Tech Win of the Day
So, Casey and I don't have cable; we just watch Hulu and Netflix for our entertainment needs, and, glitches aside, that's been satisfying enough. Cable is so expensive! BUT we really want to watch the summer olympics!!! So I set about ensuring we get NBC for free today. My TV can get digital TV via cable or air. We get a BUNCH of free basic cable channels if you plug the TV into the cable internet outlet, which is great, but then our cable internet isn't plugged in. I was hoping I could use a splitter to have both the TV and our internet modem plugged in at the same time to that outlet, but the one we had in the drawer didn't work. Boo. That would have been ideal.
So I tried Air. We don't have an antenna, but our awesome TV can pick up some all on its own. By some, I mean 7. Well, 5, with two that are too weak to actually watch. One of those two was NBC. Damn! I was faced with buying an antenna to try to boost our ability to pick up the free DTV air channels (with no guarantees), or plugging and unplugging the cable internet and redoing a channel scan every time we wanted to watch basic cable DTV. So, I tried the air again, with the cable cord still attached but not plugged into the wall (I simply hadn't removed it yet) and bam, 11 air channels, including NBC in perfect HD! I coiled the cord and tucked it behind the TV cabinet, and apparently it's acting like an antenna! When I unplug it, 5 channels. When I plug it back in (even though it's attached to NOTHING) I have 11 clear perfect channels. Woohoo free makeshift antenna! This took about an hour of trial and error, but I think it was worth it.
So I tried Air. We don't have an antenna, but our awesome TV can pick up some all on its own. By some, I mean 7. Well, 5, with two that are too weak to actually watch. One of those two was NBC. Damn! I was faced with buying an antenna to try to boost our ability to pick up the free DTV air channels (with no guarantees), or plugging and unplugging the cable internet and redoing a channel scan every time we wanted to watch basic cable DTV. So, I tried the air again, with the cable cord still attached but not plugged into the wall (I simply hadn't removed it yet) and bam, 11 air channels, including NBC in perfect HD! I coiled the cord and tucked it behind the TV cabinet, and apparently it's acting like an antenna! When I unplug it, 5 channels. When I plug it back in (even though it's attached to NOTHING) I have 11 clear perfect channels. Woohoo free makeshift antenna! This took about an hour of trial and error, but I think it was worth it.