In preparation for our current cable contract ending, I purchased an outdoor antenna to try out. I really didn’t know what to expect. We have most streaming services, or at least rotate through them month by month, so that is 95% of what we watch, plus Roku/AppleTV stuff. I didn’t want a full paid alternative cable package for the locals. I really only wanted my primary local channels: ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. I get those as I expected.

Here is what I didn’t realize about over the air tv –
There’s a ton of channels that I had not heard of and I am really not sure who watches.
In addition to the 4 primary channels showing the only current content, there are:

-about 15-20 channels showing re-runs from all times periods, many quite old.
-a half dozen public channels with people that just want to talk on TV
-a few PBS channels different from the above with the expected content of educational shows, nature, etc.
- about 4 shop at home channels
- 4 or so court or crime related channels

Those are channels from a major market. I’m not sure what Canada is broadcasting, but I could turn the antenna for those too. I’m just not sure if its anything worth the trouble.

Now I need to decide if I want a DVR since there’s not many shows/channels I would use it for. I do like the idea of being able to pause a live show if I were to watch one and skip commercials. Currently I like being able to turn the news on in the morning, immediately pause it while I am getting ready, then quickly skip to the weather and traffic segment before heading out.

I also like the idea of an HDMI wired, cable tv like box with a tv guide even if only the same day. In-house wireless boxes using an app do not sound like something I would want to use, although that SiliconDust Homerun box is an interesting concept. A lifetime plan Tivo or hdmi Tablo box are in consideration.

For those thinking about this, the above has been my early experience.
I know there are cable package alternatives with local channels, but again, I don’t want them. I already have other on demand streaming services.

I have wrote a few comments about the Tablo dual lite DVR I purchased. They had a $99 special outdoor OTA antenna installation thru DISH and rep comes out and installs the antenna and sets it up with the Tablo and gets it connected to the wifi. The OTA antenna was a televes diginova boss and quickly installs over the old satellite mount on my roof from the old Direct TV dish. The installer came out and replaced the old dish with the new OTA antenna and setup the Tablo. It was a breeze to connect via wifi to my Apple TV device and here in Florida it's very flat so the antenna picked up 45 stations within a range of up to 70mi. Locals are clear as a bell.

I mainly purchased it to be able to record to sy-fi shows on the locals without commercials. As the Tablo has a very efficient commercial auto-skip feature that instantly skips thru the commercials with no loss in continuity of your recorded programs. You just check the on-screen channel directory and select the shows you wish to record, set it and thats it. Works like a charm.

My particular Tablo lite DVR uses a USB external hard drive (purchased separately) that plugs in to the Tablo for storing your recorded content. I purchased the 1 TB ext HD.

The Tablo I purchased outright and a lifetime subscription. Works like a charm so far. I did have one connection wifi related but was due to my ATT router problem. I've since purchased a Netgear and will have that installed as soon as its shipped. In the meantime ATT has resolved the wifi issue but as per my thread here in the Lounge the good advice pointed me in the direction of purchasing my own router.

The Tablo works great and the commercial auto-skip feature works like a charm.

***EDITED*** Sorry OZ, I re-read and see that you prefer the HDMI connection and I don't think the Tablo Dual Lite DVR has one. You can connect via ethernet though. I connect via wifi..

We're probably in the same broadcast TV market, @Oz_Shadow, for I'm also in S.E. Michigan.

Depending upon just where you are in S.E. Mi., you may or may not be able to catch CBC Channel 9, CBET, in Windsor. Also a couple stations in Toledo. (Handy when one of the local broadcasters choose to preempt programming for some-or-another local thing they think is important/interesting. Channel 4 does this kind of thing frequently.)

CBET does have some good content.

Re: An OTA DVR. There are many, many choices. Here are a couple threads for you to peruse:

Cord Cutters thread of information

Streaming TV Component Review

In that latter thread I describe our setup here.

Changes: Our Android and Amazon Fire TV streamers have all been replaced with Apple TV 4K's. Amazon Prime has been replaced by HBO Max.

The advantage of a networked OTA tuner is, with one rooftop antenna and streaming devices on all TVs we can receive all the same stations on every TV--regardless of where it is in the home. Also our phones and tablets.

Now I'm going to issue a caution: ATSC 3.0, aka: "NextGen TV" is coming. Among other things it adds the capability of broadcasters to DRM (Digital Rights Management) their content. They didn't do that for nothing. I believe they will eventually DRM all their better or more interesting content, rendering many OTA DVR products inoperable. OTOH: That's probably at least five years off.

So far there is only one station in the Detroit market, Channel 20, WMYD, that has transitioned to ATSC 3.0. As per FCC requirements: They are simulcasting in ATSC 1.0 on a sub-channel they're leasing from another broadcaster. (I recall not whom.)

Re: The Silicon Dust HDHomeRun CONNECT Quatro we're using: It's no longer available. It's been replaced by the HDHomeRun Flex 4K, which has two ATSC 1.0 and two ATSC 3.0 tuners. Not very useful in most current markets, as there are very few ATSC 3.0 stations ATM.

(ATSC 1.0 is not backwards-compatible with ATSC 3.0. Thank you, broadcast industry and FCC. [IMO they did not do that for nothing, either.])

YMMV, but my wife and I are finding OTA TV so bereft of content worth watching, I'm not even 100% certain we'll bother to replace our CONNECT Quatro when ATSC 1.0 goes away. If we do, it won't be with more than a 2-channel tuner.

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:

***EDITED*** Sorry OZ, I re-read and see that you prefer the HDMI connection and I don't think the Tablo Dual Lite DVR has one. You can connect via ethernet though. I connect via wifi..

Tablo has a new HDMI version that works similar, just not accessible from outside the home.

Yes you're correct. TV-connected Tablo DVRs like Tablo QUAD HDMI offer a more traditional set-top-box DVR setup. I just found this doing a search. When I purchased mine I only had one HDMI port on my old Sharp Aquos TV and the Apple TV streaming device used that port, so I purchased the Tablo dual lite for the wifi.

You'll love the commercial auto-skip feature they use, priceless especially for all the local station commercial breaks

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
We're probably in the same broadcast TV market, @Oz_Shadow, for I'm also in S.E. Michigan.

Depending upon just where you are in S.E. Mi., you may or may not be able to catch CBC Channel 9, CBET, in Windsor.

I aim SW to the main antenna clusters. Windsor may be possible right on the edge of my antenna angle but probably not Toledo.

The Fox channel and sub-channels are the reason I have to go outdoor and high with the antenna per my temporary trial setup.

I have an AppleTV and Xbox on the main TV and a Roku on a bedroom. My main concern with the wireless options is I do not want any degradation in picture quality or input lag from the remote.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
I aim SW to the main antenna clusters. Windsor may be possible right on the edge of my antenna angle but probably not Toledo.

Unless you have a very tight, very high-gain antenna, CBET should be no problem. Find the bearing to your worst desired station and slowly skew toward CBET.

Aiming at the cluster, though: Yeah, you can probably forget Toledo. It'll be off the side of your antenna, which has the maximum rejection.

quote:

Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
I have an AppleTV and Xbox on the main TV and a Roku on a bedroom. My main concern with the wireless options is I do not want any degradation in picture quality or input lag from the remote.

I'm not certain what you mean by "lag from the remote," but content degradation doesn't have to be a problem. SD HDHR and the Channels software we're using are putting the OTA content on the network in native format. E.g.: On 1080i content I'm seeing up to north of 15mb/s coming out of the tuners. I think I've even seen as much as 18mb/s?

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by Oz_Shadow:
I have an AppleTV and Xbox on the main TV and a Roku on a bedroom. My main concern with the wireless options is I do not want any degradation in picture quality or input lag from the remote.

I'm not certain what you mean by "lag from the remote," but content degradation doesn't have to be a problem. SD HDHR and the Channels software we're using are putting the OTA content on the network in native format. E.g.: On 1080i content I'm seeing up to north of 15mb/s coming out of the tuners. I think I've even seen as much as 18mb/s?

ensigmatic, how do you measure whats coming out of your tuners? I do know that my old Sharp Aquos that I just replaced the native format from the locals here were 720p and the picture was very crisp and clean, however with this new 4k Samsung I replaced the Sharp with I haven't yet a clue what it's receiving yet, I haven't got as far. I don't know if it's interlaced or progressive I'm still learning more each day.

yep, about what you would expect as far a channels. It is weird in the Seattle/Tacoma and surrounding areas you cannot get most over the air stations. No Abc, nbc, cbs, fox, etc. I thought there was a gov. mandate that all of these stations would be available. Guess they figured away around that?

quote:

Originally posted by just1tym:
ensigmatic, how do you measure whats coming out of your tuners?

SD has a utility called "HDHomeRun Config GUI" that communicates with their networked tuners and tells you all kinds of useful stuff:

• Real and virtual channel numbers
  
• Channel name/call-sign
  
• Physical channel encoding
  
• Signal strength
  
• Signal quality
  
• Symbol quality
  
• Network (data) rate
  

E.g.: My wife is apparently watching channel 62.1, WWJ-HD, atm. Data rate is bouncing around between 11Mb/s and 16Mb/s. Mostly in the 12-14Mb/s range.

@OZ_Shadow was worried about data degradation over WiFi. Just looked at our AP's performance while this was going on. Average CPU load was 5%

Best Buy had the Tablo Dual Lite for $89. It works decent. I guess I will keep it.

There is a delay loading channels. The app has poor integration with some devices and remotes. It’s terrible with the Xbox and Harmony remote. Roku seems to work well but you have to disable the surround sound option on the Tablo.

The guide is nice but in the full format the channel stops playing. There is a mini option that keeps the channel playing. I have not found a way to change channels other than through the guides. No direct channel entry.

Picture quality is very close to a direct connection. You only notice it on the highest quality 1080 channels which we only have a few. Max is 10Mbps


So far CBET is too weak for me. My antenna is pointed directly at the Fox group which is the most difficult important channel. It may be pixelated when snow falls - we will see.