In an earlier post, i asked you if you watch a ton of media and/or spend time on the screens. There was a time a few years ago where I was spending nearly $200 a month on satellite television. And I didn’t even have the top line service. Seemingly there was many times – nothing worthwhile on. I found myself generally spending time watching live sports or sports highlights with the occasional news report and a sitcom or two – nothing really unique.
But for $2400 a year???
So I had already adopted Apple TV, Roku, and was familiar with a few streaming services inclusive of Netflix and Youtube – again nothing massively unique here. So i set out to take note of my family’s media habits, and noticed that it was dominated by watching my own personal movie collection, Netflix, and some DVR action of broadcasts. Once I settled in on the pattern, I figured I could solve for those viewing patters for a hell of a lot less per month, and do so legally. This is a key point for me, as there are many unlocked sticks/devices and streaming sites overseas that rip off the content producers, and I made a call not to pull from those resources given my family consumption. There are a slew of options out there though, okay back to the mainline media path….
I live about 50 miles from many of the base broadcast points for the big 4 networks in my metro area, and I had zero clue on what the range was for these HD signals. After some research at this site:
I was able to confirm that I was in the game here. This is a site that was especially helpful to decide if this was a joke of project or if I would be in range.
So I set out to research which HD antenna was the best out there for the money, and I landed on the “Mohu Sky 60 Amplified Attic/Outdoor HDTV” as the best for the money. I cannot remember how I landed on this particular model, other than I know I hit up amazon, newegg, and some other niche blogs for cutting the cord – these are some of the articles I pulled from:
- http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-indoor-hdtv-antenna/
- http://lifehacker.com/five-best-indoor-over-the-air-hd-antennae-1513572532/1516909855
- http://lifehacker.com/five-best-indoor-over-the-air-hd-antennae-1513572532
- http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-tv-antennas,review-2354.html
- http://www.consumersearch.com/tv-antennas/best-indoor-hdtv-antennas
I knew that I wanted to spend at least $100 on an antenna as I had bought the $40 ‘Home Depot specials’ in the past, and they always were underpowered/garbage. The Moho Sky 60 eventually was mounted on the roof where my satellite dish had been before, and I leveraged the existing wires throughout the home for the signal distribution. My results weren’t exactly fantastic, until I moved out of that first site and into my secondary home – this time the antenna is mounted in the attic. I am getting over 30 local broadcast signals to all the TV’s in my home, and in smoking resolution – for FREE. I think the Moho cost me around $200 total.
So now I have the local broadcast channels and the big networks all hit my home over the air given the antenna placement. In the next article, I’ll go over the next step that was focused solely on online services fed by my primary internet provider, along with the payback I’ve experienced over the past few years.
- Total Cash Spent – $300
- $200 for the HD antenna
- $100 for handyman mounting and remounting
2 thoughts on “Cutting The Cord (Part 1) – Over the Air Solution”