Cord Cutting Hardware
For serious cord cutters, utilizing the HD over the air (OTA) broadcasts is a must. Where I live we receive 84!!! channels free, over the air. Most of these video feeds are HD and many are Dolby 5.1 and completely uncompressed...the signal quality is 1080i and is noticeably better than a cable channel quality.
Being new to DVR'ing content I really liked the YouTubeTV DVR feature. That being said I wanted to replicate this with the free over the air signal to automatically record and collate shows my family would be interested in.
The second requirement for this would be to replicate the streaming service ability of watching my DVR'd content on any device even outside the home. The solution I came up with was:
Quality OTA (over the air) digital antenna mounted inside my attic running to various TVs in my house via Coax. I had cut the Comcast incoming cable (literally) and terminated it to the antenna. Also used a signal booster and powered splitter to feed my various house room coax terminals. Cost: About $100
Nvidia Shield Media Center - The NVIDIA Shield is an android based console (like PS4 or Xbox) that has the ability to receive a TV OTA signal, produce a guide and allow you to set up recordings of a show you like (while you're asleep, at work, etc). It can act as a server to feed out the shows you recorded to your various devices connected by the internet. Also you can stream all the services (Netflix, PRIME, YouTube, etc) Note there are apps that supposedly let you strip commercials from recorded content. Cost: About $200 https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/shield/
PLEX Media software - PLEX software can be installed on your NVidia Shield and comes in both free and paid varieties. This software basically is your own streaming service that functions similar to what you're used to through YouTubeTV etc. In addition to offering a guide that shows all the OTA shows you can incorporate into the guide other content like Pluto or other streaming services I believe such as Philo, etc. Apps are available for phones, laptops, Xbox, etc. Cost: Free to $5/mth $40/yr
$120/lifetime http://www.plex.tv
TV Tuner - There are several different tuners out there that are compatible with your PLEX software. My system will use the Hauppauge USB tuner Basically the coax cord plugs in to one end and the other end has a USB connector that plugs into your NVidia Shield. The tuner has 2 tuners built in so you can record 2 channels simultaneous or watch 1 channel and record the other. Tablo has an external quad tuner that connects to a router for recording up to 4 channels. Cost: $70 https://hauppauge.com/pages/webstore2/webstore_dualhd.html or https://www.tablotv.com/products/tablo-quad-ota-dvr/
8TB External Media Storage Device - The higher the video the more storage it takes up but costs have come down dramatically over the last few years. My system will utilize an 8 or 10 Terabyte external USB storage device where all recordings will reside. Seagate and Western Digital have models that have been tested for compatibility by NVidia. Basically you tell your NVidia Shield in options where to storage recordings. The media you store here you can utilize Plex on NVidia to watch or on Plex apps on your other devices to watch...anywhere. Cost: $200
Total project cost to set up your own streaming service of over the air content is around $500 to $600 dollars give or take a couple hundred.
Notes:
1) The over the air broadcast is currently at the ATSC 1.0 standard. It will be going up to ATSC 3.0 by year end with many metro Detroit stations upgrading (will allow 4K over the air!)
2) NVida Shield is also a gaming console for android based devices and offers some unique streaming game options
3) Everything laid out is 100% legal
4) There are other home media server options but the solution I researched and chose seems to be the most turnkey and user friendly with a low learning curve
Various video links if you want to learn more:
New ATSC 3.0 features (OTA HD signals) explained
NVIDIA Shield overview
Overview of PLEX software recording TV shows
Want to find out what sort of content is available where you live through an over the air antenna?
#1 - In the middle drop down box at the top of the page single click it and click "Create a New Channel Lineup"
#2 - Choose the first option "Broadcast" (antennas)
#3 - Enter your zip code and hit save
You should see a show schedule list populated...on the left you will see the channels sorted from low to high showing in a digital format (2.1, 4.2, 18.3 etc) with the times and shows airing at their respective times.
Want to read up on HD Antennas in general?
I never trust anything that's 100% legal.
If you ain't cheatin' you ain't tryin'!
If it ain't worth cheating for, it ain't worth havin'
Username definitely checks out.
I checked the channel lineup and 90 percent of those channels i'd never use/never heard of. Is this normal?
Also, does this allow me to get all my sports channels like NBC Sports, Fox Sports, ESPN, etc? Those channels are the only reason why I'm still forced to pay for services. I did not see them in my channel lineup.
OTA is local broadcast channels only...if your local CBS, ABC etc station broadcasts a particular sports event then you'll see it obviously. Pay TV sports channels like ESPN, Fox Sports, etc require a subscription service.
Aww heck.
Having just cut the cord myself, I can suggest an alternative. Spend $40-50 and get a Firestick (with or without the 4K option). No OTA or DVR, but $25/mo gets Netflix and the Disney/Hulu/ESPN bundle. I don’t include Prime in the pricing since we would have it without the video content. I have all the watchable TV I want and the Alexa interface is very useful. Saves me over $100/mo.
But you're not getting any live programming in that scenario (aside from ESPN), correct? Obviously having Netflix/Disney/Prime/Hulu (not live Hulu at that price, I'm assuming) gives you access to their digital libraries, but how are you going to watch a game on ABC or BTN?
I'm probably missing something here.
Even the ESPN is not truly ESPN. That bundle gives ESPN+ so you can get those often forgotten football conferences or a lot of soccer or other niche sports. It doesn't give you the actual world wide leader. You'll still have to get a YTTV or Hulu Live or something else to get the main ESPN.
Your observations are all correct, no real live sports. I despise what all news outlets have become (echo chambers with agendas), and traditional network programming has no appeal to me. My plan is to purchase seasonal streaming packages for college sports. God knows, I’ll still be saving a bundle.
Want OTA and DVR, buy Sling ORANGE or BLUE service (or both); buy the little SLING AirTV box which give you an on-screen interface showing both OTA and streaming channels, a search option, and 10 free hours of streaming DVR; buy your own USB drive (~$50) and you can record 200+ hours of OTA. All searchable within a combined on-screen interface like you get with cable. OTA & OTA DVR are a onetime purchase. Each SLING package is $30, buy both for $45/month.
Pretty happy with it, going on for 18+ months now, saving $100 a month.
These work well if the cord wires aren't very large gauge.
I know this is more simple, and still requires a monthly subscription to something, but I've really enjoyed my Firesticks with YouTubeTV. It's nice owning your own stuff and not renting a bunch of equipment from Comcast. I also like all the streaming services on one device.
I'm disappointed that all the streaming channels are raising fees. What I thought was a good idea 7 to 8 years ago seems to be now, why even bother at this point. Might as well go back to cable. Yes, the good HD antennas work great. I have one you can place in your attic or outdoors, I placed my on the top of my patio pergola and point it to the west, where most of my local network antennas are located, west of town. I get 57 channels, most show old TV shows.
Yep, with YTTV raising its prices, it basically puts me back to what I was paying before. Outside of CFB I watch very little broadcast TV. I watch more content on the regular (free) YouTube site than the paid service. Within a week I will cancel the service.
Of course streaming packages are going up in cost, but there’s enough of them that they have to compete. That isn’t the case with my cable provider, who have raised there rates 30% over the last 3 years, reduced content, and costs a full order of magnitude more than the most expensive streaming service I have.
These are the type of OT diary posts I enjoy the most. Thanks for laying this out in layman's terms.
Can we go for this approach using our existing Xbox One and/or PS4? I just got my man cave shed set up but there is no coaxial out here. I was thinking I could run an Antenna with a TV tuner with my Xbox and run it with the Microsoft OneGuide?
Any advice is appreciated!
You nailed it. Ordered the Hauppauge, connected to the Xbox, and I get 50+ HD channels out in my shed thru the Xbox.
If/When sports return...
I had all this before. Had a 1TB drive hooked up to a OTA and Roku. Was nice for a while! Anyway one day the 1TB got stuck, crashed and that was it.
I would NOW just go with a Fire Stick, and Sling, and FitzyTV app ($5 a month) and Locast with Cloud DVR. Drive does not get stuck and crash!
Due to lack of spousal technological depth and extreme resistance to change from same, I had to take a middle path. I was paying an embarrassing amount to Cox for the full bundle, including at least 250 channels that were never watched (not only that there was a HD version that you had to pay for, and the wife would watch it in non-HD, cuz "I really can't tell the difference" (just shoot me now) However it did give me screaming speed on the internet. So I dropped the cable TV section(removing 2 boxes from my house, and cutting my bill by $170/month, and then streaming the live version of Hulu at $55 mponth. Gets me all the local channels (w/ the all important DVR capability to record Jeopardy at 430PM when we are not home) and most importnantly for those of us out west BTN. Even has a guid eto minimize the impact to the change averse. While not completely off the cord, at least a lot cheaper
I tried something similar when we first moved into this house. At that point in time, the only TV option was Spectrum, pretty exorbitantly priced.
So, I built a PC with a tuner card and lots of disk space, and got a cheap (~$35) antenna, which I placed in a window (didn't want to deal with permanently mounting one). I connected the antenna to the TV, used Windows Media Center as my DVR software, and then used Plex to make it available for streaming throughout the house to a few Roku boxes we bought and attached to the TV.
We also had access to the ESPN online/Watch ESPN app (not ESPN+) through work ... One of the benefits of working for the company that owns ESPN. And, when we signed up for internet service, Spectrum said they could give us a very limited cable package (an assorted mix of about 60 channels ... for example, Cooking Channel but not Food Network) for $10/month since we had internet.
Long story short, it didn't work as well as I hoped. The recording worked most of the time, but playback was not always great - a little bit of lag here and there, occasional digital artifacts, and once in a while the recording would just completely mess up - for example by recording the "Audio Descriptions" track, rather than the normal audio.
Once AT&T laid fiber in our area, we switched to UVerse, with a full channel package and a real DVR.
That's interesting feedback, thanks.
The digital artifacts could be a result of the antenna...raw OTA signals sometimes get artifacts due to reception if the broadcast signal to your home is weak...and weakness can be affected by weather conditions.
Not sure how long ago you tried this but PLEX and TV tuner technology has evolved a bit over the last 12-24 months and is pretty solid now. The other issue with streaming is the quality of the stream vs the bandwidth vs the storage speed. If the recording is being streamed in beautiful 1080p or 4k then it will require a good bandwidth to not be choppy (up to date speedy router and/or using cat5 cabling vs wireless, are the recordings on a slow flash drive or on a speedy SSD? etc etc
Glad you found a solution that works for you!
I watch via a window antenna that gets like 10 channels. Most of it is shit, but still get FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC. Good enough for me, as I quit the cable wars years ago... BUT still have to pay the cable company for the interwebs, so, are you ever really free?
In the not too distant future the internet will be everywhere like air, low cost and/or free. The first to suffer will be the cellular providers because wi-fi phones or something akin will take over. After that the high speed internet providers will join them on the elevator down.
Based on technologies being deployed right now my guess is we can see a shakeup within 2-4 years.
You must sell wireless gear....
I plug my computer into the tv and use various streaming sites and I've never missed a thing I've wanted to see, including sports, and I've not spent a penny. I did have to learn about adblockers and vpns, but it's pretty easy.
My key hurdle for cord cutting is a guided DVR service, which is essential for me. Nvidia Shield seems like a game breaker. What has your experience been like?
Just wanted to say fuck AT&T with something rough and sandpapery.
October 19th, 2020 at 4:18 PM ^
WOAH I can't believe I just now stumbled upon this, LOVE IT
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