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Richdmoore

macrumors 68000
Jul 24, 2007
1,956
355
Troutdale, OR
:)I tested the Leaf antenna (unpowered) at my parents' today and am impressed. Because it's flat, I could put it all the way up against the ceiling, certainly can't do that with the existing rabbit ear antennas. Both tvs received several more stations than the powered antennas, including a few DC stations which are just over the 35 mile limit. My Dad and I connected 50 ft of coax cable and taped the Leaf to the wall on the second floor, his tv went from 26 channels to 42, basically everything available from the surrounding 3 cities. Now we have to figure a more elegant way to route the cable through the house and maybe up to the attic. But I'm impressed that this unpowered antenna worked over the 56 foot length. No preamps or whatsits.

Great to hear. I purchased a powered version, that was on the one sale a day web site, and I am currently waiting for it to arrive to test is vs my current indoor antennas. (I so wish I could just mount a roof antenna, but I am a renter so I can't.) I hope it works as well as all the reviews on amazon.
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
Great to hear. I purchased a powered version, that was on the one sale a day web site, and I am currently waiting for it to arrive to test is vs my current indoor antennas. (I so wish I could just mount a roof antenna, but I am a renter so I can't.) I hope it works as well as all the reviews on amazon.
I'm considering the powered version, just to give a little stronger signal to some of the stations my LEAF already picks up. Please post when you try it out and let us know how the powered version works for you.
 

JAT

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2001
6,473
124
Mpls, MN
Great to hear. I purchased a powered version, that was on the one sale a day web site, and I am currently waiting for it to arrive to test is vs my current indoor antennas. (I so wish I could just mount a roof antenna, but I am a renter so I can't.) I hope it works as well as all the reviews on amazon.
The FCC requires landlords to allow antennas or sat dishes. If an apartment building, you may be limited as to your area. But if it is a house, you have plenty of options.
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
The FCC requires landlords to allow antennas or sat dishes. If an apartment building, you may be limited as to your area. But if it is a house, you have plenty of options.
Sat dish is really not a solution for over-the-air. In our subdivision your not allowed to put antennas on the exterior of the houses. So you either have to do an indoor (maybe in the attic if it can be wired) or pay the piper for service.
 

Richdmoore

macrumors 68000
Jul 24, 2007
1,956
355
Troutdale, OR
The FCC requires landlords to allow antennas or sat dishes. If an apartment building, you may be limited as to your area. But if it is a house, you have plenty of options.

I have read most of the ruling. It really doesn't help me in my particular case.

To paraphrase, I can put a dish or antenna in an area that is under my exclusive control (Decks, Patio, anywhere inside my unit) In my case, I don't have a deck, I live in a multiunit property so I can't attach to the exterior. No roof access, besides the roof would be considered a common area. My patio is on ground level, facing a large hill, and does no point anywhere near the direction I would need to for line of sight for any antenna.

If my unit had a second story balcony, I could clamp an antenna without issue, and use a flat cable to run under the doorjamb, and all would be well. I don't have that luxury in my case. Because of all of this, I am stuck with using an indoor antenna.

Previously, I just split off my cable internet line, and was able to see some local clear QAM channels. At some point last year the cable company installed a filter to block me from receiving the over the air channels that way (as is there right, unless I subscribed to cable tv.)

FYI, now that the FCC is allowing the cable companies to stop all Clear QAM broadcasts of local channels, this solution will not work for anyone in the next year or two as the cable companies roll out encryption for every local station.

Thanks for the info anyway, as this post could help others who are trying to cut the cord and who live in rental houses or have HOA issues on property they own.

FCC web site:
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/installing-consumer-owned-antennas-and-satellite-dishes

Clear QAM elimination ruling:
http://www.fcc.gov/guides/cable-system-encryption
 
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bocomo

macrumors 6502
Jun 29, 2007
495
0
New York
Excellent thread!

I have been wanting to drop cable but sports was always what kept me

With some of those sites posted, i can now do it

Thanks everyone

:D
 

BigDukeSix

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2010
718
1
34.6700N 118.1590W
We are getting ready to cut the cable, as soon as our college football season is over and we hit the end of the current billing cycle. I already have an OTA antenna installed in the attic above the garage, and our transmitters are only 12 miles away. Not a huge selection of stations in western Montana, but that is okay. We get the networks, which is what we usually watch anyway. We also have a Mac Mini, an ATV3 and a Roku. Once the cable bill is gone, we will subscribe to Hulu+, we already have Netflix and Amazon Prime (more for the shipping than the content). Of course, we have to keep the cable internet, but that will cut our bill considerably, and that $$ can be used for more gadgets.

I do enjoy hearing everyones experiences in making the move.
 

JAT

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2001
6,473
124
Mpls, MN
Sat dish is really not a solution for over-the-air. In our subdivision your not allowed to put antennas on the exterior of the houses. So you either have to do an indoor (maybe in the attic if it can be wired) or pay the piper for service.

That's illegal. They have strong-armed all of you. Not saying you should riot or anything, but check out the links Richdmoore provided.
 

Bheleu

macrumors 6502
Nov 16, 2010
349
1
I've actually cut the cord and was thinking about going back to the monopoly cable company just to get the local channels clearly. Each time an airplane passes over my signal is interrupted for 10 seconds. When I spoke to TimeWarner the condescending CSR refused to offer any kind of discount to come back and even tried to get me into a package that would cost over $100 per month. I think I may give that antenna yet another try...

http://www.solidsignal.com/
A good antenna, proper height, and if you have a long coax run - boost the signal with a pre-amp or amp depending on how much you split the signal.
 

bbeagle

macrumors 68040
Oct 19, 2010
3,539
2,972
Buffalo, NY
That's illegal. They have strong-armed all of you. Not saying you should riot or anything, but check out the links Richdmoore provided.

It's not illegal.

Apartment complexes can tell you that you can't attach it to the exterior of their buildings or the roof. But they cannot tell you that you can't attach it to the porch railings or to some other portable structure.

When I was in an apartment that was facing the south-east, on the outdoor deck, I made a large triangle out of 2x4 wood, at the correct angle for the satellite dish, and attached the satellite dish to the wood. I held the wood down and in place with cinder blocks.

These types of solutions are always available. What they CAN'T say is that you can't have a satellite dish, what they CAN say is that you can't attach it to the side or roof of their complex.

(Unless the rules have changed since 2005 when I last rented)
 

bbeagle

macrumors 68040
Oct 19, 2010
3,539
2,972
Buffalo, NY
I was talking to a specific person that indicated he lived in a standalone house, controlled by a neighborhood organization. Unless I misunderstood his situation.

I'm sorry - I guess I didn't fully follow the conversation. I thought this was about apartments and townhomes.

You're right - if you own your house, a neighborhood organization cannot stop you from installing a satellite dish on your house. The rule might be in their 'regulations', but it's not legal for that rule to be there.
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
I'm sorry - I guess I didn't fully follow the conversation. I thought this was about apartments and townhomes.

You're right - if you own your house, a neighborhood organization cannot stop you from installing a satellite dish on your house. The rule might be in their 'regulations', but it's not legal for that rule to be there.
They cannot stop you from putting a satellite dish on the house, but they can stop you from mounting an external antenna. We can have an antenna, but it has to be mounted in the attic.
 

dgalvan123

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2008
684
22
Each of the reasons people have mentioned why they wouldn't want to cut the cord have solutions.

My setup:

OTA: I split the co-ax from my rooftop antenna: one goes straight into the TV, the other goes into my HD Homerun. We watch local news and live events on the TV, and use the HD Homerun for recording shows.

DVR: The HD Homerun is dual-tuner and sends the signal to EyeTV running on my mac (A 2009 MBP 17"). We use this to record network shows. EyeTV auto-exports the recording to iTunes (using the ETVcomskip applescript to remove the commercials), so the resulting iTunes .m4v is stored on an external hard drive and viewable by all the Apple TV's in my house. (This is scalable: if you want to add access to all your recorded shows to another TV in the house, just add another Apple TV. You can get 3rd gen refurbished for $85 each from apple.)

Cost: $20 / year for the TV Guide electronic program guide service in EyeTV. That's it. Everything else is free.

Mac Screen Mirroring: I use AirParrot to mirror my mac's screen to my Apple TV using AirPlay. If it can display on my mac, it can stream straight to my TV without any cables/setup required.

Major live events: If we want to watch the Oscars or olympics or a sporting event without commercials, we set it to record in EyeTV, then use AirParrot to mirror the mac screen and just watch the show inside the EyeTV application. This lets us start the event a bit late so we can fast-forward through the commercials.

So, I get live TV and DVR service all for about $20/year.

Sports: I'm not a big sports fan, but there is an ESPN plugin in XBMC, which I have installed on my jailbroken Apple TV 2. That seems to provide a good selection. *shrug*
 

khollister

macrumors 6502a
Feb 1, 2003
541
39
Orlando, FL
We just cut the cord. If it was up to me, I would have not bothered with broadcast at all, but my wife watches a lot of shows. So our setup ...

  • Winegard FlatWave indoor antenna from Costco (we are only a few miles from the towers)
  • Tivo Premiere DVR ($15/mo) - works great and it would take a long time to recover the cost of a Mac Mini based DVR
  • AppleTV 3 with Netflix and Sony 790 BDP with Amazon
  • 600+ blu-rays, ripped and transcoded to play on the ATV for convenience.
  • Use AirPlay from my MacBook Pro or iPad for things that are non-broadcast, but are streamed from websites
  • I do have 45Mbs broadband, which is not cheap ($75/mo)
  • We also killed out landline (which was actually VOIP from the cable company) too, so the total savings was about $80/mo
 

JAT

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2001
6,473
124
Mpls, MN
They cannot stop you from putting a satellite dish on the house, but they can stop you from mounting an external antenna. We can have an antenna, but it has to be mounted in the attic.

Both are covered by the same FCC rules. Promise.

Homeowner associations are often cheating, lying, criminal organizations. Sad.
 

BigDukeSix

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2010
718
1
34.6700N 118.1590W
dgalvan123 and khollister, thanks for the info on your setups. I had not thought about using my mini as a DVR. I love hearing how other folks have their stuff working, it gives me idea's for mine.
 

wknapp0924

macrumors 6502
Sep 14, 2012
410
15
Honolulu, HI
Very close myself, finally cancelled the HBO/SHOWTIME $25.00/MO subscription and went with IceFilms instead ( I know, I know, its illegal, but spare me your ethical BS.) I also just found out TWC is charging a 3.95/mo fee to "use" their cable modem box which we have had for years now. I ordered my own on Amazon for $27.00 and then I will save another 4 bucks a month.

Once I invest in a good OTA antenna I think I will cut the cable for good, besides broadband of course. APPLE TV2 does everything I need for now, but I will probably switch it over to MacMINI in the next year for all my media needs.
 

BigDukeSix

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2010
718
1
34.6700N 118.1590W
I have been reading up on using your own cable modem vs the 'rental' from the cable company. Seems there can be some hoops to jump through for sure. I just googled it and found a few websites/blogs that address the issue.
 

danbeckemeyer

macrumors newbie
Nov 26, 2012
14
0
My wife and I recently moved into our new home and I decided that it was time to cut out the traditional cable TV. Signed up for internet only and started on Hulu and Netflix on my XBOX. I'm not a multi-player gamer so I soon found out that Netflix does not work without an XBOX Live Gold subscription. We purchased an AppleTV3 over other competing devices primarily because we have 2 iPads and iPhones in the home — I was looking forward to AirPlaying.

We are very happy with this (dare I say) lifestyle change, despite the minor quirks when trying to load some Hulu or Netflix content (ATV3 is wired). Having an infant son keeping us so busy, so it is nice to turn on Pandora or iTunes streaming through our entertainment center while we tend to other tasks. The movie selection on Netflix is vast, but sometimes odd. Though, it does influence us to watch films that we wouldn't have watched otherwise. Hulu allows us to keep up with about 95% of our favorite shows.

I do worry sometimes about the stated bandwidth caps by ISPs, but I will never know how truly strict they are unless I give it a go.
 

dgalvan123

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2008
684
22
$16/month sounds great, but the high speed internet needed to make Hulu or Netflix worthwhile costs $40+/month around here.

This is true.

In my case, however, I upgraded my internet (from $35/month AT&T DSL ad < 3Mbps to $50/month TWC at ~15 Mbps) BEFORE I cut my Dish Network service. We used netflix streaming so much, even then, that we wanted to upgrade our internet service anyway.
The point: I would have the higher internet service whether I had "cut the cable" or not. So I don't count that as an "extra" cost for cutting cable. I get that others would. But once you get higher-speed internet, it's really frustrating to downgrade it. We use our ipads/iphones/computer/appletv so much at home, a slower internet speed would no longer seem acceptable.

Also, keep in mind that I (and I'm sure many others here) consider our entertainment situation without cable to actually be BETTER than it was with cable.

Here's why:

-I rarely watch commercials any more, since everything I watch on Netflix/ Hulu has no commercials (the Hulu XBMC plugin on my jailbroken ATV2 allows you to remove the commercials).

-All of my OTA antenna recordings are made through EyeTV on my mac, and are automatically exported to iTunes, which means I can put those recorded shows on our iphones and iPads. Very handy to have a couple Sesame Street episodes on the ipad for long car trips with the kids.

-Since all our shows come through Apple TVs (either EyeTV recordings exported to iTunes, or streaming from Netflix, Hulu (free), or Free Cable plugin for XBMC (ie: any shows that are available for free streaming from the network's website)), that means that the system is scalable to as many TVs in your house as you want. All you need is another Apple TV. And ATVs are much less expensive than Tivos. Plus Tivos require at least $15/month service fees. My only recurring cost is the $20/year (that's right PER YEAR) TV Guide program list fee for the Eye TV software.

----------

. . .

We are very happy with this (dare I say) lifestyle change, despite the minor quirks when trying to load some Hulu or Netflix content (ATV3 is wired). Having an infant son keeping us so busy, so it is nice to turn on Pandora or iTunes streaming through our entertainment center while we tend to other tasks. The movie selection on Netflix is vast, but sometimes odd. Though, it does influence us to watch films that we wouldn't have watched otherwise. Hulu allows us to keep up with about 95% of our favorite shows.
. . .

As a father of two young kids (2.5 year old boy and 10 month old girl), I can tell you that Netflix is ESSENTIAL once your kid gets to the age that you feel comfortable with them watching a TV show once in a while. That's because Netflix has just about every kids show you can think of, multiple seasons of it. And there are no ads try to sell you stuff through your kids. Sesame Street, Thomas the tank engine, wonder pets, yo gabba gabba (shudder) and everything else all have plenty of content. Being able to simply start playing whatever episode of whatever season you like without having to have the forethought to set a recording ahead of time is so valuable. Well worth the Netflix subscription cost.
 

blueroom

macrumors 603
Feb 15, 2009
6,381
26
Toronto, Canada
We cut the cable TV service about 3 yrs ago.

What we use:
Windows 7 media center AMD A6 running on a pair of dual ATSC tuners (Hauppauge & HDHomeRun)
Green button remote, 16 HDTV channels, guide data & DD5.1plus + no monthly fees
XBox 360 console as extenders (fantastic, but you must be on wired Ethernet to be problem free)
Apple TV3 for rentals, Unblock-US for border free content on Netflix.
Synology NAS for music, movie storage and everything else.

That's it. It's the WMC is the only Windows computer in the house and it works great.

I'm not a sports fan so cutting the cable was easy.
 
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