[Jeffhs]

Brandon -

The video is as good as any I've seen so far for connecting a digital converter box to an older TV. The video isn't out of date yet; I'm sure there are still folks out there who do not want to have (or cannot afford) cable at this time, and may be intimidated or outright frightened at the prospect of connecting a box to their TV.

I read your remarks about cancelling your cable, and I can't blame you. The rates are quite high, depending on where you live; cable rates, even for bare-bones basic (broadcast channels only), are going up just like everything else. I don't know what I'm paying per month for my cable service through Time Warner Cable of Northeastern Ohio/Western Pennsylvania, as it is part of a three-service bundle (cable, home phone, Internet).

Do you have any movie channels (HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, etc.) in addition to your normal cable service? These can run your cable bill sky high in no time flat. I don't have any of those expensive services here, just expanded basic (what I call x-basic) cable. For movies and older TV shows not on cable, I have my own collection of DVDs (no Blu-rays yet, though I do have an LG BR player, bought new last year) and a subscription to Netflix, as well as a large collection of VHS video tapes, the latter also mostly old TV shows and movies. This arrangement is plenty good enough for me.

The OTA converter box you have will give you all of your area's network affiliates, independent stations (if any), PBS, and also digital subchannels. Two of my favorite DTV subchannels are Antenna TV and MeTV, retro-TV stations that play old shows from the '60s-'70s; they appear on my TV on channels 8.2 and 19.2, the subchannels of the FOX and CBS network affiliates in Cleveland. However, I can only get these channels on my cable; if I use an indoor UHF DTV antenna I only get channels 3, 5, 25, 43, 61 and a channel called CSCN (the cable channel of the Cleveland Sight Center). I do not receive 8 and 19 because they are transmitting on VHF DTV subchannels (8 and 10, IIRC) and I have found out that I would need a high-power VHF outdoor antenna to receive both the main signals and their subchannels.