FrankT
6.8 SPCII Hog Slayer
yea Sean my internet provider, yes it allow access through them to view network and cable shows, sports and movies, just like my Direct TV does.
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Cutting the cord
- Thread starter Seanpcola
- Start date
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yea Sean my internet provider, yes it allow access through them to view network and cable shows, sports and movies, just like my Direct TV does.
Seanpcola
Moderator
Unbelieveable. My wife is working nights so I've had a lot of time to surf youtube. An overwhelming amount of music which I love. Revisiting concerts from way back,n finding new artists I've never heard of, just on and on.
Once I settle down on the music I'm going to start on the gun tutorials.
FrankT
6.8 SPCII Hog Slayer
yes but the computer does not
Seanpcola
Moderator
If you have a wireless router (have wifi) in your home then buy a Chromecast. It plugs straight into the HDMI port on the TV. It also has a thin power chord that will need to be plugged in. Then on your laptop you will download an app (free) so that your laptop communicates with the Chromecast. Once that's done go to your laptop, then the channel you want to watch, start the program and it will be on your TV. You don't need an HDMI port on your laptop.
What is happening is your PC is communicating with your TV to accept the signal (Audio and video) wireless through the wifi. Another way to put it is your TV is acting as a laptop.
What is happening is your PC is communicating with your TV to accept the signal (Audio and video) wireless through the wifi. Another way to put it is your TV is acting as a laptop.
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Seanpcola
Moderator
I'm not familiar with Appletv.
What all this was about for me was this: I was paying for cable TV. I was also paying for Internet service. Bill was $160. Basically the same stuff was available at my house, simultaneously on my computer and my TV. I cut off the cable TV, bought the equipment and forwarded the internet to the TV, thereby eliminating duplication of service and saving $80 a month.
That's oversimplification but easiest way to project the idea. In actuality I picked up much more choices, losing a tiny few and then making the loss back up by a good old antenna.
What all this was about for me was this: I was paying for cable TV. I was also paying for Internet service. Bill was $160. Basically the same stuff was available at my house, simultaneously on my computer and my TV. I cut off the cable TV, bought the equipment and forwarded the internet to the TV, thereby eliminating duplication of service and saving $80 a month.
That's oversimplification but easiest way to project the idea. In actuality I picked up much more choices, losing a tiny few and then making the loss back up by a good old antenna.
Seanpcola
Moderator
Well, then you probably wouldn't benefit from what I'm doing. I had no options. If I dropped cable completely and got a dish then I would have no internet. There is no other ISP available where I live which is ridiculous considering that if my house was about 800 feet back to the East I would have at least 2 options. What it boils down to is a turf war.
Viking1204
Master
Bump, this should be renamed How To Dump Cable & Satellite TV and made a Sticky!
Seanpcola
Moderator
True Viking. There's a few gaps but a lot of it depends on your viewing interests. I don't follow new shows so a one day delay means nothing to me. For my particular tastes it's been all positive no negative. May not be the same for everyone.
The thing is we are at the beginning (maybe the middle) of home viewings revolution to the next level. My setup isn't the end all, be all of television. Cable and satellite TV as an industry is about to go through some serious changes. I doubt there will be any hardwiring in a house at all in 5 years (except for certain holdouts). I'm gonna guess that all TVs will be "smart ", wifi or maybe some sort of satellite receivers. You probably won't have one company like Cox, you'll have a mix best suited to what you need. Cox for instance is probably scrambling to get on the ground floor of this type of service, satellite companies I'm guess will have completely different equipment to go directly to internet.
It's going to be interesting to see it change. I just know I'm more pleased than I expected.
On a related matter, why do you think the government is all about the net neutrality issue? Taxes and control of this next level. I love my $80a month saving. I suspect that will last 2 years tops, maybe less.
Seanpcola
Moderator
Oh yeah my man! Watched Robin Trower from about 1976 last night.
Viking1204
Master
Sean I'm going to be out of town this weekend but I think next weekend I'm going to cut the cord too. I'm going to buy a digital antenna first and see what kind of reception I get on my teenager's TV since it never gets watched for anything other than Xbox! I already have Fire TV from Amazon and right now if I sign up for Sling TV they'll give me a free Fire USB I can use on one of my other TV's in the house. I think I'm going to subscribed to Hulu too. I figured it out and once I make the switch I'll save about $100 a month!
Viking1204
Master
There is one problem I need to figure out. When I watch Fire TV the sound comes out of the TV just fine but I have the TV running through Input 3 on my stereo receiver and I can't get any sound there. Watching regular TV the sound works through the receiver just fine. I don't get how Fire TV could be pushing sound to the TV but then the TV not pushing that sound to the receiver. Will have to investigate.
Seanpcola
Moderator
Yep, if you had service like me before you will save.
As for the digital antenna I need to update my findings on that.
Upstairs: cheap digital antenna, lots of windows in that room = excellent reception
Downstairs: Expensive indoor antenna = having occasions problems. I moved that one around till I got it to the extreme West end of the sunroom and it got a little better but still glitches on occasion. Seems like the better the weather the worst the reception. I'm sure that has to do with signal propogation, cloud cover keeping the signal bounced low. I'm not too concerned since we don't watch much local stuff downstairs, those TVs tend to be almost strictly Netflix, Hulu, Youtube and such.
I'm positive that the problem lies in the fact that I can't get line of site (or rather I still have a lot of my house between the antenna and source) to the broadcast antennas at Wilcox Rd. I'm probably going to buy a good quality outdoor rated antenna and mount it to the top of my chimney. That will put that antenna higher than the bedroom and in clear air plus I can hide the cable, I'm anal about that sort of thing. I suspect I'll match or beat the present upstairs reception and may pick up more channels. Just not a priority right now.
I highly recommend doing as you suggest Viking, play with the on air stuff first and see how it goes. I do suspect that even with the advances in digital antennas an outside unit is still going to beat indoors. I sure didn't want to go back to the days of those huge gnarly, multi branch antennas from back in the day but the new outdoor digis are as small as half a shoebox, probably wouldn't even be noticeable.
As for the digital antenna I need to update my findings on that.
Upstairs: cheap digital antenna, lots of windows in that room = excellent reception
Downstairs: Expensive indoor antenna = having occasions problems. I moved that one around till I got it to the extreme West end of the sunroom and it got a little better but still glitches on occasion. Seems like the better the weather the worst the reception. I'm sure that has to do with signal propogation, cloud cover keeping the signal bounced low. I'm not too concerned since we don't watch much local stuff downstairs, those TVs tend to be almost strictly Netflix, Hulu, Youtube and such.
I'm positive that the problem lies in the fact that I can't get line of site (or rather I still have a lot of my house between the antenna and source) to the broadcast antennas at Wilcox Rd. I'm probably going to buy a good quality outdoor rated antenna and mount it to the top of my chimney. That will put that antenna higher than the bedroom and in clear air plus I can hide the cable, I'm anal about that sort of thing. I suspect I'll match or beat the present upstairs reception and may pick up more channels. Just not a priority right now.
I highly recommend doing as you suggest Viking, play with the on air stuff first and see how it goes. I do suspect that even with the advances in digital antennas an outside unit is still going to beat indoors. I sure didn't want to go back to the days of those huge gnarly, multi branch antennas from back in the day but the new outdoor digis are as small as half a shoebox, probably wouldn't even be noticeable.
Seanpcola
Moderator
Had a similar problem Viking, for a bit and there's several different possibilities. I had issues with not all HDMI inputs on one of my TVs supporting audio, it's video only. Doesn't sound like your problem but I did learn that when you Google a problem like that you'll find a lot of resources with clear answers. Lots of techno geek sites on line. Tonight when I get home and settled I'll do a search too and see what comes up.
Seanpcola
Moderator
Another update:
All still working as advertised. Haven't changed out the downstairs digital antenna yet so still getting some glitch in there.
Doing some research on more video services I might add.
Ran an experiment today. I have a Bluetooth dongle that I plugged into my surround sound receiver for running my Sirius XM radio through the Internet and out to the system. I can stream that, Netflix to the TV in the sun room, surf the net and watch youtube on my tablet with zero glitches or buffering. I was pretty sure my wifi would do it but wasn't sure my tablet could process it. It does. I'm happy, happy, happy!
Also learned that the reason my sound was muddy, or at least not as clear as I expected on my surround sound was the connection. I knew it wasn't optimized, I was running RCA jack/cables from my BT dongle to the amp. So, I bought an optical cable. I thought it might make a difference but the difference was HUGE!
All still working as advertised. Haven't changed out the downstairs digital antenna yet so still getting some glitch in there.
Doing some research on more video services I might add.
Ran an experiment today. I have a Bluetooth dongle that I plugged into my surround sound receiver for running my Sirius XM radio through the Internet and out to the system. I can stream that, Netflix to the TV in the sun room, surf the net and watch youtube on my tablet with zero glitches or buffering. I was pretty sure my wifi would do it but wasn't sure my tablet could process it. It does. I'm happy, happy, happy!
Also learned that the reason my sound was muddy, or at least not as clear as I expected on my surround sound was the connection. I knew it wasn't optimized, I was running RCA jack/cables from my BT dongle to the amp. So, I bought an optical cable. I thought it might make a difference but the difference was HUGE!
Anyone thinking of going to over-the-air TV might benefit from this website: http://www.antennapoint.com/
Just enter your zip and it will show you all of the OTA transmitters in our area, what frequency they are on and the power of the transmitter. This might give you an idea of how many channels you can receive and which way to point your antenna.
In the chart you will notice that WALA - ch 10 is operating on ch 9's old frequency which is a VHF frequency. They also have much lower output than other stations and is further away from us. What this means is that you will likely have trouble getting this channel with and indoor 'digital' antenna which are UHF antennas. I had to put up an outside VHF antenna which is much larger than a UHF.
Still I don't regret getting rid of cable.
FWIW, cable and satellites dirty little secret is that their HD channels are compressed somewhat to save bandwidth. One of the first things you will notice when you go OTA is a much sharper picture.
I've also got Netflix, Hulu +, Amazon Prime, and 2 TIVO DVRS and still saving about $100/mo. I still have internet through Mediacom for $55/mo
At first the wife was ticked that she was loosing one of her favorite channels when we made the switch but she gained many more options.
Just enter your zip and it will show you all of the OTA transmitters in our area, what frequency they are on and the power of the transmitter. This might give you an idea of how many channels you can receive and which way to point your antenna.
In the chart you will notice that WALA - ch 10 is operating on ch 9's old frequency which is a VHF frequency. They also have much lower output than other stations and is further away from us. What this means is that you will likely have trouble getting this channel with and indoor 'digital' antenna which are UHF antennas. I had to put up an outside VHF antenna which is much larger than a UHF.
Still I don't regret getting rid of cable.
FWIW, cable and satellites dirty little secret is that their HD channels are compressed somewhat to save bandwidth. One of the first things you will notice when you go OTA is a much sharper picture.
I've also got Netflix, Hulu +, Amazon Prime, and 2 TIVO DVRS and still saving about $100/mo. I still have internet through Mediacom for $55/mo
At first the wife was ticked that she was loosing one of her favorite channels when we made the switch but she gained many more options.
