Posted on 05/31/2015 6:32:01 PM PDT by jagusafr
Without Dish or Cable, your biggest challenge will be live/current programming like local news stations or sporting events.
Internet streaming (Roku, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, Cable Network websites, etc) can get you most, if not all, of any shows/series/movies you like to watch on a delayed basis. You won’t see it at the same time it airs, but usually anywhere from a day to a week later for TV shows and up to months later for movies. You will need a broadband connection to the internet for streaming video, especially at HD resolution.
For local programming, you will need a digital antenna. If your TV is older, you’ll also need a digital tuner set-top box. Newer TV’s already have a digital receiver. You may also be lucky enough that one or more of your local channels offers an internet stream on their website that you can add to Roku or watch on your PC.
I have an old fashioned aerial antenna and a power booster. We get about 30 stations, some are repeats from multiple markets. We live between Baltimore and Philadelphia. Pull stations from as far as DC.
That’s supplemented with Netflix.
To be honest, that’s all we need, although I’d like to see the NASCAR races that are on cable.
You can watch anything else free or very cheap via Netflix and Amazon and Hulu and the overseas free streaming services.
I luvs my Amazon Prime. The bennies provided for music and kindle books is worth the 100 buck price tag alone... (though we got it free with our Fire Phones)
If they discontinue Amazon Prime I would be lost. I buy most of my stuff through Amazon and that free 2 day Prime shipping is awesome. Add in Bing Rewards Amazon Gift Cards and I get all sorts of stuff free of charge and shipped at no cost!
Same here. Been 6 weeks without that trash invading my home and I don’t mind at all.
For TV from the Internet you need consistent high speed internet service. If you have this there are a lot of advantages. If not? Then seriously I would change to DIRECT. I've lived in a rural community almost all my life. Local Airwaves have never been watchable due to terrain. I'm about 10 air miles from the towers BTW. To get TV back in the early 1990's I purchased a C-Band Satellite System which I maintained myself. When the receiver finally went out the smaller dish systems were on the market and the bugs had been worked out. I bought Dish-Net first IIRC. I don't like their system. Instead of one coax per TV I had to run two so their transponder switching system would work. Also DIRECT began offering Local Stations and Dish-Net could not or would not tell me if they were going to offer it anytime soon so I switched.
I've been with DIRECT over 10 years and have had no serious issues with their system or customer service. All things considered they've been reliable. For maybe 15 minutes a month I loose my signal to a heavy downpour. I can live with that too. Many people loose service during rains simply because they do not have the dish aligned properly. Also an in-line signal amplifier {cheap} helps this issue as well.
No Cable company will be serving my road in my lifetime and Satellite Internet is too expensive and restrictive. I'm eight miles away from the TELCO Office so no hope of DSL either. So I'm stuck on Dial Up Internet. Consider this also. If you loose your Internet you have also lost your TV service. Some cable companies can be slow about getting issues resolved. That said of the 200 plus channels I get I only watch maybe 6-8 of them. But if my power goes out I can switch to my back up power and still have TV LOL.
Zactly. ...
never heard of Sling tv - is it cable-like? sounds like a good solution.
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