MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Who watches broadcast tv?

Who watches broadcast tv?


Just curious. I know a lot folks watch Netflix. I was told recently you have to have cable to watch tv. smh

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I do. I have cable in one room, but watch broadcast TV with an antenna in another room. I could also hook up an A/B switch which would allow me to watch broadcast and cable on one TV.

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I do, every once in a great while. You don't need cable, you just need a TV antenna and a TV that has an ATSC tuner (if you're in the US). Nearly all TVs sold in the past 15 years or so have an ATSC tuner. If your TV is older then you'd need a converter box (which is just a standalone ATSC tuner that converts the ATSC signal from the antenna to an NTSC signal that older TVs can understand).

The type of TV antenna you need depends on the TV stations in your area. Most TV stations these days broadcast on UHF frequencies (which is nice because UHF antennas are much smaller than VHF antennas). My area is unusual in that all but one station still broadcasts on VHF, including two that are VHF-low, with one being channel 2 (the lowest of the low, calling for the biggest antenna). That, combined with my town being in a valley, means I need a giant roof antenna to receive all the stations in the area.

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I don’t, but I do have an antenna for emergencies. We get lots of hurricanes so the antenna is so during storms when lines like power are down, we can still get local information.

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