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

221–230 of 254 posts

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#221

Post by rhino369 »

ryandrake wrote: post #99
douche wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is very, very big, and very, very empty compared to Europe. Outside of the I-95 corridor on the East Coast, some islands of density in the midwest, and the coastal zone of California, Oregon, Washington, it's overwhelmingly rural or uninhabited.

If low population density is the reason the USA overall doesn't have fast, cheap broadband and is behind in mobile technology, then why aren't very dense areas within the USA (or dense states like New Jersey) up to the standards of Europe and East Asia?

They are up to European standards. In fact US has more people over 10 Mpbs than the big European countries like France, UK and Germany. Only 34% of people in Sweden do better than 15 Mpbs. I get 75/75Mpbs in DC. Comcast offers 105Mpbs. We pay more, but that's probably because competition lowers install rates.

https://www.stateoftheinternet.com/downloads/pdfs/2015-q2-st...

Several East Asian countries--namely Japan and Korea--have placed great important on ISP speed. It's heavily subsided. America could do that, but it's a policy priority.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#222

Post by legitster »

ilamont wrote: post #89

I took a look at a relative’s cable bill last year. He lives in a town with three competing cable/ISP services. Here is how the monthly costs broke down: Expanded basic service: $60 High definition converter box: $10 Digital converter rental: $3 HBO Cinemax package: $18 Premiere Total Pack: $16 Showtime/TMC: $5 Starz: $5 Franchise fee: $7 Broadcast TV surcharge: $4 Sports programming surcharge: $2 Total monthly cost:…

What's crazy to me, especially as a person who grew up without cable, is that you can get these channels for free, but they have commercials and there's no guarantee nothing good will be on. OR you can pay all of this money, and there are still commercials and nothing good is on! What are you actually paying for?

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#223

Post by McGlockenshire »

analyticsjam wrote: post #29
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.

Silicondust is releasing their DVR in the next month or two. I'm in on the kickstarter but not at the level that is currently testing. There are also dedicated devices for people less tech savvy. https://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun/hd-homerun-dv...

I'm really looking forward to the Silicondust DVR software. I was never able to make MythTV work correctly for me.

I've been using Windows Media Center with an HDHR Prime, but the quality of the WMC listing accuracy took a huge dive around the time when they announced they've halted development and would not provide a version for Windows 10.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#224

Post by rhino369 »

lorenzhs wrote: post #50
dangerlibrary wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the correct answer. Old, but still relevant density map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_density#/media/File...

Norway and Sweden have excellent Fiber-to-the-Home and very low population density. You can get 1GBit/s symmetrical quite cheaply (I don't remember how much, one Swedish offer I found just now is $120/month).

Why does Akami only report ~1/3rd of Sweden and Norway having above 15 Mbps?

https://www.stateoftheinternet.com/downloads/pdfs/2015-q2-st...

I've never been anywhere either country, but I suspect this uberInternet Meme about Scandinavia is not quite representative of average Scandinavian ISP speed.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#225

Post by Steltek »

legitster wrote: post #222
ilamont wrote: post #89

I took a look at a relative’s cable bill last year. He lives in a town with three competing cable/ISP services. Here is how the monthly costs broke down: Expanded basic service: $60 High definition converter box: $10 Digital converter rental: $3 HBO Cinemax package: $18 Premiere Total Pack: $16 Showtime/TMC: $5 Starz: $5 Franchise fee: $7 Broadcast TV surcharge: $4 Sports programming surcharge: $2 Total monthly cost:…

What's crazy to me, especially as a person who grew up without cable, is that you can get these channels for free, but they have commercials and there's no guarantee nothing good will be on. OR you can pay all of this money, and there are still commercials and nothing good is on! What are you actually paying for?

Careful. That $1,500 the OP quoted includes HBO, Starz, etc which you can't get OTA.

The $10 set top box is also usually a DVR. An equivalent OTA DVR was $300, the last time I looked. And an OTA USB dongle mated with a computer to function as a DVR still requires a whole computer so there's really no escaping that cost.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#226

Post by r00fus »

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?

Related: Replacing incandescent light bulbs with LEDs - nowadays LEDs have about 95-99% of the warmness profile of an incandescent and are relatively cheap (can result in Another related: NiMH slow-discharge batteries (Eneloop) are very good, last as long in a remote control, and have more consistent charge levels than an alkaline. Yet people (even enviro-conscious relatives) keep buying alkalines. Why?

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#227

Post by yuhong »

cgy1 wrote: post #197
noelsusman wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Which is pretty funny when you think about why cable was created in the first place.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#228

Post by maxerickson »

trey-jones wrote: post #136
ilamont wrote: post #89

I took a look at a relative’s cable bill last year. He lives in a town with three competing cable/ISP services. Here is how the monthly costs broke down: Expanded basic service: $60 High definition converter box: $10 Digital converter rental: $3 HBO Cinemax package: $18 Premiere Total Pack: $16 Showtime/TMC: $5 Starz: $5 Franchise fee: $7 Broadcast TV surcharge: $4 Sports programming surcharge: $2 Total monthly cost:…

I live in the woods 40 miles outside of Atlanta. I can (usually) get all of the important Atlanta stations, no problem. My Antenna was $150, but I have been using it for almost 10 years (you do the math). I do require some formidable signal amplification and lose picture when an airplane flies overhead.

I think it can be very situational. I've pulled a signal in (reliably) over 40 miles using an antenna similar to the one here, with no amplification, with the antenna indoors:

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/25-hdtv-technical/798265-how-b...

That station actually came in better than a closer one that had a worse path, the 40 mile one was basically a clear line of site, the closer one had a lot of hills between. Usually I pointed it at the closer antenna, about 40 degrees away from the further antenna, and still got good reception on the further one.

I could pick up a station 60 miles away, but it would not come in reliably.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#229

Post by brewdad »

falsestprophet wrote: post #105
ddingus wrote: post #102

The tech is great. I bought a "COLOR TV ANTENNA" from Radio Shack, when they were still open a few years back. Amazingly, it came in the same looking box I recall from the late 70's. (upgrading mom 'n pops old antenna as a kid to get UHF channels) Took an hour to get a good orientation. Mostly problem free, and there are some 30 channels here in PDX, maybe 10 of them offer something I might watch. And that's the only…

PDX is the airport code for the Portland airport just in case you don't keep up with the airport code for the 19th largest US metro area.

PDX is just what the locals tend to say when mentioning Portland. It saves the confusion over whether you are referring to Maine or Oregon. Assuming the person you are communicating with knows their airport codes. :)

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#230

Post by heyheyhey »

noelsusman wrote: post #177
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.

You can get a lot of NFL and college football from the antenna. I use my parent's cable login to cover the rest (WatchESPN) but of course that's not a real solution available to everyone.

NFL is doable although there's no obvious solution for MNF except using someone else's login.

NCAAF is a little random since some games are on non-cable but a majority aren't. I'm on the west coast and the games are usually on FS1 or Pac-12 network.

NBA is pretty much impossible until the ABC has their Sunday games and the NBA finals.

Post reply on HN