Over-the-Air TV only?

[Yukari]

Who here has Over-the-Air TV only?  I used to have Cable, then Dish, but now I don't have time to watch TV much because of work (and of course my hobbies, golf, running, biking, swimming, snowboarding in winter, etc.).  So I cancelled all the fee based TV.  If I want to watch other stuff, I can usually get it online.  Veetle.com is especially entertaining.  As for Golf Central, I can get that a day after online.

Anyone else have over-the-air TV only?

[nevets88]

I cut the cord (cancelled TWC) in 2006 when OTA broadcasts were available and have a Mac Mini attached to the TV. Never looked back. Saved so much money and really didn't miss out on too much except for sports events, which I caught parts of later. Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, ESPN3 filled the gap nicely. News, CSpan, cable news are all available for free via streaming on their websites.

So I saved about $75/month not paying for cable but paying for streaming/downloading. That's more than $5K total I've saved since I cut the cord and some of the content I own the license and can play anytime, anywhere.

More $ for golf!

[zeg]

I haven't had any sort of pay TV for about 8 years now. When I was in LA, this wasn't much of a sacrifice as there were about 20 broadcast channels, including all the networks and one or two PBS stations. Now that I'm in nowheresville and CBS is the only broadcast station it's not as nice. However, I can't say I miss it at all. I don't have time for that crap anyway, and I am glad not to have the distraction with two young kids in the house.

[Mattplusness]

Really though, I see no point in having cable nowadays. Everything is available online and it's as easy as plugging a cord in to watch your laptop through the tv.

The only reason I would get cable is to have basic cable for sports. It's always a PITA to watch live games online. Either the feeds are laggy, choppy, or bad quality.

[TommyBuoy]

Haven't paid for TV since TWC gave me a sweet 1 year deal like 15 yrs ago.  Cancelled after it expired.

I have basic Road Runner for Internet (which is now the same speed as standard was when I signed up way back when).  If you have a digital signal (ie: RR) coming into your house and you have a TV that has a QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) tuner  -- nearly all new TVs do -- you can get all of your local stations for free at cable or HD quality.  I also get some from adjacent cities due to my location -- often redundant, but sometimes different.

I'm pretty sure this is controlled by Federal Law -- cable companies can't scrambled what is offered OTA.

From TWC:

http://www.timewarnercable.com/sandiego-desertcities/site.faqs/DigitalCab/HDTV/HDTVSet-to/My-TV-has-a-built-in-digital-T

This might help out some of you folks in areas with crappy OTA reception.

I also have a Netflix account and stream a lot to the TV.  Basic RR has been fine for this, but I'm not a big pixel snob

Tommy