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...