Satelite TV Problem Solved

[Oaktree]

Lately I'm seeing a lot of people on FB talking about getting rid of cable and satellite and going with an alternative route. Same thing as this thread. One of the things I hate about paying $100 a month is that so much of it goes towards channels that I do not watch, or support. ESPN is a big part of it. I just can't stand anything about them and that's another significant reason to get away from Cable and Satellite.

We probably watch a dozen different channels during the week, including the local networks.

We just have the ultra-basic cable tv package (OTA plus a handful of others). When we first got it, it was ~$17/mo, now it's gone up to almost $30 when you take into account the fees. OTA tv is not an option here since the digital switch.
Every now and then the wife gets antsy about all these "great shows" that are on channels we don't get. I've considered trying one of the streaming services (as a supplement), but it's hard to tell what's available on any given one without actually becoming a subscriber...their websites aren't very informative.

Most of what we watch is either CBS or My Network.

I hope more and more users give up cable and satellite services...maybe then they will come to their senses and realize what the consumers want is what counts and allow customers to pick and choose and only pay for the channels they want..rather than forcing packages of programming most people don't watch...

Would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Wakey]

I have no experience with an OTA DVR. With that said, I read a few articles and came up with a TiVo Roamio OTA DVR. It seems to be the higher rated device and also the higher priced as well. Good thing I noticed was there is no further costs once you purchase. I am sure there are cheaper ones out there.

Amazon.com: TiVo Roamio OTA 1 TB DVR - With No Monthly Service Fees - Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player: Electronics

We used to record with a VCR. Not as convenient messing with tapes and lack of a channel guide that the above device has. VCR....wow things change fast....seems like just yesterday

That looks perfect but it appears they are going to abandon that unit and force people to go to Bolt which has monthly fees.

 

[ultrarunner]

I enjoy TV and movies. Not all of them, and to be honest, there seem to be fewer and fewer shows out there to watch, but there are still enough to keep me entertained.

Lately I'm seeing a lot of people on FB talking about getting rid of cable and satellite and going with an alternative route. Same thing as this thread. One of the things I hate about paying $100 a month is that so much of it goes towards channels that I do not watch, or support. ESPN is a big part of it. I just can't stand anything about them and that's another significant reason to get away from Cable and Satellite.

We probably watch a dozen different channels during the week, including the local networks.

In my case you can't miss something you never had...

My brother never had Cable or Sat... just a handful of over the air due to location... that changed quick when he got married... two priorities... Cable and Central A/C

 

[ultrarunner]

We just have the ultra-basic cable tv package (OTA plus a handful of others). When we first got it, it was ~$17/mo, now it's gone up to almost $30 when you take into account the fees. OTA tv has not an option here since the digital switch.

We use the Digital Converter Boxes... cheap and so far so good... no fancy antenna... simple rabbit ears.

 

[IXLR8]

We use the Digital Converter Boxes... cheap and so far so good... no fancy antenna... simple rabbit ears.

I have the same problem that "Oaktree" does, we are too far out in the boonies to get the digital signal. Had a signal when OTA was still analogue, but since it has gone digital, no more signal so no service. A digital box won't help if you don't have any signal.

 

[Wakey]

I have the same problem that "Oaktree" does, we are too far out in the boonies to get the digital signal. Had a signal when OTA was still analogue, but since it has gone digital, no more signal so no service. A digital box won't help if you don't have any signal.

I've not seen that happen before. Did you have a big YAGI array? I guess I've only installed antennas for digital but in a few cases the antenna was there for analog and the transition to digital was good to go.

Have you researched it? Try your address at this site perhaps. Address

 

[k0ua]

I have the same problem that "Oaktree" does, we are too far out in the boonies to get the digital signal. Had a signal when OTA was still analogue, but since it has gone digital, no more signal so no service. A digital box won't help if you don't have any signal.

Put up a tower and a big Log periodic antenna. No signal is a myth. You just need to improve your signal gathering devices. Putting up a Rohn 25 is no big deal. I have put up and taken down dozens of them in my life. It all depends on how badly you want to receive the signals. If you are willing to do some work and invest a little money, you can have more TV signals than you know what to do with.

A rotator will likely be necessary unless all signals of interest are in one direction. If you cannot afford or don't want to build a tower, a simple Rohn 40 foot push up mast, well guyed may be all you would need. Get some height, and get some gain in the antenna itself, and a good Preamp to overcome losses in feed-line can make all the difference in the world.

As a "ham radio" operator I have always had towers, even as a boy, as soon as I could afford a used one and get it up. As a young man, myself and another friend built a tower for a repeater we wanted to get on the air out of 10 foot sections of dura-tube, and 9 inch steel straps. We welded it all together to make a 100 foot tower in 10 foot sections. We had to mark the sections to fit it together as our tolerances were not as precise as a "factory built" but it worked and stood for decades. We had to borrow a friends welder as we were too poor to even own one. It is amazing what you can do when you want something bad enough, and you are young and dumb.

 

[TractorGuy]

I was looking for a way to DVR just from an OTA antenna. I have wifi in the house but it is heavily throttled once I hit the cap rendering it useless for video. Basically I just want to record off the local channels.

Any thoughts?

I'm having trouble logging in to AVS forum to research this and as yet, still no response from them on my login.

I have an Emantic AT103B that is a digital tuner and records through a USB port. Less than 30 bucks from Walmart. You can use a flash drive for storage or plug an external hard drive into it. I have a 120 gig solid state drive plugged into mine. I don't use it often because the playback conflicts with my Vizeo sound bar. I think the sound bar is the problem there because my antenna rotator also conflicts with it.

 

[bunyip]

When we went digital a ten years ago the output power was less but repeaters were put in, a lot of people complained that they lost TV all together but didn't re tune their TV's to the new frequencies.
As far as they were concerned Channel 7 and 9 were Channel 7 and 9 even though they moved up the UHF spectrum into the low 40's, of course when they received it it still came up as 7 and 9 and that caused even more confusion.
I am using two channels as an example only but I found that if I retuned for someone I didn't tell them what channel they were on now and they were happy.
For fringe areas here phased arrays are quite popular but susceptible to damage from high winds.

 

[grsthegreat]

i dumped my sat tv several years ago....maybe 3 if i remember correctly. i stream netflix and hulu plus i get amazon prime along with my prime membership. im never at a loss to watch something. i pay less than $22/month plus my prime membership (which i use for shipping amazon stuff anyways) as opposed to the $200 per month i was paying. if it has been 3 years , thats over $6400 savings. i dont miss dish at all