Cutting the cord...

[TLS Guy]

Wow, I had looked at the Channel Master. I'm glad it's that good. It was our intent to ditch Verizon FIOS. The price is high, & they constantly try to raise the price, and I have to waste my time arguing with them. I am sick of it. I have an incredible HD Roof antenna on a telescoping 25' mount on the roof. The off air signals are very good, and we bought a few Roku's but I could not convince my wife to ditch Verizon. She is so stuck on their DVR. I only use the antenna on 2 less used TV's in the house right now. Is thyere any way to use the CM to also be a DVR. I saw some hacks for it, but I don't know.

That unit I bought is a DVR and very good one at that.

As I explained, it has two tuners so you can record and play back at the same time, or record two programs at once.

You can order it with 16 GB or 1 TB SSD. I ordered ours with 1TB. You can also add a larger drive if you want via USB.

The Internet Wi-Fi card works very well. The software has been fast and rock solid stable so far.

It supports Dolby 7.1 over HDMI.

This is a very well thought out and built classy piece of kit.

If you can easily get the channels you want over air, then this with streaming is all you could wish for.

As I said I am going to add and Intel NUC HTPC for streaming in the next 10 to 14 days. Then we will have everything we need at our nice little town house.

My wife is absolutely delighted with that Channel Master unit. She now just wants the speed and ease of streaming we have at Benedict, form the HTPC I built three years ago.

This unit makes the Comcast Infinity units look like toys. I have to admit the new Direct TV Genie system works very well and is much better than their previous efforts. However the Channel Master has much better build quality and inspires more confidence.

I can't imagine your wife would not be thrilled with it.

 

[Jeffrey S. Albaugh]

That unit I bought is a DVR and very good one at that.

As I explained, it has two tuners so you can record and play back at the same time, or record two programs at once.

You can order it with 16 GB or 1 TB SSD. I ordered ours with 1TB. You can also add a larger drive if you want via USB.

The Internet Wi-Fi card works very well. The software has been fast and rock solid stable so far.

It supports Dolby 7.1 over HDMI.

This is a very well thought out and built classy piece of kit.

If you can easily get the channels you want over air, then this with streaming is all you could wish for.

As I said I am going to add and Intel NUC HTPC for streaming in the next 10 to 14 days. Then we will have everything we need at our nice little town house.

My wife is absolutely delighted with that Channel Master unit. She now just wants the speed and ease of streaming we have at Benedict, form the HTPC I built three years ago.

This unit makes the Comcast Infinity units look like toys. I have to admit the new Direct TV Genie system works very well and is much better than their previous efforts. However the Channel Master has much better build quality and inspires more confidence.

I can't imagine your wife would not be thrilled with it.

 

[Jeffrey S. Albaugh]

That unit I bought is a DVR and very good one at that.

As I explained, it has two tuners so you can record and play back at the same time, or record two programs at once.

Hey TLS Guy: Thank you for informing us about your experiences with this product. I think I would probably get it with the small HD, simply because I have a lot of USB drives. They are cheap. I have one that is 128 GB (a great deal). Now I have to igure out how to get her to part with Verizon. I am ready, but she is hooked on that Verizon DVR. I would drop it like a bad habit. I love the Roku's
You can order it with 16 GB or 1 TB SSD. I ordered ours with 1TB. You can also add a larger drive if you want via USB. Thank you,

The Internet Wi-Fi card works very well. The software has been fast and rock solid stable so far.

It supports Dolby 7.1 over HDMI.

This is a very well thought out and built classy piece of kit.

If you can easily get the channels you want over air, then this with streaming is all you could wish for.

As I said I am going to add and Intel NUC HTPC for streaming in the next 10 to 14 days. Then we will have everything we need at our nice little town house.

My wife is absolutely delighted with that Channel Master unit. She now just wants the speed and ease of streaming we have at Benedict, form the HTPC I built three years ago.

This unit makes the Comcast Infinity units look like toys. I have to admit the new Direct TV Genie system works very well and is much better than their previous efforts. However the Channel Master has much better build quality and inspires more confidence.

I can't imagine your wife would not be thrilled with it.

 

[TLS Guy]

Are your transmitters in the same direction or scattered about? I was lucky, as all the transmitters lie pretty much due North of Eagan. Eagan is in the South Minneapolis metro and all of the transmitters are at Shoreview MN about 25 to 30 miles due North.

So I was able to use a UHF directional Yagi-Uda array which has excellent forward gain and good rejection form the South.

Your antenna on the other hand will have zero forward gain. In your situation that may or not be correct.

Choosing the optimal antenna for each location is very important. I had already purchased my antenna. It was interesting to me that the installer was not at all well versed in how to select the correct antenna location by location. In fact he did not know the names of the different elements of antennas or their function.

I would be fairly certain that is typical and a significant problem for a lot of people getting optimal results.

 

[highfigh]

Are your transmitters in the same direction or scattered about? I was lucky, as all the transmitters lie pretty much due North of Eagan. Eagan is in the South Minneapolis metro and all of the transmitters are at Shoreview MN about 25 to 30 miles due North.

So I was able to use a UHF directional Yagi-Uda array which has excellent forward gain and good rejection form the South.

Your antenna on the other hand will have zero forward gain. In your situation that may or not be correct.

Choosing the optimal antenna for each location is very important. I had already purchased my antenna. It was interesting to me that the installer was not at all well versed in how to select the correct antenna location by location. In fact he did not know the names of the different elements of antennas or their function.

I would be fairly certain that is typical and a significant problem for a lot of people getting optimal results.

The reason fewer installers know about antenna characteristics is that most of the ones who did have retired, died or just got out of the industry because cable and satellite have been the main sources for so long. Just about anyone can get a decent result in areas where reception isn't difficult through trial and error but it's rare that most really know RF theory and practical application.

I still hear recommendations that I need an amplifier and I'm less than a mile from three towers, three miles from three more, and they're roughly in line to my house. Reception is a bit of a challenge. When I had AVRs, I usually had a 300 to 75 Ohm balun with a twist tie from a loaf of bread connected to one screw- that was the best antenna for listening to my favorite FM station.

I would bet that I have a Noise to Signal ratio, not the other way around.

 

[TLS Guy]

The reason fewer installers know about antenna characteristics is that most of the ones who did have retired, died or just got out of the industry because cable and satellite have been the main sources for so long. Just about anyone can get a decent result in areas where reception isn't difficult through trial and error but it's rare that most really know RF theory and practical application.

I still hear recommendations that I need an amplifier and I'm less than a mile from three towers, three miles from three more, and they're roughly in line to my house. Reception is a bit of a challenge. When I had AVRs, I usually had a 300 to 75 Ohm balun with a twist tie from a loaf of bread connected to one screw- that was the best antenna for listening to my favorite FM station.

I would bet that I have a Noise to Signal ratio, not the other way around.

Funny that he wanted to sell you a preamp. My installer went to get one out. I said I did not need it.

An how I had him put this $20 Channel Master Antenna on the roof.

The FCC inter active site said I would get around 60 NM(db) 10 ft off the ground at my location. Well the antenna is on the top of the chimney about 25 ft off the ground, and has forward gain. We measured 88 NM (db) at the connector at the back of the DVR! So I have plenty of signal. For reference you need at least 40 NM(db) for any sort of reasonable reception.

Preamps are generally fools gold as they amplify noise as much as signal.

If members are interested we can start a thread on how to go about getting the optimal over air signal.

 

[Jeffrey S. Albaugh]

TLS: I fforgot to tell you that my antes is a beam atenna. I point it SW or my area. I never bothered to put it on a rotor. 90% of the chanels we receive shooting towards Wash DC. My antenna (see picture) is on the roof of our house. The telescoping antenna is a top the roof and it goes up 25' above the roof, and it is down two stories to the ground. I also (very importantly) ran a solid copper ground wire to the ground, creating an earth ground to an 8' copper rod 6' into the ground. SAFETY FIRST.

 

[Hi Ho]

I bought the 70 mile version of this antenna from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CX700EY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also bought this USB tuner for my Xbox One:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XF7Z5DM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Most of the transmitters are on Queen Ann Hill in Seattle however the strength varies greatly. I can get channel 4, 5, and 13 without issues with an amplifier but 7 and 9 do not show up on a channel scan even though their transmitters are in the same place. Without an amplifier I only get channel 13. I'm talking major networks here. I also get about 20 other channels I do not care about. Most of them are religious or Spanish programming.

Now if Microsoft would just do what they originally promised and add DVR functionality to the Xbox One then my setup would be complete.

I would be interested in learning about how to get the best reception. I am about 40 miles from the transmitters as the crow flies but I am part way up a hill only 100ft above sea level and this is a hilly and mountainous area. I'm pretty sure a highly directional antenna like the one I bought is what I need. I already get many more channels than AntennaWeb says I can. It said I could only get 13 and TBN. If I could get the antenna to the top of the very tall redwood tree next to my house then I bet I could get almost everything.

 

[highfigh]

Funny that he wanted to sell you a preamp. My installer went to get one out. I said I did not need it.

An how I had him put this $20 Channel Master Antenna on the roof.

The FCC inter active site said I would get around 60 NM(db) 10 ft off the ground at my location. Well the antenna is on the top of the chimney about 25 ft off the ground, and has forward gain. We measured 88 NM (db) at the connector at the back of the DVR! So I have plenty of signal. For reference you need at least 40 NM(db) for any sort of reasonable reception.

Preamps are generally fools gold as they amplify noise as much as signal.

If members are interested we can start a thread on how to go about getting the optimal over air signal.

The guy from Digitenna and a local TV station engineer said the typical assumed height during design is 30'.

This whole discussion may be moot, since the FCC has already begun to reallocate the frequency band for TV and eliminating many channels. They want analog to be gone, very soon. The bandwidth will be used for cell phones.

 

[slipperybidness]

The guy from Digitenna and a local TV station engineer said the typical assumed height during design is 30'.

This whole discussion may be moot, since the FCC has already begun to reallocate the frequency band for TV and eliminating many channels. They want analog to be gone, very soon. The bandwidth will be used for cell phones.

I thought that Analog TV signals were long gone already in the USA.

 

[highfigh]

I thought that Analog TV signals were long gone already in the USA.

Not completely, but almost. They also want to eliminate many of the less-used or smaller audience channels, narrow the channel spacing and compress the TV band, so cellular and emergency can have more. Mostly cellular- they make more money from those and one thing government likes is more money. The biggest problem that will occur is that none of the existing TV adapters and tuners will be able to use the new channels, so everyone will need some kind of converter for terrestrial broadcast signal.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

The guy from Digitenna and a local TV station engineer said the typical assumed height during design is 30'.

This whole discussion may be moot, since the FCC has already begun to reallocate the frequency band for TV and eliminating many channels. They want analog to be gone, very soon. The bandwidth will be used for cell phones.

Don't think that is relevant. They are re-allocating old frequencies used for analog NTSC, but not currently used "digital" OTA ATSC signal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television_transition_in_the_United_States

 

[highfigh]

Don't think that is relevant. They are re-allocating old frequencies used for analog NTSC, but not currently used "digital" OTA ATSC signal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television_transition_in_the_United_States

Some of the channels that will be going are local use, like the PBS stations where a group bought bandwidth and used lower quality video and/or audio, to allow for more channels. The broadcast engineer who was there works for the local public network and they're still trying to see ho wthey can shuffle everything.

 

[speakerman39]

Folks, just thought that I would share my experience as of late. Few months ago, I took out both my home phone and cable tv. I did, however, keep my internet service with Time Warner. Have spent a lot of time looking for various alternatives. First thing that I did was go and buy me an HD indoor antenna. Gave like $20 for it and could get like 2 of my local channels.

Decided to take the $20 antenna back for a full refund. Did a little more reading and found out about the Mohu Leaf antennas. At first, I only got 2 channels after running a scan. Experimented a lot and found the best place to be close to my window in my living room. The funny thing is, the amp that came with the Mohu did NOT help one bit. Remember reading about that on some of the user reviews. So, I took the amp out and reran another scan. To my surprise, I picked up 10 local channels in HD! The Mohu cost me $65, but it has been worth it for the most part. My ONLY complaint is that on a windy day it does cut out a lot.

One thing that I do miss is the Scy Fy channel. I watch Z-Nation and Aftermath on there. For a while now I have done lots of research to find the best option for me. My TV is a smart TV and has some apps. But, unfortunately it does NOT have Sling TV. However, with a Roku device I can stream it into my tv. Luckily, Sling TV has a promo going where I can get the Roku Premiere Plus device for half price of $50. Now that catch is I have to pay for my package 3-months in advance plus the $50 for the Roku Premiere Plus device.

I have the Orange AND Blue package w/the Epix add on. Having ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3 will allow me to watch most of my Kentucky Basketball games. That package also includes Scy Fy and the USA network. I also like National Geographic and National Geographic Wild channels as well. The Epix add on was only $5 more.

Already have Sling TV up and running by running an HDMI out of my desk top to my TV. The only problem is I can NOT really watch tv and surf the net at the same time. I can minimize my screen on my computer screen, but it also does the same on my tv. That creates a real problem for me. The solution is the Roku Premiere Plus device. It has an ethernet connection and it can pass 4K. A win/win for me.

I do NOT own a smart phone and have no plans to do so. So, I bought me a refurbished Ooma and it works like a charm. Use it every single day. Costs me only $4.23 a month! My internet is only $34.99 a month for a 50 Meg connection thanks to Spectrum formerly known as Time Warner. My Sling TV package totals $47.41 a month. That gives me a grand total of $86.63 which is a little more than I was paying when I had all 3 services with Time Warner previously. But, got a few extras with this new package such as the Epix add on. I can even ad the SEC Network for a little over $10 more. If I do that, then I can see ALL of the Kentucky Wildcats basketball games all year long! Go Big Blue!

Can also up my internet speed to over 100 Meg for just $10 more a month. It is so tempting as there would be very little buffering delays downloading tv shows/movies. Anyways, my Roku Premiere Plus will be here in just a few days via Postal Mail. Until then, I have to watch on my 24" computer screen. Have learned that a direct ethernet connection works much better than WiFi. That is, my WiFi averages 15-20 Meg, but ethernet averages at least 50 -60 Meg!

For anyone looking to cut the cord, my advice is to say go for it! See what is out there to meet your needs. I know I sure have. Not really saving a lot of money, but my package is more customized to my liking w/o breaking the bank!

Cheers,

Phil

 

[fuzz092888]

I haven't been keeping up with this thread, but has anyone seen or know anything about these?

http://www.topstreamtv.com/

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I haven't been keeping up with this thread, but has anyone seen or know anything about these?

http://www.topstreamtv.com/

Screenshot from Kodi, free content - screams to me like it's one of these loaded xbmc/kodi boxes sold on ebay by tons.
So let's review: selling hardware is legal, kodi is legit, but the free content kodi plugins included are likely to be not.

;-)

 

[speakerman39]

UPDATE!

Folks, got this in the mail yesterday. Here are a few pics for anyone interested:

Now it is as simple as hooking it up. Will do that very soon. Right now kind of resting and relaxing. I bought this mainly for the Sling TV capability. Looking forward to watching my Kentucky Wildcat Basketball! Might even ad the SEC Network so I can watch ALL of my Kentucky games. If I do add SEC, then I will also have ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN3. It is a win/win for me. Can add the SEC Network for $10 more a month. Be sure to read my previous post as to why I ended up with the Roku Premiere Plus! Got for only $50 shipped!

Cheers,

Phil

 

[speakerman39]

Roku Premiere Plus setup and working perfectly! Watching Doom as we speak on SyFy. Pretty good movie if you ask me. Love Sling TV as I find it a bit more custom to my liking than most I have used. Love it!

Cheers,

Phil

 

[TLS Guy]

Personally I hate those Linux boxes that you have to hunt and peck via miserable hand held remotes. I have an Intel NUC I have specked and will install it at Eagan next weekend. I will give a full review after that. I'm hoping this will suit me and my wife perfectly.

 

[speakerman39]

Personally I hate those Linux boxes that you have to hunt and peck via miserable hand held remotes. I have an Intel NUC I have specked and will install it at Eagan next weekend. I will give a full review after that. I'm hoping this will suit me and my wife perfectly.

Yeah, hunting and pecking is a bit much on this. But, I can live with it. At least, for the time being. Not too familiar with the Intel NUC. Need to do some reading up on it. Looking forward to your review. Plan to get me a 65" 4K TV this time next year. Hope that the OLEDS will come down in price significantly. Also looking for a 4K BR player then as well.

Cheers,

Phil