Our Antenna was bought decades ago before cable was a thing and since the antenna has never been installed outside, it’s like new and it is an 18’ Tri-Beam. Sometimes I wonder if the static I pick up is the International Space Station passing over head…
We did have cable when it hooked directly up the TV and had only about 50 or 60 channels, then they went berserk and got rid of the basic cable, added hundreds of more channels, and then you had to have the converter box and no easy way to find something to watch. We tried it and by the time we found something to watch, it was mostly over…
So I took the antenna out of storage and even though I may get like 65 channels but there are also so many shopping channels, QVC QVC-1, QVC-2, QVC-3, etc… and HSN, HSN-1, HSN-2, etc, several versions Shop-LC, and more…
So it is not all great TV, but we get all the networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, ION, PBS, and so many more…
But we have good internet and we have a Roku on each TV and that opens up thousands of more channels, both Free and Premium (pay a fee like cable, but we do subscribe to any of these).
The Roku uses the wireless Internet to get it’s signal. Heck, this computer I am using has an HDMI port and I have a Roku plugged in there too. So, even though I have the whole World Wide Web to watch, I can also watch Roku on this computer. Roku has a Web Channel but the Roku Stick will pick up all of the Roku channels.
Of course this is a bit like the problem with the cable box, so many choices, what to watch, but the movie does not start until you make your selection.
Some of the channels have hundreds of “Live TV” sub-channels, that run like regular TV, but some even allow you to re-start a program already in progress…
And if we really want to watch a new movie, the Roku has the REDBOX channel so we do not even have to go get a DVD from the machine and we can stream it directly to the TV, the same cost as renting it from the machine.
And to get this posting back to being auto oriented, the Roku has Jay Leno’s Garage and I can watch it anytime I want… or Smokey and the Bandit, The Fast and the Furious, etc… even My Mother the Car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Son of Flubber…