Time Warner Cable TV/Voice → Antenna for TV Free Channels?

I have a samsung lcd tv. I use to have time warner cable and paid for cable tv then cancelled it. We then paid for basic cable which was 22 dollars a month. We had tbs and a few other channels. We also had some channels like showtime and hbo which i dont know how. We're from nyc.

I then bought an antenna b/c we went to cancel our basic cable from time warner. Right now we see free tv channels with our antenna. However the antenna i bought cost very little. Does that mean if i buy an expensive antenna, that means i still won't get TBS?

TBS is a cable channel, you need a cable subscription to get it. No antenna in the world will allow you to pick up a cable channel via over the air

Hi. So whats the point of an antenna thats $8 vs an antenna thats $50 then? I see that the $8 antenna i currently use have all the basic channels such as CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC.

If so, why do people say TBS is a free channel? I read this in another forum and others agreed. Are you 100 percent sure if i have no basic cable tv, then no way i could get tbs?

TBS was one of the first cable TV channels and was the first ‘superstation’, it’s based off of the over the air station WTBS-TV in Atlanta, which is now WPCH-TV. But the content is different. So unless you live in Atlanta, no, you cannot get anything like TBS or any other cable channel over the air. Time Warner may be passing TBS in unencryped QAM in some areas, that’s as close to free as you can get, but that’s with cable not an antenna. The difference between the cost of antennas is due to size and range. I have a $200 antenna on my roof that hasn’t been in use for over a decade.

Question for ya. You live in NYC. ABC is channel 7, CBS is 2, CW is 11, so what channel would you find TBS on? Exactly….

It was actually on 2 different channels. One was channel 22 i think. The other one was channel 70 something... it was over 1 year ago.

It was previously channel 8 when i paid for cable and cancelled and got basic cable.

Those were the channels it was on with cable, not OTA. TBS is NOT an over the air TV channel. You cannot pick it up with an antenna.

If you're able to have good antenna placement, there's probably not a better city in the U.S. for the overall number of OTA channels.

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Pretty impressive, the content available & the fact it's free

I've never seen that many PBS channels before

What forum said TBS was free? Forum for OTA users? Forum for TWC cable/satellite users? Forum for hackers? Maybe their particular pay tv system just happens to have TBS unencrypted. If so, then we are talking luck rather than policy.

When TBS was first introduced as a cable channel, it was actually UHF station WTCG channel 17 based in Atlanta. So, in Atlanta it was free. Those days however are long gone.

Don't fall for the HD or "digital" antenna stories(there is no such thing).

Antennas are designed for the frequency they are meant to operate at, NOT the mode of transmission.

If you are close to the station's transmitters, a set of 'rabbit-ears" will usually work fine, the farther away you are you will need a larger antenna to pick up more of the signal.

You CAN get an antenna that will pick up TBS but it is about $2,500 and you will need permits from your city to put it up.

Or you could ya know pay for what you want. I know its a silly concept, cause TV has no costs WHATSOEVER; accounting and economic costs are all silly concepts.

Said no business owner ever.

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okay well heres the other thing. I have an old CRT tv and we bought an antenna for it. It however has TBS.

Is there a reason for that? This TV has TBS but the Samsung LCD doesn't.

anyone can explain?

Not an expert by any means, but I am going to pop in with a thought.

Here in Milwaukee, TBS is on cable in analog format on channel 3. If it is on cable in analog format where the OP is located...

Could there be some leaky cable in the neighborhood and the old analog TV is able to pick it up from that cable leak? Doesn't really explain why the new TV doesn't see it, except perhaps if the new TV doesn't do NTSC.

I am totally confused.

Hob

Somehow, the OP seems to be able to receive TBS on an analog TV with an antenna. If TBS is being carried on the cable system as an analog signal, and there is some bad cable in the OPs immediate vicinity, then the cable may be radiating enough RF signal to be received as if it were and OTA signal.

Does that make any sense? or am I totally misunderstanding what the OP is saying?

Im from new york city.

I have 2 televisions. One is samsung lcd tv. I bought an antenna for it because i cancelled by basic cable. Basic cable had TBS and it also had HBO, Cinemax and Showtime. I do not know how that happened. Sometimes those channels would not be there.

Once i cancelled my basic cable, i had to buy antenna for my samsung lcd tv. I had no tbs or any of those other channels obviously. Just had the basic channels like cbs, nbc, fox etc.

My other tv is an old CRT tv. It however has TBS. IM not sure if you call that analog tv or whatnot. I just know its an old crt tv so maybe thats called watching tv on analog?

[BQUOTE=Quickguide01
My other tv is an old CRT tv. It however has TBS. [/BQUOTE

To what channel do you set the old CRT TV so that you see TBS?

hi. I will confirm with you tomorrow. But i'm 100 percent sure its either channel 8 or 22.

Channel 8 via TWC in New York TBS
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Channel 8 via OTA in New York is WWPS-LP
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You can also see that Channel 22 via TWC in New York is The Hub. Channel 22 via OTA in New York does not exist.

So you are somehow getting one of TWC's analog channels. Either TW did not block the channel for whatever reason, or there is some signal leakage nearby.

I have picked up cable channels with an OTA before due to a really bad cable wire from a neighbor. Having tried the free basic cable provided at that apartment and finding it lousy I stuck with Sat, and OTA for the extra locals not on the birds, and picked up a few analog cable channels.

I think what happens is that rather than fix their defective wiring/connections TWC in my case simply amped up the signal causing it to bleed onto nearby OTA antennae. Making it entirely possible to get a cable channel via OTA.

I moved a year ago and DirecTV was unable to hit the sat. It took TWC 7 months to get one Cable Card/Tuning adapter to work with the TiVo I purchased, they did a lot of finger pointing and belittling of my new TiVo equipment. Turned out that every single issue proved to be on TWC, bad wire from the ground, 3 failed tuning adapters, two cable cards died. Finally seeming stable I added the second TiVo and the tuning adapter was DOA, the replacement on the truck was also dead. They rushed a new one from the warehouse that day and it worked.

My point is I had to threaten them with legal action, termination of service to get them to get it right, they are going to do as little as possible and drag your problems out a very long time.

This is a lie. A satellite antenna ought to pick up every single channel over the air just fine, assuming it is of sufficient size. How do you think all your TV channels get to Time Warner in the first place? Time Warner doesn't just pull them out of their ass. They have 10'+ satellite antennas at the head-end to receive them, decrypt them, and pass them on to you.

You do know I was referring to over the air antennas, not satellite dish antennas, right?

Satellite antennas are "over the air" antennas. Satellite transmissions are received from "over the air."

Jesus Christ. You know what they hell I mean, so why be a prick about it? When you say the phrase 'over the air TV' almost no one thinks of satellite TV that operates on Ka, Ku or C Bands that requires an elliptical shaped dish antenna to receive programming. Next time I’ll use the word terrestrial as well, maybe you’ll get it then.

quote:

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Definition: Over-the-air or OTA refers to signals sent by a broadcast television station through the open air. OTA signals used to be all analog, but analog is slowly being replaced by digital. The FCC regulates broadcast stations. An antenna is used to receive OTA signals. A tuner, usually inside the television, decodes them. All over-the-air signals are free to use if from a licensed broadcast television station.

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