Streaming TV experience Hulu-Youtube-DirecTV Now

[pete_c]

So requirement 1: Receive and record local ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX channels.  I think a TIVO and antenna can do this, maybe an HDHomerun. (Can that record?)
 
OTA works well with Tivo and HDHomerun.  Both require a subscription for scheduling.  My MythTV is using the broadcast OTA scheduling which works for 3-5 days depending on the local broadcaster. 
 
Requirement 2: Receive and record a few "cable channels" like Lifetime, Comedy, CNN, Bravo, HGTV and one or two more. This is what I'm hoping with the streaming package. More recording time, the better.
 
Not sure if you can find a la carte per channel streaming services...
 
Have a read here...Why a la carte TV still isn't happening
 
Personally here use K for international in country news broadcasts.  There are some K channels that have new and old whole TV series archived. 
 
Son's friend configured a Plex server and is streaming a la carte TV from it (and recording stuff).
 
Thinking Roku is starting to add per network streaming stuff. 
 
As mentioned before though I am not a regular TV watcher and have kept DTV going for WAF.
 
I only watch movies maybe once a night and now starting to watch old classics.

 

[George M]

I am about to drop Directv Now. It has been a frustration 6 months that I have had it. Coming from years with DirecTV the difference is startling. My experience is:
Very unstable
Numerous lags 
Numerous shut downs
Can't go directly to a channel
Volume difference between commercials and programs is hard on the ears - especially on ESPN
Already raised price from 30 to 40, 
Now raising it again to 50, forcing you to have HBO, while taking away about 10 regular channels.
 
I will be cancelling and moving to something else (dont know what yet) soon.

 

[ano]

I am about to drop Directv Now. It has been a frustration 6 months that I have had it. Coming from years with DirecTV the difference is startling. My experience is:
Very unstable
Numerous lags 
Numerous shut downs
Can't go directly to a channel
Volume difference between commercials and programs is hard on the ears - especially on ESPN
Already raised price from 30 to 40, 
Now raising it again to 50, forcing you to have HBO, while taking away about 10 regular channels.
 
I will be cancelling and moving to something else (dont know what yet) soon.

Thanks for that input.  I currently have DirecTV, but at $106/month after all my promotions ran out, its not really competitive.  Now, I do know if I call up and say "CANCEL SERVICE" they will magically find a cheaper rate. I probably can get $85, maybe $75.  Also Dish without any special offer is about $85. I don't care much about HBO. Can always add it to Amazon for a month for $10-$15. 
 
So DirecTV Now really looked the best until they just raised the prices and dropped all the channels we watch. 
 
The situation today is VERY frustrating. Raising the price is one thing, but dropping a whole bunch of channels is unacceptable. 
 
So I'm focusing more on a Tivo which has a monthly fee, and possibly a Amazon Fire TV Recast, which does not.  I wonder about the program guide on the Recast, does it even have one?  That is what the $15 monthly fee on the Tevo covers. Plus the Tevo sells this Mini Tevo to connect other TV's in your home. (at $179)
 
Once I get OTA TV taken care of, its easier to focus on streaming, because many of them have very poor locals channels. Like Sling TV only has NBC and FOX, if that.

All I can say is this process is tedious. And many streaming services don't seem to even have a program guide, some don't even have a DVR. How long have cable and satellite had these features. Maybe 20 years now?

 

[JimS]

I have a dual HDHomeRun OTA tuner  and mythtv which works great for OTA pvr.  Schedules direct for the schedule is $25 a year and much better than the OTA schedules.  FCC requires them to broadcast schedule but some don't and the others are pretty poor at least for the most part here.  Still would like to get FOX news and maybe one or two more.  Got a new car with SiriusXM and with streaming I can get the audio via the net which is mostly what satisfies WAF. 

 

[ano]

I ordered a Amazon Fire TV Recast. For $229 for the 1 TB version, I couldn't resist. You can use any Fire TV to access it. I don't know how the guide works, and that is the big unknown. It has 4 tuners. They do say the tuners are limited to 2 watching shows, 2 recording them. I still think that is OK considering there really is only 4 networks. Its been windy here, so wife won't let me go up the ladder to install the antenna, but maybe Sunday.

 

[pete_c]

How far away are you from the source of the OTA channels?
 
Here used my old OTA antenna in one corner of the attic; put an amplifier on it and could see some 66 OTA channels about 35 miles away.

 

[ano]

How far away are you from the source of the OTA channels?
 
Here used my old OTA antenna in one corner of the attic; put an amplifier on it and could see some 66 OTA channels about 35 miles away.

In a straight line its about 32 miles. The good news, is the TV antennas are on a mountain, and I'm a bit higher in elevation also with a valley between and no mountains blocking anything.
 
I tried a flat square antenna inside about 3 feet above the TV and only got maybe 5 channels. BUT homes here are covered in chicken wire, which isn't great for reception. Tomorrow it is not supposed to be windy, so my wife will let me go up the ladder to install my antenna. It claims to work for 55 miles, so we shall see.

 

[pete_c]

Yeah an issue here with many subdivisions was that the HOA's would not allow any sort of external OTA / Digital antennas. 
 
It was a direct contradiction to FCC rules when many HOA's prohibited use of any sort of external OTA antennas and for a while use of digital satellite antennas.
 
Personally being an HOA board member did change the by-laws and convenants such that external OTA and Digital antennas were not in conflict with the HOA rules.
 
I did recall one neighbor complaining about another neighbors digital satellite antenna just because he could see the antenna from his back of the house deck.
 
That said meanwhile did install and configure an old fashioned combo UHF/VHF antenna in the attic for reception in my home.  Also did add a digital satellite dish and a wireless LTE antenna, GPS, et al to being adjacent to my outdoor mounted weather station. 
 
Many neighbors did install external amplified small footprint OTA antennas on their roofs with no issues from the HOA.

 

[pvrfan]

Digression, I know, but AFAIK, "Home Owners Associations" do not exist in Canada.  
 
How is an HOA created?  What gives them any actual power to tell you what you can and cannot do with a home that you own?  What positive things does an HOA do on behalf of members?
 
Curious that the "Land of the Free" tolerates petty local tyrants in, apparently, so many places.
 
Confused Canadian Craig

 

[pete_c]

Yeah the one I dealt with and was on the board for was a small 100 home subdivision.  The HOA was created by one of the last contractors building homes there.  There were approximately 10 different contractors at one time.  The contractor in question deemed himself the HOA and intially was charging homeowners fees to update properties and was pocketing much monies.  Fixed it over the years as the HOA booted the contractor out.  That said the HOA does a sub rule of the subdivision landscaping common areas. 
 
Electric payments for the entrance lighting.  And rules relating to appearance standards.  IE: no sheds, no fences except for surround in ground pools, dogs (no external dog runs), et al.  It is a PITA as the homeowners pay regular property taxes for infrastructure plus pay HOA dues for sub maintainance of the sub division.
 
When I got involved there were no records of monies spent or records of homeowner payments and HOA board was taking care of itself more than the residents.  IE: having HOA pay for automobile insurance, buying computer systems (well not used for HOA rather personal stuff) et al.  No body every questioned the board members and nobody wanted to volunteer to serve on the board.  Tried subcontracting managment and initially it was good then rates skyrocketed with the management company charging stuff like $10 for a paperclip.  It was ridiculous.
 
In FL it is worse then here in the midwest.

 

[ano]

Success. Antenna installed. For my house, the back faces South, which is the direction I need for the antenna. Even a 70 mile antenna like mine isn't very big. Maybe under 2 ft. X 2 ft.  We have a strict HOA, but really, unless you go crazy, you shouldn't have any problem.  I mounted it on the top edge of the back house wall just back maybe a foot. Its not invisible, but not really ugly either.
 
I got 89 channels, but what's important is I get all the local channels great. In my city, all the network antennas are located on the same mountain, so aiming the antenna was easy. I used a phone app. but its hard to get the antenna match what the app. says exactly, but its close enough.

 

[LarrylLix]

I know of a few HOA in Kitchener. An old neighbourhood from the 60s needed to maiintain a community pool and centre as well as restricted usage of antennae on roofs. It was a club that was required to join on your sale agreement.
 
Another one in a newer subdivision in Breslau was required to maintain common berms and foilage around the subdivision. That one ranged in the $100 per year amount. These are setup by the subdivider and contracted that they have to carry it forward from ownere to owner. I believe after the subdivider disappears, they can be contested and broken legally.

 

[ano]

OK My "Cord Cutter" experience is going pretty good. So I received my Amazon Fire TV Recast. It was on sale on Amazon for $215 for the four tuner 1 TB model.  It was tricky to set up, because you have to use an app. and a Fire TV stick at the same time. I needed to add the latest software to my Fire TV stick for it to work.  The Recast ONLY works on Fire TV, so you need to add one to every TV. They only cost $37 each, so a pretty good deal. And Fire TV also receives Sling TV, for the cable part of my plan.
 
So the Recast learned all my 87 channels, but I realized bug one, you can't delete channels you don't want. (The Recast has only been out a few months, so expect this to be fixed.)
 
So the Recast has a nice "Guide" which is FREE, or at least included with Amazon Prime. Others charge $5 - $15 a month for their guide. The negative, the program descriptions aren't very good.
 
So the Recast can record four programs at once, but can only stream two programs at once. Only two of us, so that should be OK.
 
I used the Fire TV iOS app. It works well. You can watch any current programs or your recorded programs at home or ANYWHERE with Internet. But you can't get to your Guide, and you can't schedule programs to record if they are NOT currently playing. I hope they fix this.
 
So the verdict? The wife seems to like it so far, but she will have to get used to ONE system for antenna TV and another for "cable" TV.
 
Sling TV Blue will be $25/month + $5 for DVR + $5 for extra programs. so $35/month vs. the $112/month I pay for 4 TVs for DirecTV.
 
So definitely is more unified, but the cord cutter way is MUCH cheaper, and you can watch your stuff anywhere, which you can't do on DirecTV. I think they used to allow watching recorded TV anywhere, but it was very buggy and they dropped it. 

 

[upstatemike]

My biggest reason for not dropping DirecTV is that they give me both East and West coast stations for the broadcast networks instead of the local stations which tend to preempt national shows with idiot local content. It also gives me two shots at recording something off network if there are weather issues. If I ever lose that feature then DirecTV is gone. Eventually all content will be available for time shifted viewing from one source or another and live broadcasts will become irrelevant.

 

[ano]

My biggest reason for not dropping DirecTV is that they give me both East and West coast stations for the broadcast networks instead of the local stations which tend to preempt national shows with idiot local content. It also gives me two shots at recording something off network if there are weather issues. If I ever lose that feature then DirecTV is gone. Eventually all content will be available for time shifted viewing from one source or another and live broadcasts will become irrelevant.

Hmmm I have DirecTV and I don't get that.