Legacy technology that is lost to most people

[yuushi]

Rabbit Ears Perk Up for Free HDTVIt amazes me how many people don't realize that with their newfangled HDTV's that all they need to do these days is to plug an antenna into the back of their TV in order to get HD-content. That's right, you don't need cable or satellite in order to watch TV. Hell, most people don't realize that "-TV" denotes that

Comments

[ladysephiroth]

My parents didn't get cable until I was in college; they lived that far out in the country, and a lot of the people arond them had satellite dishes (the big ones from the 80's.) Since we lived close to Lake Erie, if we turned the antenna right, we could pick up stuff from Canada as well - there was a station that played new Voyager episodes a week before the local station did.

[yuushi]

Hah, that's pretty cool.

Reminds of the crazy channels that we would occasionally find on UHF back in the day. Like this Spanish language channel that showed some Spanish-dubbed anime!

[stalkeresque300]

I totally remember having to mess with the antennae as a kid - and I even remember back in the day when we didn't have remote controls!!!
I also remember the more unfortunate times when my dad would have to get up on the roof to mess with the "big" antennae. We actually got cable after a particularly bad few days when my dad kept having to go up there. After a few trips, he refused to go up again and we didn't have TV for a few days and then cable was obtained. However, this didn't happen until I was 13/14 . . .

I also remember making tinfoil "dishes" to put on top of the antennaes to get even better signal...

[yuushi]

Oh yes indeed, I remember TV knobs. Most of the time the UHF dial was more like knob on a radio because you had to fine tune the signal!

We never had a roof mounted antenna though, just the bunny ears on top of the set.

Though now I remember my stepgrandmother had a roof mounted antenna, but she had a remote control for that one which would rotate the antenna!

[kaichoubabbit]

I had to deal with no cable for a couple weeks while I was waiting for Comcast to setup my employee service ($9/month... I miss those days). Made do with the wonderful antenna made from a dozen wire coathangers from Youtube fame... worked damn well too.

I still break out the antenna from time to time to get NBC in DC. NBC in Baltimore doesn't believe in surround sound for some reason.

[yuushi]

Hah, that's pretty cool you can get DC stations as well as Baltimore stations. When I lived in Central Jersey we could get both Philly and NY stations over the air. I imagine if we didn't have cable, we would only get one of them.

[shishi44]

I only have cable internet now, and am planning to get an antennae. Add in the Netflix, and I'm pretty well set. Cable was just too expensive. $100 bucks a month for an opportunity to sit still and get fat? Netflix let's me do that for 20!

[yuushi]

Yeah, and you get a lot more channels over the air than you used to and which so much more clarity. It really does make you reconsider getting cable these days when you have so many entertainment options now.