Over the weekend we came very close to buying an over the air indoor amplified antenna. Best Buy had one 60% off but when questioned the salesman admitted that it didn’t work that well in the valley because the signal was 60 miles away. The back of the box for the antenna indicated that 45 miles or less was the optimal range. We also saw a portable USB HDTV antenna with tiny remote for $100.

Clearly the draw of getting at least over the air antenna TV coverage is starting to wear on us. As of this writing we’ve made it by choice 258 days without TV service: no cable, no satellite, not even an antenna for the free over the air channels. I’m wondering if we do at least buy an antenna, and that seems very possible, does that mean our counter should be brought to an end? I guess we could change it slight to “paid” TV service. I don’t see us buying cable or satellite service any time soon. I’m not about to say never, but we should be able to go a year at least. We really aren’t missing that much.

There are many places on the web to find local TV listings, but Couchville (pictured above) offers a one page quick, clean, ad-free experience. They also have a separate buzz page that covers the top recorded shows and top future recorded shows. Here are the current top five:

1. Heroes - Company Man
2. Lost - Tricia Tanaka Is Dead
3. 24 - Day 6: 4:00PM - 5:00PM
4. Family Guy - Airport `07
5. The Simpsons - Yokel Chords

The data comes from BeyondTV users. You can buy a BeyondTV PCI directly from Snapstream for $69 ($99 if you need the PCI card too) and they offer a compatibility chart vs. Vista. Nice, it works with satellite radio too.

On the computer we watch 24 using FOX MySpace and also watch some shows via CBS Innertube and that’s about it for our network TV watching, but it would be handy having DVR functionality on the computer.

• 100+ days without TV and loving it
• HBO On Demand deals with age old cable frustration
• Watch first act of Simpsons 19th season opener for free on Fox before it airs
• Cable moans and groans — switch from Satellite or not?
• Sirius to charge subscribers $2 more for higher quality internet streaming
• Update on (maybe) ditching cable for satellite