It seemed like such a wonderful idea. Kill the cable! This project started weeks ago with a lot of research on the internet and a few local phone calls. I ordered two HD Antennas as recommended to see which would work best (if at all) in my home in Phoenix. The first one worked great. I immediately had nearly 50 channels for free from my living room.

The antenna is a tiny flexible thing that you can put behind the TV or attach to the wall if needed with two tiny push pins. Amazing!

But in order to tape TV shows, I’d also need an HD DVR. I never thought I’d use a DVR when I reluctantly agreed to get one through the cable; I figured I’d drop it soon after. Low and behold, it’s so much better watching television without commercials. I found I was taping even if I was home to watch the program. So – the DVR was a must.

I already have Amazon Fire Stick and am on my son’s Netflix plan so I had a lot of streaming already available to me (for free with my annual Prime membership). But I had to have my football. This led to hours of further research on all of the streaming plans. I chose one that is fairly new but would get me literally every single station I would ever want to watch including my college football. $20.00/month. So ..good-bye cable.

I was thrilled. I returned both antennas to Amazon as I found a bundle through Best Buy for the antenna, DVR and a much needed gizmo called a wireless USB adapter. By yesterday, I had received everything I needed so I quickly unpacked the boxes, read the very few directions that came with the system and began to connect. The antenna worked fine on the TV just as it had before. But when I hooked up the DVR, no signal?? I called my son – always my first go-to person – attach the black cable behind the cable box to the DVR, attach the antenna to the DVR, do I need to plug in the USB from the antenna to the TV now? Neither of us knew. Why am I not receiving a signal? Neither of us knew. The directions are simple – one small page with three steps. Attach the antenna to the DVR, plug the DVR into an outlet, attach the DVR using an HDMI cable. I still have nothing but a blank screen staring back at me.

So last night I hooked up cable to watch the shows I had taped earlier in the week, and I tried again this morning. I was on a chat for ten minutes before the young lady said she couldn’t help; I’d have to call the manufacturer. I thought you were the manufacturer, I wrote back. I emailed Best Buy. Can someone give me further directions? So far, no reply.

So tonight I will hook up cable to tape my two Sunday night shows. I have a concert with my daughter. Perhaps tomorrow, my techie son will wander over to see what I’ve done wrong. 3 steps! That’s it. Done! Or not ….  Perhaps killing cable isn’t as easy as it sounds.