Cable co. is forcing me to rent or buy what they call a

That's called a router - used to descramble channels on a digital cable. I had one in use which I had to pay $8 a month rent from Spectrum.

Ditch the cable company & use Hulu or Sling..

I'm with ya, I hate being forced to do stuff. :-) FORCED!! LOL 5,000 channels of the same thing..  I remember ABC, NBC and CBS. Then the UHF channel (s TWO) were how you held the rabbit ears.. :-)

We have the option to buy one or rent a box where I'm at.. Still two more boxed for something else..

Probably a plot to sterilize my rabbit and dog.. 

Speakin' of the rabbit, I got an Idea about a mobile antenna, I'm just not sure how the rabbit will feel about it..

Regards

Heavy - suggest no orange antenna, may look like carrot 

Hulu works great

I'd also vote against a sombrero shaped antenna.
Dog will dance around it and mess up the signal...

Party poopers..

:-)

Also think twice about a chicken antenna.
Reception will be scratchy...

I didn't realize people still got cable tv.  I'm either listening to music or occasionally streaming a movie via internet.  

Unfortunately I'm stuck with cable pretty much the only TV I watch is local pro and college sports.

Welcome to what we call......life.

I know if they would only invent a dual nose hair trimmer, heck ears too, don't stop there...:-)

Ok time for a little electroshock therapy, some habits are hard to break..

Regards

Now this is what I call a great post.  Informative, funny and I'm pretty sure the OP can't get this kind of advice anywhere.  Keep up the good work.

@oldhvymec+1 on the dual nose hair trimmer.  As for the ears, you're just asking WAY too much...

I gave up on TV and cable TV years ago.  Listening to compressed commercials leaping out of the stereo became too annoying.  Radio Paradise, Netflix and DVDs are my go to.   TV commercials are crass and insulting.  Back in the dinosaur 50s, commercials were 2 minutes per hour, now I don't know/care.

^^^^Speaking of,WTF happened to Congress supposedly putting an end to max volume on commercials?Guess it was too much work..
 

not sure where you Live Exactly, yet I get 122 channels, OTA small antenna on the roof, not visable by much.  Amplifier inside, 80% in English, others Hispanic, 10% shopping channels, pay for Internet Only the past 6 yrs, 4 Samsung TV's 55", 65" and 75" and 24" in kitchen, 2 27" imacs plus 5 other idevices, using one 27" to Mirror to any or all TV's.  Many Free Movies w/o torrent hacks, all lidget.    Once you understand/get used to streaming You will Love it!  -- It's just myself and my dog, so 75Mps Down will work, although I have 27 devices total and have 200mps download, yet my bandwidth has never needed over 65Mps..     for my devices..   Ask if you want more info..

@tomic601 
Actually orange antennae provide a higher quality signal.
Bit like fuses.

Have learned that the box to descramble the cable signal aren’t made and what’s on the used market has been gained by stealing one from a cable company. Oh, well. Sometimes life has surprises. This one sucks though.
And I’D have to obtain a cable card which cable co. doesn’t want to help getting one, even if they sell the card.

Jweilers, I like your amount of equipment. Very cool. I remember torrents. Oh boy. I use a simple digital antenna on the roof mounted to my old direct tv spot. It is totally free and the 1080 pixel quality is superb! Digital feed right through the air, love it. I think it is because it is free. I use Hulu also because is so so easy and cheap if you want commercials still. Best picture and sound still is from the roof. Pretty amazing if you think about it. I do need to up my size on my Samsung TV , wish I had more than one. 

I'm on the Spectrum teet as well, but many newer smart tv's have  apps loaded that take the place of the cable box...

I would have rid the house of cable years ago, except for “She who must be obeyed “ must have the food channel.  I was able to convince her we didn’t need the landline phone anymore. 
Small steps…

I got tried of overpaying for cable company TV fee's extra cable boxes, additional user fees all adding up to $160+  So l went with YouTube TV all controlled with the Amazon fire stick and now paying $49 per month 
I also have to pay for high speed internet but that kills two birds with one stone Watch 4K TV and listen to Qobuz high rez music 

+1 curiousjim

I would smash the friggin' TV if given half a chance.  But, the net result would be pain and anguish and even more dollars for a bigger TV as if 75" isn't enough.  My son has an 85" and my daughter has no TV at all, go figure.  

Food channel gets almost no play in this house, but the ol' lady is a legit died-in-the-wool football fan and has to have every offering available on cable. And has season tickets to the Giants!

Growing up in the fifties my old man would take the tubes out of the TV for any infraction.  I couldn't care less, my sister on the other hand had a fit.

Regards,
barts

Before the ‘analog sunset’ your cable company provided a single that was capable of being decoded or tuned by a ‘regular’ tuner built in to your TV’s. Resolutions got higher, internet speeds got faster and channels became more plentiful but the coax ‘pipe’ essentially had to same the same size.  To accommodate all this many providers started using SDV or Switched Digital Video to make it all fit.  This means there are multiple channels and bits of information on the same frequencies formally used for only one.  The tuning adapter or converter box is needed to negotiate that communication.  This is not the same as the OTA converter boxes needed a while back that would allow the reception of OTA broadcast channels and convert them to analog for compatibility with tuners in older sets.  With many providers you can no longer just screw the coax in to your TV and receive anything at all without a box in between.  It’s the same deal with the TiVo folk who think that they can finally stick it to the ‘man’ only to find out that in many cases they still have to rent a cable card and tuning adapter from said ‘man’ to make their stuff work.

That being said the orange antennas are definitely just slightly higher res and definitely would benefit from being mounted to a maple slab with springs.   :)

^^^ Maple rings at UHF,I much prefer Walnut..

Was in same boat. Upgraded modem and router. Had tech difficulties. Purchased another different brand modem but didn’t eliminate the problem. Call cable tech got grief from them because not their modem hardware so will not support. I’m back to square one renting with the cables company equipment. 
So currently paying modem rental fee - not in hurry to risk another tech support merry go round to save rental fees- it’s working that’s the important thing. Got kids at home attending college and gaming and wife working from home so we rely heavily on the internet connection.

Guys please..........routers make your internet wireless around the house; typical range around 60 feet depending on how many walls. Frequencies are 2.4ghz and 5ghz. For greater coverage consider a "mesh router" system with base station and satellite extenders. It is unwise to rent modems and routers, they can be a one time purchase.

You may tune local stations with a digital tuner outputting HDMI and stereo audio; some have Toslink audio out. An indoor wall mount antenna in Scottsdale can pull in sixty channels off the transmitters on South Mountain; all are in the same direction here.