Time to cut the cord?

[happnatious1]

I have used SageTV for for ages and it works well with HDHomeruns and OTA antenna. I find that I get most of my programming this way. All my Blu-ray and dvd tips also play through the SageTV client boxes. Anything else gets streamed through roku or fire tv.

SageTV is open source now and runs in windows and Linux.

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Thanks for that one thought they were gone. Added to the list!

[sirmeili]

not to hijack the thread, but I got good news. My little $50 antenna test worked We've got 50 channels (some duplicates and a lot of crap, but got the majors).

I've ordered an HDHomeRun Connect Quatro and it will be here Thursday (I couldn't justify the 2 hour round trip to get it this close to christmas). It took a lot of fidding to get it to work through a splitter though. ultimately I had to go from the antenna to their booster then into the splitter. So far 2 TVs are running off it and I'm about to add the other 2. Then I'll add a 5th to HDHomeRun so that PLEX can have 4 feeds to choose from (hopefully).

[TeleFragger]

not to hijack the thread, but I got good news. My little $50 antenna test worked We've got 50 channels (some duplicates and a lot of crap, but got the majors).

I've ordered an HDHomeRun Connect Quatro and it will be here Thursday

Im def looking forward to your experience with the quadro..its on my short list to get. Mid jan after xmas...

Also you mentioned a booster..what booster?

What antenna you using?

[sirmeili]

Im def looking forward to your experience with the quadro..its on my short list to get. Mid jan after xmas...

Also you mentioned a booster..what booster?

What antenna you using?

The antenna came with a small amplifier. In my testing it actually hurt reception until I tried to use my splitter. It runs inline and has a USB plug. I tried my amplified splitter instead but it didn't work so well.

This is the antenna I got. I'm thinking of getting another and pointing it in the opposite direction and using a combiner. That or trying Pete's home made one (I'll probably try that first anyways).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B077H...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


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[Pete]

I combined the old VHF/UHF with amp antenna with the box in the attic facing a different direction and it works well this way. First few years in the subdivision no outdoor antennas were allowed.

The antenna mentioned above is what the neighbor put on his roof and it worked well for him.

[ckellyusa]

I've been evaluating alternatives as well, but don't see a clear winner either.

Currently:
Frontier (wish I had Verizon back!) FiOS internet and TV.
TV is connected to a HDHomeRun Prime 6 tuner which feeds nVidia shields connected to each TV. I also have a Plex server for downloaded content and other media, but normally we watch Live TV through the Shield. (Shields for streaming Netflix and Amazon Prime too.) I have one WMC PC still up and running, but as others have stated, there are problems with the guide, and the computer itself is having problems. As Plex's software improves, I'm hoping that will replace WMC.

As for the long term though, every time I try and price out dropping the FiOS TV for streaming, it ends up being more expensive because of the channels I want.

Hard to find F1, WSBK, MotoGP, IMSA, etc. in a package that doesn't require all of the channels. :/

[happnatious1]

So I bought a HDhomerun duo and a cheap antenna and threw it in my attic then pointed it in the general direction of Washington DC and was very surprised to have it find 48 channels. Some from Baltimore, maybe another antenna and another hdhomerun would help add channels. I struggled like crazy to get a mythTv back-end running as a virtual machine and talking to a bunch of Kodi and Openelec devices but I thing I'm there. Apparently MthTV cant handle IPV6 addressing.

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback! I'm one step closer to cutting the cord!

[sirmeili]

So I finally got the hdhomerun quatro in and well.... It seems the cheap antenna isn't working out quite as well as I hoped. It works on the TV's fine during the day but many time Plex (likely the hdhomerun) won't pick up a channel. I have a powered splitter I may try next since I have a lot of devices connected to it (4 TV's and the quatro).

It also seems that channels come in better during the day. At night I can go from 50ish channels to 25-30 on the quatro.

I'm not giving up though. I may get another antenna and a combiner (or make Pete's antenna) and actually point them at the cities the channels are coming from instead of splitting the difference.

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[happnatious1]

I finally had to abandon mythtv. There were so many bugs on Linux. The server setup would crash on exit. The front end crashes on on my Linux mint 18.3. network sharing was a nightmare.

I bought the lifetime plex deal at $119 us. Plex has been very difficult to setup as well. I don't see any reason to give it my movie library as all my Kodi front ends already have this. I just want to replace my old windows 7 media center computer which has live TV and recorded TV with something else. The plex tv guide still hasn't finished loading. It restarts with every interruption. I've had it running for hours and still not finished. (I have a hdhomerunprime and an hdhomerunconnectduo)

I'm still on the fence with Plex. I don't like the fact that I can open a web page to plex.tv and it apparently has complete access to my entire computer network. Network shares and all.

[racerfern]

It works on the TV's fine during the day

IIRC, TV and radio stations don't transmit with nearly as much power at night as during the day because there are a lot more noise signals during the day. Could it be at the frequencies used today there just isn't that much interference but the power still gets turned down at night?

[TeleFragger]

just called Comcast. I am not in a contract anymore but still have a promo until june 2018. I'm going to talk to the wife and get the hd homerun quatro card and get rid of Comcast... hopefully by this weekend.

[ServiceXp]

Internet service?

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[TeleFragger]

Internet service?

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will go from 200mb blast service down to 25mb service for $50/m...
so my current promo is $129.99 and funny thing is it said sports pack and something else was included but it seems I have been paying for both of them for the last 1.5yrs!!!!!

so promo $129.99.. .final bill is $169.99!!!!!!!!!!!!

if I add up all the items on my bill, it is still $40 higher than all the items added up.. WTH!!!!!

so $50/m internet + $5/m (well its $60/yr or $6/m so will pay in full) for Hallmark for the wife...

just ordered the HD Homerun Quatro.. overstock.com for $135.99 plus free shipping!!!

[BeenHeavyinFlorida]

[Pete]

Here due to WAF keep the DirecTV stuff going with a sub from the beginning of DTV concurrent to an Internet only CC account and use OTA HD TV here.

Both DTV and CC are grandfathered accounts from the beginning. Out of contract many many years ago. I did hate to give up my owned DTivos from years ago.

The new LCD TV connects to a KODI box, ROKU (well built in), Direct TV. Blue Ray player was never connected to Ethernet and rarely use it today. So television here is divided to WAF TV (via DTV for cooking channels) and OTA (sort of used) and mostly KODI for everything else. I do utilize HD Homerun tuners plus have connected OTA to the LCD TVs and in house TV rebroadcast on one channel lately. Personally though I do not watch live TV for entertainment. Just movies here. MythTV is still running here and works fine.

Just recently set up a new homeowner (friend of a friend). Only configured CC internet and OTA and Roku. They are happy campers using Netflix and Amazon Prime and OTA for the basics. Amplified antenna is working fine for HD OTA. Wired to the television Ethernet is working fine for Roku. The difficult piece was wiring Ethernet to a basement which one of two basement family room configured in the house. IE: there is a basement then a sub basement and both are configured as living space. Then two more floors (split level) above these areas. Moved the CC modem (and WAP) to the sub basement and have suggested installation of a WAP POE connected on the main living space of the home.