Some interesting news for TV cordcutters

[Goldenhawk]

Just got rid of Directv- yay. ... The only thing we were worried about was the football games.

I was worried about that too. Turns out that YouTube TV ($50/month) has all the football we want to watch - we would pick from whatever was on the networks plus ESPN, and YTTV has local network channels and ESPN, so BOOM. So long, DTV.

 

[tuffenuff2]

Oops- my bad. Didn't date check. We're going to get the Sept.26 Eagles Packers, Oct.3 Rams Seahawks, Oct. 10 Giants Patriots.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

Update, found out that none of the indoor antennas are made for VHF any more. The issue there is compounded by the fact that the stations I couldn't get are on the LO VHF band. So I've been doing a lot of research and am going to make a simple half wavelength folded dipole antenna and give it a shot next time I am there.

It worked excellent, even just sitting on the floor, a bit to big for inside though as it has a 6ft span. I tuned it for 79 MHz (channel 5) and it worked for all the channels on high VHF also. Now just to make something that will hold up better and mount outside.

i put that thing outside on the chimney and it will be perfect.

So with $10 i built an antenna with some 8 AWG copper wire, a 300 ohm to 75 ohm transformer, and a piece of 2x4 I got ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, MeTV, CWTV, Laff TV, some criminal TV Channel, and Grit.

 

[tuffenuff2]

It worked excellent, even just sitting on the floor, a bit to big for inside though as it has a 6ft span. I tuned it for 79 MHz (channel 5) and it worked for all the channels on high VHF also. Now just to make something that will hold up better and mount outside.

i put that thing outside on the chimney and it will be perfect.

So with $10 i built an antenna with some 8 AWG copper wire, a 300 ohm to 75 ohm transformer, and a piece of 2x4 I got ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, MeTV, CWTV, Laff TV, some criminal TV Channel, and Grit.

Where are you located?

 

[PeoplesElbow]

This one is for the hills of West Virginia that I mentioned above. There are no UHF stations there. 8 awg copper wire btw

 

[imaref]

Locast (in the Washington DC region) has now added lots of the "sub-channels". Here is a list of what you can currently stream for free in our area:

NBC4 (WRC)
Fox 5 (WTTG)
ABC7 (WJLA)
USA9 (WUSA)
WFDC
WDCA
WETA
WZDC
WDCW
CHARGE
COMET
TBD
Justice
GetTV
GRIT
Bounce
Buzzr
MeTV
Movies
Heroes
PBS Kids
Xitos

 

[mitzi]

Locast (in the Washington DC region) has now added lots of the "sub-channels". Here is a list of what you can currently stream for free in our area:

NBC4 (WRC)
Fox 5 (WTTG)
ABC7 (WJLA)
USA9 (WUSA)
WFDC
WDCA
WETA
WZDC
WDCW
CHARGE
COMET
TBD
Justice
GetTV
GRIT
Bounce
Buzzr
MeTV
Movies
Heroes
PBS Kids
Xitos

I love Locast. I have stations now that I missed not having cable. It's well worth the $5 a month. With my Firestick I get most of the cable channels plus some.

 

[tuffenuff2]

Thank you very much for sharing the Locast information. It works great on our Roku. It was great to get the NFL games. The only problem we had was with fox5dc. The audio and video didn't match up and it kept playing the same clip at least three times. The other channels worked well so maybe it was just a glitch today.

 

[mitzi]

Thank you very much for sharing the Locast information. It works great on our Roku. It was great to get the NFL games. The only problem we had was with fox5dc. The audio and video didn't match up and it kept playing the same clip at least three times. The other channels worked well so maybe it was just a glitch today.

There's glitches once in awhile but all and all it's a great service. If it wasn't, I would have cancelled.

 

[tuffenuff2]

There's glitches once in awhile but all and it's a great service. If it wasn't, I would have cancelled.

It was fixed when we checked again at 8p.m.

 

[jazz lady]

I have been using Locast for a little over a month and have had no problems with it so far. Nice to be able finally cut the cord and tell ABB to pack sand with their crappy, overpriced channels.

 

[RoseRed]

I have been using Locast for a little over a month and have had no problems with it so far. Nice to be able finally cut the cord and tell ABB to pack sand with their crappy, overpriced channels.

I need to do this.

 

[tuffenuff2]

I love Locast!

 

[mitzi]

I love Locast!

 

[mitzi]

Another bonus is I can watch on the computer too.

 

[1stGenSMIB]

DTV just jacked up my rates. I live in Calvert, so I am getting Comcast to come give me fast enough internet I can stream TV and toss the DTV dish off my roof (I am currently using Verizon DSL at 6mb, but it is not reliable enough and Verizon won't fix it.) Just bought two more Fire Sticks on Cyber Monday. Need to investigate this LoCast..the only thing I think I will miss is local "network" TV & football, but with carefully selected monthly subscriptions, I can probably solve this problem too.

 

[Goldenhawk]

DTV just jacked up my rates. I live in Calvert, so I am getting Comcast to come give me fast enough internet I can stream TV and toss the DTV dish off my roof...

Consider YouTubeTV. $50/month. We switched from DirecTV a couple months ago (so long, thanks for 15 years, but I don't miss you now), and literally the only thing I miss is History Channel (Forged in Fire, specifically). It's got everything else we want, including all the local channels and all the football we love. And I can watch on my laptop, desktop, Roku, AppleTV, iPad, iPhone... literally anywhere I am in the house or on the road, and my own personal playlist is available everywhere.

 

[tuffenuff2]

DTV just jacked up my rates. I live in Calvert, so I am getting Comcast to come give me fast enough internet I can stream TV and toss the DTV dish off my roof (I am currently using Verizon DSL at 6mb, but it is not reliable enough and Verizon won't fix it.) Just bought two more Fire Sticks on Cyber Monday. Need to investigate this LoCast..the only thing I think I will miss is local "network" TV & football, but with carefully selected monthly subscriptions, I can probably solve this problem too.

With Locast you get all the local channels and what's on them at the same time as on cable and directv. You would get the same NFL games that are on Fox,Cbs Nbc. It's great.

 

[Goldenhawk]

With Locast you get all the local channels and what's on them at the same time as on cable and directv. You would get the same NFL games that are on Fox,Cbs Nbc. It's great.

If you like watching commercials, it's great. I avoid live TV like the plague now.

I get lots of hours per month back in my life by skipping commercials, after recording whatever I want on YouTubeTV and watching it delayed by a little bit. I can watch an entire football game in about 90 minutes just by skipping all the commercials and halftime. I figure that's worth $50/month - heck, if I watch ONLY one football game per month, that saves me 6 hours. I figure my time is EASILY worth $50/6hrs. And we watch way more than one game per week.

 

[1stGenSMIB]

Consider YouTubeTV. $50/month. We switched from DirecTV a couple months ago (so long, thanks for 15 years, but I don't miss you now), and literally the only thing I miss is History Channel (Forged in Fire, specifically). It's got everything else we want, including all the local channels and all the football we love. And I can watch on my laptop, desktop, Roku, AppleTV, iPad, iPhone... literally anywhere I am in the house or on the road, and my own personal playlist is available everywhere.

Hmm...one of the things I like on History is American Pickers, but I usually just have it on in the background when fooling around in the shop...or Motor Trend TV..I know there are other sources for those, however, if I have to subscribe to 15 apps/channels at $10/month, I am not saving anything...the money we save each month for content we don't want still needs to outweigh the hassle of searching for our favorite content.

Thanks for the suggestions above. As soon as I have more stable internet access (tomorrow!! Verizon hasn't done me any favors providing stable DSL service since I moved either, save for one technician..he will be mentioned when I cut my service, although he didn't help with recent inquiries..) which will allow us to more heavily rely on streaming services, I think we'll be ready. We spent Thanksgiving weekend with some friends in PA that cut their cord and only do streaming TV, and we had no problem finding stuff to watch, but I did miss live football. I have a funny relationship with live sports, once it is over, I am not gonna go back and watch it after that fact, but maybe my archaic brain will adjust with time.

Guess me and the Fire Stick are gonna become good friends downloading web browsers and apps and crap.