Alternatives to cable and satellite tv

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Profile Gordon Lowe
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Message 1910156 - Posted: 2 Jan 2018, 4:45:36 UTC

Bought a cute little antenna with rabbit ears for $10 at Target, and I'm getting 19 channels! It's free tv, the old-fashioned way. :~)
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Profile Angela Special Project $75 donor
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Message 1910158 - Posted: 2 Jan 2018, 4:57:41 UTC

You just like rabbits!
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Message 1910165 - Posted: 2 Jan 2018, 6:11:32 UTC

This website will tell you which channels you can receive with an antenna. I dropped the cable and have an outdoor antenna receiving 48 channels. It's been over a year now. Most are junk to me but half a dozen are why I had cable. One months cable cost paid for antenna set up. A second month of cable costs will pay for Netflix, HULU and more for a year.

http://www.antennaweb.org/Address
Begin by entering your address. It is used to calculate the strength of each station that may be received at your location and determine which station each antenna type will receive.

...
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Message 1910171 - Posted: 2 Jan 2018, 7:34:04 UTC
Last modified: 2 Jan 2018, 7:35:21 UTC

I think Internet streaming services will pretty much replace cable TV. More choices, and the flexibility of not having a schedule. And it's a pricing factor. If people can get what they want for a lower cost, they're going to switch. The problem is the initial cost or effort for the technology. There are still a lot of people who don't have much experience with computers and the Internet. So cable TV will linger on. Cable companies will still make money off of their Internet connections. I wonder if they will start their own full streaming services and try to compete with Netflix, since they can now legally change bandwidth however they like. Or maybe they will make using Netflix cost more, in order to give themselves time to transition.
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Message 1910177 - Posted: 2 Jan 2018, 8:08:19 UTC

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Message 1910180 - Posted: 2 Jan 2018, 8:43:09 UTC

In the UK we only have 2 choices Virgin Media for cable and Sky TV for satellite.

Living in a block of apartments, the managing agents decided right from the start that sat dishes or ugly cables were out and so I had no options but to go with over the air digital TV, the first paying company collapsed, luckily a free to air company started up in it's place called Freeview and was quite successful, It started small and still only has around 70 channels, 15 in HD, but was enough for me.

When I was looking after my dad I brought an Amazon Fire TV stick and joined Prime ( basically to get stuff delivered to the Isle of Wight next day). With Amazon Prime you get a lot of films and TV included.

So much so that on Christmas Day when I decided to watch TV for a change I was totally blown away by the choice.

I agree, streaming will be the way forward, being able to watch what you want when you want to, and being able to pause whenever you want wins out all the time for me.

Of course all the major Freeview channels here have a "catch up" internet service that allows you to watch programs you might have missed.

Interesting fact no 42

Back in the 80's Professor Nicholas Negroponte came up with the idea that we were basically doing things the wrong way round, we had static TV's that received signals by radio waves, and telephones that were wired in.

He thought it would be more efficient if TV's were cabled and phones were wireless. It became know as the Negroponte Switch.
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Message 1910183 - Posted: 2 Jan 2018, 8:59:29 UTC - in response to Message 1910180.  

Man in the High Castle, is intriguing, thankfully history didn't work out that way though. Shudder.
The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's
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Message 1912939 - Posted: 14 Jan 2018, 7:39:59 UTC
Last modified: 14 Jan 2018, 7:53:40 UTC

Broadband here is provided by Spectrum Cable(ex-TWC), technically at 100/10, though I'm getting about 118.08/11.92, which for this area is the only speed available, for the moment, other areas are being upgraded to 942/35. I have enough bandwidth to watch tv, or to stream a tv show, or a movie, like Andromeda on the Roku channel(Free) or The Orville on foxnow(Free, so far), or to download something. Since I own My own modem, I only pay $44.99 a month, a promo price, later in 2018, when I don't remember, the price will be $64.99 a month for internet access. If I used a cable supplied modem, My bill would be $10.00 higher every month. And this is without the Xbox or the cherries in My freezer.
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Message 1913077 - Posted: 14 Jan 2018, 21:30:22 UTC - in response to Message 1912939.  

I just installed one of those Roku's, too, and I love it. I like being able to watch You Tube videos on regular tv with the Roku device. That's cool. No monthly fees; just $30 to buy the device, and after hooking it up to the tv, I can watch lots of stuff for free, streamed from the computer.
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Message 1913532 - Posted: 17 Jan 2018, 18:10:26 UTC - in response to Message 1913077.  

Despite using the Sony PS3 for Netflix and Amazon, and a BT Humax Box to pay for and watch BT Sport (Rugby Union AVIVA Premiership) and Freeview free Terrestrial channels in HD, plus I have a Linux FreeSat Box kicking about for one or two extra free channels over Satellite, I think the ChromeCast was the best buy, since I can use my Android Mobile (Cellphone) to run Showbox and LocalHost to watch TV and Movies that you'd normally pay for.

What I'm a lot more enthusiastic about is what Rebellion are currently doing, they are filming a new Judge Dredd TV Series, properly based on the Comic, 2000AD, since they also produce and publish the Comic. Now that is going to be special.
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Message boards : Cafe SETI : Alternatives to cable and satellite tv


 
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