We dropped Satellite TV to help cover other costs. I know that some of you may have also done this or may be thinking about this.
Living in a big city, gives me access to a number of HDTV stations when you have a good UHF antenna. While I have have enjoyed the local channels, we have not been able to record programs from them. I was unable to find a tuner to go to my VCR and there would be a channel selection problem while we were not home.
I purchased a TiVo but the new ones work only with cable TV. Which is not what it said in the mail order ad. I found a USB tuner dongle that is supposed to receive channels for my computer and record them. The software is supposed to change channels as needed.
Today I installed the hardware and software on my Windows 7 laptop. It loaded easily my first test showed that it could display a program on my laptop. I decided to try for HDTV (16 x 9) instead of the (4 x 3) of standard TV. It was much sharper like HDTV should be. It played a half hour of HDTV well so I recorded two one hour shows. I first got a message the my processor was hot after a few minutes of recording. Just before the end of the two hours a new message that the disk drive was running too hot.
I did not check the program record software from the TV listings yet. It does list every program that I do receive.
I am still looking for a recording solution that may be inexpensive and provide HDTV.
Joe,
Can you check out media streaming devices such as Roku? They seem to be cheap and all you need is a high speed connection. I believe that you can pick up free channels with that.
I have a Roku. We have Netflix and Hulu plus as paid services on it. Popcorn flix, Crackle, and iHeart radio are services that I have added to it. Scify, as with other networks, has clips from shows but few shows which makes it very frustrating to see what you want to see.
If you have a tablet or droid device you can get the TV.com app for some CBS shows as well as some older TV shows. The USTV app will allow you to watch some networks as they are currently streaming but not allow you to watch shows on your schedule. It is also hit and miss as to what networks are on. I also miss BBC America and the History channels. VUDU is another service to check out for current shows.
Netflix is $8/month, Hulu Plus is $8/month and VUDU is $/month.
The challenge is time shifting the over the air programs that we would like to watch on our schedule. Most of these are not on the services that we have. I am researching the Raspberry Pi processor and a few dongles for the ability to record shows. Some articles suggest that with the correct dongle you can receive Satellite TV channels as well as over the air TV channels in HD and record them for play back at a later time. It runs a version of the Linux operating system to do this (Raspxmc).
I used a dongle to record two TV shows in HD last night off the air. My processor on my laptop over heated with in the first few minutes. Just before I stopped recording two hours my hard drive over heated.I will try to play them back later today so my wife can watch them.
Joe, I hear yah. The cost of everything is getting so darned prohibitive. We got the triple package of phone, cable(fiberoptic) and computer for a good price for 5 years. Hate to think what will happen when that time is up.
You remind me of our son. They do not have cable and have 2 small children. I think they are wise, but when we go visit we sure miss our news channels. REally, there isn't a whole lot of good TV anymore. I always try to find a public TV station for the kids cause we have watched some awesome shows. Sawing firewood, making apple syrup, milking cows, harvesting crops. The kids love these shows. Good luc getting all your electronics going. You are lucky to be able to do that. I am left to a small amount of my own devices, help from the kids and my trusty computer techs. Irish
We do not have any premium services on our FIOS service only basic and Internet. We have resisted cutting out cable because we love to watch live soccer when we are not at my son's practice or games. I have cut the rest of my expenses drastically so we can afford this luxury. I am considering a Roku if it will allow me to pick up games.
BTW what is a dongle?
A dongle is a device that plugs into a USB port on your computer to extend what it can do. This term does not include thumb drives.
I looked into adding programs for additional channels on my Roku today. It may be possible to add video streams like VEETLE.com There currently is a lot of video channels for the Roku box. It may also be possible to provide a channel of video from the TV/Sat dongle through your computer and your local area network into your Roku and onto your TV.
I am also looking into the Raspberry Pi computer ($35+add on) to make a digital video recorder (DVR) for about $150.00. In my research I found that TV dongles are being used by Ham radio operators to identify active channels.
I read for a bit and then sleep for a bit. Reading boring text seems to bring on slumber. I hope that works for those of us with insomnia!
Joe, You are the electronics guy on this forum so here is a question for you. On TV I saw an add for something called htt p://www.trysurfeasy.com
This little ghizmo is supposed to plug into an USB port and does a more sophisticated identity theft protection. Have you heard of this and do you think it is worth buying? I see it is 70 bucks which is cheaper than the "life lock" and other programs. I am thinking that we need to get this as one of our relatives had their identity stolen and it cost them $6000 in lawyers fees to get it straightened out. LIfe these days has just gotten too complicated. The more things we have the more vulnerable we become. It was nicer in the old days when we were old almost poor. Thanks. Irish
I will try to answer this again. An automated update shut my computer down and restarted it in the middle of my first response. This is one of the issues that I dislike about the windows environment as it can be a cause of problems for you and your computer. This is one way that your information can be captured for identity theft.
Your open browser can be another portal to identity theft. The dongle you mentioned requires a log in and password to help prevent identity theft. There are other browsers that also provide this type of protection by removing cookies and history from your computer. You can remove these manually from your computer each time you log on. There are other browsers that are not common that provide this service automatically. "Gator" programs routinely gather this information and report back to their owners your activities one the net. Google's Chrome browser and websites aggregate your information and history to customize marketing to you.
Often websites will entice your with offers that you have been looking for as "good deals". This happened to the husband of a friend as he wanted to create his own font. The website downloaded a version of Googles Chrome operating system on top of window and her computer died. She had most of her install disks and I talked her through the process of rebuilding her system. After she was done she had no internet and could not play WOW. I stopped by her house and checked her network with my computer then I down loaded the missing driver on to her memory stick. Once the driver was installed, she could play her game again.
This same type of problem with font makers has happened to an author friend on Vancouver Island several times. He now keeps one computer just to contact me when this happens to him. It must be odd to see him in the coffee shop near his home with three tablets running. He uses them for their different operating systems and security characteristics. He still gets caught from time to time.
No matter what you do or use you still have the problem of Identity theft. It has gotten so bad that some marketers will not ship until you prove that you are the account owner via snail mail.
I have the security setting fairly tight on my computer. I have multiple user partitions and administrator (me) has to grant updates via log in and password. My password is long and contains letters, numbers and special characters. I do not clean my cookies and history as often as I should. I do not surf as much as I used to. I touch my trusted sights mostly, and seldom go outside those. This has reduced may junk mail so I have less to scan before I delete it.
There are things that you can do to limit your exposure to identity theft. Some times it comes from companies that you routinely use as it did for my daughter while she was in college when a clerk miss typed her name for someone with a similar name. It took months of frustration to get it straightened out and get her name cleared. I have had similar problems develop with credit collectors putting similar names in and trying to collect from me. There are many scams out there and you as the consumer are assumed guilty until you prove yourself innocent via legal measures.
I have had to clear properties of mechanics leans when lawyers have posted the lean against all persons and properties with similar names. (quiet title) You do the best that you can and hope you stay clear of these issue.
If you really want to save money, there are many internet "free tv and movies" sites where you can watch commercial-free (with mozilla adblock-plus). No waiting through ads like Hulu has. Yes, it's "pirate TV" but balances out the high prices we pay here in the USA for cable. Good to have a decently fast internet access, though.
Nice that they can be watched whenever. Some of the most popular shows get deleted in a day or two. But many shows and movies, like documentaries, are legitimately free.
International too--many BBC and Australian shows.
Calli
(watching old episodes of Doctor Who this week...)