Eliminate your Expensive Cable Bill

I run into customers on a daily basis complaining about how expensive their Cox Cable, DirectTV dish, or Fios bill has become.  Often, I hear remarks like "It gets more and more expensive each month," or "I can't believe how expensive my bill is and there is NOTHING on TV!"  In today's tough economy we are all looking for ways to cut back on entertainment costs for the more important necessities of life.  In this blog I will go over different options to save you some serious money without sacrificing to much of your entertainment needs.

1. FREE High Definition TV

Can you imagine watching your local news, Law & Order, The Price is Right, even New England Patiots football in full High Definition quality?  Locally, there are dozens of channels broadcasting over the air, free of charge!  

All televisions that are sold today are required by FCC law to include an ATSC tuner.  An ATSC tuner is basically the tuner that pulls in television broadcasts and tunes your television to digital and high definition channels.  If you do not have a newer television you can purchase an external tuner that will connect to your existing television and pull in digital broadcasting.  A good digital tuner will set you back around $50.

You will also need an antenna to receive these digital channels.  Most people do not realize that if you have an old antenna on your roof or in your attic, it will most likely receive high definition channels with nothing else needed.  If you do not you will need a new antenna.  There are a number of different options.  The higher from the ground you can install the antenna the more channels you are likely to receive.  For an outdoor antenna I would recommend the Terk HDTVo digital antenna (http://flint-audio.com/terk-amplified-direction-antenna-hdtvo.html).  This antenna has really done a nice job in the Newport county area from my experience.  The antenna comes with a directional antenna that you will want to point north towards Providence to receive the most channels available in our area.  One nice feature of the HDTVo is that it comes with an amplifier that plugs in for power at the end of the coax wire that plugs into your television.  This eliminates the need to get power into your attic or outside where ever the antenna lives.  This antenna sells for $129 and you will only need to purchase coax wire to complete your install. 

If you do not have the ability to install an outdoor antenna (or don't need another project in your life) then try out the Mohu Leaf Plus (http://flint-audio.com/mohu-leaf-plus-amplified-hdtv-indoor-antenna.html).  This $79 option gets great reviews from my local customers and is super easy to install.  The leaf antenna is paper (or leaf) thin and comes with a powered amplifier.  A nice feature is that the amplifier can be plugged into either a standard power outlet or into the USB port on your television.  

After installing your new antenna, make sure you run a full auto scan of your television channels.  Make sure that the tuning mode is set to "air" (or antenna) and not "cable."  This should all be found in the menu of your television and is usually located under the "channels" category.

To find out which channels you will get with your new antenna, check out the free government website that will give you a good idea of what to expect: http://transition.fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps/
Remember that this website will give you an idea of what you will receive.  Most channels broadcast multiple channels on one number.  For instance, you may see that you receive 4-1, but channel "4" may be broadcasting 3 different channels at once which will be seen on your television as 4-1, 4-2, and 4-3.  At the same time you may have external interference that will limit the number of channels that will be available in your home.

2.  I Want More Variety

So, you have your antenna set up and your bringing in 20 super clear, high definition channels.  But you want more variety of programming outside the your local broadcasts.  One of the most popular and simple options is to connect an Apple TV to your television.  An Apple TV is a little device that connects to your HDTV with a HDMI wire as well as to your home network via WiFi or ethernet wire.  Once you have connected your Apple TV, you will automatically be able to access a number of preset apps built into the device.  

Netflix is probably the biggest, most popular app built into the Apple TV.  Netflix is a monthly subscription service ($7.99/month) that give you access to stream thousands of movies and television shows.  With your subscription you will be able to stream an unlimited amount of media through your Apple TV.  Hulu Plus is very similar to Netflix except that it focuses mainly on television shows as opposed to Netflix geared more towards the movie lover.  Apple TV also has NHL, MLB, NBA network for additional subscription services so you can catch your favorite sports team regardless of the markets.  You can learn more about Apple TV by clicking here

The last item I will touch on does not get as much press as the Apple TV but really has some nice features that you can't look over.  Sony's Google TV digital media is like the Apple TV on steroids.  Instead of working with only the preset apps that Apple decides to include on the Apple TV, Google TV contains the entire Andriod market that can be viewed on your television.  This includes apps like HBO Go, games, Pandora Radio, and more.  On top of that it will give you a full internet browser that will give you access to google.com, msn.com, patch.com, flint-audio.com, and all the other websites you visit on a regular basis.  To make it fully controllable, the Google TV device comes with a full QWERTY remote one one side and a touch pad cursor (like a mouse) on the other.  Sony's Google TV media streamer sells for $199.  You can learn more about Sony Google TV here: http://flint-audio.com/sony-google-tv-8gb-digital-multimedia-receiver-nsz-gs7.html.

In the end we are trying to save money and minimize the amount hit we will take on our entertainment needs.  The leaf antenna and an Apple TV will set you back a total of $179 but is a one time fee as opposed to the hundreds of dollars you spend on a cable bill each month!  There are thousands of titles to keep you entertained each day for just $7.99 a month through Hulu plus or Netflix.  

My brother-in-law has recently eliminated his cable bill with the purchase of an Apple TV and an antenna (he also subscribes to Hulu Plus).  He wasn't sure if it was right for him so what he did was he connected the Apple TV and antenna, then he removed his cable box from his television and put it in the closet.  Before he cancelled his cable, he waited one month with just the antenna and Apple TV connected, just in-case he realized he may have made a mistake.  On day 31 he returned his cable equipment and shut off his cable broadcasting and is now going on two years with out cable!

As you can see from the links above, all of these products are stocked, sold, and served locally at Flint Audio Video (www.flint-audio.com).