Cord-Cutting, Or How to Stream your Way to Success

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Sanrith Descartes

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Thanks! I had looked at the mapping sites. Like most things our area isn't really covered well by the sites. I had a panic at first thinking none of our stations were broadcasting, but a second site had more information.

I think we are in a bit of a valley so this whole thing might not work. Also I was hoping to get one of the 360 degree antenna. There are stations in 3 directions here.

I think I might just order one on amazon with the "free returns!" thing and if it doesn't work out just send it back. We already have a small pole up on the roof for wireless inet (the only option here).

I'm guessing since signals are digital now you either get a clear picture, garbled macroblocks, or nothing at all? I remember the old days of static and snowy pictures.
Ours was pretty decent at our distance. Dont recall any snow, just sometimes the shit would fade out and come back.
 
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Kharzette

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Ok looking at that, I don't even think I need omnidirectional. There are a dozen channels within 15 miles of here all in the same direction.
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
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Thanks! I had looked at the mapping sites. Like most things our area isn't really covered well by the sites. I had a panic at first thinking none of our stations were broadcasting, but a second site had more information.

I think we are in a bit of a valley so this whole thing might not work. Also I was hoping to get one of the 360 degree antenna. There are stations in 3 directions here.

I think I might just order one on amazon with the "free returns!" thing and if it doesn't work out just send it back. We already have a small pole up on the roof for wireless inet (the only option here).

I'm guessing since signals are digital now you either get a clear picture, garbled macroblocks, or nothing at all? I remember the old days of static and snowy pictures.
do not buy omnidirectional antenna, it's only for city folk who have strong signals, you need a directional one like the one i linked, they all come from 1 direction anyway, so why even bother w/ a 360 one?
 
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Lanx

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My biggest worry now is trees. There's a whole town worth of trees in the direction I need.
just try it, honestly you can just assemble it right next to your tv and point it in the proper nswe direction and it'll work, it's just more optimal to be on the roof and w/ higher elevation
 

Kharzette

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I'll give it a go. Will order it today. Need to string cat6 to that side of the house for the discovery+.

I was thinking of one of these little things for the discovery+... Amazon product ASIN B0BFVFF3FV
Apparently the tv will do the digital tuning so no need for a converter box \o/
 
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Arative

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So my mom has wasted money on tv for years, dodging back and forth between dish and direct. We live in a small town so that's all there is. Both are crooked as hell and slowly raise your bill, hoping you won't notice, until you get angry enough to switch to the other one.

The minimum buyin now is 80 bucks, and having interviewed her extensively about what she watches, it is a grand total of 8 channels. 5 of which are locals, and 2 of which are no longer even available on direct.

The 3 non locals are covered by discovery+ (magnolia, food, diy), so I'm thinking of just going oldschool antenna. I should be able to get all the local channels over the air right?

Being in the middle of nowhere and probably 100ish miles from the broadcast towers, I'll probably need some kind of outdoor antenna on a pole. Are any of you in a similar situation? There are so many choices on amazon.

Then I think I need some kind of digital tuner to switch channels and take the signal from the antenna cable and turn it into HDMI juice.

Then I also need some kind of pi like media computer or a firestick or something to do the discovery+ thing. I dread the training with that. The dreaded input button and second remote.

Saving 100 dollars a month is a good motivator though. I need to read this entire thread.
You can try this site

May be able to point you in the right direction for an antenna.
 

Asshat wormie

2023 Asshat Award Winner
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Finally canceled my cable subscription. I dont remember the last time I turned the TV to the HDMI1 port. Faggot FIOS told me I have to pay $150 dollars because the change of service requires an upgrade to a new and faster data plan. I told them to eat my ass and that I am going with some other provider and all of a sudden I became a valued customer for whom all fees are to be waived. Faggots. $50 a month saved.
 
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Kharzette

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It worked! Thanks so much everyone for all the suggestions. The 30 dollar antenna I got is cheap and flimsy and way smaller than I expected, but I slapped it up on the same pole my wireless internet is on, and just kind of left it hanging there halfass pointed in the right direction, and immediately got a great picture and 15ish channels of crap. (I then secured it properly)

The picture is really nice, I guess digitial it is all or nothing. Now I just have to figure out how to get discovery + in there. I'm thinking a small pi like device or maybe a firestick if the wireless will reach that far. I might end up stringing some cat6 through the attic though.
 

Denamian

Night Janitor
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It worked! Thanks so much everyone for all the suggestions. The 30 dollar antenna I got is cheap and flimsy and way smaller than I expected, but I slapped it up on the same pole my wireless internet is on, and just kind of left it hanging there halfass pointed in the right direction, and immediately got a great picture and 15ish channels of crap. (I then secured it properly)

The picture is really nice, I guess digitial it is all or nothing. Now I just have to figure out how to get discovery + in there. I'm thinking a small pi like device or maybe a firestick if the wireless will reach that far. I might end up stringing some cat6 through the attic though.

If you're looking for a simple streaming stick, I have the best luck with the Roku interface for non tech savvy people. I gave my old TCL TV to my parents and even my Dad can use the Roku interface.
 
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BrutulTM

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I wish all cheap TVs didn't have some kind of streaming stick built into them. My Amazon fire TV in my bedroom is like 3 years old and it still works fine but the fire stick that it's built around is now super fucking slow and half the apps crash on opening. I would just toss the fire stick and get a Chromecast with Android TV or Roku but the whole damn TV is built around the now shitty fire stick.
 

Arative

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It worked! Thanks so much everyone for all the suggestions. The 30 dollar antenna I got is cheap and flimsy and way smaller than I expected, but I slapped it up on the same pole my wireless internet is on, and just kind of left it hanging there halfass pointed in the right direction, and immediately got a great picture and 15ish channels of crap. (I then secured it properly)

The picture is really nice, I guess digitial it is all or nothing. Now I just have to figure out how to get discovery + in there. I'm thinking a small pi like device or maybe a firestick if the wireless will reach that far. I might end up stringing some cat6 through the attic though.
If you wanted to go an all in one device but it would be somewhat expensive, do an Nvidia shield with a USB astc tuner. Can use live channels for tv and then have any streaming app you wanted on the device
 
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Kharzette

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I'm thinking a USB tuner is going to be needed. The slow channel changes on the tv's built in tuner are super annoying.

I'm thinking I can do a usb tuner with nextPVR plugged into Kodi, then an addon for discovery +. Maybe with that pi-like I linked earlier running debian or something.

Then a flirc USB remote reader and some kind of cheap simple remote.
 

Haus

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OK, I'm at a quandry point. I got an omnidirectional powered antenna and put it in the attic for my mom's TV at her house and it's a solid barely recalled any issue with any channel. (Here in Dallas almost all the stations broadcast from Red Oak which is SSW of Dallas, less than 50 miles from my house in NW Dallas).

Is there a compelling reason to worry/want an antenna mounted up on top of the house at this point? Seems just bolting it to a spot in my attic worked enough. Here's the antenna I got :

Amazon product ASIN B0BM3F6YX1
 

Burns

Avatar of War Slayer
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OK, I'm at a quandry point. I got an omnidirectional powered antenna and put it in the attic for my mom's TV at her house and it's a solid barely recalled any issue with any channel. (Here in Dallas almost all the stations broadcast from Red Oak which is SSW of Dallas, less than 50 miles from my house in NW Dallas).

Is there a compelling reason to worry/want an antenna mounted up on top of the house at this point? Seems just bolting it to a spot in my attic worked enough. Here's the antenna I got :

Amazon product ASIN B0BM3F6YX1
All you can do it try. It shouldn't take too long to figure out if it will work. Do you have a tv that can easily be brought out to the garage? Before running any wires in the walls, I would just run a loose wire down the ladder and hook up the antenna to various mounting positions you want to try.

I tried putting an antenna (pic below) in our attic, in a house that was ~40 miles from those Antenna and I couldn't get shit. I wasn't about to climb up on steep roofs, run a wire all the way up there, and then stand there trying to get it aimed correctly, to try it outside, so no clue if it would have worked otherwise.

I am not ruling out user error, on my part. I was trying to use HD Homerrun as well and spent a bunch of time fiddling with it all.

Gives exact distances and angles, if you put in your address:
https://www.tvfool.com

Antenna I used:
2023-06-19 08.18.48 www.google.com c4dd5ac2266a.png
 

Arative

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I'm thinking a USB tuner is going to be needed. The slow channel changes on the tv's built in tuner are super annoying.

I'm thinking I can do a usb tuner with nextPVR plugged into Kodi, then an addon for discovery +. Maybe with that pi-like I linked earlier running debian or something.

Then a flirc USB remote reader and some kind of cheap simple remote.
You can do that. Probably a cheaper route than an Nvidia shield. Might come with support headaches if something breaks.
 

Kharzette

Watcher of Overs
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All my crap arrived yesterday. I've been too busy watching world cup to get anything going yet, but the la potato has some prebuilt linux images. I'm going to try one of those in a bit.

I've also gotta figure out where to plug the fan in. There's lots of pinx piny info out there but nobody says which connector. There's like 5.

I frogot how tiny these little boards are. I made a pi3 for a nephew a few years back.
 

Kharzette

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I had my doubts about this little 35 dollar potato, but it plays vids off a file server amazingly well.

I'm using a premade image called LibreElec that already has all the drivers and kodi set up. The RCA remote I bought wasn't recognized but I manually made a mapping for it, which was very tedious. It sometimes double hits the buttons when you press which is super annoying. Also up/down/left/right double as volume and channel and that is causing problems with the kodi UI.

I've tried 2 tuner addons so far with no luck, but I haven't yet strung the cable to get the box in the actual tv room where the antenna is. I've plugged in a shitty little antenna that came with it but haven't picked anything up yet.

Tvheadend is enormously overcomplicated though, so I'm likely messing something up. I'll figure it out eventually.

One issue I'm having, even with previous images where I was just sitting at an ubuntu desktop, is that sometimes the screen will just blank to black for a second. The machine is still going as I can hear audio and such, but the video blanks out. Doesn't seem to be a heat thing as the cpu/gpu temps are around 106F loaded.

The hauppauge usb tuner is so fat it very nearly blocks all 4 of the potato's usb ports. Luckily you can ssh into it.
 

Arative

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If you want sports in kodi, a good add on is the crew.
They also have movie and tv streaming in the app too