Antennas are hip..........again.

If you are like me, thinking of a roof top antenna or the big metal “V” hanging off the back of a tube TV brings back memories of a colorful shag carpet, the smell of a stack of dusty records, and taste of microwave dinners.  Personally, I prefer hard wood flooring, mp3s, and anything that doesn’t taste like cardboard.  However, as far as antennas go, it has been a great reunion.

In my last posting, I wrote of the plus/minus of Internet TV and life without cable for 30 days.  One void is live locals, sports, and news.  Here the antenna fits the void quite nicely.  It fills our genetic desire to flip thru channels from time to time too.  Channels 3,9,12, 61 here in Chattanooga as well as catt.com keep us informed of local and regional news while Internet TV has plenty of national news coverage.  Cable or Dish isn’t necessary to fill that void.  A good old antenna does just fine.

It has been almost two years since analog TV signals no longer pollute our air waves.  It is all digital now.  Many were confused by the change.  Basically, this means you need a digital tuner connected to your TV to receive signals over the air.  If you have a modern plasma, lcd, or led TV, you are golden as it is built right into the TV set.  Most of the older tube TVs have an analog tuner inside so an external digital tuner box is required to pick up over the air signals along with an antenna.

As far as the antenna itself, well it depends on where you live and the home you have.  A great resource is www.antennaweb.org.   This website can tell you what antenna you need, where to point it, and what channels are likely to be received as a result.  

So what is so great about digital over the air TV signals?  First, it is free.  Second, it is free.  Third, it is in a digital high definition format depending on the programming.  You can actually  achieve BETTER results watching sports over the air than with a premium cable or Dish HD package.  This is because the signal is not compressed.   In other words, the picture quality and sound can actually look better that a pay service.

So if you are thinking about making a switch to Internet TV but can’t give up your cable or dish service, consider an over the air antenna and Internet TV has an alternative combination.

Do you watch antenna TV?  Take our poll at www.catt.com.