Complete Antenna Cord Cutting Guide
Antenna Cord Cutting Explained
Welcome to StreamWise Solutions, formerly freeTVee, complete antenna cord cutting guide. This guide explains everything you need to know about the technology behind today’s HDTV antenna technology. If you really want to understand the role of antennas in cord cutting, then keep reading. If you don’t like reading, then listen to our interview with Mariner Wealth Advisors.
What is an Antenna?
HDTV Antennas catch special TV enabled radio waves. These special radio waves carry high definition video and audio signals. In fact, many of the local and national stations you watch with cable or satellite originated from the antenna broadcast towers on Lookout Mountain in Golden. That’s right. You already get antenna signals in your home and you don’t even know it.
Why do I need an antenna?
Antennas get you free and legal TV forever. You may be tempted to try cord cutting without an antenna but you will just end up paying the same as before. Why? Full blown streaming TV packages like YouTube TV, PS Vue, Hulu Live and Fubo increase prices every year. YouTube TV cost $35 two years ago and now it costs $50 per month. In two years it will probably cost you $80 per year. When you add that to your internet bill you are back to the prices you hate. Does that sound familiar?
Why Pay for Free Signals?
It is a little known secret that cable companies use industrial antennas to receive your local broadcast signals. These antenna broadcast signals are then translated by the pay TV company into signals that can be packaged with “cable networks.”
Retransmission Fees
Your local cable or satellite provider charges you for packaging free antenna signals with cable networks. Essentially, they use their own industrial antennas to receive broadcast signals and then combine it with non-broadcast channels. They charge you lots of fees every month to do this. These fees are called retransmission consent.
Stop Outsourcing to Pay TV
The most watched channels and shows in the US all come in over the air. As the picture to the right shows you, you get these signals from an antenna reception tower hooked up to your pay TV company. If you want to start saving money on TV then stop outsourcing your antenna reception services to pay TV. Instead, get StreamWise Solutions to install your own high powered antenna and get the free broadcasts already available.
Signal Combination
As we should all know, cable networks like ESPN, FOX News, CNN and HGTV are not available over the air. The cable company receives those signals from satellites or digital fiber. So your cable company basically just combines signals from various sources to give you a wider channel selection.
Antenna and Cable Networks
Channels like ESPN, FX, USA, HGTV, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN and many others are knows as cable networks. These networks do not come in over the antenna. So, your current cable TV package is a combination of broadcast networks (antenna) and satellite cable networks. Combining broadcast networks and cable networks requires special hardware. Until recently, that hardware was only available to large pay TV corporations.
Consumer Electronic Revolution
Now that most of us can get high speed internet, signal combination is available to everyone. With a professionally mounted, whole home antenna and optimized WiFi you can easily save over $1000 per year on TV services.
Antenna and Streaming Integration
It’s simple to save lots of money on TV. Just cancel cable or satellite and install an antenna. Unfortunately this option does not make sense for most consumers. Why? Because getting 99% reliability out of a DIY antenna install does not come easy to the average homeowner. An indoor antenna may get you some channels but you will run into all kinds of reception issues if you don’t do it right. Even if you get the antenna install right, you will probably struggle with signal combination.
Devices for Signal Combination
There are many devices out there to help you combine antenna signals with cable networks and WiFi. Unfortunately, it is not easy to choose the right devices for you and your family. You will need to figure out the wiring in your house. Then you will need to know advanced configuration of WiFi routers and modems. If you have never done this before you will never quite be sure if you have done the best job or selected the best equipment.
Consumer Software Revolution
StreamWise Solutions, formerly freeTVee, has been helping customers cut the cord since 2011. In the early days our customers did not have many cable network options. Why? Because we are committed to 100% legal cord cutting. In 2011 there were no internet based options for cable networks. This means that our early customers were happy with an antenna and services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Streaming Cable Networks
In 2015 legal cord cutting took a huge step forward. For the first time it became legally possible to stream cable networks over the internet. Customers could legally supplement their OTA antenna with channels like ESPN, History, Discovery, HGTV and many of the most popular cable networks. The only problem with this revolution came in the form of two inputs. To switch between broadcast networks and cable networks you needed to switch inputs on your TV.
The End of Switching Inputs
Since 2015 a wide variety of legal, streaming cable network options became available to the consumer. Customers could choose a package of channels that worked as a valid substitute for their traditional pay TV provider. Unfortunately, all the most effective cord cutting strategies required two devices. One device to translate antenna signals and one device to translate internet signals. At StreamWise Solutions we saw this as a tough proposition for customers so we started testing every signal combining device on the planet.
The StreamWise Solutions Revolution
In our quest to find the best software and hardware for combining signals, we have tested every streaming service and cord cutting technology in the marketplace. We test for four things. First, we test for reliability. Second, we test for customer service. Third, we test for ease of use. Fourth, we test for customer ROI.
Different but Better
When we test cord cutting technology we have one goal in mind: customer happiness. We want you to be happy with your TV experience and its cost. We look for software and hardware that will make the transition from pay TV to cord cutting as painless as possible. However, we are also looking for hardware and software that will allow you to find even more shows and channels for free.
Watch More TV
Many of our customers come to us and say they want to watch less TV. Unfortunately, that does not happen. After we are done with our install you will end up watching more TV. Why? Because we introduce you to a whole new world of high quality, free and low cost content. You will never run out of things to watch.
