Am I the only one of this group who was still living in the dark ages when it comes to television? Until yesterday we had nothing more than rabbit ears on a set in our basement that picked up maybe three stations that were descent enough to watch with some adjusting of the antenna and several others that barely came in at all, but really couldn't be watched. We didn't care too much because we really watch maybe a couple hours of TV a week on average. There are many weeks that go by that I haven't watched the TV at all. It was primarily used for the girls to watch their videos.
Well, a while ago I had sent in for the government sponsored $40 coupon for the digital to analog converter boxes that will be needed come this February. They are only good for 90 days and mine was due to expire on August 29. Sooo...yesterday I went to Circuit city and spent $21 (after the coupon) and purchased one of these boxes.
I am curious if anyone else is still depending on the airwaves or are you all "connected". Even if you are paying for cable, you should really give this a try instead. The digital transmissions are free the same as analog was before and you would not believe the picture. Crystal, crystal, crystal clear. We now receive 12 stations in ABSOLUTELY PERFECT digital quality. And best of all we are not paying for them. :)
I constructed this antenna off of instructions on you tube and it seems to work great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQhlmJTMzw
To know if you have digital stations in your area now (All major stations will be by February) you can check out the following website:
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx
6 comments:
I dont know if ours is digital or not, Justin. We subscribe to the very basic cable package so we dont depend on an antenna. I'm like you though, I dont care to watch it too much. The kids enjoy PBS for clifford,bob the builder and such and Dawn and I enjoy watching the news or an occasional show in the evening after the kids have gone to bed. I think cable is already digital. Our cable company has upgrade so in a few weeks we will be able to get our phone,tv and internet all on one line for a bundled discount. I dont know if we will be able to just keep the basic tv service with this though. I really dont need or want all those channels anyway,although some of the documentary channels like the history channel are pretty neat but most of this stuff you can already find on the internet. Television can be a great threat to quality family time if you allow it to but even without it as we have before it is easy to squander time in other ways. I have found that when you have a bunch of kids that are not really misbehaving but just high energy and you've run out of ideas for them its nice to be able to pop in a movie or turn on a decent cartoon and keep them occupied for a little while and pacify my brain for a moment. Probably not a quality parenting trait on my part but I dont see any negative impact from it.
Jake,
Ha! We do the same thing sometimes.
If you subscribe to cable then what I was talking about doesn't apply to you except for the fact that you may be able to get the same quality of channels, albeit probably fewer, for no charge at all. No more cable bill.
I like how you said 'decent' cartoon. Haven't some become downright scary??!! I can't understand how anyone could consider some of that children's programming.
On a side note...we are getting 4 or 5 PBS stations with this setup. AND NO BILL!!
I guess I'm still in the dark ages. I haven't had a tv for about five years.
Have the girls watched Helen Keller again since I was there? It was very fun for me to watch them really get into that movie. It held even little Maddies attention. Sure do miss them!
Didn't mean to demean anyone who doesn't have a tv, Luke. I'd say not having one and not mising it is something to be proud of.
Post a Comment