How to cut the cord for $10: installing an indoor antenna
Home Entertainment
If you wanna cut the cord, you could spend time and money installing an outdoor antennae.
But if you live in a good reception are, you can probably get away with something like the Channel Master Flatenna for only 10 bucks.
And there's no more cable fee.
Here's what you need.
An indoor antennae.
A tuner, which will either be a TV or digital video recorder, and finally, good adhesive tape.
Antennas like these are designed to be installed high on a window, and some like the Antennas Direct ClearStream, are even reversible, so it won't look obtrusive in your living space.
Setup is easy.
While some antennas do include their own adhesive The flattena does it.
Instead grab some masking tape and fix the antenna onto your window.
Try not to use duct tape as it can mark the glass.
Also keep the antenna away from magnetic metal such as security bars if possible as it can interfere with your signal.
Experiment replacement [UNKNOWN] as you may find it using a wall instead gives you better reception.
[UNKNOWN] is perfectly good and [UNKNOWN] a lot of channels.
It comes with a pretty short cable.
If your window is a long way from your TV, you might want an antenna with the replaceable cable like the $40 [UNKNOWN] Next, connect the other end of the coaxial cable to the back of your TV or DVR.
**** it in nice and tight.
And finally, you can now set your tuner to scan for available channels.
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Be aware that you're receiving digital signals instead of analog, and you won't get snow.
If you have no reception you'll get nothing at all.
You're going to jump your pixellated picture with poor reception or simply a good picture.
You should find you're able to get at least the major network channels and their affiliates, plus your local [INAUDIBLE].
Depending on where your house is, you may have some issues, and during a web search on a problem channel will tell you if it's a common one.
In the end, it may turn out you may need a roof-top model after all.
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But at least it will only cost you $10 or so to find that out.
Check out our indoor antennae round up on CNet for an in-depth look at the differences between the most popular models.