Cut the cord!

[FearlessF]

perhaps, since there will be a subscription to pay regardless, the big boys will have more leverage to negotiate prices.  Media delivery method isn't the silver bullet.

if and when Sling TV has enough subscribers to leverage pricing of content, they will be a player

[FearlessF]

these OTT options do get a subscriber closer to ala carte programming, but from the previous posts we are clearly not there yet.

Not even if you select multiple media delivery options, over the air, Cable, Satellite, and over the top choices such as hulu, sling, netflix, youtube

I hope we can get to not only paying only for the channels you prefer, but down to the specific game or program you prefer.

Why pay for the Rutgers/Maryland game if you're only interested in Nebraska/Wisconsin big ten games?

[bayareabadger]

This was a good guide from a few years ago. You'd have to double check some things, but it's a start.

https://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2016/9/1/12684186/ncaa-football-without-tv-cord-cutting

[TyphonInc]

or putting it in a window,

The amount of channels I now get has doubled by this simple action.

For us it was the CW and ABC that were spotty. Moving the antenna to a window cleared those 2 up and added 8 more channels we never use.

[FearlessF]

Enjoy the relatively "free" over the air locals while you can

I assume they will be going away some day.

[MarqHusker]

I love the HDTV rooftop antenna AD which appeared below this thread.  Where are the rabbit ear ADs?

[Brutus Buckeye]

I didn't have cable for a short stint. You can stream any game on shady sites, but the picture quality sucks and you'll need ad blocker, which is a free download that you should have regardless.

[Temp430]

I can't imagine the bandwidth you would need to deliver HDTV live.  Much more than the 15 Mbps I get via ADSL or 35 Mbps via cellular.  Where I live satellite HDTV is the only option and I doubt that will change anytime soon.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Enjoy the relatively "free" over the air locals while you can

I assume they will be going away some day.

Why? They currently are locals through the cable/satellite companies, but they've actually had a resurgence in "OTA" popularity due to cord-cutting.

The picture quality is much better with an antenna than EITHER cable/satellite or streaming due to the heavy compression that that TV/streaming solutions have to use. Most people don't truly understand the difference between analog and digital transmission, and remember to the old days when they got fuzzy low-quality broadcasts. But the simplest way to explain it as that with digital you basically either have perfect reception or zero reception. And perfect reception with a basically uncompressed HD signal is better than cable/satellite.

The industry isn't just "not going away", it's doubling down with ATSC 3.0, which will bring OTA 4K broadcasts. Cable/satellite are just barely coming along with 4K, again due to the bandwidth, whereas OTA doesn't have that issue. And the streaming solutions (Netflix/Amazon) have 4K content, but again it is still relatively heavily compressed due to bandwidth. That's why 4K on Netflix doesn't look as amazing as the pristine 4K content you see in the story where you bought your TV. The "demonstration" content is uncompressed.

OTA is here to stay IMHO.

[betarhoalphadelta]

I can't imagine the bandwidth you would need to deliver HDTV live.  Much more than the 15 Mbps I get via ADSL or 35 Mbps via cellular.  Where I live satellite HDTV is the only option and I doubt that will change anytime soon.

You don't need as much as you'd think. HD compressed using MPEG-4 has a max bitrate of about 9.5 Mbps IIRC. Average bitrates for most sources are much lower. Netflix recommends a minimum of 5 Mbps downstream speed for HD video. A quick web search suggests youtube compresses 1080p to ~2.5 Mbps.

As long as you're not trying to stream multiple things at once, 15 Mbps would be fine for HD. Not enough for UHD though (Netflix recommends 25 Mbps for UHD).

This will get better when HEVC (the newer compression algorithm) really takes over. And the advantage of IP streaming technologies (relative to cable/satellite) is that IP streaming is point-to-point. The cable/satellite operators need to support older set top boxes with older compression (a lot are stuck on MPEG-2), so they are forced to send the data compressed much less efficiently than is possible. With a point-to-point protocol like IP, if you're playing back content on a whiz-bang new box with HEVC, the provider streaming you the content can send it in HEVC compression while your neighbor with an older box gets the same content with MPEG-4...

But yeah, I think you have enough bandwidth for HD streaming.

Now with ADSL I don't know if you have any issues with data caps...

[Hawkinole]

Two questions:

(1) Will there be a way on here to search for threads using keyword searches?

(2) I don't have time to digest this material today, but it could have future value. Can a thread such as this be pinned?

[betarhoalphadelta]

(2) I don't have time to digest this material today, but it could have future value. Can a thread such as this be pinned?

To be honest, I would prefer this get merged into the thread that already exists in the General / Off Topic board... It might make sense to pin it there, as I'm sure there will be more people interested in this over the next few years.

[utee94]

I get closer to cutting the cord every day.  The two major things holding me back are

1) Having to navigate multiple providers/services and potentially separate hardware, to get all the things the cable box currently provides.  I know that I can manage it, but I'm not sure my wife can.  She has a hard enough time switching between cable and Bluray, bless her heart. 

2) Access to all of the sports that I want.  Which is mostly college football through Disney/Fox, but I also follow Formula 1 which is primarily on NBCSN right now.

I

[PSUinNC]

I literally only have DirecTV for one reason - I still have  .5meg up, .5meg down DSL.  If I can ever get better internet, I'm gone. 

I get closer to cutting the cord every day.  The two major things holding me back are

1) Having to navigate multiple providers/services and potentially separate hardware, to get all the things the cable box currently provides.  I know that I can manage it, but I'm not sure my wife can.  She has a hard enough time switching between cable and Bluray, bless her heart. 

2) Access to all of the sports that I want.  Which is mostly college football through Disney/Fox, but I also follow Formula 1 which is primarily on NBCSN right now.

I