☰ Scott's TV Setup

  Intro.

I cut the cord as they say back in 2015 and have completely taken control of my TV setup. Being somewhat of a geek, friends have asked me a few times over the years about what I do for TV. So, here it is; I'm laying out my setup. There were two actual phone calls that started this ball rolling:

Call #1 - Time Warner Cable (now Spectrum) had a contract spat with NBC and stopped carrying that network. Of course both sides accused the other of being unrealistic in their contract negotiations. The way I saw it, I was paying my money to the cable company, not NBC, so I expected them to resolve it. As the calendar would have it, this spat included a weekend when the Packers were playing. So many of us Packer fans were going to miss seeing the game. That's a quick way to upset a lot of Wisconsinites. To appease us fans, Time Warner invited us to stop by their office and pick up an antenna that we could attach to our TV. So I did just that. I attached the antenna and watched the game. And in the process I also found out all of the other channels I could get for free. Hmm.

Call #2 - At some point after the above situation, realizing that my cable bill just kept increasing, I called the cable company and told them I wanted to cancel. Instead of actually cancelling, they transfered me to a "customer retention specialist", who not only backed off on the price increase but offered me a rate that was lower than what I was paying (which kind of pissed me off even more). When I resisted and mentioned the possibility of missing football games, she told me about the free antenna offer. I told her, "Yes, I know about that. I already got the antenna and I've decided to just use that for TV. Thank you for the free antenna."

Note also that the biggest problem with these special offers is that you're gonna be back in the same situation in a year or two when they decide to increase their price again. It's just a never-ending cycle.

So, while I immediately eliminated my monthly cable bill, one big misconception is that I no longer pay for TV. If you're intending to save money, I don't know if cancelling cable will ultimately do that for you. Maybe it will, depending on your needs. In my case, I just wanted control. I hated those two-year contracts that locked me in. Yes, the cost was of course a big concern, but the main thing I needed was control.

This whole process then started with me figuring out what I can do for free (no monthly/yearly fee) and then deciding what other services I'll need that I may or may not have to pay for.

Now, let's be clear at the outset. I'm not telling you all this to convince you to do what I did. We all have our tastes in TV and our needs vary. If you need to pay to get what you want, then pay. I'm just explaining what I did and why.

  Antenna.

My first step in this whole process was to acknowledge that free TV is available with an antenna and to get it. But, before you to this, realize that a good solution for one person may not work for another. Generally, what works for your next door neighbor should also work well for you, but you have to test it.

In my case, I first used one of those small antennas, attached it to the back of my TV, scanned for channels, and thought, hmmm, all free. Cool. However, I have six TVs (yeah, I know, don't judge) and I wanted a single solution for all of them. Since I already had the RG6 coaxial cable running throughout my house that was used for cable TV, I bought a more powerful antenna and installed it at the highest point inside my attic. I ran a cable from there to a central point in my basement and connected it to a PCT-MA2-8P 8-port amplified splitter. From that splitter, I connected each of the cables that ran to the various TV locations in the house.

Two tips if you end up doing something similar:

It worked, but while I was watching football games, the picture would occasionally get pixelated (during an important play of course) and then it would come back fine. This frustrated me. So I then created the solution that I'm still using today. I bought an RCA ANT800F outdoor antenna, mounted it on my roof, and ran a cable down to the splitter in my basement.

If you put an antenna on your roof, be sure to point it in the right direction, toward the closest broadcast towers, so that you get the best signal. Here in northeast Wisconsin, all of the towers are installed on Scray Hill, just east of De Pere. I recommend the following two sites to help you find the location of your local broadcast towers along with the free channels you'll receive:

  Free Channels.

Once you setup your TV, the channels you'll receive vary by market. Most areas will get the major networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS). Here in northeast Wisconsin, we get 43 free channels! My favorite is Story Television, very similar to History. I also like Antenna TV (that's the name of the channel) because I can watch Johnny Carson every night at 10:00pm, just like the old days.

All modern TVs also have a nice schedule grid. Just press the little "Guide" button and see all of the channels along with what shows are on now and coming up. One little-known feature is that if you scroll forward and see a show you want to watch, say in a couple of hours, just click on it and you can schedule your TV to switch channels automatically so you don't miss it.

Samsung TV+

Samsung TV+ is an interesting product, available on all modern Samsung TVs. It gives you hundreds (yes hundreds) of free channels. The best part is that those channels are just tacked on at the bottom of the above-mentioned grid. Just scroll down through your broadcast channels and when you get to the end, keep going. There are hundreds more. As of February 2025, I have 454 such channels! No app to install, no device to plugin. All free.

I love the new Letterman TV channel. It's not just old episodes like Johnny Carson. Instead, they compile clips into highlight shows, for example, Adam Sandler appearances. These are also some of my favories:

The big catch is that this is only available on Samsung TVs. And you have to have a good internet connection.

Apps With Free Channels

There are a number of apps that you can install and use for free. Each app has many channels in any category you can think of. I recommend that you install each of these apps and try them out:

So Many Free Channels

Once you have all of the above solutions in place, perhaps this is all you need. It's amazing how many TV channels are available for free.

  Sports.

Often people ask me what I do for sports. Obviously, everyone's got their own needs. When I cut the cord, I lost ESPN where I used to watch Monday night football and tennis. If you think of it, those two needs aren't too great. But if you watch sports all the time year-round, then this might be a deal breaker for you.

So for Monday night football, I just don't watch it. After all, that's what the NFL wants. If you don't have ESPN, then they don't want you watching Monday night football. As for tennis, ABC broadcasts the mens Wimbledon finals on Sunday afternoon, after we already know who won. But that works for me. I also scrounge to see what I can see for the other major tournaments.

With my wife being a Calfornia girl, she likes to watch the Anaheim Angels games. So for that, we subscribe to MLB TV.

All other sporting events that we watch are available for us on the free network channels.

  HDMI Devices.

What's an HDMI device for? Simply put, it allows you to install apps from various sources (Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, etc) and then watch those apps on your TV.

But before we get going too far, you may not need one. All modern smart TVs allow you to install apps, so try to install the ones you need and you might be able to just skip this info. On the other hand, if you have an older TV that might not support the apps you need or might not allow you to install apps at all, as long as it has an HDMI port on the back, you're all set.

In my case, I have six TVs in the house. And even though most of them are newer and allow me to install apps, I also like having an identical experience on each one. So, having more than one HDMI device gives me that.

I've used three such devices:

So, how do these devices work? It's quite simple actually. It's a small hand-sized device that plugs into an HDMI port on the back of your TV. You switch the input on your TV to this HDMI device, connect the device to your wifi, and install any apps you want. The only cost is the purchase price. There is no monthly cost to own one of these, only the monthly fees for any apps you install.

These are the apps I have installed:

Angel Studios, Epoch TV, Freeplay, Freevee, Netflix, Pluto TV, Prime Video, Starz, Sling TV, Tablo, Tubi, YouTube, and XTV.

Most of these apps I don't pay for. But services like Netflix and Prime Video definitely have their fees.

  Tablo.

Tablo answers the question, "how can I record the TV shows that I get via antenna?" Tablo is perhaps the most interesting device I have. This is how it works. It connects to both my antenna and my network. It receives all of the digital TV channels via antenna (free), allows me to record them, then I can watch the shows via the app.

There's another pretty cool feature. You can also watch all of your antenna channels via the Tablo app. This is very helpful if you have a TV on one side of your house but your antenna is on the other side. The TV only needs wifi access.

The channel guide features on Tablo are quite nice. You can select "Movies", for example, and see all of the movies that are coming up. With 43 channels here in northeast Wisconsin, there are good movies popping up all the time. So I just set them to record and basically build my own little movie library, all free, which I can watch at any time.

Now, I happen to have their legacy device, the older one. I pay a subscription fee for an extended channel guide, but this is optional. Their newer devices have different fees.

  Photos.

PCT-MA2-8P amplifier RCA coax cable antenna on the top of my house
RCA ANT800F multi-directional amplified antenna Tablo Dual SPV42-02-EN antenna tripod, mounted to face the southeast
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  Resources.

Perhaps these resources will be helpful, perhaps not.

Apps with free TV.

  Summary.

Today, 10 years after I cut the cord, I'm still paying monthly fees, perhaps more than I was before. But I have control! It's the first sentence on this web page, I have taken control. I just can't stand being jerked around by any company, much less cable companies. No more. So this is what I currently have:

* recurring fee

I have dozens of free digital TV channels that will never go away, not in my lifetime anyway. And in actuality, the number of stations has more than doubled since I made this switch. Plus, and this is important, the channels are those that interest me, channels that I actually watch. It's only getting better.

Scott