[Discuss] Comcast goes all encrypted video in Cambridge

[greg at freephile.com (Greg Rundlett (freephile))]

On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 11:57 PM, Robert La Ferla <robert at laferla.net>wrote:

> Aereo should cover some of those channels.  http://www.aereo.com


The Boston channels that Aereo offers are the same channels that I pickup
free OTA from Salisbury, MA.  Luckily for me, I'm able to pick up a few
other channels too besides Boston.  I think $96/year is relatively
expensive compared to "free"  ($150 in materials cost amortized over the
lifetime of my antenna which I've had already for about two years.)


> > Any advice on cord cutting or good HDTV antennas?
>

I purchased the ClearStream 2 antenna (see link below) for $100 from Best
Buy and installed it on my roof with 50-75 feet of coax.  The antenna is
just smaller than 2'x3' and the mounting bracket allows for proper
directional positioning of the antenna.  I live in Salisbury, MA and point
the antenna at Boston (40 miles away).  I've thought of getting a second
one to point at Worcester or Portsmouth but haven't bothered since the
content is mostly duplicate and I already get some of the NH channels even
though I'm not pointing that way.  The antenna works great.  I watched the
Patriots game last night in perfect high definition.

http://antennaweb.org/ is one of several websites that can help you figure
out exactly where the signals are coming from relative to your address.

Run your 'channel auto scan' in good weather so that you don't pick up
extraneous channels.  The signal will often get _better_ in bad weather as
the signal bounces off the clouds -- meaning I can pull in channels that
normally don't show up.

All my major channels are high definition.  I just shake my head when I see
so many cable subscribers tune to the standard definition channels - either
because they forget the number of the HD variant, or because their
subscription doesn't include HD.  The channels that offer old content like
MeTV, ThisBoston are obviously not in HD.

Channel surfing is faster on my TV than with cable.  There is a slight
pause when changing channels (but these OTA signals are not encrypted so
it's just signal processing).  Ironic that digital TV offers hundreds of
channels but channel surfing is slow and painful compared the good old days
of analog.

I lookup programming schedule content on the web - especially
http://www.pbs.org/tv_schedules/ which is light years better than the
Comcrap "channel guide"

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Antennas+Direct+-+ClearStream+2V+Long-Range+HDTV+Antenna/6847298.p;jsessionid=0A754E6E8FE5311C9D87181A266BF6C5.bbolsp-app01-165?id=1218809260470&skuId=6847298