quote:

Originally posted by skywag:
Satellite TV is so old school.

Buy a new TV with ROKU built-in.

That's the one that gave me so much trouble at the Condo I rented.

No thanks.

I will give up tv before I go through any of that.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
I will give up tv before I go through any of that.

LOL. I don't blame you one bit.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
antenna.org looks like a retail website that sells stuff?

Wow, it's gone. And they say the internet is forever.

Have you considered getting the Netflix DVD/Bluray subscription? If you are into good film, with high quality video and audio, then that might be the way to go. You could drop one or more of the streaming services and actually pick from a wider selection of movies. You build up a queue, and always have 2 (good) movies on hand.

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
Have you considered getting the Netflix DVD/Bluray subscription? If you are into good film, with high quality video and audio, then that might be the way to go. You could drop one or more of the streaming services and actually pick from a wider selection of movies. You build up a queue, and always have 2 (good) movies on hand.

I've been a Netflix disc in a mail subscriber for 20 years. I use another small service for 4k discs. FWIW, they are fucking up mastering on discs these days as well, especially LFE.

I have my list of shit to try now. Mainly SHO, STRZ, EPIX. Apple+, Netflix, and vomit Disney will get tried and shuffled. OTA first.

Welcome to the club brother!

I might suggest holding off on OTA until after the Medicare enrollment period has ended.

quote:

Originally posted by cas:
I might suggest holding off on OTA until after the Medicare enrollment period has ended.

As long as they don’t make a run on depends, I’m golden.

Ordered and received my OTA antenna (Amazon) this past week. Had my wiring guy come by and knock it out for me. Put the antenna together myself. It was $39.



Used the Dish mount and their coax wiring.

Didn’t work at first. Had to get a new splitter (ran to Home Depot) as the one in place below my Dish was specific for their 4k Hopper and Joeys. $11.99 for the splitter.
Got the Antenna OP, and 2 of my Panels working perfectly. Getting like 60 channels or something like that but only really interested in the major 4 stations (ABC, CBS, ABC, and Fox) for news during inclement weather and Tom Brady games. Took downloading an app for pointing the antenna in the right direction. I could see heavy wind coming in and throwing it off and needing to be repointed if necessary. Fox local station was the only thing it was having problems with but after some repointing, it’s working. May get some handheld db and OTA testers for pointing and to test the coax for the long term. I have 4 rooms with panels and the one in my office (not hooking OTA up to my HT, it’s unnecessary as that room is dedicated for films) isn’t working 100% with the antenna. I’m getting a section of channels but not CBS/FOX/ABC in there. That’s because the coax run to that room is longer so I’ll need to purchase a $23 GE Booster for that room and install in attic or on the back of the panel.

The antenna is GE.
https://www.amazon.com/GE-2988...d=1639346647&sr=8-20
Will work great for anyone with the caveat being you live in a city, suburb and within say 60-70 miles of your local broadcast stations. I did my research and if you are out in the country you want a Televes.
https://www.amazon.com/Televes...ntenna/dp/B07YHCC1W6

Cancelled Dish service last night as my bill was going to auto-bill today as they bill a month in advance. Final bill was $17 and $15 of that is the charge they charge you for mailing your boxes to send back to them. I have 3 Joeys and 1 4k Hopper. I own 2 of the Joeys and told Dish fuck it, send me boxes for all the shit, you can have my Joeys that I own. You’re welcome.

I get HBO Max for free and that’s my primary station I watch, HBO. That and Showtime. Found a deal for SHO via Paramount so you get Paramount+ and Showtime for $12.99 (no ads) vs with ads for $9.99. Then I re-enabled *vomit* Disney so I can watch Star Wars crap. I’ll let that roll for 2 months. And I have Apple’s streaming thing for $4.99. Next will be checking out Starz and Epix to complete my movie channels. Once those are working that will be all the movie channels I had with Dish + Paramount+, Disney, and Apple. And once all that shit is working it’ll be $41 a month + tax vs. the $98 Dish raised my price to.

Currently watching the Tom Brady game. OTA the game is a hair better than what it was on Dish via locals through them. Posting all this as informational for anyone having a hard time shutting off their cable/satellite service. Played with my Apple TV last night on the various apps. Paramount + (only bought because it made Showtime super cheap) has Smithsonian on there, which was a nice surprise and a few more channels (MTV which I don’t watch but a few more). But the biggest bonus for me was the Showtime app that I get with Paramount subscription. On the Showtime app you get the live Showtime East and West channels which is really cool. They are live 24/7.

I have been using Pluto today, as some members have suggested (thank you) for background (that I’m addicted to when cooking, washing clothes, and doing chores around the house). If you are used to background bullshit (I’ll admit, addicted to having that), Pluto works excellently for this. I forgot mention I have Amazon via my Amazon Prime annual membership. I never use it but I’ll fuck with it over the holidays. And I’ll probably turn on Netflix but they really piss me off with the 4k streaming. $17.99 a month and while it gives you 4 screens or something I really wish they had a 4k 1 screen only thing so it would be much less expensive. They force you into their highest tier bs to get 4k streaming which is kind of lame. So that’s a 1-2 months a year thing.

Lastly, I hate putting credit cards into these apps and fucking with all that. But it is what it is. I’ve gained a bunch of new functionality (all the apps mentioned have 4k content which is largely NOT available via Satellite) and new film stuff to watch and even if I ratchet up the apps it will still be half of what I was spending via Satellite. But I did buy 4 different Apple TV boxes (4k versions) over the last few years when I could find one on sale. So I own my own equipment.

Back to the game. I hope this information helps someone.

PS: Need/want to record OTA content this is researched and pretty well reviewed:
https://www.amazon.com/Fire-TV...s/dp/B01J6A6H74?th=1

You need a low noise preamp mounted at the antenna. They make an indoor and outdoor models.

https://www.kitztech.com/products.html

The original directional antenna mounted in the attic was aimed at the end wall which was covered foil insulation board.

I moved the antenna so it pointed through the roof and added a preamp in 1983. Luckily, the Washington TV Hill and the Baltimore stations are in direct alignment.

Back then, I got about 15 channels while I get 82 channels now.