Want to stick it to Comcast

[Donut417]

My mom indicated today that she is interested in going back to OTA TV in her bed room, me and my dad agreed. We currently have 5 boxes in our house and that costs us about $28 a month. We don’t have HD service on top of that. So my mom was like I can’t condone paying X amount for a box if all I do is watch it to go to sleep. My dad said the same thing. I watch most of my stuff on my PC, on top of that all the shows I watch regularly are on OTA TV. So I present you all with 2 questions.

 

Firstly, I need to know what would be a good antenna? I will state I have tried the Moau Leaf, and it did not work well in my room at least. We leave about 1 mile from Detroit Metro Airport so I wonder if that causes interference. On top of that I discovered that some of the broadcast towers we want to get are as far as 38 miles away.

Secondly I seen a few set top boxes that record live TV. Which do you recommend? Now this is more for me and not the rest of the family. Would a PC solution be better? If so which tuner card? I would prefer a solution that can skip commercial’s if possible.

 

I know there are solutions that can’t watch live TV over the web (kodi). Although Comcast has not instituted caps in our area yet, they have done so in markets around the country. So I would like to have a solution that can give me live TV without the web. 

[Leonard]

Man i feel this will be the way of the future....i currently got rid of my cable and just got more internet speed because my family only watched netflix, YT, downloaded movies and tv series and shop online. I only just installed kodi on my PC this year, yes it can be installed on PC, mac and android and i am currently installing in on all the tablets and laptops for everyone. I can even get my local tv stations too so i don't need an antenna. 

[Donut417]

Yeah, but Caps and overages are a thing. Plus if the Assholes in D.C. have anything to do with it the FCC will be neutered. Thats why I dont want to get at least the live stuff over the internet. On top of that the way Kodi does it, I question its legality. 

[Donut417]

Bumb..... Any one have good luck with any antennas or OTA dvrs? 

[d3sl91]

Bumb..... Any one have good luck with any antennas or OTA dvrs? 

 

I built my own Yagi antenna to get reception. Worst case, you paid $10 in parts

 

http://www.wa5vjb.com/references/CheapYagi4HDTV.pdf

 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/tv/how-to/a6608/build-your-own-digital-tv-antenna/

 

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ditch-cable-diy-hdtv-antenna/

 

DVR, I am not very sure. 

[piemadd]

I built my own Yagi antenna to get reception. Worst case, you paid $10 in parts

 

http://www.wa5vjb.com/references/CheapYagi4HDTV.pdf

 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/tv/how-to/a6608/build-your-own-digital-tv-antenna/

 

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ditch-cable-diy-hdtv-antenna/

 

DVR, I am not very sure.

For a eve you could test around with old computers that have 1tb ish hdds

[Donut417]

Well I came to a decision. I seen on antenna on amazon that looks promising. This comes after I told my mom I would turn my box in and just move the modem and router to my room. WOOOOT wired connection for the win. I just wont worry about the DVR for now. 

[kvnhaas24]

After some time of encouraging, my family will no longer be paying Comcast for television service and keep only internet.  Looking around for the best alternatives for cable tv, one thing that is a must is local channels for news and some local sports.  Looking around Amazon, I read that the Mohu Leaf was very highly recommended.  It is suprising to hear that you didn't have much success using that antenna even when your so close to downtown Detroit.  I plan on building a nice HTPC for the living room with perhaps a tv tuner to record shows onto.  As of February 2016, Comcast doesn't have data caps in my area (knock on wood) so we will be using Netflix, SlingTV, NHL.tv, and perhaps Hulu+ for our replacement for cable.  Here's to more people cutting the cord with cable.

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, kvnhaas24 said:

After some time of encouraging, my family will no longer be paying Comcast for television service and keep only internet.  Looking around for the best alternatives for cable tv, one thing that is a must is local channels for news and some local sports.  Looking around Amazon, I read that the Mohu Leaf was very highly recommended.  It is suprising to hear that you didn't have much success using that antenna even when your so close to downtown Detroit.  I plan on building a nice HTPC for the living room with perhaps a tv tuner to record shows onto.  As of February 2016, Comcast doesn't have data caps in my area (knock on wood) so we will be using Netflix, SlingTV, NHL.tv, and perhaps Hulu+ for our replacement for cable.  Here's to more people cutting the cord with cable.

Issue for me is, the neighbors have big evergreens. I get about 35 channels now, but it also depends on the time of day. At night I get less. I need a big piece of coax if I want to move my antenna any more. Keep in mind the antenna will work better in flat areas with out tall building. Romulus where I live has fing Detroit metro airport. So who knows if the radar and stuff causes issues for reception. The big thing is too, an out door antenna would work better. 

 

The biggest issue however is the DVR options for the PC kinda suck. Most of the turners are shit. Silcon Dust seems to have to good ones. But the software isnt there. I think the best is myth TV which runs on linux. Thats all fine and dandy if I could run a dedicated machine, but I cant. I might just buy an amazon fire stick and put kodi on it. I truthfully only watch one channel on TV, so no real big deal to get a DVR. 

[kvnhaas24]

On 2/7/2016 at 1:26 AM, Donut417 said:

The biggest issue however is the DVR options for the PC kinda suck. Most of the turners are shit. Silcon Dust seems to have to good ones. But the software isnt there. I think the best is myth TV which runs on linux. Thats all fine and dandy if I could run a dedicated machine, but I cant. I might just buy an amazon fire stick and put kodi on it. I truthfully only watch one channel on TV, so no real big deal to get a DVR. 

Look at the products offered by Hauppauge.  They have several kinds of tv tuners that work on PC as well as Xbox One.  Personally, I've never tried any of their tuners so I can't really say how good they are.  However, for about 6 years have been using their HD PVR capturing video from our cable box without really any big issues.  There software can be a bit clunky but does the job.