bucks here for basic 25 cable channels with Comcast.I would not pay them anymore.Meantime I can watch most of other stuff via Youtube and other free video websites.

I turned down a basic package like that from Cox - 33 channels for 35 dollars/mo - 11 of the channels were OTA clear here (I can receive 32 channels OTA), and 3 were preview channels for OnDemand video, and still no ESPN for SEC games.

I got Sling TV instead, and pay less for the channels, but I still pay Cox for internet....

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by centralradio

Yes .You guys have the TV licence over there.in the last few years our cable companies had to tack on a a $5.00 dollar broadcast fee to our cable bills every month to recoup the rebroadcast rights fee that the station charge to have them on the cable line up.I think its BS since the station are already making money with their adverts with better coverage.I say the stations are corrupt.

I don't really watch the locals, and I think they should be a-la-carte. If I don't watch it why should I pay for it? Those stations would get a nice slice of humble pie if only the users that wanted them enough to pay that $5 actually paid them...

[centralradio]

Originally Posted by Findm-Keepm

I turned down a basic package like that from Cox - 33 channels for 35 dollars/mo - 11 of the channels were OTA clear here (I can receive 32 channels OTA), and 3 were preview channels for OnDemand video, and still no ESPN for SEC games.

I got Sling TV instead, and pay less for the channels, but I still pay Cox for internet....

You are lucky to receive the OTA locals there.Not a sports fan here so I save bucks with the fat ESPN and other sports channel subscriber fees.I can do without the dishonest bias news outlets since I can get better news coverage online. Documentary shows from the History channel,Discovery channel and other channels are all on Youtube so I dont have to watch all the filler reality shows between them.

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I don't really watch the locals, and I think they should be a-la-carte. If I don't watch it why should I pay for it? Those stations would get a nice slice of humble pie if only the users that wanted them enough to pay that $5 actually paid them...

I agree with a-la-carte. Yes if they go a-la-carte .All the weak cable channels will close up shop as I read this years ago in the trade mags.I dont need the sports channels,Different language channels,Reality crap show channels,Shopping channels.

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by Colly0410

Here in England if you take your broadband/landline phone from Virgin Media you get their medium cable TV package free.

They dont seem to be as greedy as US companies..... I DONT KNOW OF ANY US CABLE OUTLET THAT OFFERS ANYTHING FREE!!

[Jon A.]

I think the last analog station here to disappear was the weather network. To me it was one of the more entertaining channels.

[Kamakiri]

I recently cut TWC out of my life, and have zero regrets. Mounted a nice tall HDTV antenna on a mast sunk into the ground, and along with my Roku box and Netflix I get everything I could want on TV....except Fox News and CNN (Roku has this CNN Go app, but it's not a live feed) along with a couple other channels.

To get the other channels, I simply used the VGA port on my TV and hooked up a small but powerful PC up to the set and have it run with a wireless keyboard/touchpad. From there, I just turn on the computer and pull up my Firefox favorites where I have streams set up for everything I want to watch that I can't get by other means. Expand to full screen on the feed and done.

Sure, the video quality isn't HD, but it beats the hell out of paying $200 per month for the same crap I paid $89.95 for 3 or 4 years ago. Ever since, I get flooded with mailers from TWC now wanting me back at the 89.95 rate when they refused to discount it below $198 when I was a subscriber. Screw TWC.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

I recently cut TWC out of my life, and have zero regrets. Mounted a nice tall HDTV antenna on a mast sunk into the ground, and along with my Roku box and Netflix I get everything I could want on TV....except Fox News and CNN (Roku has this CNN Go app, but it's not a live feed) along with a couple other channels.

To get the other channels, I simply used the VGA port on my TV and hooked up a small but powerful PC up to the set and have it run with a wireless keyboard/touchpad. From there, I just turn on the computer and pull up my Firefox favorites where I have streams set up for everything I want to watch that I can't get by other means. Expand to full screen on the feed and done.

Sure, the video quality isn't HD, but it beats the hell out of paying $200 per month for the same crap I paid $89.95 for 3 or 4 years ago. Ever since, I get flooded with mailers from TWC now wanting me back at the 89.95 rate when they refused to discount it below $198 when I was a subscriber. Screw TWC.

If that PC is pre-windows 10 and supports an external video card then you should be able to find a card for it that has NTSC S-video out so you can also drive your older sets with it....I try to keep such a rig running at all times.....Granted yesterday both of my regular use machines media (which was the backup for the normal media rig that is waiting on a cap change) and otherwise crapped out leaving me with one crappy spare, and a a junker....I bought the junker to build up, but it was dead, yet it came back to life on Halloween.

[Dude111]

Originally Posted by Kamakiri

Sure, the video quality isn't HD.....

You probably feel the same way I do about HD

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by Dude111

You probably feel the same way I do about HD

A DVD player coupled to an RF modulator is as HD as I care to get. When I switched our daily watcher to one without A/V inputs I was a little bugged by the slight loss of definition, but I'm now used to it and am not looking back.

[Kamakiri]

Originally Posted by Dude111

You probably feel the same way I do about HD

HD is awesome, truth be told.

And when you watch OTA TV you realize that the expanded channel listings now available with OTA TV....the switchover did have its advantages. To be honest with the way I have my transmitter setup I have access to far more programming than I ever would with standard broadcast.

I can source from OTA TV through a converter, VHS, DVD, and as well I can cast to an analog channel 9 also with my tablet linked to a Chromecast.

Sure, it'd be nice to be able to watch TV without it, but with the very limited channel selection that we lost it doesn't bother me a bit.

[Colly0410]

All the main channels here in UK (BBC1,2,4,BBC News24, ITV1, CH4 & ch5) are in 1080i HD on Freeview & Free Cable. There are dozens more channels in 576i SD (used to be analog 625) & new ones come & go seemingly at random, e.g. channel 20 was FTN, now it's Drama channel, I struggle to keep track of them...

[Robert Grant]

What you get for free in the UK with Freeview drastically surpasses what a Yankee viewer gets with an antenna (er....aerial). In some areas here, especially very rural areas, one is not even assured of seeing all the national networks.

The more populated in area in the USA is, the more channels you can expect to see. However, all of the DTV (also called OTA) channels, other than the major networks are dominated by religious broadcasters and "classic TV" channels with reruns of old series (locally, on 24.3, for example- Dr. Who, but episodes so old that one can clearly tell they were 405 line monochrome!). One exception is a subchannel network called "Bounce", which, while mostly reruns, is having new programming made for their prime time (evening) schedule. Bounce has programming targeted to the African-American audience, though is in the clear to anyone in its coverage area. I've watched several movies on Bounce myself, though I'm "not the target audience".

Sports programming is particularly scarce on free TV in the US, though we still have the World Series (baseball) and Super Bowl (Gridiron Football) in the clear. Oddly, if you want to see you local college Gridiron Football teams on TV, you'll pay out the nose for it, but a viewer in Michigan may be able to watch Idaho State vs. Utah for free.

Cable TV in the US has something of a "fiscal cliff effect", with nearly all cable-only channels demanding that cable systems carry ALL of their channels to ALL of the cable company's subscribers and charging a per-subscriber fee for ALL the customers. Right now, the Monthly bill for cable or satellite TV services is around $120 USD (£96), and keeps rising faster than wages.

One good thing about free TV in the US is that the major networks are usually in superb HD.

[centralradio]

I just my Comcast bill today and as always they will be jacking up their rates.For me only the The BS broadcast TV fees went up $2 bucks to $7 from $5.00.Thanks to the greed from local TV stations for that.They should be thankful for the cable coverage especially digital signals dont go anywhere like analog did in the past.The cable companies have to charge the subscribers this fee to pay the local stations for their rebroadcast rights in order to keep them in the cable channel lineup.I say let the cable companies drop the channels and have the viewers flood the channels Face Book ,Twitter,email,phone in saying stop the greed or we will boycott your channel.Maybe its time to jack up the advertising rates at the stations and the networks.

[Colly0410]

Originally Posted by Robert Grant

What you get for free in the UK with Freeview drastically surpasses what a Yankee viewer gets with an antenna (er....aerial). In some areas here, especially very rural areas, one is not even assured of seeing all the national networks.

Yes the full amount of Freeview channels are available over most of the country, a few very low power relay transmitters carry Freeview lite, it has all the main channels (BBC, ITV, Channel 4 & 5 etc) but not ones like QVC & the selling channels, mind you most people don't watch them anyway. There is also Freesat & Freesat from SKY for those who want more channels who live in the few Freeview lite areas. I have some friends who live in Ireland & every single one of them has Freesat & watch British TV a lot, they have to put a British postcode in on setup & some have put mine, lol..

[Electronic M]

One hack way that some have used to get free cable is simply having cable internet and connecting an analog set or clear QAM box to a spliter on the line.

Analog is nearly gone on domestic cable, and many cable providers are encrypting QAM...Mine killed their analog in the last year. The jerks have encrypted the QAM so I can't tune anything (aside from the crap I can get with an antenna) with any hardware NOT rented from them...As soon as the free period on the boxes is over I'm going to look into other options.