------- Clearing Up the Confusion E-Zine ------- Vol 3, Issue 8 My ultra-cool sister-in-law, JoAnn, visited with us last week. She wanted to take a short break from her hectic travel schedule to spend some time with her niece. Since she brought along a new cookbook and the desire to use it, who was I to complain? While she was here, she and Lisa worked on setting up an "outdoor room" on our deck. After all their work, we've got a lovely space that I think Lisa, Kaylie and I will be enjoying a lot more as the weather gets warmer. Unfortunately, my efforts to get rid of our cable bill (detailed in last issue), did not meet with as much success. I'll detail some of my challenges below and talk about some of the issues you might want to be aware of before you try to cut the cable. ---------------------------------------------------------------- In This Issue... ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Best Laid Plans 2. Shameless Self-Promotion 3. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Article: Best Laid Plans ---------------------------------------------------------------- I had a dream. The dream was that I would be able to watch crystal clear television programs without having to pay the monthly cable bill. A simple little box, a small UHF aerial and suddenly the world of HDTV would be at my service. Not so much. Judging by the response I got from last issue, it sounds like a number of you wouldn't mind living that dream. Well, before you run out with a hatchet to rid yourself of the evil cable bill, listen to my cautionary tale. First of all, the box. If you already have a television with a digital converter inside it, then you don't need this. If you have an older standard television (an old CRT set, for example), then you can just buy one of the basic DTV converter boxes (the gadget you will need if you want to watch broadcast TV after June 12, 2009). I registered to receive the government coupon and received it in about two weeks. You can still register for yours, if you want, at https://www.dtv2009.gov/. The box I purchased at Best Buy cost $45, so really, even if it fails miserably, I guess I'm only out $5 (so far). Then I ran into a little snag. My TV is what they call "HD ready" this means that it has the *capability* to display high definition content, but it doesn't have the internal converter like a real HDTV does. The DTV converter I purchased displays only in standard definition. HD converters are closer to $200 and you can't use the government coupon for them. It's annoying, but we didn't have HDTV cable anyway, so I guess that will be OK. On to the next issue. I mentioned last time that Lisa and I watch one or two programs which are not on broadcast TV. For that we planned on using one or the other online TV services, sepcifically Hulu.com (http://hulu.com/). This, actually, works just fine for us. The only thing to be aware of here is that you still need to have some sort of high speed Internet service. If you happen to get that service from the local cable company, then you should take into account that you are probably receiving some sort of discount by having both Internet and television. Find out what your real savings will be after you lose that discount. For us the two services are separate, so I know exactly how much I will save. Your mileage may vary. Now comes the big one -- the antenna. I set up broadcast digital TV for my mother- and father-in-law down in Texas. All we needed was a little UHF antenna (the "loop" part of the old-fashioned rabbit ears). My good friend Ken uses a similar set up to receive tons of channels here in Ann Arbor. Lucky me, though. For some reason, we are in an area which is "signal-challenged". To be fair, Ken does live near the top of a fairly tall apartment building. I'll admit to having been a little disappointed. After I went to the trouble of getting everything set up, I managed to get only one channel, and that tended to break up on a regular basis. As usual, when something goes wrong with one of my projects, I consult the Internet. In so doing, I found this site which can help you with just that question. It's called AntennaWeb (http://antennaweb.org/) and it is there simply to tell you what kind of antenna you need. I typed our information into its handy-dandy evaluator. It turns out where we are, we need a "medium directional" antenna to get any of our normal stations. This is about three steps above a little indoor UHF antenna. It also means that it will probably have to be mounted on the outside of the house -- something I'm not sure is within my relatively limited mechanical ability. Also I will have to run cable through the walls in order to connect the antenna to the television. I've done that before, but it won't be a lot of fun. So for now, at least, my dream is on hold. The additional equipment I would need will cost in the hundreds of dollars. I would also have to take the time (or spend the money to hire someone else) to install an outdoor antenna. At this point, it might just be better to leave things as they are. I'll let you know if the situation changes. Wish me luck. Have you tried to set up one of these converter boxes? Have you had any similar experiences? Drop me a line at gpeters@cyberdatasolutionsllc.com. I'd love to hear about how well it worked for you. Copyright 2009, Greg Peters ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Shameless Self-Promotion ---------------------------------------------------------------- The "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-Zine is a production of Greg Peters, owner, chief cook, and bottlewasher of Cyber Data Solutions. CDS has been helping website designers develop better web presence for their clients for more than a decade. Visit us on the Web at www.cyberdatasolns.com to see how we can help your webmaster. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 3. The Fine Print ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: You can subscribe to the "Clearing Up The Confusion" E-zine at: http://www.cyberdatasolns.com/ezine Questions: If you have any questions, concerns or comments regarding the Clearing Up the Confusion E-zine, please email Greg Peters at: gpeters@cyberdatasolns.com This content may be forwarded in full, with copyright and contact information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Greg Peters is required, with notification to the original author. We never send the "Clearing Up the Confusion" E-zine uninvited, and we NEVER share, sell or rent our mailing list to anyone. Your privacy is safe with us. Unsubscribe: $UNSUBSCRIBEURL$