Is it possible to still get free television programming?

Q: How can an old person like me, who remembers when TV was FREE, and you just turned it on and turned it off, (no recording junk–if you missed it, you missed it) get TV shows for free again? Do they make any TVs that pick up signals with an antenna? U-verse charges $199 to install, Comcast raises their prices and makes you hook up junk boxes back of the TV…it never ends. – Marian from Greenwood, Indiana

A: Good news Marian! Not only do most televisions made today pick up antenna signals, they pick up them up digitally and, in most cases, in high definition.

Often people think the only way to get high definition programming is through a cable or satellite connection. This is simply not true. The same beautiful, digital high definition picture you get on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX on DIRECTV is available right over the air through an antenna hooked up to your television.

Of course, you have to have the right type of television to make this happen. For starters you will want one of the newer widescreen televisions with a built-in digital tuner. If your television doesn’t have a digital tuner, you’ll have to go old school and get a digital converter box since all high-power television signals are now broadcast digitally.

So yes, you can still get television for free. And now it’s even better in high definition!

Note: What I have described above isn’t the only option but it’s the option I thought you would be most likely to use. Another option is to watch all of your programming over the Internet on sites like Hulu or directly on each network’s web site. And look for services like Google TV, which integrates with your television and makes searching for television programming on the Internet easy, to become more and more mainstream as they work out the kinks.

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