What's the free way to make a TV work at the farm?

[Kingfisher]

Somebody gave me a TV today and I'm thinking that might be nice to watch the weather on at the farm. How do you make a tv capture signal today without paying $?

 

[dun]

If it's digital you just need an antenna. If it's an old analog set, good luck.

 

[Kingfisher]

How do you tell if its digital?

 

[sim.-ang.king]

how old it it?

 

[dieselbeef]

if its thin like the new TV's then just add an antenna. if its got a tube throw it in the burn pile

 

[Alan]

I would think you can still get an antenna and useing RCA jacks and an adapter. But that's going back to the days of three pound cell phones and 12 pound video cameras.

 

[Craig Miller]

If its analog you can buy a digital tuner at walmart for 30$. Plus you need an antanae.

 

[tater74]

If you can get cell service and have a smart phone you can a ten dollar USB to hdmi cable and plug your phone into your TV. You can even watch TV shows.

 

[John SD]

If its analog you can buy a digital tuner at walmart for 30$. Plus you need an antanae.

And you need a GOOD antenna! Don't even think about rabbit ears, or one of those stupid things in the window they advertise on TV. Save your money for a good external antenna mounted as high as you are able to get it.

Digital TV sucks! Don't think your going to get much if you're much over 50 miles as the crow flies from the TV station's broadcast tower. I'm probably a bit over that, and TV reception is skittish and unreliable at best. Many times I start to watch a good show and the TV conks out halfway through :roll:

Did I mention digital TV sucks? I will add, digital cell phone service also sucks. I wish I still had my original analog bag phone which would work most anywhere, and even worked in my house. No phone since does, and now I have to drive up on a hill to use the phone otherwise.

 

[greybeard]

If its analog you can buy a digital tuner at walmart for 30$. Plus you need an antanae.

And you need a GOOD antenna! Don't even think about rabbit ears, or one of those stupid things in the window they advertise on TV. Save your money for a good external antenna mounted as high as you are able to get it.

Digital TV sucks! Don't think your going to get much if you're much over 50 miles as the crow flies from the TV station's broadcast tower. I'm probably a bit over that, and TV reception is skittish and unreliable at best. Many times I start to watch a good show and the TV conks out halfway through :roll:

Same here John. One day, out tv and antenna worked great with lots of channels. Then the digital switch came, the transmitters and their transmitting antennas stayed in exactly the same place they always were, we put up a new antenna and from then on, TV sucked. And, somehow, -it KNOWS when you are really interested in watching a show or movie--I don't know how, but it KNOWS!

 

[dieselbeef]

digital here is the bst ever..even adding channels regularly

 

[lavacarancher]

John is right. Digital TV sucks. Anything over 50 to 60 miles from the transmitter you are out of luck. Another wonderful gov't program that doesn't work.

 

[Craig Miller]

digital here is the bst ever..even adding channels regularly

Thats how it was hee when i last used it. Had channels we never had before.

 

[dieselbeef]

im on the fringe of alot of ours and sometimes they can be spotty but i got a giant winguard antenna and a booster and i probly get about 35 channels crystal clear and alot of the blacked out games from tampa about 80 mi away we get

 

[greybeard]

im on the fringe of alot of ours and sometimes they can be spotty but i got a giant winguard antenna and a booster and i probly get about 35 channels crystal clear and alot of the blacked out games from tampa about 80 mi away we get

I and most others never needed a "giant antenna or booster" before the switch was made from analog to digital.
But, virtually overnight, that all changed.

 

[dieselbeef]

well giant is about 8ft. always had sattelite before digital so I cant speak for that...but what we get now is great

 

[Japody]

With digital TV, you have to have direct line of sight to get reception. Due to the curvature of the earth, the furthest area you can reach is 90 miles. I found this out the hard way. Use a large antennae and put it s high up as you can. Good luck.

 

[Katpau]

We live in rural Oregon and can't even get cell phone reception at the house, but we don't pay for TV and are able to get about 20+ channels. Most are HBO or religious, but we also get ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, several movie channels and something called the CW which I had never heard of before. After the change from analog to digital we went from 4 or 5 channels down to none. My husband did some research and found something called a MOHU Leaf. It is an antenna that is about the the size and shape of a piece of paper. It looks like a thin piece of plastic. When it arrived, we thought we had been scammed, but we attached it to the TV with a cable and hung it up high on the wall, and we could not believe what it did. I can't imagine how or why it works, but it does. Our TV's are not the old tube type analog, but are newer inexpensive flat screens. For some reason different TV's can get different channels with this thing, and some get more channels than others, so I don't know if it would work on your TV. We have two TV's working now. A larger Element brand purchased at Walmart, and a smaller Visio. It also worked with a little RCA TV that got set aside after I stood in line on Black Friday in order to buy my husband a $200 50" TV at Walmart. That one gets the most channels. The MOHU Leaf cost us about $30.