New House - New Antenna
So being the self-proclaimed, bleeding edge prosumer that I am, it came as a shock to my wife and subsequently some of our friends, that our new home in Connecticut would not have an HD dish w/PVR. And while yes, the local cable provider does in fact offer HD receivers, we’ve decided against that as well. What’s left - why an antenna of course, the wonderfully retro and “analog” technology that can be seen on almost every house over 20 years old.
So why spend $500 installing a new antenna and rotor, when all of these other options are available to us?
1. Despite an antenna’s more mature looks vs. a new 3NLB dish, the reality is that new antenna’s pull over-the-air (OTA) digital signals from local broadcasters. After doing a bit of research on AntennaWeb, I’ve discovered that our central location between Hartford and New Haven is an advantage for excellent HD reception from these broadcasters.
2. Beyond the initial installation and hardware expense, IT’S FREE. What do you spend on your cable/dish bill to receive HD signals? My best guess is somewhere between $60 and $100 per month. Even with an average of $80 per month, that’s just a lunch shy of $1,000 annually… To watch TV. No thanks, we really watch too much TV as it is.
3. What about your PVR/Tivo like device? Yes, we will certainly miss pausing live television and given some new open source products on the horizon, we may still add that with our OTA HD receiver, but what I found is that when you have all of the new Letterman episodes from the week, you tend to watch ALL the new episodes from the week. Again, we watch too much TV anyway. Did you know the average family logs about seven hours of TV viewing a DAY. Given eight hours for sleep and eight hours for work/school/commute and seven hours for TV that leaves about an hour to take care of life’s other necessities, like family, reading, eating, listening to music and bathroom breaks. One of the biggest things we will likely miss from our old Dishnetwork PVR is the on-screen caller ID for those bastards who try to call during the Amazing Race!
4. Quality: I’ve been reading online and hearing from other video geeks that increasingly both cable and dish providers and compressing HD content to fit more through the pipe. With an antenna THERE IS NO PIPE, so the result is full blown HD content in 5.1 surround sound. And did I mention, it’s free?
5. Local Channels and Weather Resistent too: During my first 24 hours with my Dishnetwork option I noticed there were no local channels - a “feature” the salesman failed to tell about and I was not educated enough to ask about. While I did secure a Chicago channel for some local news information, the first storm hit two weeks later and showed me how vulnerable dishes are to cloud cover when you need them most for severe weather warnings. Luckily some of the side channels that come with local digital TV contain simple local weather radar that clearly shows when to duck and cover.
6. I mentioned music earlier on, but with the proper filter/connection, an external roof mount antenna will provide an FM receiver with copious audio options that will challenge the TV for our attention. During our three month stay near long island sound, we’ve spent more time with the radio on than the TV and our goal is to maintain within our new home. Yes, that will mean no more MTV, VH1, HGTV, TBS or Adult Swim, but most of the specific shows we want to see, I can torrent anyway. So we have already subscribed for a 6MB DSL line!
This isn’t the first time I’ve greatly reduced my TV consumption. At a younger age, I decided that buying music was more important than paying my cable bill and the cable company quickly took care of my priorities. This left me without ANY TV connection for over two years and I survived just fine. Actually I watched a lot more movies and enjoyed a lot more music. Plus, it seems some of the wisest people I know don’t even own a TV. There must be something behind that. I just looking forward to doing something cool with all that extra time!
-pjc