Steptide Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 So most of you Rochester directv customers probably noticed that we lost CBS on top of ABC, which we haven't had for a month now. I watch quite a bit of the local channels, so this is super annoying. I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to switch, however it seems alot of the major streaming services don't include alot of channels. I've only seen one streaming service that offers nfl network. Alot of streaming services don't include local channels. YouTube TV is the only one I've seen that includes all local channels based on your zip code. Also, Im finding the cost of streaming services isn't much less than my directv bill, and they have way less channels. So I guess I'm curious if anyone here uses them and what you think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 Raspberry Pi costs $35. With case, power supply, and SDCard, it's about $45. Add about 15 minutes of your time and you can stream anything on Reddit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Joshin' Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 31 minutes ago, /dev/null said: Raspberry Pi costs $35. With case, power supply, and SDCard, it's about $45. Add about 15 minutes of your time and you can stream anything on Reddit Including Bills games? Need a source while in Texas for the winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plenzmd1 Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 Locals will work fine with an antenna..we use Sling TV and they have CBS and Fox in DC. There are DVRs now that can record from streaming and OTA too. Sling with the sports package and DVR option is $35 a month I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gugny Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 15 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said: Locals will work fine with an antenna..we use Sling TV and they have CBS and Fox in DC. There are DVRs now that can record from streaming and OTA too. Sling with the sports package and DVR option is $35 a month I believe. For an elderly, you're pretty hip to modern technology! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steptide Posted July 5, 2019 Author Share Posted July 5, 2019 21 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said: Locals will work fine with an antenna..we use Sling TV and they have CBS and Fox in DC. There are DVRs now that can record from streaming and OTA too. Sling with the sports package and DVR option is $35 a month I believe. Unfortunately not where I live. I have too many trees on my property. I already have an antenna and can only get one local channel that's shakey at best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted July 5, 2019 Share Posted July 5, 2019 33 minutes ago, Just Joshin' said: Including Bills games? Need a source while in Texas for the winter. Yes. But they're bootleg streams https://www.reddit.com/r/nflstreams/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Jack Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 Figure out what National channels you want or regularly watch. Then compare the different services to see who carries them. Hulu Youtube Sling TV DirecTV Now For locals, use an antenna. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike in Horseheads Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 3 hours ago, Just Jack said: Figure out what National channels you want or regularly watch. Then compare the different services to see who carries them. Hulu Youtube Sling TV DirecTV Now For locals, use an antenna. If you live in a valley antenna's are worthless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Misterbluesky Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 16 minutes ago, Mike in Horseheads said: If you live in a valley antenna's are worthless Or if you live near a airport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 42 minutes ago, Misterbluesky said: Or if you live near a airport. Then you can watch CNN. And only CNN 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 (edited) Fubu is way to go for sports. You get EPL, rugby, Champions, formula one, YES, etc for $50 monthly. I believe it’s another $8 and you get sports extra package- redzone and other great channels. I had it, and will order again September for NFL, Champions league, and baseball. I will pay extra for Sabre’s package too and it’s non sports channels are great too Imo- vice, Sundance, and some others Edited July 6, 2019 by Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sabrecrazed Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 OlogyTV... you get it at ologyhosting.com it's the best I've found for sports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tierlifer Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 13 hours ago, Mike in Horseheads said: If you live in a valley antenna's are worthless I'm down 17 from you in Binghamton and get all the locals with an indoor antenna just fine. Occasionally my Fox pixelates but not often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greybeard Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 21 hours ago, Steptide said: So most of you Rochester directv customers probably noticed that we lost CBS on top of ABC, which we haven't had for a month now. I watch quite a bit of the local channels, so this is super annoying. I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to switch, however it seems alot of the major streaming services don't include alot of channels. I've only seen one streaming service that offers nfl network. Alot of streaming services don't include local channels. YouTube TV is the only one I've seen that includes all local channels based on your zip code. Also, Im finding the cost of streaming services isn't much less than my directv bill, and they have way less channels. So I guess I'm curious if anyone here uses them and what you think If you want to try using an antenna, the site linked below is very helpful. Put in your address and it will tell you what your signal should be and the direction they are in. Direction and height are everything. Can't do much about distance. I subscribe to cable but didn't want to pay for another box, so I built an antenna for the back room. My results were predicted by the site. http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
row_33 Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 21 hours ago, Steptide said: So most of you Rochester directv customers probably noticed that we lost CBS on top of ABC, which we haven't had for a month now. I watch quite a bit of the local channels, so this is super annoying. I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to switch, however it seems alot of the major streaming services don't include alot of channels. I've only seen one streaming service that offers nfl network. Alot of streaming services don't include local channels. YouTube TV is the only one I've seen that includes all local channels based on your zip code. Also, Im finding the cost of streaming services isn't much less than my directv bill, and they have way less channels. So I guess I'm curious if anyone here uses them and what you think After decades of that scroll threatening to take basic network cable stations away, they finally did it? ***** !!! 14 hours ago, /dev/null said: Then you can watch CNN. And only CNN What more do you need, better education than a book can give Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steptide Posted July 7, 2019 Author Share Posted July 7, 2019 5 hours ago, Greybeard said: If you want to try using an antenna, the site linked below is very helpful. Put in your address and it will tell you what your signal should be and the direction they are in. Direction and height are everything. Can't do much about distance. I subscribe to cable but didn't want to pay for another box, so I built an antenna for the back room. My results were predicted by the site. http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 Interesting. It says an indoor antenna shouldn't have any issue picking up my local channels. However I can't get any but one. Maybe I need a more expensive antenna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 2 minutes ago, Steptide said: Interesting. It says an indoor antenna shouldn't have any issue picking up my local channels. However I can't get any but one. Maybe I need a more expensive antenna Or better placement. Antenna are susceptible to interference from nearby electronics and signal strength varies thru housing materials (ie you get a stronger signal thru wood than brick) If you're having problems with signal in one part of your home but better signal in another, you can use something like an HD HomeRun to distribute your antenna over ethernet to Smart TVs, Android devices (including FireTV), and Linux/Windows/Mac Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plenzmd1 Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 BTW, saw the fire DVR was in big sale today, prolly will be in prime day too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mead107 Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 My niece in Andover ma put an antenna in the attic. Don’t know what kind. Gets a ton of stations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augie Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 On 7/5/2019 at 7:29 PM, Gugny said: For an elderly, you're pretty hip to modern technology! Yet he’s still a moron! I stood next to him and offered him MORE money in US currency, but he insisted on Venmo. I may or may not be capable of that now, but cash was not acceptable. If anyone here wants to offer me cash, I’m open for business! I’m sure Mr Peg’s agrees! (OK, that was just for you!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greybeard Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 14 hours ago, Steptide said: Interesting. It says an indoor antenna shouldn't have any issue picking up my local channels. However I can't get any but one. Maybe I need a more expensive antenna Maybe you do or maybe you don't. Everything affects reception. With whatever antenna you have, start with direction. If all your stations are on the North side of your house, and you have an indoor antenna on the South side, you are at a huge disadvantage because the signal has to go through your house. Use the TVFool chart to aim your antenna to the correct direction. Note most antenna's are directional. If you are 90 degrees off, you may get nothing. If you are lucky, all the channels you want are in the same direction. If they are in radically different directions, first see if you can turn the antenna and get the others. Then go from there. Here is what I went through to get reception. It will give you an idea of the obstacles I had to overcome. I had a room in the back of my house, I wanted to get local stations on. I can stream with a fire tv stick on that TV, but the Bills games are on channel 5 in Syracuse, so there are times Local would be better. I purchased one of those flat antennas from Walmart which also had a little amplifier with it. The only place it would work at all was when mounted to a window. It received two stations. I also had an old pair of rabbit ears I tried. No luck, zero stations.. After some thought, I was ignoring the obvious. I have aluminum siding on my house. It basically turned my house into a Faraday box, knocking down most of the signal. So if I was going to use an indoor antenna, it would be close to a window. I tried with and without the amp. With the amp I couldn't get anything. I thought I might try basically the same style of antenna but maybe try one from Amazon, again with an Amp. This one had slightly better results but still missed two stations and that was with the amp. I thought I would do some testing, so I went to the bedroom above the room I was using. The higher the better. Basically after testing all kinds of combinations, all mounted to a window, I determined the amp of the first unit was bad. I ended up returning that unit to Walmart. The second unit was still missing two channels upstairs but the amp did help. I had a friend that stopped cable and built an antenna that was working 12 miles farther away from the stations than my location, so I thought I would give that a shot. After getting it build I could get every channel but two of the channels were still inconsistent. I put the amp from the amazon unit in and I could get everything, although it is very sensitive to how I aim it. Also I wasn't paying attention to what was outside of my window, as that room has those old aluminum storm windows that slide up and down. They also have an aluminum screen in them, so when I stick the home made antenna in the window, the screen still blocks part of it. So I am still not optimized. I get all the channels now except the one I need for the Bills game is intermittent. Turns out the weather seems to play into this also. The one thing I have yet to try is putting the antenna just outside of the window. I expect when aimed in the correct direction, that antenna will get everything without an amp. I considered the HDHomeRun mentioned by /dev/null, but I don't have a good place to mount the antenna in my attic. I like the idea of it though. It was a bit more of a commitment than I was willing to make. I also considered getting a signal strength monitor so I could actually get a signal level to compare, but that is a bit more of an investment I was willing to make. If I was you I would get an antenna that I was sure I could return and use the TVFool diagrams. Worse case you only invest some time. In general I am a bit bewildered by the comments you read in the reviews of antennas. " I bought the Nuclear 999 antenna for $250 and it did not do any better than the $20 dollar Amazon cheap flat model." A lot of reviewers seem to think antenna's are toasters and you can just plug them in and they all give the same results, independent of where and how they are mounted. That is obviously not the case. One last thing to mention. When I went from my back room to the upstairs bedroom, I was using different TV's. They are both 32 inch Sony's but they are from different years. One TV had better reception than the other. I was aware that different makers would have different sensitivity but was a bit surprised the two Sony's would. Good Luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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