The TV antenna is making a comeback • Hacker News Board

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#31

Post by lucaspiller » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:33 PM UTC

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.

Maybe it's different here in Europe, but most Smart TVs have had this functionality for the last few years - they store recordings on a USB drive. Before DVB tuners were integrated you had to get an addon receiver box, I have one from 10+ years ago that has a 80GB HDD to do exactly this.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#32

Post by hbosch » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:34 PM UTC

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.

Unfortunately, we are not allowed to have Aereo.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#33

Post by pkaye » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:35 PM UTC

greg5green wrote: post #17

edward wrote: post #6

In 2010 when I lived in the San Francisco I ordered my broadband from Comcast, but I didn't pay for the TV package. I added a splitter to the Comcast coax cable, then plugged one wire into the cable modem and the other into the back of my TV. Network TV channels for no extra cost.

This was technically stealing.

The (compressed) picture quality for the basic network channels I'm paying Comcast for is technically stealing from me. And they will charge you extra if you get broadband without the basic TV channels. I ended using an OTA antenna regardless.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#34

Post by Retric » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:37 PM UTC

douche wrote: post #18

kome wrote: post #10

I am always stunned of how USA are both forerunners of new technologies, and very backward as well... for credit cards with chip, digital television, gsm diffusion, etc etc... Also, in most of United States you can not get an european level ADSL.

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.

That's more an issue if your looking at land vs where people actually live. More people live in DC than Wyoming.

The population of Nebraska, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Alaska , North and South Dakota put together is significantly less than the number of people living in New York City.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#35

Post by jerf » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:38 PM UTC

greg5green wrote: post #17

edward wrote: post #6

In 2010 when I lived in the San Francisco I ordered my broadband from Comcast, but I didn't pay for the TV package. I added a splitter to the Comcast coax cable, then plugged one wire into the cable modem and the other into the back of my TV. Network TV channels for no extra cost.

This was technically stealing.

There's precedent for things that get delivered to you being yours to use, even if you didn't order or pay for them. While I am aware that it is absolutely not the same thing, there is a law that anything sent unsolicited to you in postal mail is yours to keep, no questions asked. This is to prevent a type of now-dead fraud that involved doing that, then billing people for it.

It's really the responsibility of the cable provider to correctly filter services, if they want to charge for them. And you'll probably find that if you call up and try to "complain" about this, that they'll do nothing and tell you to do as you like, as it isn't even worth their time to bother about... putting a rather low bound on the degree of harm you're "inflicting" on them even in the worst case.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#36

Post by pbnjay » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:39 PM UTC

I haven't paid for cable TV in a long time. We've got netflix and amazon prime, and pay the $20/mo for sling during college football season (I would gladly pay less for an NCAA streaming channel..). Everything we watch is covered by those.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#37

Post by umsm » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:40 PM UTC

On a home we purchased, the house antenna that was mounted on the chimney picks up clear HD channels of the local stations that look wonderful.

Paying for TV doesn't make sense nowadays. If a home doesn't have an antenna on the roof, I would recommend it as an upgrade for anyone interested in the local channels.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#38

Post by pjc50 » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:40 PM UTC

crazcarl wrote: post #5

You don't even need a TV to take advantage of this if you have a computer. You can buy a tv tuner card that will connect to your laptop and allow you to plug in an antenna to watch TV. Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-1191-WinTV-HVR-955Q-Tuner-No...

I do this with Windows 7's included Media Center as a PVR. I was surprised when checking out popular "media center" software that most of it seems to concentrate on playback of videos and not support being a PVR.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#39

Post by SSilver2k2 » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:42 PM UTC

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.

TiVo Roamio OTA edition.

$50 box and $9.99 a month subscription. All the great tivo features, access to apps (netflix, youtube, etc) and a great FAST user interface.

Re: The TV antenna is making a comeback

#40

Post by LVB » Thu, Oct 15, 2015, 2:43 PM UTC

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.

I guess $250-400 isn't "cheap", but for easy: http://www.channelmaster.com/Antenna_DVR_s/336.htm

Our family has used their previous model for years with great success. Dual tuners, program guide (picked up OTA as well), and no fees or subscription.