W

wlmmn

Junior Audioholic
I find it weird in this day and age, if you want to watch a live sports game, your only choice is to go through a cable or dish provider that still has you plugging into a coaxial jack in the wall, connecting that to a box, and then that to your TV. My Oppo has Netflix streaming, which only requires cables for the power and for the video signal input, but the data you watch comes from the internet via a wireless adapter. Simple. Why can't channel broadcasts be that way?

I currently don't have any TV service of any kind, and my gf who's about to move in with me wants to watch basketball games live (she loves the Nuggets). Other than that, neither of us watch television, so it's not worth laying down a cable from the weird spot the cable jack in the wall is to where the home theater setup is and pay $40/month only to watch essentially one channel, the Altitude channel, which is Denver's channel for broadcasting sports games. Why can't it be like Netflix streaming, where I pay monthly to have it streamed through my Oppo over wireless, and not having to resort to cables and converter boxes?

The only solution I know of is Slingbox, which streams cable from one TV to another over the internet. My parents have a house in Kansas and have cable, so what I've been doing is having a Slingbox in Kansas stream cable into a computer that's connected to my TV in Colorado, but the stream quality is bad, and I'm on my third Slingbox in three years as the other units have failed. It's not a reliable solution, unfortunately.

Does there exist any streamed, live cable services using the internet rather than physical cables to receive broadcasts?
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
I don't have an answer to your question...but maybe an alternative for you to watch sports. Have you tried over-the-air broadcasts? I don't know if the games you want to watch would be available OTA (as they might be blacked out for you), but depending on where you live, you might not need more than a small indoor antenna. If that's the case, then you could have that antenna right by your TV and not need to run a cable from the wall.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I find it weird in this day and age, if you want to watch a live sports game, your only choice is to go through a cable or dish provider that still has you plugging into a coaxial jack in the wall, connecting that to a box, and then that to your TV. My Oppo has Netflix streaming, which only requires cables for the power and for the video signal input, but the data you watch comes from the internet via a wireless adapter. Simple. Why can't channel broadcasts be that way?

I currently don't have any TV service of any kind, and my gf who's about to move in with me wants to watch basketball games live (she loves the Nuggets). Other than that, neither of us watch television, so it's not worth laying down a cable from the weird spot the cable jack in the wall is to where the home theater setup is and pay $40/month only to watch essentially one channel, the Altitude channel, which is Denver's channel for broadcasting sports games. Why can't it be like Netflix streaming, where I pay monthly to have it streamed through my Oppo over wireless, and not having to resort to cables and converter boxes?

The only solution I know of is Slingbox, which streams cable from one TV to another over the internet. My parents have a house in Kansas and have cable, so what I've been doing is having a Slingbox in Kansas stream cable into a computer that's connected to my TV in Colorado, but the stream quality is bad, and I'm on my third Slingbox in three years as the other units have failed. It's not a reliable solution, unfortunately.

Does there exist any streamed, live cable services using the internet rather than physical cables to receive broadcasts?
I doubt it because of broadcast rights. The issues are legal as well as technical.

Although I doubt the Internet has the capacity to live broadcast of a major sports game in HD. Bandwidth and the infrastructure of the Internet is a big issue with the amount of streaming and downloading of HD AV in any case.

The BBC are huge users of Internet bandwidth. Not long ago there was an article entitled: - "Will the BBC eat the Internet?"
 
J

jostenmeat

Audioholic Spartan
I don't have an answer to your question...but maybe an alternative for you to watch sports. Have you tried over-the-air broadcasts? I don't know if the games you want to watch would be available OTA (as they might be blacked out for you), but depending on where you live, you might not need more than a small indoor antenna. If that's the case, then you could have that antenna right by your TV and not need to run a cable from the wall.
Good thought, but I don't think he'll get jack.

Nuggets schedule:
NUGGETS: 2012-13 NUGGETS SCHEDULE | THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE DENVER NUGGETS

Using first Denver zip I see, here is what he gets with antenna 10 ft high. I'm pretty sure Altitude (or Altitude 2) is not on there.
TV Fool

OP, if it really is "only" $40, I would just go that route. I saw a game recently streamed, it honestly looked worse than SD of old. The macro blocking was just horrible, it covered the entire pic. Bad enough to the point where many would ask, why bother? Radio broadcasts would probably be more enjoyable.

I say "only" $40, because where I am, it would be more like double to add cable programming. I would be quite happy with $40, and would probably have it already, if it were that cheap for me. Only TV I currently get is OTA. If you do add OTA (you can even make your own antenna, and use an existing coax cable, or get one for cheap from Rat Shack), use a compass to dial in the directional antenna, however, you probably still need to experiment. Using a compass, I get pretty much everything except CBS, which then requires me to find the right compromise angle. You can find decent working antennae from Target, BB, Amazon, Rat Shack, etc. Basically, anywhere. This is just to have some programming of course, HD, NFL, Olympics, Final Four, World Series, etc. All free, and HD. No Nuggets though.
 
W

wlmmn

Junior Audioholic
Thanks for your replies everyone.

Following Adam's suggestion, I looked into the antennae broadcasts, but like jostenmeat said it wouldn't get me the Nuggets as I found out. Plenty of college football, college basketball, and mexican soccer, but no NBA games.

DirectTV has a cable package that does include the Altitude channel for about $40/month, although I haven't looked at the fine print yet so I don't know if the rate will jack up after a 6-month trial period like I know other providers do. Also the physical cable jack is in an awkward place and is not where the TV and 5.1 system is set up, so I don't know how to go about getting the cable jack installed to the other wall. I don't trust a cable provider setup guy to not make a destructive mess out of that. :(

...still sucks that in 2012 there doesn't exist an alternative to signing up with a traditional subscriber for a package deal just to get ONE channel. Again, Netflix streaming seems to work well; why can't I just contact the Altitude channel directly and pay to stream their channel from my computer, and output the A/V signal to my TV and cut out the middle man? Seriously, in 2012? Surely the technology to do that is here, is it just being stopped by an impenetrable wall of lawyers?
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Thanks for your replies everyone.

Following Adam's suggestion, I looked into the antennae broadcasts, but like jostenmeat said it wouldn't get me the Nuggets as I found out. Plenty of college football, college basketball, and mexican soccer, but no NBA games.

DirectTV has a cable package that does include the Altitude channel for about $40/month, although I haven't looked at the fine print yet so I don't know if the rate will jack up after a 6-month trial period like I know other providers do. Also the physical cable jack is in an awkward place and is not where the TV and 5.1 system is set up, so I don't know how to go about getting the cable jack installed to the other wall. I don't trust a cable provider setup guy to not make a destructive mess out of that. :(

...still sucks that in 2012 there doesn't exist an alternative to signing up with a traditional subscriber for a package deal just to get ONE channel. Again, Netflix streaming seems to work well; why can't I just contact the Altitude channel directly and pay to stream their channel from my computer, and output the A/V signal to my TV and cut out the middle man? Seriously, in 2012? Surely the technology to do that is here, is it just being stopped by an impenetrable wall of lawyers?
Much as I dislike lawyers corroding fingers, I think you should be able to see the problem.

If you are allowed to rebroadcast copyrighted material, from your computer from a TV feed, how would any business have control over what happened to their content?

The other issue, is that the Internet is to a degree bandwidth limited, and Netflix use significant video compression and it is only two channel.

The other issue, is that Internet infrastructure is complex and expensive. The way these streaming and downloading services are proliferating and hogging bandwidth, you are going to be paying a lot more for Internet access, a lot more.

So at this time we need diverse ways of spreading the load, which has to include a mix of Internet, cable, satellite and over air.

Your problem is you have no idea how to envisage the engineering requirements and the scaling of what you wish for.

None of this is simple or easy and behind it all is very hardworking highly educated engineers, designers and technicians, backed by enormous amounts of capital.
 
W

wlmmn

Junior Audioholic
...I think you should be able to see the problem...

...Your problem is you have no idea how to envisage the engineering requirements and the scaling of what you wish for...
I find it very hard to not read a bit of condescending tone into that. So it's a "problem" that I have? How about just curiosity and thinking outside the box? Sure, I'll claim ignorance on the level of infrastructure required for what I'm looking for, but stating it as my problem being I have no idea to even conceive what is required is just about the most insulting way you could have worded that.

You could've made your point without wording it the way you did. We're not engaged in a Youtube comment debate; ideas can be exchanged without resorting to that.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I find it very hard to not read a bit of condescending tone into that. So it's a "problem" that I have? How about just curiosity and thinking outside the box? Sure, I'll claim ignorance on the level of infrastructure required for what I'm looking for, but stating it as my problem being I have no idea to even conceive what is required is just about the most insulting way you could have worded that.

You could've made your point without wording it the way you did. We're not engaged in a Youtube comment debate; ideas can be exchanged without resorting to that.
My apologies. On reflection I certainly could have worded it better.

My point is that I run into individuals all the time, who expect ever increasing wonders. Actually politicians are the worst offenders, who have no clue about the technologies they try and legislate.

I have to sons involved in all this. One is a software developer and the other is an engineer who works hard and I can assure you very hard developing the ICs and chip sets that bring you the wonders you ask for. It requires unbelievable mathematical ability. He has had to teach himself some theoretical atomic physics, as design is now getting to point where the behavior of small numbers of atoms is significant. I guess you finding not being able to do what you want for a pittance weird upsets me.

Personally I'm amazed and thankful for what is possible with every expectation of wonders to come. I also am constantly in wonder as to how little it all costs compared to the effort expended. Part of that unfortunately is due to the new slavery across the Far Eastern rim.

I just had to buy and new three in one printer. I bought a nice Epson, that seems very nicely made for $85 shipped. It is made in Indonesia. I can be certain that those workers, may have been paid, but I'm savvy enough to know there is virtually no light between their wage and slavery. A complex unit like that, that prints, copies and faxes, ought to have cost about $350 to $400.

So I would ask you to be thankful and amazed that it would only cost you $40 per month to get the programming you want. Rightly or wrongly I interpreted your opening remark to believe that the developers should be working harder and or that unreasonable profits are being made.

I have worked closely with our local Telephone and internet provider, and I can tell each roadside booster station contains $350,000 worth of equipment. Copper needed one every 2.5 miles. They made the enormous investment to lay fiber cable throughout this rural North Central Minnesota county. This required thousands of miles of cable. There in the door cost of the cable was $1.44 per foot, and that is before the expense of laying it. Now they only need booster every 12 to 25 miles, depending on the number of customers served. I pay only $76 per month for very high speed Internet, and phone service. I'm in the middle of a Forrest on a Lake, and have fiber right below my studio. I can't believe my good fortune, and I'm very thankful to all the very bright hard working people who made all this happen. The only thing weird about it all, Is that it works so well and reliably and cost so little.
 
T

treve01

Enthusiast
internet tv has not boomed yet because tv makers are scared that we dont watch ads no more
 
96cobra10101

96cobra10101

Senior Audioholic
It would be nice if the came out with an a-la-carte cable/satellite system. I myself would pick, let me see,
ESPN
AMC
FX
SPIKE
HGTV
Discovery
Comedy Central
TBS
I pay about $100 a month (cable) including the Internets. About $55 of it is TV. I get at least 100, maybe even as many as 150 channels. I got stuff from India, Korea, China, Spanish. Plus the plethora of kids channels, there must be at least 20. (Is this why I never see kids outside anymore) Why? I have no desire to watch these channels, so why give them to me, plus I have the hassle of having to surf pass them when switching channels. I figure I am paying about $.50 a channel, probably less. Let me pick channel, like iTunes, $.99 a channel. Just give me want I want to watch and that's it. I could lower my cable part of the bill to about $20 a month. As a matter of fact, my cable company is in a price dispute with CBS right, and as of the 1st, the won't carry them (until they come to an agreement, AMC just did this with Dish earlier this year), which I find dumb since I can receive them free via HD antennae anyway.
 
C

ccvarella79

Audiophyte
thanks for all the feedback on this issue. It is very helpful to us newcomers !
 
C

chuck046

Banned
I never thought that there is something like that i am pretty interested to try it.
 
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