Cutting Cable

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Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

upsciLLion posted:

Hopefully this is an appropriate thread to ask this question in. Is there a way to hook up an antenna in one room and connect it to a TV in a different room using the coax jacks on the walls? The reception in my living room (which is downstairs) is poor, so I'm looking for a way to get the antenna up higher (e.g. somewhere upstairs). If that isn't a good idea, I'm open to other suggestions.

Sure there is. Just use a coupler wherever your coax lines terminate to connect the two lines together.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2012 20:56

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 07:16

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

OldSenileGuy posted:

I'm probably going to try Aereo in the next month or so as part of my cord-cutting experiment, so I'll update you all then on how well it works.

Does anyone know if, when using HBOGO, you have to be on the network that you subscribe to? For example, if my parents have Comcast, and my Internet is through Time Warner, will I be able to use their login at my house? HBO is the one sticking factor that's keeping me from cord-cutting, but if I can just use their login, everything will be great. And HBO doesn't seem to care either, as seen at https://www.takemymoneyhbo.com

Also, I'm wondering how VPN services like the one in the OP or the one at https://www.witopia.net work. Say I subscribe to their service, and route my network traffic through a Dallas location. They assign me a static IP in Dallas, so that my location appears to be in Dallas. Do they have a range of IPs to assign people? Is there a finite number of them?

My reasoning behind this is that I'm trying to use a VPN to get around local blackouts on NHL Gamecenter Live. Obviously, this goes against their TOS. I don't know how active they are in looking for this sort of thing, but is it plausible that they could identify certain IPs as belonging to a VPN company and blacklist them?

Hbo works fine. We are on Comcast and use our neighbors login who is on uverse.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2012 01:54

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Isn't Monday Night Football shown on local stations for your local team?

# ¿ Aug 3, 2012 14:43

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

LeeMajors posted:

For me, the frustration is due to Comcast blocking streaming content that I could get on other isps alone. My sport is college football. At least I have high quality network games.

What streaming content is comcast blocking?

# ¿ Aug 3, 2012 18:52

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Rhyno posted:

So we cut cable back in February and I've been keeping a laptop handy for watching video from itunes and other sources. We use the 360 for Netflix and Amazon Prime but as everyone knows it sucks a dick for streaming from your own network unless the files are in very specific formats.
I'm sick of the laptop being on the coffee table, i'm sick of the cables running around the room, so what's my best bet for network streaming? A Boxee? Roku? I've never had much skill for building PCs so I don't think an HTPC is the right thing for me. In the Boxee thread the popular opinion these days is that the device sucks and from reading here I gather that the Roku doesn't natively stream from a local network.
Are any of the other box options suitable for my needs? Does anyone make a pre made HTPC?

The zotac ad10 is only $200. Add your own 2.5" hard drive and ddr3 ram. It has hdmi out and built in ir for a remote (one is included). It's also super small.

It's what we use and has no problems with 1080p video.

# ¿ Sep 7, 2012 05:46

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

If comcast being allowed to encrypt clearqam requires them to make it available over IP, and software/devices can integrate with it, id be more than happy with that.

Dealing with Muxes and frequencies is poo poo.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2012 16:09

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Detroit Q. Spider posted:

This, plus I hope it kills off the space hog that is analog broadcast. I don't know that broadcast channels need to be encrypted but on the other hand it'll make securing the signal a lot easier.

Most cable companies are already or have killed analog. This has to do with removing the clearqam channels.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2012 01:08

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Detroit Q. Spider posted:

We haven't...still got 50+ of the annoying buggers floating around. I think the office would be stormed by angry villagers with pitchforks and torches if they went away though.

I thought most cable companies still had an analog tier and only a few had gone all digital?

As long as they provide a free box they can kill analog cable.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2012 02:21

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Joe Don Baker posted:

Comcast in my area killed analog two years ago or so. If you have the super basic cable you get two free boxes. The picture quality is awful for some reason but we barely use it anyway. The only reason we have the basic cable is because it's the same price to bundle internet + TV than it is to have just internet.

If you have a digital tuner run the cable directly to the tv since they still run clearqam in most or all places.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2012 02:29

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Joe Don Baker posted:

What region are you in? I'd pay ten bucks for that.

Comcast offers a basic package in all of their markets i believe. It also gives you bundle pricing on your internet. Here it was like $15 and knocked $11 off my internet price so net cost to me was another $4/m.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2012 03:52

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Smythe posted:

Yes. QAM cablecasts just like OTA are in the public interest, and for the public good. Any effort to prune those is literally total bullshit oppression by monopolist oligarchs and should warrant extreme reprisal. Not being sarcastic.

The issue for providers is that basic cable isn't free, but it effectively is if they use clearqam for it.

# ¿ Oct 20, 2012 14:21

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

skattered posted:

For you guys with Hulu Plus, does it replace a DVR? I mean, I can't see a point in building a DVR while Hulu Plus is available. I has all recent episodes from the major network series, right?

No, because you have to wait to watch your shows and cant pause live TV.

# ¿ Nov 19, 2012 23:35

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

People used to buy old voom sat receivers and use the atsc tuner.

# ¿ Apr 2, 2013 19:42

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

berzerkmonkey posted:

So my mom is considering cutting cable and phone, and I'm looking into it for her. I figured I'd pick her up a Roku for streaming, since it appears to be the most basic and easy to use. I was going through the content providers last night on my XBox and here is what I came up with:

Crackle - Umm, anime, I guess?
Amazon Prime - Selection wasn't great. And what is up with the season gaps in shows? LOST: Season 1, and 3-6. Huh?
Netflix - Actually I didn't check this one - I had it in the past, but I wasn't impressed with the selection.
Hulu Plus - HUGE TV selection. But what is the deal with how Hulu displays the content: "Parks and Recreation - 5 seasons, 123 episodes." Yet you access the show, and it only has the current season and a bunch of clips from other seasons... Is this a standard thing, or is it really only for current shows (licensing and all that stuff?)

I know there is a big rift between streaming providers and CBS/Viacom - is there any option for those shows other than OTA?

Why not get her an OTA antenna as well?

Buy a roku from target or somewhere that gives you 30 days or more to return it. Try the thing out for a while and see if its what you want. Also netflix and hulu plus both give you trials.

# ¿ May 29, 2013 16:43

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

The other thing to keep in mind is monthly bandwidth limitations by her internet provider. See if she has them and plan accordingly, if using netflix you can lower the quality level from their website.

# ¿ May 29, 2013 17:08

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

WithoutTheFezOn posted:

re: OTA. Don't forget there's a possibility that her cable company broadcasts local networks in the clear over their line even if you don't have a cable subscription. I know this practice is going away, but you might want to give it a shot.

If she ever has to have a tech out cause shes having internet problems and they see this they will try to blame it on you changing their original setup. So I would only bother stealing cable this way if someone is going to be there to disconnect all the tv's if she has a problem with her internet.

# ¿ May 29, 2013 17:21

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

A roku isn't really designed for local streaming. Get something like a WDTV.

# ¿ May 29, 2013 17:56

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

berzerkmonkey posted:

Not this condo association - they're pretty much the worst bunch of assholes you'd ever want to be involved with.

Oh, that is not a good thing. Stupid networks and their piracy promoting idiot ideas. I swear, the people who make these decisions have absolutely no idea about how reality operates. (I know, old argument.)

It is through Hulu. It wasn't showing up on the Xbox last night though it shows as available on the web.

How is it stealing cable if they're streaming local networks through a bare line? I've been in places where the cable company has done that...

If you arn't paying for cable tv service its still considered cable theft if you hook it up to your tv. Whether or not your cable company cares or not is another matter.

The point was if you have it hooked up and the tech is trying to troubleshoot an internet issue they may claim the problem is because you messed wiht it.

# ¿ May 29, 2013 18:25

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

goku chewbacca posted:

Not being argumentative--this is for others following along: If you have a live cable line into your house, even if you're only paying for Internet service, it is not cable theft to hook up the line to your TV for the unscrambled ClearQAM local channels. FCC regulation requires that they do not scramble local channels available through OTA. The FCC recently changed the regulation to allow larger telecoms to begin encrypting even the locals to open up more bandwidth and decrease delivery costs.

Just because its unencrypted does not mean its not theft. The cable companies sure consider it theft, it's why they got the FCC to let them encrypt it.

http://www.multichannel.com/content/ncta-fcc-let-all-digital-msos-encrypt-basic-tier

It added that allowing basic encryption would largely eliminate theft of service, promote innovation and investment, and reduce polution and fuel consumption by reducing truck rolls to activate or deactivate service (NCTA said Monday that the benefits would outweigh the minimal extra watts consumed by new boxes).

And the FCC apparently agreed with them.

The old FCC requirement of cable companies not encrypting channels was so paying subs wouldn't have to rent a box for basic channels, it was not so everyone got free tv.

Before areas were all digital they could block non paying subs with an analog filter but clearqam broke that.

Don Lapre fucked around with this message at 05:37 on May 30, 2013

# ¿ May 30, 2013 05:35

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

goku chewbacca posted:

They got the FCC to allow them to encrypt locals to eliminate technician rollouts to remove line filters/connect lines and to open more bandwidth when channel MultiCast was insufficient or too expensive. A line subscriber watching unencrypted locals that they can also watch free OTA doesn't cost the telecoms anything.

I contend that theft of service would require tampering with external boxes/lines: that you remove the line filter yourself or run an unfiltered line from your neighbor/pole. If you're a cable Internet subscriber and the technician removes the filter for your Internet service, then you can legally the watch the basic local channels that the FCC requires/d they broadcast unencrypted.

Except if you read the link the cable companies specifically say its to prevent theft of service. If you arnt paying for cable TV and you hook it up and use it the cable companies consider it theft of service. I don't care if you do it, your installer may not care. But the company itself still considers it theft and there is no FCC provision stating otherwise.

Just because the channels are unencrypted does not mean you are expected to use them without paying.

" NCTA spokesman Brian Dietz says most of the theft is by cable modem customers who also connect their line to a TV set."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2012/10/16/free-cable-loophole-closed-fcc_n_1970657.html

Don Lapre fucked around with this message at 13:51 on May 30, 2013

# ¿ May 30, 2013 13:43

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

DrClownsHappyHand posted:

You're straight up wrong. Comcast still delivers unencrypted local channels over their lines even to people without active subscriptions. The only channels being delivered are ABC/FOX/NBC/CBS/PBS. This is NOT theft. They are phasing it out though and switching to an entirely digital spectrum. Customers with full digital spectrum will need some sort of box (or CableCard) to tune these channels-if you're in those areas, you will either need active service or some sort of device to steal the signal. But in the areas that haven't made the jump to full digital, providers deliver those channels completely unencrypted over your coax.

In areas where there is analog cable still the cable provider would put an analog filter on your line if you did not pay for basic cable. This only blocks analog tv, not clear qam.

They deliver unencrypted digital locals (clearqam) over lines without active subs because they have no way of turning off clearqam like they can/could with analog. Just because its on the line does not mean its legal to hook it up. Read what was said by the NCTA spokesman.

"NCTA spokesman Brian Dietz says most of the theft is by cable modem customers who also connect their line to a TV set."

Yes, the unencrypted locals are on the line. But if you are not paying for basic cable you are not allowed to hook it up. If you do its considered cable theft. That is what the National Cable and Telecommunications Association says. You may not believe it but the cable companies certainly do.

One of the main reasons cable companies want to encrypt locals is to stop cable theft (by cable modem customers who also connect their line to a tv set).

I have NEVER said that they arn't delivering the channels unencrypted over the lines to everybody. I know this, ive said this multiple times. What is cable theft is taking advantage of that fact without paying for basic cable. This is straight from the NCTA.

Don Lapre fucked around with this message at 19:47 on May 30, 2013

# ¿ May 30, 2013 19:44

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Thwomp posted:

I think we're talking past each other.

Lapre: While the cable companies consider it illegal, it's hard to actually take their position seriously. They can't actually make a case for passive theft because there's no way they can tell someone has plugged their tv into their cable line (unless you observe it happening). At least until they all do start encrypting the clearQAM signals and then force everyone to have some kind of box.

(At which point you can go back to an antenna).

Everyone else: Plugging into the wall and getting basic local tv and not paying for the service is leaching off the cable company. However, it's like a speeding when there are no cops around. You won't get a ticket unless you're observed.

New content: Aereo is (supposedly) coming to the Chicago area. I'll be all over that until they are litigated into the ground.

Yea, this is what im trying to get across. Its considered cable theft, but no one knows and most people won't give a poo poo unless they are trying to troubleshoot things and arn't taking into account you have tv's plugged in as well. But ultimately you are using basic cable and not paying for it.

# ¿ May 30, 2013 20:02

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

goku chewbacca posted:

I know Aereo requires a billing address in their service area, which last I checked was still NYC metro area. Can I get service by using a prepaid card with my address set to some hotel in NYC, or area they using IP location or WiFi/GPS geolocation, too?

They are using geo location as well.

# ¿ May 30, 2013 21:00

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

berzerkmonkey posted:

So, after seeing that my next cable/phone/internet bill was going to be $190, I decided it was time to end it all. I called up Comcast, and the best they could do was to get me down to about $150 - $10 less than I was paying previously, but the damage was done. I took the offer but decided to make a change. I'm moving from Sprint to Ting, so I'll be saving around $100 per month on the cell bill, so I'm in a mindset to save money.

I started off by buying an Ooma - my mom has been using one for a month now, and it's working well. I decided to keep Internet through Comcast ($75) but drop phone and cable. Now the big decision - do I keep cable? In looking at some of the lower tier Dish options, $25 seems pretty reasonable, but that requires a two-year contract and the price goes up after one year. In addition, when trying to find out if I would even be able to use Dish due to the height of the trees bordering my property, I was told that I'd have to first sign up for a contract and that "the installer would make it work." Really? I need to sign a two-year contract for something I don't even know will work? What the hell?

So that left me with one other option - U-verse. One year plan, $100 per month for 28Mbps down and 200 channels, four tuner DVR (2 SD, 2 HD), $150 in debit cards, and, best of all, a free 30 day trial.

So I'm going to give it a shot - I know this is the "Cutting cable" thread, but I figure for $25 extra, I'm willing to keep cable if I can cut my bill almost in half. Is anyone interested in commentary regarding how the install and day-to-day of U-verse goes? I don't get the service installed until the 27th, so it will be a couple of weeks before I can really post anything.

Put an antenna on your roof.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2013 20:27

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Lowness 72 posted:

Ok another question.

Now that we've cut cable we figured anything we couldn't find on July or Netflix we could just watch on the shows website online.

But lo and behold, most of the networks now have you log in to make sure you have a cable subscription! So TNT, AMC, and USA shows are all locked down.

Is there any way to get these networks? Are they broadcasted over the air?

Does anyone in your family have cable use their info.

Don Lapre fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Jul 24, 2013

# ¿ Jul 24, 2013 14:00

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Medikit posted:

Can you get away with this?

Yes. There is no location or IP verification.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2013 15:38

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Rhyno posted:

I thought they wern't shipping until August, gonna have to order one if they're already going out.

Best buy has them in stores.

# ¿ Jul 25, 2013 16:04

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

If you subscribe to basic cable you will get a letter offering you a discounted or free DTA.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2013 15:30

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Mighty Horse posted:

Yep, but the DTA doesn't do HD.

They have HD-DTA's in some markets. Dont know what the upcharge is though.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2013 16:28

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Gyshall posted:

Goons,

what are my options for getting NFL games without cable/dish? I've seen the Madden 25 $99 anniversary edition that comes with Sunday Ticket, but I'd like to be able to stream from my PS3, which that package doesn't seem to be able to do.

I don't care about anything other than Red Zone. I want Red Zone.

HTPC + Pirate streams.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2013 18:24

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

You can get a 2 week or a month trial. Just try it and see if you would use it.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2013 16:21

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

surrender posted:

Not sure if this is the right place to ask - let me know if I should start a new thread. I'm moving to Africa to work for an NGO for a couple of years, and the project leader has asked me to look into solutions for viewing live US TV over there. As far as I can tell, Slingbox is the only option, and it looks like it should work well, but are there any other products I should look into? They have a reliable internet connection, so bandwidth isn't an issue.

Dont know how reliable you want but TVUplayer usually has some local tv stations going. You could also just get someones comcast login and use the different tv anywhere sites though you may need to use a us proxy.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2013 20:22

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

MasterSlowPoke posted:

I'm just looking at their channel listing. They seem to just be OTA channels.

That's the service. You are renting an ota antenna at their warehouse.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2013 20:31

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Insane Totoro posted:

What's the difference between these two Winegard antennas?

http://www.amazon.com/Winegard-Company-FL-5000-FlatWave-Digital/dp/B0063705PE

http://www.amazon.com/Winegard-FL5500A-FlatWave-Amplified-Antenna/dp/B00BN5Z2WM

One is $75 and the other is $39.

One is amplified.

Only registered members can see post attachments!

# ¿ Sep 24, 2013 19:35

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Lowness 72 posted:

Alot of hgtv is on Hulu.

However USA, TNT, AMC etc. which used to allow you to watch free online now require a cable TV subscription.

You can also use a friends cable login though.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2013 03:30

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Gozinbulx posted:

So I finally got a Winegard Flatwave per recommendation of this thread and...

It seems like it DETECTS more channels during the scan, but I can only still watch a few of them. Also now I'm not getting several channels which I did get with my other RCA flat antenna thing. I only have one window (sliding glass door actually) in the living room, nestled among some of the other buildings of my apartment complex. Am I screwed?

Everyone's house is different. Did you get the amplified version?

# ¿ Nov 7, 2013 02:45

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

withak posted:

http://blog.roku.com/blog/2013/12/17/introducing-youtube-on-roku-3/

Roku finally adds an official Youtube channel.

Unfortunately it is only on the newest hardware.

Its coming to older hardware next year.

Also its really well done.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2013 18:03

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

teagone posted:

Yeah, holy drat does it blow away other Roku channel interfaces. I wish Netflix and Plex would update their Roku apps because they look like poo poo in comparison.

The Netflix app is the same one on other platforms now.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2013 02:29

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Comfortador posted:

I have the Mohu paperthin HD antenna, and since I moved into my apartment (from a house) the reception has become terrible. I'm on the bottom floor (ground level) Can anyone give me antenna placement advice, or do I need an amplifier? Sorry if its very vague I just don't know what information you would need.

Thanks for any help!

No one really knows. Its gonna a house by house and room by room difference.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2014 18:34

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 07:16

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

LLJKSiLk posted:

The only reason I have cable is for sports. ESPN 360 is hit/miss and typically I cannot watch my team when they do a loving blackout.

Would love to pay a la carte, but apparently that isn't in the cards.

I use the roku ESPN app and a friends cable login. The roku espn app has all the channels live streaming.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 00:06

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