Cutting Cable

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Cutting Cable

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

Killmaster posted:

My wife refuses to let go of cable because she loves to channel surf and "seeing what's on." Are there any good options that would replace that? Possibly something like Pandora but for Movies / TV shows?

Channel surf with an antenna.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2014 01:10

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 20:54

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:

She should get together with some of her neighbors and rent space on a local broadcast antenna on a nearby hill. Install the antenna there, then have cables run to the houses (might be pricey but it's a long term solution) et voilá! Reception for all.

This is totally a valid solution to watch something that comes on in 3 weeks.

# ¿ Jan 20, 2014 17:27

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

Jerk McJerkface posted:

Sounds basically like Aero. Do you have a source for this? I'd like to read about the history of cable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_television_in_the_United_States

John Walson[edit]
It is claimed that the first system was created in 1948 in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania by John Walson to provide television signals to people who bought sets from his appliance store in Mahanoy City, charging $100 per hookup and $2 per month.[8] Mahanoy City was ideally suited for CATV services, since broadcast television signals could easily be received via mountaintop antennas and retransmitted by "twin-lead" or "ladder-lead" cable to the valley community below (where broadcast reception was very poor). Walson's "first" claim is highly disputed, however, since his claimed starting date cannot be verified.[9] It should be noted, however, that the US Congress and the National Cable Television Association have recognized Walson as having invented cable television in the spring of 1948.[8]

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 16:07

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

Mahoning posted:

Does anyone use a TiVo + antenna? Is it worth it?

I'd like an on screen guide for the dozen or so channels I get, and dvr functionality would be great.

Depending on how skilled you are, you could build a cheap HTPC and run windows 7/8 and WMC. It may cost a bit more up front but you wont be paying $15/m for the program guide.

# ¿ Jan 21, 2014 23:49

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

Why vlc and not xbmc

# ¿ Jan 24, 2014 07:41

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'd greatly appreciate some guidance on selecting an outdoor antenna that will suit my needs. I'll be mounting it outdoors on an existing disused Dish mount. Unfortunately, the Dish mount is on the NE half of the roof and the signals are coming from the SW.

Below is a chart from TVFool.com highlighting the 7 signals I'm trying to receive. The farther 5 transmitters are all Line-of-Sight at 19 miles, -32.5 to -34.4 dBm Signal Power, 58.3 to 56.4 dB Noise Margin.

When selecting an antenna, am I trying to match the antenna Gain to the Signal Power or Noise Margin numbers provided in the chart? Since the transmitter locations are only 78° apart, would I be better served by a directional or multidirectional? And are Hi-V (11 and 13) close enough to UHF than I can choose an antenna that's only advertised as UHF, or do I need one advertised as Hi-V/UHF?

I don't want to spend $100+ if I don't need to, so I'm leaning toward this Windegard HD-1080 or this Winegard FreeVision FV-30BB.

Finally, how do I know if I need an amp or pre-amp, and how do I wire/power them?

Buy and install a new mast at the top of your roof. Its a 10 minute job.

# ¿ Feb 11, 2014 04:31

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

The Gunslinger posted:

Oh? I've been looking at some locally but a few of the shops want like $500 for them.

Thats ridiculous. You can get a 60 mile outdoor antenna for $20-$100

http://www.solidsignal.com/cview_antennas.asp?mc=03&d=over-the-air-tv-antennas-supplies&c=TV%20Antennas&cea=LD

# ¿ Feb 12, 2014 23:52

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

Minidust posted:

I floated the idea of ditching cable to the wife-to-be. I soon realized this will be a losing argument if we can't get Food Network and TLC. Any streaming options for those?

A couple of general questions too:

- Does Hulu have "real time" feeds (like a traditional programmed channel you can just tune in to) or is it purely on demand? I know stuff like Vevo on Apple TV and the upcoming WWE Network have both, but I'm not sure how common that is.

- Do any models of Roku have a sleep timer on them? I don't think my ISP has a bandwith cap, but I don't wanna push my luck and get throttled (I like falling asleep to TV).

Tell her that she will quickly forget about all the poo poo on cable she used to watch.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2014 20:34

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

Panty Saluter posted:

Until recently - yes they were. The FCC ruled last year that cable ops can encrypt local stations since it will cut down on piracy. Sadly many people seem to think that free OTA HD includes those same channels being free when transported over a cable network. In reality the charges for any "basic" type cable package are covering costs for retransmission fees and maintenance (you would be amazed at how much TLC a cable network needs).

I would imagine most cable ops are going to go all encrypted before too long for just this reason. I'm sure a lot of people won't like it but the cable operator's position is not completely without reason.

Dont understand how many arguments ive had with people, that just because hooking your cable line up to your tv and getting channels works, doesn't mean its not considered cable theft.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 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.

Jerk McJerkface posted:

I set up my in laws like this, they are a little technology naive, so my mother in law called the cable company and specifically asked them. The rep sort of laughed and was like "whatever". I get this is not justifying it, but it's funny that they basically got permission from the provider. It doesn't work now, though, I guess they encrypted it.

Yes nothing they can really do about it except encrypt.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 16:24

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

Mr Executive posted:

Yes. Each box costs $7/month. So I would be looking at another $21/month to get three more boxes for the other TVs in my house (or get antennas/etc and live with OTA).

Cable boxes cost $7/m. But do the basic basic DTA's? They are the size of playing cards now. For comcast they are free for 2 years if you already had basic cable and $1.99 after.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 20:11

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

Panty Saluter posted:

There's always diconnecting your line or trapping it appropriately but that depends on how much the technician gives a poo poo.

Don't think they can trap clearqam.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2014 02:49

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

Panty Saluter posted:

Sure you can. Just cut the frequencies the channels ride on -> porblem solved

Yea I guess so, I guess I've just never seen it done for digital TV frequencies.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2014 03:11

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

Jerk McJerkface posted:

I have my antenna connected via coax to a TV Capture card (Happauge 1600 I think) in my HTPC (Windows Media Center) and I use it for DVR. If I get one of those boxes and switch to basic cable, will I be able to use my WMC and TV card? I wonder if they hand off coax or HDMI and if it's QAM or whatever. I have FIOS now if it matters. Maybe I should call them?

No, DTA's are just cable boxes but really really small. Most are only SD also though you can get HD ones in some markets (with hdmi obviously).

They dont actually decrypt the signal and send qam out, they are just super basic cables boxes without on screen guides or anything. To use with WMC you would need to use a capture card with hdmi or composite input and ir blasters.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2014 20:41

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

FCKGW posted:

Would running Plex Media Server on an SSD have any benefits over a traditional hard drive if all my media is accessed remotely via Apple TV and Roku? The SSD in my server just died and I'm considering if I should just go back to mechanical if there's no real benefits.

The only thing I think might be useful is possibly serving up artwork quicker but I don't know if it cached on the device at all.

No. Your hard drive isn't the bottleneck for streaming and transcoding.

# ¿ Feb 22, 2014 22:23

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:

I don't know if you guys saw this:

Source: http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=OBR&date=20140311&id=17424222

Emphasis mine. So regarding that asinine quote, aren't commercials supposed to pay for OTA TV? Who's paying for a standard OTA transmission? I understand that the network has to make money, but this is a really petty way to say "if we can't play by my rules, then I'm taking my ball and going home." What an rear end in a top hat.

The real problem is that if aerio is ruled legal then there is no reason comcast/twc/cox cant do the same thing and stop paying retransmission fees.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2014 21:48

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

Brock Landers posted:

Do the cable companies pay the broadcasters like CBS fees though? I thought they were forced to carry them by the FCC.

Yes. They pay retransmission fees.

http://articles.philly.com/2014-01-06/business/45885511_1_retransmission-fees-tv-stations-similar-fees

# ¿ Mar 11, 2014 23:21

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

Photex posted:

Amazon is offering to long time members $20 a month payment plan for the Fire TV, I almost went for it but no hbo go and ustvnow.

I wish firetv allowed for multiple amazon accounts since we leach a family members prime account for streaming. But i dont want to buy apps under their account.

# ¿ May 4, 2014 18:02

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

the posted:

Can I sandwich a Mohu Leaf between the wall and my wall-mounted HDTV and still get good reception? I live in house in a suburban area.

Nobody knows until you try it. Every house and gps coordinate will have different reception. Though i can say that would not be optimal.

# ¿ May 13, 2014 21:15

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

Sexual Aluminum posted:

I have my TV mounted right against the wall, and I hide my leaf antenna behind it. I live on the second floor of a condo, and it can get a little snowy sometimes, overall it works great.

But your experience has no bearing on his experience.

# ¿ May 15, 2014 17:55

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

I wish the prime streaming was a seperate app from the OS. So i could have one account for prime streaming and another for buying things.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2014 16:07

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

BigFactory posted:

Does Fire TV/XBMC have Aereo support? That's what pushed me towards a Roku.

You understand aereo is probably going to shut down?

# ¿ Jun 27, 2014 20:41

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

Does the roku have zune support?

# ¿ Jun 28, 2014 17:01

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:

Probably not because it isn't 2008.

It was a joke about the guy making a decision on set top boxes based on aereo support.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2014 18:41

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

EugeneJ posted:

Does anyone still use those old-rear end giant rooftop antennas to get OTA HDTV?

If it leads to consistent signal quality compared with a Mohu Leaf or whatever, I'd be willing to buy one.

I use a clearstream 2v /w VHF attachment on my roof and a wineguard amplifier. Works great. Its as solid a signal as cable.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2014 22:03

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

azurite posted:

Has anyone made the jump from a Roku 2 (OG. XS) to a Roku 3? I mostly use it for Netflix, YouTube, and sometimes Amazon. The YouTube app is cool and all, but it's slow as rear end and it crashes a lot. Will the Roku 3 fix this? Are there better options now?

If you use it for netflix then roku 3 is a big upgrade since it gets the new UI.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2014 22:12

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:

XBMC + a few choice addons has more content than any Roku.

XBMC addons are poo poo. They are cumbersome, they don't always work.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2014 21:10

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

As far as DVR dunno. But OTA+ guide is coming to android tv for hdhomerun devices.

http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/viewforum.php?f=81&sid=bfcfac08ab5ef0343d24873f75dfe409

# ¿ Jul 23, 2014 15:11

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:

You must not have used them in awhile.

I use an XBMC box everyday. They still dont have an addon system that can do more than list view type poo poo though one has been in the planning for version after version.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2014 20:36

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:

What? I don't understand what you mean by "list view type poo poo"

Try Genesis, by the maker of Go Movies and Go TV. There's almost nothing I cant watch on there and my non-tech savy family can use it.

Im not saying there isn't a lot of content, im saying the addon system is very limited in what it can do. You cant do roku style apps on xbmc.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2014 21:24

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

angryrobots posted:

Is there any set top box or smart tv that has a built in browser that does flash? Espn3 requires flash to load. The watchespn app that some boxes advertise won't work.

Don't expect flash on anything new. Embedded flash was abandoned at 10.3.

Also my roku does all the ESPN channels just fine.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2014 05:06

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

Jim Silly-Balls posted:

I am looking to get OTA TV on a projector. The projector does not have a TV tuner, just various inputs.

Is there a standalone HDTV tuner I can get that I can run to the projector to get OTA? I do also have a computer hooked to the projector if that helps.

If you have a computer hooked up then buy an HDHomerun and use windows media center.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2014 20:37

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 can wait for android tv i would definitely wait before buying a firetv.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2014 16:51

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

Saveron_01 posted:

Really bummed me out that Justin.tv is gone. Watched Sherlock, Stargate, Archer streaming pretty much 24/7 on that site. They decided to focus more on Twitch than continue supporting the site.

Enjoy

http://tubesynch.com/

edit: just realized these are youtube playlists

Don Lapre fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Aug 11, 2014

# ¿ Aug 11, 2014 21:35

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

Unless you just have to have a streaming stick, i would always get the roku 3. Since it offers wifi control you can double stick it on the back of your tv if you dont want to see it.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 15:20

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

Slippery42 posted:

Is there a consensus on the best DVR solution for over the air TV these days? I really like the idea of the Channelmaster DVR+, but not so much the idea that it only hooks up to one TV. A whole-home DVR would be preferable. I'm fine with homebrewing something since I have some spare computer parts laying around, but since the HTPC thread OP is a bit out of date, I'm a bit lost on two points in particular:

-Is there a particular model of TV tuner I should get (or avoid)?
-Would I need additional software for that tuner to receive a channel guide in order to schedule recordings? Would said software play well with Plex, XBMC, and the like?

Windows media center.

# ¿ Aug 19, 2014 17:19

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

Spring for the Plus model also since it does internal h264 transcoding

# ¿ Aug 19, 2014 23:23

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

Maneki Neko posted:

This just got announced and is probably worth a look:

http://www.engadget.com/2014/08/25/tivo-roamio-ota-dvr/

The roamio OTA doesn't support whole home. You need the base model roamio and then a bunch of tivo minis which all require their own monthly fee.

# ¿ Aug 25, 2014 15:54

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

IRQ posted:

So I somehow was ignorant of exactly what slingbox actually did until today and thought it was local network only. Am I correct in understanding that if I rent an extra cable box for my mom's directv subscription that I can basically stream cable off her subscription to my home? How well does it work?

Yes, how well it works depends on her connection. Keep in mind you may bog down her connection or if she has monthly bandwidth limits you may destroy them.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2014 04:36

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# ¿ May 11, 2024 20:54

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

DangerKat posted:

So FXNOW is available on Apple TV now and after one episode of Sons of Anarchy, holy poo poo I think there are more ads watching on the app over live TV.

There are because online ads are so much cheaper than tv ads

# ¿ Sep 25, 2014 04:22

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