# Live TV without antenna?

**URL:** https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520
**Category:** General Discussions
**Created:** [August 5, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520 "2018-08-05T21:41:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![james](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@james](https://forums.plex.tv/u/james)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520/1 "2018-08-05T21:41:42Z")

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Is it possible to use the live tv without an antenna? Antennas don’t work where I live due to trees blocking the path between my house and the signal tower.

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### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520/2 "2018-08-05T22:00:15Z")

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How do you watch tv at the moment?  
If you have cable tv, plex can use that too (at least the unencrypted stations).

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### Author: ![james](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@james](https://forums.plex.tv/u/james)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 5:33am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520/3 "2018-08-06T05:33:02Z")

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Yeah, we have whatever the British way of saying cable is, would I still need a tuner, I’m presuming not?

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### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 7:04am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520/4 "2018-08-06T07:04:59Z")

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Yes, you will still need a Tuner. One suited for british cable TV.  
Unfortunately it looks like the very good tuners from Silicon Dust don’t support british cable TV. Only the terrestrial Freeview, which you cannot receive.

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### Author: ![james](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@james](https://forums.plex.tv/u/james)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 7:23am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520/5 "2018-08-06T07:23:17Z")

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Do I plug something into the tuner or what? Kinda confused as I couldn’t find any docs on using cable with Plex.

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### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 7:35am UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520/6 "2018-08-06T07:35:15Z")

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There are different types of tuners:

- Some come as a USB dongle with a coax input on one side and USB on the other
- Some come as PCI cards with a coax input
- The priciest are standalone devices and come with coax and Ethernet. These can usually receive more than one channel at once and don’t require the installation of device drivers

The coax input takes the signal from the cable, just like your TV set or set-top box would.

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### Author: ![OttoKerner](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/plex/user_avatar/forums.plex.tv/ottokerner/32/10079_2.png) [@OttoKerner](https://forums.plex.tv/u/OttoKerner)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 7:52pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520/7 "2018-08-06T19:52:53Z")

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I have now learned that if you have Virgin cable in the UK, there are no chances of using Plex DVR or Plex live tv.  
Virgin has it all locked down to their own boxes and doesn’t allow any 3rd party to access it.

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### Author: ![james](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@james](https://forums.plex.tv/u/james)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520/8 "2018-08-06T22:49:04Z")

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Yippee, ■■■■■■■ Virgin being ■■■■ again. First it’s the internet, now it’s the tv. ffs. welp. rip. I guess that ruins my chances of using plex for live tv…

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### Author: ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/plex/original/3X/2/a/2acb9765406f63293d357b4ec509ec39aa28f2ad.png) [@system](https://forums.plex.tv/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://forums.plex.tv/t/live-tv-without-antenna/292520/9 "2018-11-04T22:49:04Z")

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