To He$$ with CC'S - i'M GOING OTA!!

Although my Cable Cards are (currently) working fine. I too can get all the major local networks with an indoor antenna (without having to adjust it for each channel) and it looks great. If TW keeps moving HD channels to SDV then I may very well drop CableCard and their HD service as well.

That's what I'm doing. Given that TWC is moving everything to SDV, I saw no reason to pay them money to screw me out of service, so all I get is analog cable from TWC and HD OTA. If the tuning resolver dongle for SDV ever comes out I might add the digital/HD package(s), but I'm also keeping an eye on the "thawing" of Tivo's relationship with DirecTV. If that works out I might switch back to DirecTV.

Isn't OTA great? My stations are further away, and I'm still waiting for my local CBS affiliate to go full power (should happen within a week, as far as i'm hearing), but even with 70-90% signal strength, I get great picture quality with little or no macroblocking. In fact, my local PBS-HD affiliate uses a directional antenna pointed away from my town, so I only get 50-60% strength, but I am still able to lock on and get good picture quality. The TiVoHD tuner is great.

OTA is again a viable option these days. I put up a channel master 4221, and one of my neighbors thought I was getting into ham radios or something.

If it weren't for ESPN, I'd totally drop cable. Other than local stuff over OTA, which is most of my viewing, I can pick up plenty of other stuff via Unbox.

The PQ via OTA is great. And I'm no expert on this, but I think the content via OTA is not flagged with any DRM crap. Unlike what they can do over cable. So besides having great PQ, I have all my season passes set over the OTA channels so when MRV/TTG rolls, I won't be disappointed. I could be wrong about this though.

As another has mentioned DTV. I'd still be with them if they had not dropped TiVo. But even if they patched things up, it will probably be several years before I'd consider going back. I've invested too much on S3's and an HD. Plus, I'm liking what TiVo continues to do on the broadband front.

I ordered s3 the day it came out and transferred lifetime thinking I would uise CC forever. Dropped them after 4 months. Bought a 20 dollar ugly copper looking antenna from radio shack. Used an old signal booster from a Terk antenna. Pick up all the OTA stations in Austin now. You're right; PQ is better than cable. And you save 100 a month.

Alas, if only this was an option for me, but the OTA signals here are horrible, and there'd be no easy way for me to hook up an external antenna in this old apartment building.

gguillot said:

I am 30 miles north of San Antonio, and all of the stations came in crystal clear with a 100% signal. I even picked up a few Austin stations. The HD quality looks as good as or better than the broadcast HD stations on cable.

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Where the heck do you live that you had cable??? I tt'ed someone in Blanco the other day who were on DirecTV, telling them about their Tivo options for HD from satellite (not good) and they were clueless about OTA.

I live maybe 50mi from SA and 35 from Austin and can get both if I aim my Silver Sensor properly. Planning a mast w/two outdoor antennas aimed in different directions. High Def Heaven!

These people I'd spoken with are pretty hip technically but still didn't know anything about the glories of OTA HD. :up:

Graymalkin said:

Alas, if only this was an option for me, but the OTA signals here are horrible, and there'd be no easy way for me to hook up an external antenna in this old apartment building.

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I have had really good luck with the Terk HDTVa, you might want to give it a try.

pkscout said:

That's what I'm doing. Given that TWC is moving everything to SDV, I saw no reason to pay them money to screw me out of service, so all I get is analog cable from TWC and HD OTA. If the tuning resolver dongle for SDV ever comes out I might add the digital/HD package(s), but I'm also keeping an eye on the "thawing" of Tivo's relationship with DirecTV. If that works out I might switch back to DirecTV.

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How's the PQ of the TWC analog cable? I'm thinking of doing the same setup...

Laserfan said:

Where the heck do you live that you had cable??? I tt'ed someone in Blanco the other day who were on DirecTV, telling them about their Tivo options for HD from satellite (not good) and they were clueless about OTA.

I live maybe 50mi from SA and 35 from Austin and can get both if I aim my Silver Sensor properly. Planning a mast w/two outdoor antennas aimed in different directions. High Def Heaven!

These people I'd spoken with are pretty hip technically but still didn't know anything about the glories of OTA HD. :up:

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Really? Antennaweb didn't give me much hope, so I didn't try a real antenna. My HOA would frown on one on the roof anyway, so I was hoping for Attic Mount. But Antennaweb said I'd need a MUCH bigger antenna than I expected. I'm in San Antonio city limits just barely outside of Kirby.

I've been using OTA only since I got my S3 at release. It's been wonderful. I've had not a single issue and the PQ is great. I get more TV than I can watch just from OTA anyway.

Laserfan said:

Where the heck do you live that you had cable??? I tt'ed someone in Blanco the other day who were on DirecTV, telling them about their Tivo options for HD from satellite (not good) and they were clueless about OTA.

I live maybe 50mi from SA and 35 from Austin and can get both if I aim my Silver Sensor properly. Planning a mast w/two outdoor antennas aimed in different directions. High Def Heaven!

These people I'd spoken with are pretty hip technically but still didn't know anything about the glories of OTA HD. :up:

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I am in-between Boerne and Leon Springs. I have GVTC cable, but can also get T/W out here. The GVTC folks have been great to work with, but we still can't seem to solve the cablecard problem. I think GVTC serves most of the hill country between Boerne and New Braunfels, but maybe they don't go up to Blanco.
I have a line-of-sight view of downtown S.A., as my house is on top of a hill - that is probably why I am getting such strong signals. I'm even picking up KVUE from Austin very strong.
I might try leaving one cablecard in the Tivo for now and see if that solves the grey screen problem...

Grrrrr. I would love to go with OTA HD, and that would be fine for the wife and me. These munchkins that I insisted we have, require Nick, Disney, etc. Expanded Basic is $50 a month to get those.

Cable Cards and HD tier from Charter will be an additional $6 per month, so reluctantly, I'll do that rather than investing in an OTA antenna.

Ereth said:

Really? Antennaweb didn't give me much hope, so I didn't try a real antenna. My HOA would frown on one on the roof anyway, so I was hoping for Attic Mount. But Antennaweb said I'd need a MUCH bigger antenna than I expected. I'm in San Antonio city limits just barely outside of Kirby.

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You may want to give this Radio Shack antenna a try - it's part no #15-2187 "HDTV Indoor/Outdoor Directional Antenna." The antenna looks like a Directv sat dish - about the same size and color. Being in Kirby, you are much closer to town than I am, so you should be able to pick up some strong signals.

gguillot said:

Stopped by Radio Shack today and spent $80 on an outdoor antenna - round one, like a sat dish. Ran a cable out the window and placed the antenna on a ladder. I am 30 miles north of San Antonio, and all of the stations came in crystal clear with a 100% signal. I even picked up a few Austin stations. The HD quality looks as good as or better than the broadcast HD stations on cable. There was not a single bit of macroblocking either.
I am going to mount the antenna as high as I can this weekend, but it is apparently high enough as is. Now all I need to do is cancel the HD content off my cable service (I am going to keep basic cable for the family) and say goodbye to the cablecard fiasco I have been going through.

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That's exactly what I did when Comcast kept on saying that the CCs were bad. Yeah right. I bought a HD antenna that looks like a dish, I'm sure it's the same as yours, and I could not be any happier. I pick up channels from 50 miles away. And the local HD channels come in pefectly. Long live the HD antennas!!! :up: :up: :up:
BTW, I installed the HD antenna in my garage. Perfect!

dunn28 said:

How's the PQ of the TWC analog cable? I'm thinking of doing the same setup...

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It's actually not bad for analog cable. There is certainly a large difference between HD and analog cable, but it's tolerable to watch things like Monk and Psych. It's a little frustrating when I watch Stargate: Atlantis, but not too bad.

Let's put it this way. The analog here is a bit worse than downloading something from Unbox, but not horrendously so.

Ereth said:

My HOA would frown on one on the roof anyway, so I was hoping for Attic Mount.

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Your HOA can't touch you. You can put up an antenna anywhere on your house you like.

Source: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/consumerdish.html

[NG]Owner

I put up the same RS antenna just outside of Tomball and also can report that the OTA signals are perfect. The RS antenna works very well. I was quite happy to tell Comcast where to stick thier $191 a month bill.

I have three Series 2's and one TiVo HD. No CC for now. I'm using Basic cable from Comcast and it works fine.