Going Low-tech
So I decided not to pay for teevee here. The options are limited. I hear the local cable sucks and Direct TV is expensive. I don't watch enough to make it worth it. I was telling this to my Dad and he comes up with the perfect solution.
Rabbit ears. I didn't know you could still use them but it worked well until yesterday. I got two stations. Networks of course. But the picture was great. That dark spot in the photo was just from the flash. One of the stations are still broadcasting right now to explain how to use your digital converter to make them work again. I happen to have one of those. I'll be curious to see if it's true, assuming I can dig it out of the unpacked boxes.
I don't really care if I have teevee or not, but I love how the rabbit ears look. It feels like a teletubbie landed in my living room.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
Rabbit ears. I didn't know you could still use them but it worked well until yesterday. I got two stations. Networks of course. But the picture was great. That dark spot in the photo was just from the flash. One of the stations are still broadcasting right now to explain how to use your digital converter to make them work again. I happen to have one of those. I'll be curious to see if it's true, assuming I can dig it out of the unpacked boxes.
I don't really care if I have teevee or not, but I love how the rabbit ears look. It feels like a teletubbie landed in my living room.
[More posts daily at The Detroit News]
Labels: my life
posted by Libby Spencer at 12:56 PM
4 Comments:
Um yes, broadcast TV is still broadcast TV. An outdoor antenna will work even better, just like the old days, only it won't have to be as big with the signals at higher frequencies.
You get so used to cable that you forget there are low tech options. Apparently, out here in the boonies a lot of people rely on antenna reception. Either they can't get cable or can't afford it. But in any event, I'm loving this rabbit ear thing. I'm not exactly a Luddite but I do love the low tech aspect and I really love how it looks. It's so nostalgic. And, it's essentially free TV.
There's more involved in sending a signal "over the air" than in sending it through a wire. It's funny how sending messages over a wire was old hat a hundred years ago and radio was the marvel of the age. Of a sudden, we seem to have reversed the feeling.
Alexander Bell wasn't quite sure what the telephone would be used for and he imagined subscribers getting music and entertainment through a cable - a wild idea in the days long before "free" radio - but of course cable radio never caught on.
I remember when the broadcast lobby was shrieking about the dragon of "pay TV" and people were horrified about having to pay for what we had come to think of as naturally free.
Of course you youngsters don't remember any of this. ;-)
Ha! I'm old enough to remember that.
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