Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The TV antenna is making a comeback

marketplace.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 254 posts

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#191

Post by panglott »

pjc50 wrote: post #168
legitster wrote: post #159

I'm 24 and I have never had cable in my life. Frankly, I'm surprised it's not more common. You get a LOT of TV for free. I grew up watching PBS and Simpsons and etc. I remember at superbowl some of my friends were amazed that I was able to watch the football game without cable. I was floored. They didn't even know that channels came in over the air. I showed them the antenna, where it installs in the TV, how cheap th…

How on earth does this situation come about? Hypereffective advertising by the cable companies?

Most of the US market had shifted to cable TV by the introduction of digital TV, and simply wasn't aware that it existed.

I think there's a bit of a generational divide: older people think of the cable companies as the institution that brought us 500 channels. Younger people either can't imagine a world without cable TV, or loathe the cable companies for high prices and poor service. I'm the latter, and have been eager to find any way to reduce any connection to the big telecom companies. Right now, rabbit ears + Netflix/Hulu + cable internet is just one element short of perfect.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#192

Post by car »

dtparr wrote: post #127
car wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly easy or cheap, but a data point for you: My OTA DVR for the last 8 years setup has been a PC with Windows Media Center. Apart from the setup, there is no monthly cost for the guide data, as with Tivo etc. Right now this runs on a NUC, with a SiliconDust HD Homerun (HDTC-2US) living in my attic, which transcodes the OTA MPEG-2 to H.264, saving tons of disk space. A nice side effect is that I can archive sh…

Interesting, I have a similar setup, but with the old standard PCI-based tuner that just pulls the data and dumps it. I hadn't seen a tuner option that would transcode it on the fly. Is there any noticeable lag when watching live? Does the WMC still record it in the standard wtv format, just with a different video codec? What's a rough size estimate for a 1-hr show? Can you adjust the amount of compression or otherwi…

Transcoding happens on the fly, in hardware I assume. The compression is configurable, from a very high quality 1080p profile, down to more lossy streams for mobile devices, 3 profiles total IIRC (non tweak able). The highest quality mode is _almost_ indistinguishable from the OTA signal. No lag or stutter, whatsoever.

An added bonus of the transcode is the reduced bandwidth in the LAN. Previously I needed CAT5 for a stable ATSC stream, now Wifi suffices (e.g. to iPad/iPhone). There is an app for the iPad, to watch those streams. On iPad Air 2 it renders 1080p without lag.

Also, putting the HD Homerun in the network let's one get away with a small head unit (in my case an Intel NUC).

You are correct, the resulting files are still wtv container, but with h.264 stream inside. VLC can play them fine. Not sure about conversion to MPEG4.

A 1-hour show comes out around 1.5GB (from memory), maybe less. Much better then before.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#193

Post by heuermh »

carsonreinke wrote: post #178
twblalock wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With Chromecast (or something similar to connect your computer to TV), and a decent Antenna, you do not really need anything else. Unless you want to watch a lot of sports.

Pretty much all of the MLB stuff (except for playoffs) is cable only. NFL will at least of the either Monday or Thursday game along with your local on Sunday.

Even the playoffs for MLB are cable only.

http://m.mlb.com/postseason-schedule

OTA FOX only gets one or two playoffs games and the World Series.

In previous years it was possible to watch most of the games online via "live alternative video feeds (excluding the broadcast feed)", and now even that is not allowed.

Check out all the disclaimers and fine print here

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?&affiliateId=...

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#194

Post by car »

pjc50 wrote: post #171
car wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly easy or cheap, but a data point for you: My OTA DVR for the last 8 years setup has been a PC with Windows Media Center. Apart from the setup, there is no monthly cost for the guide data, as with Tivo etc. Right now this runs on a NUC, with a SiliconDust HD Homerun (HDTC-2US) living in my attic, which transcodes the OTA MPEG-2 to H.264, saving tons of disk space. A nice side effect is that I can archive sh…

How do you get WMC to transcode?

The transcode happens upstream, in the HDTC-2US. It then streams the transcoded broadcast to your WMC PC.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#195

Post by canow »

codyb wrote: post #188
canow wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get about 50 free over-the-air channels ... most are HD.

Are you in NYC as well? I love the antenna, and even though I haven't quite kept up on my promise to myself to learn Spanish the inclusion of multiple Spanish language channels (plus Korean, Chinese, and I believe a few other languages) is a super neat bonus.

I'm in Florida, English and Spanish are the only 2 languages and most are English but there is probably 10 to 15 Spanish channels. But to tell you the truth I only watch a few of those, just like I did when I had cable.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#196

Post by ghaff »

abtinf wrote: post #152
hackuser wrote: post #150

As much as I like the idea of free broadcast TV and not being dependent on cable/satellite companies ... 1) Is over-the-air broadcast TV widely used anywhere? Very few even know about it where I live, but maybe there are places where it's more common. 2) Is it essential to any group of people? 3) Could we get more beneift from that spectrum by repurposing it for something else?

1) In the US, its everywhere . Usually, the more urban the location, the more channels you can get. 2) It used to be the only way to get TV. And it costs a tiny fraction of any other type of content provider. So you could say its essential to low income people or people who think its immoral to support comcast.

Everywhere is a bit of an overstatement. Most, if not all, urban and suburban locations with reception rapidly falling off in exurban and, especially, rural locations (i.e. the vast bulk of the land area of the US). Obviously on a population basis, the OTA situation is a lot better but there's still a pretty rapid falloff as you get 30 miles or so away from urban centers with TV stations.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#197

Post by cgy1 »

noelsusman wrote: post #179
legitster wrote: post #159

I'm 24 and I have never had cable in my life. Frankly, I'm surprised it's not more common. You get a LOT of TV for free. I grew up watching PBS and Simpsons and etc. I remember at superbowl some of my friends were amazed that I was able to watch the football game without cable. I was floored. They didn't even know that channels came in over the air. I showed them the antenna, where it installs in the TV, how cheap th…

I've had the same experience. In my experience the quality is much better than legitimate online streaming services or even cable. That might be in my head but the quality is seriously good. Nobody believes me when I tell them I get it for free with a $20 antenna. There's over 50 channels in my area (though to be honest only ~40 of them never air anything worth watching).

No it's not in your head at all. Cable and satellite providers will compress, often very badly, the same feeds that you get via OTA antenna before transmitting those feeds to their customers.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#198

Post by car »

HelloMcFly wrote: post #109
nsxwolf wrote: post #25

What I'd like is an easy, cheap DVR solution for OTA. Mostly I'd just like to be able to pause and rewind live TV. After cutting the cord, it's like living in the 80s again shouting at family members to be quiet when you need to hear something.

The Xbox One allows pausing and rewinding of live TV, but not recording.

Recording OTA TV on Xbox One has been announced for Q1 2016.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#199

Post by PretzelFisch »

kale wrote: post #186
PretzelFisch wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many areas where digital is still broadcast over VHF.

Less than 2% of TV stations went back to Low band VHF after the transition. I'm in one of those areas where one station decided to go back to low VHF after analog was shut off, and it's an NBC affiliate (and NASCAR and SNL are really the main two things I want to watch). I just got finished building a folded dipole specifically for this channel (6 foot half-wavelength). It works great beside the TV, it's not really d…

you might want to look into a yagi antenna design.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#200

Post by PretzelFisch »

JTon wrote: post #140
z2 wrote: post #139

Two years back I decided to make my own antenna. I had no idea what a folded dipole was, but found a website that instructed me to use a metal clothes hanger cut to the proper length for HD US signals, and a block of wood. I had neither so I taped some leftover enamel wire to a piece of cardboard. I still use this antenna today, and get about 50 channels, living 30 miles away from the nearest broadcast antenna. Point…

Awesome. Care to share the resources you used for this project?

This is the typical design I see offered in most how tutorials. http://makezine.com/projects/digital-tv-coat-hanger-antenna/
Post reply on HN