Down To 3 Channels Now...

GO-NAD!

GO-NAD!

Audioholic Spartan
I finally unplugged the TV cable. I've installed a RCA ANT751R antenna in the attic and run RG-6 coax to the Samsung in the kitchen and to the basement HT. There, I've installed a Channel Master DVR+ and Seagate Expansion 1TB hard drive. I was concerned that the long run from the attic to the basement (60-odd feet) would leave me with a weak signal. But, I'm getting a great picture. :) The DVR was a breeze to set up. Pretty happy so far. Except, I'm only getting 3 channels. Meh....most of the TV programs I watch are on CBC anyway. With Netflix and BD, we're all set.
 
Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
I finally unplugged the TV cable. I've installed a RCA ANT751R antenna in the attic and run RG-6 coax to the Samsung in the kitchen and to the basement HT. There, I've installed a Channel Master DVR+ and Seagate Expansion 1TB hard drive. I was concerned that the long run from the attic to the basement (60-odd feet) would leave me with a weak signal. But, I'm getting a great picture. :) The DVR was a breeze to set up. Pretty happy so far. Except, I'm only getting 3 channels. Meh....most of the TV programs I watch are on CBC anyway. With Netflix and BD, we're all set.
Did the antennae + channel master DVR going on 2 years ago now. We get about 70 channels. Theres a website that will tell you by zipcode what you can expect to see with over the air hdtv. We get just about exactly what the site says.

Some geographies do indeed have few usable channels. Hope you checked ahead !
 
GO-NAD!

GO-NAD!

Audioholic Spartan
Did the antennae + channel master DVR going on 2 years ago now. We get about 70 channels. Theres a website that will tell you by zipcode what you can expect to see with over the air hdtv. We get just about exactly what the site says.

Some geographies do indeed have few usable channels. Hope you checked ahead !
Oh yes, did that. I already new what would be available to me before I started this.
 
Dan Madden

Dan Madden

Audioholic
I get about 20 channels here in Montreal with my OTA setup but my antenna is outside on the roof above my apartment which is 3 stories up! The picture quality with OTA is exceptional.....straight from the broadcast towers !!
 
GO-NAD!

GO-NAD!

Audioholic Spartan
I get about 20 channels here in Montreal with my OTA setup but my antenna is outside on the roof above my apartment which is 3 stories up! The picture quality with OTA is exceptional.....straight from the broadcast towers !!
Other than the 3 channels I'm getting, the closest towers would be in Maine - hundreds of kilometers away.
 
Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
Other than the 3 channels I'm getting, the closest towers would be in Maine - hundreds of kilometers away.
even with only 3 broadcast channels, with the streaming services and BD, it sounds like you are in good shape. Success isn't having all the stuff you want : its wanting the stuff you have. If you're enjoying what you've put together: you have created something worthwhile. enjoy. :)
 
GO-NAD!

GO-NAD!

Audioholic Spartan
If anyone is interested in going this route, here's a tidbit - the CM DVR is known to be fussy about the external HD you plug into it. Problems manifest themselves as audio dropouts and choppy video. My DVR didn't like the Seagate, so I got a WD "My Passport" WDBYNN0010BBK 1TB HD and it works beautifully. :)
 
M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
What do you do if you have to use cable for internet? Most companies where I live make you get the basic TV plus home phone. The phone company's offerings are as much of a monopoly as the cable.
 
Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
What do you do if you have to use cable for internet? Most companies where I live make you get the basic TV plus home phone. The phone company's offerings are as much of a monopoly as the cable.
MrBoat
That's an interesting question because the "best" (whatever that means) internet provider will vary from one market or region to the next. In one market, it may be a telecom provider and in another market it may be a cable provider.

I can only speak for my own region and household. I believe Pogre lives close so he can fact check me. I'm in a little berg called Gilbert, Arizona. That's a satellite community to Phoenix. In our market, the major players are Centurylink (the old telecom piece of the Bell system), COX (the cable TV provider here), DISH network (a satellite dish based system). That's literally it for us. Both Centurylink and Cox Cable provide in excess of 95% coverage across the valley. There are bit players, but they are less than 5% of the market.

The key differentiator is technology: Centurylink is DSL and Cox is ethernet. Centurlyink's top speed is 100mbps and Cox will do 300mbps. Cox also has real customer service with people who can run tests, answer phone calls and send someone out to your place if somethings really, really broke. Centurylink is staffed by the keystone cops, they can't answer a phone, have no sense of what's going on and are mostly a giant waste of time. In another market they may be great. Here : not so much.

In another market that includes a player like Verizon with their FIOS (fiber) product, they are able to reach 1000mbps and have an excellent product. Verizon is both a wireless and a wired telecom and they do well as a cable provider too. In markets where Google gets to play or anybody providing truly high speed fibre, that's pretty good stuff there.

How to choose? There are rating services in every market. I can look at those for Phoenix and they all point to Cox for internet. My own experience says so as well. As does every other propeller head I know: they all use Cox for internet. In your market somebody should stand out. But, whether its a cable company or a telecom, I surely don't know.

Just one more thing : Cox wants to sell us the whole enchilada : internet, cable TV, telephone services, alarm services etc etc. When we cut the cord we got rid of everything except the internet function. There's should be an ala carte option to allow that. You may have to make a phone call to get it. They may whine and bitch and piss and moan. They may even charge you more for your basic internet. We cut it all except the internet anyway just based on principal. Great decision.

Hope this helps.
 
Bucknekked

Bucknekked

Audioholic Samurai
If anyone is interested in going this route, here's a tidbit - the CM DVR is known to be fussy about the external HD you plug into it. Problems manifest themselves as audio dropouts and choppy video. My DVR didn't like the Seagate, so I got a WD "My Passport" WDBYNN0010BBK 1TB HD and it works beautifully. :)
I have a CM DVR and most of the time I love it. The word fussy seems about right for certain things.
I have never had an issue with an external hard drive. Maybe its because I put a really nice hard drive on it that has its own AC power supply and doesn't nurse voltage off the USB port.

The only complaint I have about the CM DVR is when it deems it necessary to do an update to its internal code, it will do so right in the middle of the best game on TV at the time and it will often lose its mind when it does that. POR is often the only answer. That's fussy behavior.

On the upside, the CM DVR is bringing out new channels and functions so those updates almost always bring us something useable or positive. For all its fussy behavior, I still love it.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
MrBoat
That's an interesting question because the "best" (whatever that means) internet provider will vary from one market or region to the next. In one market, it may be a telecom provider and in another market it may be a cable provider.

I can only speak for my own region and household. I believe Pogre lives close so he can fact check me. I'm in a little berg called Gilbert, Arizona. That's a satellite community to Phoenix. In our market, the major players are Centurylink (the old telecom piece of the Bell system), COX (the cable TV provider here), DISH network (a satellite dish based system). That's literally it for us. Both Centurylink and Cox Cable provide in excess of 95% coverage across the valley. There are bit players, but they are less than 5% of the market.

The key differentiator is technology: Centurylink is DSL and Cox is ethernet. Centurlyink's top speed is 100mbps and Cox will do 300mbps. Cox also has real customer service with people who can run tests, answer phone calls and send someone out to your place if somethings really, really broke. Centurylink is staffed by the keystone cops, they can't answer a phone, have no sense of what's going on and are mostly a giant waste of time. In another market they may be great. Here : not so much.

In another market that includes a player like Verizon with their FIOS (fiber) product, they are able to reach 1000mbps and have an excellent product. Verizon is both a wireless and a wired telecom and they do well as a cable provider too. In markets where Google gets to play or anybody providing truly high speed fibre, that's pretty good stuff there.

How to choose? There are rating services in every market. I can look at those for Phoenix and they all point to Cox for internet. My own experience says so as well. As does every other propeller head I know: they all use Cox for internet. In your market somebody should stand out. But, whether its a cable company or a telecom, I surely don't know.

Just one more thing : Cox wants to sell us the whole enchilada : internet, cable TV, telephone services, alarm services etc etc. When we cut the cord we got rid of everything except the internet function. There's should be an ala carte option to allow that. You may have to make a phone call to get it. They may whine and bitch and piss and moan. They may even charge you more for your basic internet. We cut it all except the internet anyway just based on principal. Great decision.

Hope this helps.
Yup. I have Cox and their speeds are usually better than what I pay for. A friend of mine who worked for DTV told me that our area is kind of a test area for new tech and that's why my speeds are always so high.

Screenshot_2017-04-30-11-11-42-1.png


I KNOW I'm not paying for that! We did have to upgrade to a newer router for that speed. We didn't have nearly that with the old router.
 
M

MrBoat

Audioholic Ninja
MrBoat
That's an interesting question because the "best" (whatever that means) internet provider will vary from one market or region to the next. In one market, it may be a telecom provider and in another market it may be a cable provider.

I can only speak for my own region and household. I believe Pogre lives close so he can fact check me. I'm in a little berg called Gilbert, Arizona. That's a satellite community to Phoenix. In our market, the major players are Centurylink (the old telecom piece of the Bell system), COX (the cable TV provider here), DISH network (a satellite dish based system). That's literally it for us. Both Centurylink and Cox Cable provide in excess of 95% coverage across the valley. There are bit players, but they are less than 5% of the market.

The key differentiator is technology: Centurylink is DSL and Cox is ethernet. Centurlyink's top speed is 100mbps and Cox will do 300mbps. Cox also has real customer service with people who can run tests, answer phone calls and send someone out to your place if somethings really, really broke. Centurylink is staffed by the keystone cops, they can't answer a phone, have no sense of what's going on and are mostly a giant waste of time. In another market they may be great. Here : not so much.

In another market that includes a player like Verizon with their FIOS (fiber) product, they are able to reach 1000mbps and have an excellent product. Verizon is both a wireless and a wired telecom and they do well as a cable provider too. In markets where Google gets to play or anybody providing truly high speed fibre, that's pretty good stuff there.

How to choose? There are rating services in every market. I can look at those for Phoenix and they all point to Cox for internet. My own experience says so as well. As does every other propeller head I know: they all use Cox for internet. In your market somebody should stand out. But, whether its a cable company or a telecom, I surely don't know.

Just one more thing : Cox wants to sell us the whole enchilada : internet, cable TV, telephone services, alarm services etc etc. When we cut the cord we got rid of everything except the internet function. There's should be an ala carte option to allow that. You may have to make a phone call to get it. They may whine and bitch and piss and moan. They may even charge you more for your basic internet. We cut it all except the internet anyway just based on principal. Great decision.

Hope this helps.
Only reason I haven't called is because I asked when I first switched to Brighthouse. I was actually just using an antenna for the new public access HD format. It got me PBS and other channels I liked with very little in the way of advertisement.

Now I can at least threaten to go to the other provider. If you look at the customer ratings for both, it is 2 out of 5 stars.

Being that these companies pretty much control the information highway, that should be the regulations the govt imposes. Fair priced options without being forced to buy all the products.
 
GO-NAD!

GO-NAD!

Audioholic Spartan
What do you do if you have to use cable for internet? Most companies where I live make you get the basic TV plus home phone. The phone company's offerings are as much of a monopoly as the cable.
Although my internet is via cable modem, my provider doesn't require a cable TV package just to get internet. I think that would be unconscionable.
 
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