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Old 06-09-2016, 07:35 AM   #41
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W2R, you don't even have Amazon Prime?

I might not use it much now, but when in S&B we used the heck out of the free shipping aspect and the streaming was just bonus (I did like Bosch and Man in the high Castle though).
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Old 06-09-2016, 07:36 AM   #42
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I wanted to make the transition and purchased a good outdoor antenna but was pretty fringe on reception from major US affiliates in Buffalo due to the topography. So am stuck with cable. I took the antenna to my mom's place 10 miles away and she has great reception of all the stations from Buffalo and Toronto so it worked out well for her!
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Old 06-09-2016, 07:43 AM   #43
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I am probably a little weird about this (OK, I *KNOW* I am a little weird about this). But anyway, to me, there is something infinitely more satisfying about going strictly OTA instead of OTA with streaming. It is an amazing feeling to know that I am not paying one red cent for television and getting everything I watch for FREE. And also, I am not dependent on any company's crummy service.

But then, like I said, I'm weird about this. I didn't even have a TV at all for many years.
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W2R, you don't even have Amazon Prime? I might not use it much now, but when in S&B we used the heck out of the free shipping aspect and the streaming was just bonus (I did like Bosch and Man in the high Castle though).
I have it for the shipping, but I haven't really watched any shows on it. In fact, Amazon sent me an inquiry about that (apparently thinking that I didn't know about the shows! ) I just haven't seen anything available on it that I want to watch.

I also have F's Netflix on my TV, but don't watch shows on that either mostly because I haven't seen anything on it that appeals to me. I know, I should explore it more but I haven't.

On OTA television, I get a few channels like AntennaTV and MeTV that provide me with old shows like All in The Family, Star Trek, and similar shows from the 50's and 60's. I enjoy these shows a lot more than modern shows with all their high tension music and impossibly complicated plots. And it's all FREE!
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Old 06-09-2016, 07:50 AM   #44
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I have cable TV at $99 per month on one tv, and free OTA on 2 other TV's. I choose not to hook up the OTA tv's to cable, for some reason. Good to have a separation. The OTA stations are good for local news, financial advice shows, Dr. Who, some British soap operas, like Eastenders, and lots of Retro serials. They even had Then Came Bronson at one time. OMG is that ever retro. Absolutely zero sports unless it's on the local news. Another good thing about OTA, besides being free, is that there seems to be fewer and less annoying commercials than on cable!
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Old 06-09-2016, 07:57 AM   #45
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For years, I had only internet and no TV service at all. Then I decided to put up a rooftop antenna so I could watch live sports (Free Mets games on weekends!) We live about 25 miles from New York City, so (with multiplexing) we get about 60 channels for free over-the-air. Yeah, some of them are in Spanish instead of English, but I discovered that the Spanish channels carry a lot of sports that are typically only available on cable in English and I get them for free instead. Also, UniMas has a contract with Major League Soccer for exclusive Friday night games and they had so many English-speaking viewers watching that they added English commentary via SAP.

I use a Channel Master DVR+ to record my non-live events and skip the commercials. The DVR+ cost $299 and there are no subscription fees, so it is significantly cheaper than TiVo. It provides a two-week program guide for no extra charge. You can record two shows at once while watching a third show that was recorded. The only downside is that you need to provide your own hard drive to save your recordings, but hard drives are really inexpensive right now. I bought one at Target.


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Old 06-09-2016, 08:18 AM   #46
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W2R, you don't even have Amazon Prime?

I might not use it much now, but when in S&B we used the heck out of the free shipping aspect and the streaming was just bonus (I did like Bosch and Man in the high Castle though).
I'm a long time Prime member but didn't start watching any streamed videos/movies until years later. The kicker for me was when I bought their Fire TV on one of their black Friday sales. Watching a movie felt like watching enjoyably on the sofa instead of over the computer. I do need to use a HDMI switch to switch between TV/DVR and my Fire TV device.

W2R - I think one of the first things I watched was several episodes of the original Star Trek (I can pick any episode I want at my time) .
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Old 06-09-2016, 08:22 AM   #47
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Originally Posted by W2R View Post
I am probably a little weird about this (OK, I *KNOW* I am a little weird about this). But anyway, to me, there is something infinitely more satisfying about going strictly OTA instead of OTA with streaming. It is an amazing feeling to know that I am not paying one red cent for television and getting everything I watch for FREE. And also, I am not dependent on any company's crummy service.

But then, like I said, I'm weird about this. I didn't even have a TV at all for many years.
Truth be told, if it wasn't for my DW, I would be perfectly happy with OTA or maybe no TV at all. There just isn't much on TV that interests me and I have found it to be a huge time waster...couple that with the amount of time I am on the internet and well...it's a sad statement.

Not too long ago, the DW went to see a friend out of state for a few days. When she came home, she was surprised that the last channel watched was Bravo. She asked if I had been watching it while she was gone but I had to disappoint her in telling her that it was from the last time SHE watched it. None of the TVs in the house had been on while she was gone!

I know there are entertaining shows (The Americans or Silicon Valley) that I do enjoy...they are just WAY down on the priority list for "things to do."
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Old 06-09-2016, 08:26 AM   #48
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W2R - I think one of the first things I watched was several episodes of the original Star Trek (I can pick any episode I want at my time) .
Yeah, but I can watch the original Star Trek for FREEE via OTA. I don't care what episode, I'm not that picky. I love the experience of discovering that it is on, when it is on - - wouldn't rob myself of that joy, either. I dunno; like I said, I'm weird.
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Old 06-09-2016, 08:30 AM   #49
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Yeah, but I can watch the original Star Trek for FREEE via OTA. I don't care what episode, I'm not that picky. I love the experience of discovering that it is on, when it is on - - wouldn't rob myself of that joy, either. I dunno; like I said, I'm weird.


They show Star Trek late at night on Decades (which is a multiplex digital channel of CBS). Just save it on your subscription-free DVR and voila! Free Star Trek. :-)


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Old 06-09-2016, 08:41 AM   #50
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Truth be told, if it wasn't for my DW, I would be perfectly happy with OTA or maybe no TV at all. There just isn't much on TV that interests me and I have found it to be a huge time waster
Believe me, I know what you mean!

When I moved to an apartment without DSL internet back in 2000, I had to switch to cable internet. The cable company told me it would be $10/month for internet, or $11/month for internet + basic cable TV. I didn't have a TV but bought a small outdated one on sale and gave it a shot. I figured it was worth trying for $1/month.
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Old 06-09-2016, 08:46 AM   #51
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Yeah, but I can watch the original Star Trek for FREEE via OTA. I don't care what episode, I'm not that picky. I love the experience of discovering that it is on, when it is on - - wouldn't rob myself of that joy, either. I dunno; like I said, I'm weird.
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They show Star Trek late at night on Decades (which is a multiplex digital channel of CBS). Just save it on your subscription-free DVR and voila! Free Star Trek. :-)
Sorry that you can only get Star Trek late at night! It's on during Prime Time here, so I guess I'm very lucky that I live in a good location for TV reception OTA.

I don't need or want to spend a bunch of $$$$$ on a DVR, or on streaming video, or anything at all whatsoever in order to happily watch Star Trek for FREEEEEE!!! I guess nobody but me quite "gets it" about not wanting to substitute paying for something else instead of paying for cable. That's OK, I'm weird, I know it.
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Old 06-09-2016, 08:49 AM   #52
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Yeah, but I can watch the original Star Trek for FREEE via OTA. I don't care what episode, I'm not that picky. I love the experience of discovering that it is on, when it is on - - wouldn't rob myself of that joy, either. I dunno; like I said, I'm weird.
I do see what you say about the joy just watching what is on.

As I mentioned in another post, sometimes I prefer to just listen to baseball on the radio. Well, at least not during the playoffs .
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Old 06-09-2016, 08:52 AM   #53
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I do see what you say about the joy just watching what is on.

As I mentioned in another post, sometimes I prefer to just listen to baseball on the radio. Well, at least not during the playoffs .
My grampa used to love listening to baseball on the radio, when he was alive. He was totally blind, but the announcers did such a good job that he could visualize the game pretty easily.
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Old 06-09-2016, 08:57 AM   #54
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"Naked OTA" has to be one of the best values available, especially for people living in urban areas with loads of signals.
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Old 06-09-2016, 09:34 AM   #55
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And something they may not be aware of, and might be surprised at - the 'free' OTA provides a higher quality signal than cable! The cable providers do a lot of compression to get those 500 channels with nothing on.

With OTA, each station has enough bandwidth for for a very high quality 1080i signal.

-ERD50
Thanks for making a good point. I have had people come over who subscribe to cable, and they remark that my TV's picture just looks a 'little better'.
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Old 06-09-2016, 09:40 AM   #56
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Do you have to pay a subscription to use the Tivo OTA recorder ?
The normal deal is to pay $15 a month for the guide service. The guide is what let's you see what is on TV, easily program recordings, etc. You don't have to have the guide, you can have a listing of TV shows from another source, and program recordings using the old date-time method. The guide also works to show if any shows you search for are on Netflix/Amazon/etc.

However, I bought my Tivo when they offered a deal - $50 for the Tivo and $250 for lifetime guide service (the Tivo's life, not mine). Considering that the only two likely points of failure are the disk drive and the power supply, and both are easily replaceable, that is not a bad deal. I break even in 17 months. But I would still pay the $15 a month if I had to rather than the cable bills my neighbors have to pay.
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Old 06-09-2016, 09:48 AM   #57
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FWIW, I also have a ChromeCast device hooked up to my TV. When I find something interesting to watch over the Internet I can 'cast' it to my TV using the Chrome browser and the ChromeCast device. Very nice.

The Spanish stations do show many sports program OTA. During the World Cup I would put on the Spanish station broadcast, mute the TV and then play the radio coverage. There was about a 1 minute difference so at times it was a bit confusing, but it worked!
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Old 06-09-2016, 10:02 AM   #58
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I'm pretty far from away from civilization so picking up OTA TV is a challenge. I've tried several different antennas and"sometimes" I can pickup 3 OTA channels but usually only one or two. Luckily the one channel I can pickup regularly is the Retro Channel which I'll keep on in my shop.
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Old 06-09-2016, 10:08 AM   #59
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Sorry that you can only get Star Trek late at night! It's on during Prime Time here, so I guess I'm very lucky that I live in a good location for TV reception OTA.

I don't need or want to spend a bunch of $$$$$ on a DVR, or on streaming video, or anything at all whatsoever in order to happily watch Star Trek for FREEEEEE!!! I guess nobody but me quite "gets it" about not wanting to substitute paying for something else instead of paying for cable. That's OK, I'm weird, I know it.


Why wouldn't you want a DVR? After you pay the purchase price, it's absolutely free and now you can record and watch your shows whenever you want and skip all the commercials (and skipping commercials does actually affect spending habits. My spending dropped by several hundred dollars a month once I eliminated advertising from most of my life.)


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Old 06-09-2016, 10:14 AM   #60
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I'm pretty far from away from civilization so picking up OTA TV is a challenge. I've tried several different antennas and"sometimes" I can pickup 3 OTA channels but usually only one or two. Luckily the one channel I can pickup regularly is the Retro Channel which I'll keep on in my shop.


You could try Hulu instead since you are having trouble getting an OTA signal. Typically, it costs (I think) $8/mo and you can watch new episodes of Fox, NBC, ABC, CW, and many cable channels the day after they air. If you are a member of Bing Rewards, you can get a free month of Hulu for every 680 points you earn for using Bing as your search engine instead of Google. (Membership in Bing Rewards is free.)


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