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Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine Vol 03 Issue 08
------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine -------
Vol 3, Issue 8
My ultra-cool sister-in-law, JoAnn, visited with us last week.
She wanted to take a short break from her hectic travel schedule
to spend some time with her niece. Since she brought along a new
cookbook and the desire to use it, who was I to complain?
While she was here, she and Lisa worked on setting up an "outdoor
room" on our deck. After all their work, we've got a lovely
space that I think Lisa, Kaylie and I will be enjoying a lot more
as the weather gets warmer.
Unfortunately, my efforts to get rid of our cable bill (detailed
in last issue), did not meet with as much success. I'll detail
some of my challenges below and talk about some of the issues you
might want to be aware of before you try to cut the cable.
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In This Issue...
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1. Article: Best Laid Plans
2. Shameless Self-Promotion
3. The Fine Print
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1. Article: Best Laid Plans
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I had a dream.
The dream was that I would be able to watch crystal clear
television programs without having to pay the monthly cable
bill. A simple little box, a small UHF aerial and suddenly the
world of HDTV would be at my service.
Not so much.
Judging by the response I got from last issue, it sounds like a
number of you wouldn't mind living that dream. Well, before you
run out with a hatchet to rid yourself of the evil cable bill,
listen to my cautionary tale.
First of all, the box. If you already have a television with a
digital converter inside it, then you don't need this. If you
have an older standard television (an old CRT set, for example),
then you can just buy one of the basic DTV converter boxes (the
gadget you will need if you want to watch broadcast TV after June
12, 2009). I registered to receive the government coupon and
received it in about two weeks. You can still register for
yours, if you want, at https://www.dtv2009.gov/. The box I
purchased at Best Buy cost $45, so really, even if it fails
miserably, I guess I'm only out $5 (so far).
Then I ran into a little snag. My TV is what they call "HD
ready" this means that it has the *capability* to display high
definition content, but it doesn't have the internal converter
like a real HDTV does. The DTV converter I purchased displays
only in standard definition. HD converters are closer to $200
and you can't use the government coupon for them. It's annoying,
but we didn't have HDTV cable anyway, so I guess that will be OK.
On to the next issue.
I mentioned last time that Lisa and I watch one or two programs
which are not on broadcast TV. For that we planned on using one
or the other online TV services, sepcifically Hulu.com
(http://hulu.com/). This, actually, works just fine for us. The
only thing to be aware of here is that you still need to have
some sort of high speed Internet service. If you happen to get
that service from the local cable company, then you should take
into account that you are probably receiving some sort of
discount by having both Internet and television. Find out what
your real savings will be after you lose that discount. For us
the two services are separate, so I know exactly how much I will
save. Your mileage may vary.
Now comes the big one -- the antenna. I set up broadcast digital
TV for my mother- and father-in-law down in Texas. All we needed
was a little UHF antenna (the "loop" part of the old-fashioned
rabbit ears). My good friend Ken uses a similar set up to
receive tons of channels here in Ann Arbor. Lucky me, though.
For some reason, we are in an area which is "signal-challenged".
To be fair, Ken does live near the top of a fairly tall apartment
building.
I'll admit to having been a little disappointed. After I went to
the trouble of getting everything set up, I managed to get only
one channel, and that tended to break up on a regular basis. As
usual, when something goes wrong with one of my projects, I
consult the Internet. In so doing, I found this site which can
help you with just that question. It's called AntennaWeb
(http://antennaweb.org/) and it is there simply to tell you what
kind of antenna you need.
I typed our information into its handy-dandy evaluator. It turns
out where we are, we need a "medium directional" antenna to get
any of our normal stations. This is about three steps above a
little indoor UHF antenna. It also means that it will probably
have to be mounted on the outside of the house -- something I'm
not sure is within my relatively limited mechanical ability.
Also I will have to run cable through the walls in order to
connect the antenna to the television. I've done that before,
but it won't be a lot of fun.
So for now, at least, my dream is on hold. The additional
equipment I would need will cost in the hundreds of dollars. I
would also have to take the time (or spend the money to hire
someone else) to install an outdoor antenna. At this point, it
might just be better to leave things as they are. I'll let you
know if the situation changes. Wish me luck.
Have you tried to set up one of these converter boxes? Have you
had any similar experiences? Drop me a line at
gpeters@cyberdatasolutionsllc.com. I'd love to hear about how
well it worked for you.
Copyright 2009, Greg Peters
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2. Shameless Self-Promotion
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The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg
Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data
Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better
web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us
on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your
webmaster.
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3. The Fine Print
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