The end is near - 29% of Americans dont know you can get free tv through an antenna

You can herpes for free too, but that doesn't mean it's worth having.

Little Doper 🌌 wrote:

Depends on where you live, but I've watched tv over rabbit ears that was better than any picture I've gotten through cable.

This is the right answer. It depends on where you live but if you can put an antenna up that can receive your local TV affiliates the quality you get will be better than cable or satellite. Both of those delivery systems depend on compression to fit their programming on their available bandwidth. Over the air broadcasting is not limited in this way and is uncompressed. Whatever programming you receive OTA that is HD source material WILL be better than cable or satellite. ]

Having said that ... you better really like PBS because that's the most interesting material available OTA.

Cause nothing is gonna drop her panties like walking in your living room and seeing a pair of rabbit ears from the 70s. Maybe she can call a taxi using your rotary phone as well.

john utah wrote:

feldman wrote:

I sit with 4 millenials at the office. I just posed this question to them. You're in the middle of the forest with a tv. It has a long extension cord giving it power. But there's no WifI or cell service. And no way to get additional power. How do you get a picture on the tv? Three of the four were stumped, once finally come up with the idea of using "some kind of antenna or something".

The problem is that the signals are line of sight, or whatever it's called. I'm no electrical engineer. If you're in the forest you ain't getting reception. I barely get reception at my house in the burbs. Sure I could mount a massive contraption on my roof, but then that would be against HOA codes.

I'm an engineer, electromagnetic waves are not line of site.

sight damnit.

feldman wrote:

I'm an engineer, electromagnetic waves are not line of site.

Some are, some aren't. It depends on the frequency.

Millennials are all about following trends -- vinyl records, tattoos, antennas, global warming, etc. Get ready for the return of the 8-track tape in 2021.

Waiting for the break of day

Searching for something to say

Dancing lights againnst the sky

Giving up I close my eyes

Sitting cross-legged on the floor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGf1sv58e-U

rojo wrote:

The end is near - 29% of Americans dont know you can get free tv through an antenna

Well, I'm sure plenty of Americans also don't know you can make butter by churning cream/milk and salt. And it is perfectly understandable that they don't.

For 20 years, cable and satellite has dominated so for many younger people, they simply never had TV from any other source.

I don't see how this leads you to conclude that the end is near. There's not much of an evolutionary advantage to understanding how a tv antenna works, and the younger generation is adapting. Do you know how to churn butter? No? GET IN YERRR BUNKER. DUH FUNNY LOOKIN MOOSLUMS ER COMIN

If I can get good local signals at my house, I'm doing this soon for local broadcast stations. I'll just pay for internet access instead of some overpriced combo deal which includes a phone landline and cable tv. My only question is how I can get ESPN stations through the internet without a cable subscription? Also, I'm a big baseball fan and I won't be able to watch regular games without Fox Sports regional. And MLB has horrible antiquated blackout rules. Help a bro out. Solutions?

This thread is a little bit unfair. As recently as 20 years ago almost everyone in the USA used an antenna for TV. Cable started to become common and people often used both antenna and cable. Cable eventually took over, though, and then something really important happened. TVs switched to only digital. This did not eliminate the fact that antennas could pick up TV signal, but it did eliminate default antennas in most mass produced TVs. So now you need to buy the hardware separately. I can forgive people a little bit for forgetting that the option is there if we're all now buying TVs that don't give you the option with its own hardware.

I've tried using a small antenna with third party hardware where I live. I can't get a strong signal.

Pretty much nobody born after 1990 has any empirical evidence that there was ever free TV through antennas. They didn't live that life. I expect the number to increase from 29% every year.

Depends where you live. Near a metro area with line of sight to the tower, you get crystal clear ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX with something like a Mohu Leaf or its competitors (even amazon makes one). Runs around $20.

I don't have line of sight - mostly trees blocking it so depending on weather I'd get NBC, sometimes FOX. That's it. Oh yeah and a bunch of useless channels, some of them in 4:3 format. And PBS for you Obama fans...

So I thought about buying a directional Yagi antenna and mounting it in the attic (on the roof would be better but I don't think my neighbors would like the idea) and I would have to get a few splitters for each TV.

In the end I decided against it and signed up for DirectTV NOW. Use it through my Apple TV and love it. For $35 a month I get a nice grandfathered deal including ESPN, ESPN2, FS1, FS2, NBC Olympics etc...

I want my Obamantenna!

givitome wrote:

I want my Obamantenna!

Ummm, Trumptenna. Obama is not the president. Do try to keep up.

Nice troll thread rojo

7/10

Trumptenna wrote:

givitome wrote:

I want my Obamantenna!

Ummm, Trumptenna. Obama is not the president. Do try to keep up.

#notmypresident

not so simple wrote:

feldman wrote:

I'm an engineer, electromagnetic waves are not line of site.

Some are, some aren't. It depends on the frequency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line-of-sight_propagation

ok engineers, in as few words as possible tell us why it's so hard to get a good TV signal vs. radio signal.

I also live in a tree-filled town that's an over-the-air dead spot-small metro area that's 60 miles either way to the nearest tv station and tower. There are a handful of people who have the big 25+ foot antennas out of obstinance, but even more that wouldn't got there because, hey Florida, so too many concerns about lightning strikes.

We've had Directv since we moved here because we can just find a signal between the trees.

Doesn't matter what your neighbors think about your antenna. They can't stop you from putting one up for video: