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Author Topic: Over-the-air HD  (Read 9284 times)

micah

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Over-the-air HD
« on: February 09, 2012, 11:05:28 PM »
So I hooked up an old radio shack UHF/VHF antenna to my TV.  Holy crap I had no idea the amazing HD picture quality of my local network stations.  Full 1080i for NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS.  Fox seems to be in 720, but still looks better than it did on cable.

I'm seriously thinking its worth giving up all the channels and DVR to save $100 a month on cable.  I do love my DVR though.  And my <2 year old watches sprout and disney and on-demand stuff.  She probably wouldn't notice it was gone and she shouldn't watch so much TV anyway, but its always been nice to have it.  Plus, I'll miss shows like mythbusters and other programming on the science/history networks that I don't realize I like watching until I'm watching it.

Tough decision.  Plus, my wife probably wants to keep cable and the DVR too.  We're planning on her being a stay-at-home mom in the near future so i suppose her opinion matters.

But either way, wow.  For some reason, I didn't think that OTA Digital Broadcast was HD. I thought it was 480.  Crazy.
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KnuckleBuckett

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2012, 06:20:42 AM »
OTA is the best HD available. 
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ober

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2012, 09:09:46 AM »
Yeah, somehow my parents ended up with an HDTV before I did and they only have their antenna... so my dad was sitting around watching sports and the news in HD before I was. 
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Perspective

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #3 on: February 10, 2012, 11:15:36 AM »
>Plus, I'll miss shows like mythbusters and other programming on the science/history networks that I don't realize I like watching until I'm watching it.

You can watch most of that stuff online (legally). Check history.com, discovery.com, etc...


Not that i want to sound like a dick, but if you have money problems then spending $100 /month on cable doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I haven't had cable since moving out of my parents place 8 years ago (except one university building we lived in that had cable for free).
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micah

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #4 on: February 10, 2012, 11:35:59 AM »
>> You can watch most of that stuff online (legally). Check history.com, discovery.com, etc...

I noticed CBS has shows the next day and fox has them 8 days after they air (which would solve our DVR problem) -- the issue would be getting them from the Internet to our TV.  Our blu-ray player can stream netflix but that doesn't help us get current shows - especially when they're only available via specific webistes -- like history.com as your mentioned or even amazon prime (I'm doing the trial free month of it now)

My droid bionic phone can play flash/html5 videos (I just tested it to watch an amazon streaming movie) ... does anyone know, if I buy a micro-to-regular HDMI cable to connect my phone to my TV, what the quality would be?  I suppose I could similarly get an adaptor for my macbook pro...
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jkim

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2012, 11:59:23 AM »
Probably as high as the quality can get on your phone.

The only time I've had cable tv was when I was sharing utility costs with 3 other roommates or if it was included in overall rent. I don't miss surfing through hundreds of channels not knowing what to watch. The only thing is sometimes they will limit Internet speed depending on whether you have other services with the company or not.

Or, you can just call and say you're going to cancel and they'll probably give you a discount for your next few bills.
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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2012, 04:16:13 PM »
Quote from: micah on February 10, 2012, 11:35:59 AM
>> You can watch most of that stuff online (legally). Check history.com, discovery.com, etc...

I noticed CBS has shows the next day and fox has them 8 days after they air (which would solve our DVR problem) -- the issue would be getting them from the Internet to our TV.  Our blu-ray player can stream netflix but that doesn't help us get current shows - especially when they're only available via specific webistes -- like history.com as your mentioned or even amazon prime (I'm doing the trial free month of it now)

For less than the cost of two months of cable you can buy a boxee box. I played with one a few weeks ago, pretty slick. It's basically just a computer, but with the boxee software that has all the locations of free TV and movies pre-programmed, Wifi, an HDMI output, and a nice remote with mini-qwerty keyboard. They sell them at best buy.
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KnuckleBuckett

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2012, 07:56:03 PM »
Roku is nice also.  Cheapish too.
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micah

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #8 on: June 02, 2012, 09:40:47 PM »
so here's the thing.... Roku would be fine, but I can already get Netflix on my bluray player and apparently amazon VOD is now available on my xbox and there's not much else I can do on the Roku so, while it would be convenient to access those two apps in one place I'm not sure its worth the cost.

Boxee Box looks like it'd be awesome since it has a browser and could supposedly let me watch tv shows from websites like  history.com that have new episodes for free to watch on their site.  BUT  boxee doesn't have an app for amazon video and from what I've read, the browser only supports flash 10.1 but Amazon (and probably many other websites) require version 11+ so you can't watch amazon videos at all and it leaves me concerned about actually being able to watch the other video content sprinkled across the web -- and that a la carte content is what I'm really after.

At this point, it seems my best bet would be to just hook up a lap top to my computer but my work laptop is at work with me all day so that doesn't help my wife -- and her old crappy dell laptop, running vista, is old and crappy and freezes up just trying to go on facebook.

I dunno.  oh well.
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KnuckleBuckett

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #9 on: June 03, 2012, 01:29:45 AM »
Re install the OS on the crappy PC.  It might be worth the effort.
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kermi3

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #10 on: June 03, 2012, 08:33:27 AM »
I just got a roku.  It with a hulu plus subscription would or ably do it for you.  I absolutely love the roku. I think it'd be better than the laptop because you wouldn't have to deal with the keyboard and mouse etc.  if you have an extra computer, I'd also consider getting a tv card and antenna and just watching through windows media center (pretty easy to use as a dvr)

Although since you have an Xbox...you can probably already do mst that the roku can do....I'd just look into the possibility of a hulu plus subscription. Would probably do a lot of what you're looking for....
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Steve

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #11 on: June 03, 2012, 02:35:25 PM »
Guys, get a Sat dish and a viewsat box....
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Quote from: ober on September 18, 2012, 10:27:09 PM
hey ethic if you and i were both courting lily allen..... oh wait, which one of us has a relationship that lasted more than the bus ride home?

KnuckleBuckett

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #12 on: June 06, 2012, 10:43:13 AM »
Woot has the Roku XD on today. 

$50, Refurb

http://www.woot.com/

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micah

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #13 on: June 06, 2012, 10:48:15 AM »
saw that.  wish I had more than $10.46 in the bank or I'd buy it  :(
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Steve

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Re: Over-the-air HD
« Reply #14 on: June 06, 2012, 01:13:49 PM »
Quote from: micah on June 06, 2012, 10:48:15 AM
saw that.  wish I had more than $10.46 in the bank or I'd buy it  :(

I feel your pain.
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Quote from: ober on September 18, 2012, 10:27:09 PM
hey ethic if you and i were both courting lily allen..... oh wait, which one of us has a relationship that lasted more than the bus ride home?
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