Help me out with free TV.

[/pine]

We're told we can't have something like that because our country is so big and the infrastructure would be very expensive and ....., oh wait a second.


I'm using Silicon Dust tuner running recording engine on ubuntu server, with nvidea shield as the end point, connected to tv. I can do OTA DVR functions and online streaming using android apps on the shield.

Have you ever used MythTV, Open Source DVR ?

 

[ratpie]

i don't get any broadband offerings here where we live either, so we do all our tv via antenna. i used to have a cheap yagi off of ebay for $25.00. this year i upgraded to a channelmaster EXTREMEtenna 80 i picked up on amazon for half price. it works pretty good most days. summertime trees will always give you reception issues on some HD channels. we also do a hybrid DVR setup with linux computers like cqaigy2 mentioned. for the other things we use our unlimited t-mobile phones to hotspot our ROKU device to the internet for hulu and netflix. it would nice to have a 1 stop solution for internet/tv, but if i had to pay a cable company for what i get now, it would be $120/mo. so my $40/mo is awesome for a bit of work.

i'm looking into a Ku band satellite FTA option for sports, but i don't like soccer that much. lol

 

[ratpie]

Have you ever used MythTV, Open Source DVR ?

i use tvheadend backend running on linuxmint 19, with 3 homerun tuners, and a rpi running kodi to play all my recordings.

we delete more stuff than we have time to watch.

 

[bunyip]

i'm looking into a Ku band satellite FTA option for sports, but i don't like soccer that much. lol

I thought C band was the soccer satellite, in the suburbs here you can pick the Italian families by the size of the dish in the back yard:laughing:
Lots of FTA soccer and born agains, K involves pulling out the wallet, we used to have foxtel but got sick of the ads.

 

[/pine]

i use tvheadend backend running on linuxmint 19, with 3 homerun tuners, and a rpi running kodi to play all my recordings.

we delete more stuff than we have time to watch.

The beauty of MythTV is the database...unfortunately it is also what causes a lot of users to give up trying to configure it...

 

[cqaigy2]

Have you ever used MythTV, Open Source DVR ?

Yes, had a couple different builds for, im thinking 3-4 years. Your right, not for the faint of heart, but it worked well, considering what was available back in the day. I thought the dvr scheduling , with subscription to Schedules Plus, was top notch. Then the last puter bit the dust so i thought i'd try something else.

I like my current setup with the Silicon Dust Ethernet attached tuner because i can watch tv with a number of different apps on numerous platforms. Enabling the DVR function cost $35 dollars a year and includes scheduling information you need to schedule recordings. Since im always messing with my computers and servers, the other thing that's nice, is the tasks setup for scheduling recording, is stored up on their servers, so when i break my server storing the recordings, i only lose the recordings and not all my wife's work, setting up what gets recorded when.

 

[RustyA]

We use a LAVA HD antenna for ota tv. It has a built in rotator that uses the coax for a power source. 70 miles from nearest station and generally most stations come in great. Reasonable priced antenna and small footprint. Has to be pole mounted for rotator to work, leave slack in coax to allow for rotation...you can guess how I learned that

 

[bunyip]

biggest problem we have with high mounted antennas is cockatoos, they wrap there beaks around the coax and fly in circles until it breaks.
if you have been bitten by a cockatoo you will realise how effective those beaks are, like bolt cutters.
another reason I like log periodic antennas is because they are 75 ohm and do not require a balun, a wonderful piece of equipment designed to house ants and other small guests which eventually break it down.

(EDIT: Strange beast my laptop, upper case won't engage but autocorrects the I to upper case when used singly ???? edit done on desk top)

 

[cqaigy2]

I had a friend with a cockatoo, she called it Chewycuisinart. A scary LOAD bird!

 

[drssg]

I haven’t used this, but TiVo now has a model for OTA TV recording with no monthly fee.

TiVo Roamio OTA DVR | Antenna DVR and Streaming | 1TB Storage

I have an older model ChannelMaster DVR. I’m happy with it, but they don’t make it anymore. If it dies, I will consider the TiVo.

The guy that installed my antenna no longer recommends the new ChannelMaster DVR devices. I didn’t quite understand his reasoning, but it’s something about the new design being more internet-based, instead of having functionality locally based in the DVR.

FWIW...

 

[cqaigy2]

I haven稚 used this, but TiVo now has a model for OTA TV recording with no monthly fee.

TiVo Roamio OTA DVR | Antenna DVR and Streaming | 1TB Storage

I have an older model ChannelMaster DVR. I知 happy with it, but they don稚 make it anymore. If it dies, I will consider the TiVo.

The guy that installed my antenna no longer recommends the new ChannelMaster DVR devices. I didn稚 quite understand his reasoning, but it痴 something about the new design being more internet-based, instead of having functionality locally based in the DVR.

FWIW...

It might be that the schedule/tv guide is internet and or recording tasks are kept on server in the internet, maybe.

I believe OTA is required to supply 24 hours worth of channel information in the data stream we receive on the tuner. My original OTA DVR was recording based on time only, worked most of the time, but would start late/early at times.

 

[N80]

Update: Ditched DirecTV. They offered to lower our bill from $85/month (one TV) to $55/month. We passed.

Then I took all the good advice to avoid one of those flat panel antennas and ignored it. Brought it home. Hooked it up. TV scanned for channels. 25 channels! Woohoo! But, at least half of them were stuff you'd never watch, QVC, several lame movie and game show channels in SLD (super low def). Got the four or five local channels pretty well and a lot of ETV stations. But, they'd be clear and sharp one minute and then choppy and fade out another even after optimizing the antenna position. Then I'd come back later and turn the TV on and get "No Signal" on these channels even with no movement of the little flat plastic antenna.

It was $35. I took it back.

I'm going to get an outdoor one. Coax is still in place for the DirecTV dish. I'll just use it. Can get it up fairly high and pointed in the right direction pretty easily and safely. Would like to get it up where the dish is, but that is too high for me. I've got a ladder that will reach it (over three stories) just not the guts.

 

[OKnewguy]

Update: Ditched DirecTV. They offered to lower our bill from $85/month (one TV) to $55/month. We passed.

Then I took all the good advice to avoid one of those flat panel antennas and ignored it. Brought it home. Hooked it up. TV scanned for channels. 25 channels! Woohoo! But, at least half of them were stuff you'd never watch, QVC, several lame movie and game show channels in SLD (super low def). Got the four or five local channels pretty well and a lot of ETV stations. But, they'd be clear and sharp one minute and then choppy and fade out another even after optimizing the antenna position. Then I'd come back later and turn the TV on and get "No Signal" on these channels even with no movement of the little flat plastic antenna.

It was $35. I took it back.

I'm going to get an outdoor one. Coax is still in place for the DirecTV dish. I'll just use it. Can get it up fairly high and pointed in the right direction pretty easily and safely. Would like to get it up where the dish is, but that is too high for me. I've got a ladder that will reach it (over three stories) just not the guts.

If you where getting channels marginally with a cheapo antenna. You might try putting it in the attic. Years ago I used to work for an A/V company. Most of the time we could mount in the attic. This will usually work if you do not have a metal roof.
On the DVR stuff. I use a service called Tablo. You do pay $5 a month (or something like that) , but it sets up your recording for just like a tivo. It is a small device that you hook your antenna to, then you put it on you network. I records the shows you want and dumps them on a hard drive you provide. You then can stream them (or live tv) to some tv's and most set top boxes. Things like Roku's and Fire tv's. You can also steam when your away from home.
Dave

 

[tallyho8]

I bought this outdoor antenna from Amazon last week for $29.99 with free shipping and it works great mounted 12' high. I notice the price went up a couple of dollars today.

Amazon.com: Buying Choices: ViewTV WA-27�8B Snap On Outdoor Amplified Digital TV Antenna - 150 Miles Range - 360deg Rotation - Wireless Remote - No Tools Required - Black

 

[Ritothebull]

I've been trying to get my wife to cut the cable since we have Amazon prime and were also sharing our daughters Netflix account but she wants the local channels. A friend of mine who lives a bit closer to the city than me was blabbing about how he was getting free local channels with his $25 dollar antenna so I thought I'd give one a try, I hooked it up and can get about 6 stations now the only problem is I don't speak Spanish.

 

[kf4uda]

Update: Ditched DirecTV. They offered to lower our bill from $85/month (one TV) to $55/month. We passed.

It felt good to ditch those blood suckers didn't it? When I ditched DishNetwork, I told them the longer that I was a customer with them, the more they punished me. They kept trying to lower my bill even down to less than half. I told them they should have been offering me deals for being a long time customer not constantly going up.

We stream over the internet now. I already had Amazon prime and we picked up Netflix. I may put up an antenna and try OTA as well.

 

[CPTKILLER]

MacWorld has discussed this frequently.

Search results for Cable Cutters | Macworld

 

[tallyho8]

Update: With my new TV antenna I got 46 channels with 42 of them being always clear. We decided to upgrade to a larger TV. Our TV was a 2009 RCA 42" that we paid $900 for. I bought a new Sceptre 50" from Walmart for $199.

The new TV gets 50 channels with all of them clear and with an amazing picture. I guess that the newer TVs have improved tuners over the older models.

 

[vvanders]

Yeah cost of tuners and LNAs(what sits out on the RF front end) has really plummeted. You can pick up something like a standalone RTL-SDR for less than $20 these days.

 

[buickanddeere]

I'm tired of paying for DirecTV. Cable is worse. My wife and I don't even watch much TV. Kind of nuts spending almost $100 a month for something we only use an hour or less a day.

So I want free TV. I'm not talking about stuff like Hulu or Amazon Prime. I'm talking about digital TV over an antenna. We live about 15 miles south of Charlotte, NC and about 70 miles north of Columbia, SC. So there should be towers within that range.

I wondering several things. How many channels is it possible to get? What type of 'box' do I need? What sort of antenna do I need? Will the antenna need to rotate like the old Channel Masters like we had when I was a kid? What type of cable? Coax? About how much money will it take to put all this together?

I have not read though the posts but this unit works well for your selection of transmitters . Quality low loss RG-6 cable is essential . The higher the antenna the better . Daughter has one of these on her house in Sarnia mounted 2ft above the roof peak on a bungalow house . The Little Winegard receives most of the channels most of the time from way down in Detroit .