This week’s column was inspired by a Cord Cutter Weekly reader who seemed to have everything figured out with streaming devices and services, but was still confused about how an antenna would fit into the picture.

While the lowly over-the-air antenna is among the most cost-effective and longest-running ways to cut cable TV, it isn’t essential to cutting the cord. If you’re already paying for a live TV streaming service, for instance, setting up an antenna can be more trouble than it’s worth, and you can get a lot of the same major network content on-demand with services like CBS All Access and Hulu. Still, an antenna can be nice to have for its high video quality, low latency, and availability of certain channels you might not otherwise be able to stream.

Before you start fretting over antenna types, installation locations, and over-the-air DVRs, take a moment to consider whether you even need an antenna in the first place. For a list of questions you should ask yourself, read the full column on TechHive.

HDHomeRun tuners work by plugging into your Wi-Fi router and streaming live TV to other devices around the house. While other tuners such as the Tablo Quad and Amazon Fire TV Recast have better DVR features, HDHomeRun excels at delivering channels in full broadcast TV quality. Now that Roku supports the MPEG-2 format that broadcast TV uses, it’s finally possible for HDHomeRun to offer a Roku app that meets the same standards.

SiliconDust also says it’s taking pre-orders on its Scribe Duo and Servio DVRs, which allow for recording broadcast channels without a separate computer, NAS, or Nvidia Shield TV streaming box. (The Scribe Duo includes a TV tuner, while the Servio provides just a recording engine and storage for existing HDHomeRun tuner users.) I’ll reserve judgment on both products until I’ve had a chance to try them.

Auto ad-skip for Channels DVR: One of the best things about the aforementioned HDHomeRun tuner is that it works with several third-party DVR services, which in my experience are better than the DVR service that HDHomeRun itself offers. Channels DVR is one of those services, and it just added automatic ad skipping on Apple TV and iOS. That means you don’t have to click the remote when a commercial break arrives. Similar ad-skip features are also available on over-the-air DVRs from Tablo and TiVo.

Channels is one of the most polished over-the-air DVR services around, though subscriptions are on the pricey side at $8 per month or $80 per year, and as with the HDHomeRun hardware it relies on, you need a computer, NAS, or Nvidia Shield TV to run the recording engine. There’s no Roku app either, but perhaps HDHomeRun’s progress on that front will pave the way for Channels.

PlayStation Vue’s network negotiations: Luke Bouma at Cord Cutters News discovered an interesting page on the PlayStation Vue website, which notes that several Sony’s agreements with TV networks are up for renewal soon. This month, Sony will have to renegotiate with AMC Networks, Discovery, NBCUniversal, and Turner Networks, while NFL Network is up next in July. By my count, those five entities make up roughly one third of PlayStation Vue’s channels.

It’s always possible that Sony comes out of this with no changes to its lineup or pricing, but given how many networks are involved, and given TV networks’ tendency to always seek more money over time, I will not be shocked if we see some lineup changes or price hikes. Keep this in the back of your mind if you’re building a cord-cutting plan around Sony’s service.

MLB TV is also having its usual Father’s Day sale. If you want to watch out-of-market games, you can get the remainder of the 2019 season for $50, or $40 for a single out-of-market team. That’s 50% off the regular full-season price in both cases.