I switched to an over-the-air TV antenna. I regret nothing

After years of watching—and paying for—so-called “peak TV” on the likes of Netflix, Apple TV+, and HBO Max, my eyeballs had been beginning to glaze over. 

Sure, I like The Crown, Mindhunter, and Hacks, however true streaming gems are usually few and much between. (Yes, I do know, I have to stream Severance. I’ll get to it!)  

All too typically, the newest status exhibits with these marquee stars and the terrific, shiny trailers become bloated bores, and so they’ve all began to really feel the identical. Life is simply too brief.

Worst of all, I used to be throwing away $20 or extra each month on streaming companies I wasn’t actually having fun with—and don’t even get me began about the price hikes. Couldn’t I put that money to higher use? 

Time for a change

That’s when the thought of switching to an over-the-air antenna started percolating. For the price of roughly two months of Netflix, I may buy and set up a (small) yard TV antenna that will beam dozens of free over-the-air channels to my tv, without cost. 

And among the free TV exhibits being broadcast proper now are fairly engaging. Topping the checklist in our family was Abbott Elementary, a quick and humorous sitcom that boasts snappy writing, characters you care about, and a svelte 22-minute operating time, which means no self-indulgent filler. Why pay for Abbott on Hulu once I may get it over-the-air without cost? 

Then there’s the matter of establishing an over-the-air DVR, which—for me, anyway—is the place Plex got here in. Besides being a streaming video service and a house media server, Plex may work as a self-hosted DVR if you happen to use a supported TV tuner, providing you with the advantages of free over-the-air TV plus DVR performance. 

I already had a Plex media server operating on a Raspberry Pi 5, however I’d by no means bothered to set it up as a DVR, particularly as a result of a) I lacked a TV tuner, and b) I didn’t have a TV antenna. It was time to rectify these points. 

Gathering the tools

For the antenna, I confronted a couple of obstacles. For higher or worse, I don’t personal a suburban house with an antenna-friendly roof; as a substitute, my household and I hire a ground-floor house in a brick-and-mortar Brooklyn brownstone, with zero reception indoors. Luckily, we do have a small again yard, and I used to be capable of set up a $38 GE outdoor antenna that faces the printed towers in Manhattan. (Check out our recommendations for the best TV antennas.)

Next, I wanted to decide on a TV tuner. Because I needed to pair my antenna with Plex, I wanted to purchase a tuner that’s appropriate with Plex’s DVR performance. Plex helps TV tuners from AVerMedia, Hauppauge, SiliconDust, and VBox, that are all strong decisions.

Ultimately, I went with SiliconDust’s $110 dual-tuner HDHomeRun Flex Duo, primarily on the energy of our review of the pricier Flex 4K. (The latter is a $200 four-tuner unit that helps the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV standard, which continues to be struggling to realize momentum.)

Making the connection

Connecting the HDHomeRun field to Plex was a snap. Once the HDHomeRun was related to my community by way of ethernet, Plex detected the machine in only a few clicks, and shortly it was scanning for out there channels. Once the scan was full, I wound up with a group of 66 (!) stations, most of which I by no means knew existed. 

Plex affords a full-on digital programming information, and it’s also possible to search or browse by TV present, film title, style, or channel. Just click on an upcoming present to report it, or begin watching dwell TV that you could pause or rewind. 

There’s a catch, although. Like most different self-hosted DVR suppliers, Plex’s programming information isn’t free; as a substitute, it’s included in a paid Plex Pass subscription, which got hit with a substantial price hike again in March. Following the worth improve, Plex Pass prices $7 a month (up from $5/month), $70 a yr (up from $40/yr), or $250 for a lifetime subscription (up from $120).

There are different choices for self-hosted, over-the-air DVRs, however nearly all of them value cash. Plex competitor Channels DVR charges $8 a month or $80 a year for his or her DVR service, which incorporates an digital programming information, whereas Emby goes for $5 a month, $54 a year, or $119 for a lifetime license.

Related: Best DVR for cord-cutters

An exception is Tablo, the $100 over-the-air tuner and DVR that does supply a free, no-subscription digital programming information. The fourth-generation Tablo DVR not too long ago added Apple TV assist in addition to an offline mode, the latter coming after a collection of server outages that borked the unit’s TV guide and left Tablo customers unable to entry their over-the-air channels and recordings.

Finally, there’s Jellyfin, the free and open-source media server with DVR performance. Jellyfin is steadily turning into a sophisticated various to paid media servers and DVRs, nevertheless it doesn’t supply a built-in programming information. Instead, you’ll want to collect and configure XMLTV-formatted information knowledge by yourself (a tough and laborious course of) or sign up with Schedules Direct, a non-profit that gives U.S. and Canadian TV information knowledge for $35 a yr or $9 for 2 months.

Hello, (largely) free TV

Now, I couldn’t be happier. We have all 4 of our community TV associates (no want handy $83 a month to YouTube TV for ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC), tons of native channels, and some film channels that present outdated westerns and basic movies.  

Ben Patterson / Foundry

Even higher, our DVR queue is stuffed to the brim with the likes of Abbott Elementary, Elsbeth, Survivor, Kitchen Nightmares, and a few alternative picks from a current Steve McQueen movie competition.  

And no, there’s no ESPN, however I totally loved getting Sunday afternoon NFL video games on CBS and Fox, together with NBC’s Sunday Night Football matchup. 

Finally, I can stream my over-the-air TV to my Apple TV, my iPhone, and my iPad—even once I’m away from house.

So, why didn’t I make the swap sooner? Great query.