Who has cut the cable?

Caver Dave · Jul 17, 2015

Returned my boxes & told TWC to jam it 18 months ago... $1800 saved to date

Tip... you'll get as many or more OTA-HD signals leaving your TVs hooked to the cable lines than 95% of the commercial antennas (getting 7-8 *more* than mohu shows). :****:
I also have a $30 2m/70cm UHF-VHF (HAM) antenna mounted to the chimney that will pull in a local FOX station (terrain blocked) and 10 more stations (50+ miles) if needed.

GoogleTV box gives me Netflix ($8/month), browser streaming from most all the networks/YouTube and music (streamed & personal library)

al1tonyota · Jul 17, 2015

patooyee said:
I just bought the 60 upon Crutchfield's advice. How do you like it?

I have no real complaints IMO it is made kinda cheap the rubber gasket oring deal that "seals" it is worthless if it's going in the attic it won't be a concern mine was inside my mobile home for 6 months and was getting 4-7 channels I'm pretty far from major cities and finally mounted it on my service pole outside all the way at the top oposite of the lines, granted it tells you to stay 20' away from power lines but I don't have anything else that high to mount it too. I may be still limiting my reception from the power lines but I get 4-21 channels depending on weather. I am probably 80 miles from Columbus ms but get two channels from there randomly? I do a channel search from time to time just to see if more are coming in sometimes I gain channels sometimes I loose non working channels. Overall I am very happy with it $140 from bestbuy actually a gift but still no cable bill and the channels I get are 720 and 480 hd.

al1tonyota · Jul 17, 2015

Caver Dave said:
Returned my boxes & told TWC to jam it 18 months ago... $1800 saved to date

Tip... you'll get as many or more OTA-HD signals leaving your TVs hooked to the cable lines than 95% of the commercial antennas (getting 7-8 *more* than mohu shows). :****:
I also have a $30 2m/70cm UHF-VHF (HAM) antenna mounted to the chimney that will pull in a local FOX station (terrain blocked) and 10 more stations (50+ miles) if needed.

GoogleTV box gives me Netflix ($8/month), browser streaming from most all the networks/YouTube and music (streamed & personal library)

You aren't getting ota-hd more than likely they haven't put a filter on your line so you are still getting basic cable! I cancelled my cable a month before I moved to my land and had basic cable the entire time! Well until they went to having to have a box on every TV even with cable! Then I used one of my dads spare boxes until I moved...

Caver Dave · Jul 17, 2015

al1tonyota said:
You aren't getting ota-hd more than likely they haven't put a filter on your line so you are still getting basic cable!

No sir... the difference in picture quality is pretty dramatic between the 2 and HD quality is the same as when connected directly to my dual-band HAM antenna.

There's no cable signal/feed (filtered at street?, because I still have Earthlink bandwidth piggy-backed over TWC wire). The cables feeding almost every room (shy of the crappers) from a central distribution at the back of the house on out to the street are acting as the "antenna"...

al1tonyota · Jul 17, 2015

Caver Dave said:
No sir... the difference in picture quality is pretty dramatic between the 2 and HD quality is the same as when connected directly to my dual-band HAM antenna.

There's no cable signal/feed (filtered at street?, because I still have Earthlink bandwidth piggy-backed over TWC wire). The cables feeding almost every room (shy of the crappers) from a central distribution at the back of the house on out to the street are acting as the "antenna"...

Wow ok didn't know it worked like that?

patooyee · Jul 20, 2015

I got my antenna and am going to install it Wed. hopefully. This is where my house becomes a nightmare. It has been wired for cable twice that I am aware of before I got there. There are a couple coax outlets in the walls that we have never found the other ends of and a couple coax cables at the junction box that we have never found the other end of as well. There are two distinct sets / ages of cable in the walls that we have identified so far.

The other day when Mediacom installed the internet the cable guy had a small dongle that he screwed onto the outlet on the wall. He was then able to use another device at the junction box to tell which cable his dongle was attached to. I need one of these devices! What are they called and where can I get them?

patooyee · Jul 20, 2015

http://www.amazon.com/Steren-PVPT2-Cable-Continuity-Tester/dp/B000GDDPRG

This appears to be it. I'm guessing you just plug it in, it applies 12v to the cord, and he used a volt meter on the other end to look for 12v?

paradisepwoffrd · Jul 20, 2015

Re: Re: Re: Who has cut the cable?

patooyee said:
http://www.amazon.com/Steren-PVPT2-Cable-Continuity-Tester/dp/B000GDDPRG

This appears to be it. I'm guessing you just plug it in, it applies 12v to the cord, and he used a volt meter on the other end to look for 12v?

Its probly that or a device that puts a tone on the cable, and the reciever looks for the frequency.

xjkrawler · Jul 22, 2015

Re: Re: Re: Who has cut the cable?

Going to cut my cable today.... just dont ever watch tv and cant justify continuing to pay.

Got a cheapo antenna gonna try out.

May look into the mohu antennas. Do yall have the sky 60? I live in the middle of Huntsville and curious if I should mount it outside or if it would be fine in the attic.

I guess if I mount it outside I could put it right where my cable goes into the house. It would feed all of the bedrooms correct?

Neal3000 · Jul 22, 2015

Re: Re: Re: Who has cut the cable?

paradisepwoffrd said:
Its probly that or a device that puts a tone on the cable, and the reciever looks for the frequency.

You can buy a tone/probe at home depot, maybe HF

al1tonyota · Jul 22, 2015

Re: Re: Re: Who has cut the cable?

xjkrawler said:
Going to cut my cable today.... just dont ever watch tv and cant justify continuing to pay.

Got a cheapo antenna gonna try out.

May look into the mohu antennas. Do yall have the sky 60? I live in the middle of Huntsville and curious if I should mount it outside or if it would be fine in the attic.

I guess if I mount it outside I could put it right where my cable goes into the house. It would feed all of the bedrooms correct?

If you live in town I would put it in the attic! I live 50-60 miles from bham and it only got 4 channels at most inside my trailer. Yes sky 60. They have a diagram in the manual that shows where to put the amplifier and rf splitter can't remember the order or placement I only have one TV hooked to mine.

jakec69 · Jul 22, 2015

patooyee said:
http://www.amazon.com/Steren-PVPT2-Cable-Continuity-Tester/dp/B000GDDPRG

This appears to be it. I'm guessing you just plug it in, it applies 12v to the cord, and he used a volt meter on the other end to look for 12v?

ive got a few that we use for phone cable. I bet it would work on coax. its a tone and amplifier deal. if im working near you this week ill drop it off. if not I can run it to you one evening or this weekend. I need to bring you your timing light back anyways.

patooyee · Jul 22, 2015

jakec69 said:
ive got a few that we use for phone cable. I bet it would work on coax. its a tone and amplifier deal. if im working near you this week ill drop it off. if not I can run it to you one evening or this weekend. I need to bring you your timing light back anyways.

Thanks, I actually received it today, I just installed my Mofo 60. I'm running / identifying cables right now. It works good, glad I got it. It has a little speaker that detaches and rings when you're on the right wire. I had to do a couple wires before it arrived in the mail today and I used a 9-volt battery and volt meter for that. If you hold the battery just right you can hit the little center wire and the coupler with both battery terminals. You just need someone to hold that position while you go out with the volt meter. That worked well also but not nearly as easy. $14 well spent IMO.

I've found the cable to 2 TV's and I knew I would have to run another for my last TV because its on a wall that never had an outlet. After that I have to run a power cable to the spot in the attic where I mounted the antenna to power the amplifier.

Before I started I hooked the antenna directly up to one of the TV's and just held the antenna in my hand. I got 17 channels. There are 22 total in my area but 2 of them come from the southeast and the rest come from the northwest. So I'm not really expecting to get those two that are southeast of me since the antenna will be pointed toward the others. They are weak independant stations anyway.

patooyee · Jul 22, 2015

Almost done. The Mofo 60 has got me 27 channels!

al1tonyota · Jul 22, 2015

patooyee said:
Almost done. The Mofo 60 has got me 27 channels!

It's great ain't it all for free from now on! Picture is just like hd cable

patooyee · Jul 22, 2015

Re:

Well turns out that half the channels are Spanish, church, shopping, or just suck in general. But I get the major networks in high def which is all I really wanted.

ROKTOY829 · Jul 24, 2015

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Decided that since I'm hardly home to even sleep and shower, I was going to cut the cable. I watch TV if its raining outside or cold, so I called them up and man did they try to keep me. Kept offering money off. I was like just kill the account, she finally came back and offered it for half for 10 months with 3 months of free HBO and so forth.

I was dear you are wasting your time with the premium channels I am hardly home. Did take them up on it since I keep my DVR and extra TV for half price.

money_pit_yj · Jul 24, 2015

Re:

patooyee said:
Well turns out that half the channels are Spanish, church, shopping, or just suck in general. But I get the major networks in high def which is all I really wanted.

We use a Chromestick and stream netflix and youtube. My son loves old Incredible Hulk and then the Madram videos. We have to watch one every night before bed. Turn up the sound bar and he sits on the subwoofer says he is driving!

tonybolton · Jul 24, 2015

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I'm about to cut.....gonna buy a TV antenna at Walmart first to see what I can get over the air then make the judgement.

patooyee · Jul 24, 2015

There are several free resources on the net where you can input your address and it will tell you which stations you will get, how far away they are, which direction, etc. Not really any need to experiment with a cheap Wal-Mart antenna. Plus, I once tried a cheap Wal-Mart one and it didn't work very well. IT wasn't until years later that I was finally so ready to get rid of cable that I was willing to live with nothing. So at that point the attic antenna was worth experimenting with. I'm glad I did, it works a lot better than the Wal-Mart one. Even it was able to pick up about 8 more station just from raising it from the floor to the attic. That just goes to show much much height makes a difference.