I need to make my TV through the PC if I can?!?

[markjs]

Here's the deal; we have been DirecTV customers for years but never had a lot of money and with the economic downturn our property tax and rent (mobile home park where we own but rent the land) have all gone up, but our income has remained unchanged. What's worse is that we live in a great mobile home park in that it is wooded and the lots are spacious and private but the double edged sword there is that the trees and weather have begun to really hurt our DirecTV service and will eventually force us to quit.

Cable here is so bad that while it is an option, the offerings are so poor compared to DirecTV the price seems steep.

So I have been using internet TV a while now with the periodic technical difficulties with DirecTV, and I have a TV Tuner card and high def connection with the TV. It isn't too bad, we have to wait longer but many of our favorite shows we can still see online. The only thing we really want is local broadcast TV. Here's where the equation becomes difficult; we live a good 50 miles from Seattle, with hills and water and bad weather between. I have tried one of those amplified set top antennas in the past and it was woefully inadequate. We really only got one or two channels badly and the only one we got good was Canadian. We insist on the Seattle stations for news and my NFL and MLB habit. Also to factor in is that this whole concept is very new to us and I know so little about the hardware needed and what is possible and what is not; also now with digital broadcast TV I don't know what difference that will make.

So ANYTHING anyone could contribute to my knowledge would be GREATLY appreciated. It sure would be nice to be rid of that damn $80+ monthly for DirecTV which is quite unreliable anyway at this point. While it would be a big adjustment we are willing to make sacrifices and also willing to pay some for a quality internet option. I will say I do know about FiOS, but it is still unavailable to us. We do currently have 10 megabit cable that averages at least 4 during peak hours and have 1.5 megabit DSL available, but I can't for the life of me see why we'd want to switch there. So please, share your knowledge and experience here if you kindly would?

 

[Modelworks]

I did the same thing. I couldn't justify paying $80+ a month for tv. I use an antenna and some online sites for tv and can't say I have missed having satellite tv.

The first thing to do is go to antennaweb.org
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/Address.aspx

Put in your information and it will show you where the stations are relative to you and how strong the signal may be.

It looks like most of the stations for seattle are 30-40 miles from you . That is not going to come in with a indoor antenna without the signal fading in and out so you are going to have to put an antenna outside. One easy way to do this is to disconnect the satellite cable on the dish and receiver and use that for the connection to a new antenna to keep from having to run new cable. Just disconnect it from any switches outside and anything inside so it is a bare cable.

I have about the same distance to channels as you do with lots of stuff in between and this is what I use:
http://www.amazon.com/Antennas-Direc.../dp/B000EHYG9K
http://www.amazon.com/Winegard-AP-87...5401700&sr=1-1

The amplifier goes on the pole with the antenna and then the cable to the tv connects to it. That will amplify the signal when it is strongest and help prevent loss on the way to the tv.

The only other thing you need is a mast mount of some type. That will vary with your situation. Try to get it up at least higher than the roof of your home. It doesn't have to be to work, mine is only 8ft off the ground due to space issues, but higher is better.

It cost me about one months satellite payment to set this up, but at least it isn't a monthly thing

For other content sign up for netflix - online streaming is great and use Hulu for some of the shows.

 

[simonizor]

For other content sign up for netflix - online streaming is great and use Hulu for some of the shows.

This. I still have cable TV because it's bundled with my internet and the internet would actually cost more if I canceled it, but I've just got the very basic package now. I used to have the basic HD package that was supposed to only come with channels like HD Theater, etc, it was $10 for the channels and $10, so an extra $20 a month which seemed like a good deal. The problem was that you only get maybe 7 HD channels in that package. I only kept it because Charter made a mistake which made it so that anyone who had the basic HD package also got the extended HD package for no extra money. As soon as they realized the mistake, they sent out a letter that said it would be ending soon, so I canceled the whole HD package when it ended because it wasn't worth it.

This is where netflix came in. For $17 a month, I get two blu rays and unlimited access to streaming movies/TV. There's a good selection of streaming videos (there's a better selection of TV shows than movies, but they are adding more A list movies all the time). There's a pretty good selection of HD videos, too. The majority of the HD videos are TV shows, but there's a good amount of movies, also. They pretty much have anything that you could want on DVD and Blu Ray. I use the streaming video service pretty much every day to watch a TV show or a movie.

 

[Plugers]

also look into FTA satellite.
I got a <$40 card off dealextreme.com (vision plus?) and you can pick up a old primestar dish or the 31" (round) international dish for free to get it out of peoples yard. the stock primestar LNB will work, but the linear LNB on the Int. dish has a built in switch. If you get a $99 motor you can get lots of free channels.

You can put all your tuners in a MythTV backend server to handle all the channel changes and PVR functions, and it's free software too.

 

[kalrith]

I agree with most of what Modelworks says. However, there are two VHF channels (PBS and CW) in Seattle. If you want to pick up those, then you might need an additional VHF antenna or an antenna like the CM4228HD that picks up VHF channels pretty well. I use the older version (CM4228), and it picks up my local VHF channel 10 really well.

You might also be able to skip the amplifier, and you can always add one later (I recommend the CM7777). The most important thing is antenna height, especially at your distance with so many obstacles between you and the towers. I recommend mounting it on the roof with a tripod and mast. That will give you the best chance at a good signal. An amplifier can't amplify a poor signal (and isn't necessary for a strong one), so the placement of the antenna and the antenna choice are essential to receiving a good signal.

I'd also recommend reading up on your local avsforum thread. When I was looking into going OTA, I got boatloads of info from my local avsforum thread. There were even a couple of guys who worked in the industry and provided some inside information for us. If you go on there and post your antennaweb.org (or tvfool.com) info, then they'll be able to help you out. They'll know the strength of your antenna signals and lots of helpful stuff like that.

I personally spent about $500 on an HTPC and OTA antenna. I was paying $80/month for DirecTV, so it took about 6 months to recoup the upfront costs. It's been about 12 months since I canceled DirecTV, so I've already save $500 even though I spent so much getting everything set up. That's the way I'd recommend looking at the big upfront expense.

With OTA and internet content, I've been very pleased with all the shows that we can watch. As already mentioned, if it's not enough, just supplement with Netflix for a small portion of what you used to spend on DirecTV.

 

[drwho01]

you need a video source a tunner ati or hapauge usb or internal then you need software for time shifting there are plenty out there both free and at cost do a google search for video capture

 

[gman4now]

I agree with the others and have used antennaweb myself to bring in the local channels at my house in Norfolk VA where a large oak tree blocked the DirecTV signal for the locals. In that case, I put the antenna in my attic and it worked great.

I live in Key West now and the closest stations worth watching are over 120 miles away. So, I'm stuck with cable, sat or Internet.

I still have cable until the 12 month intro offer expires, but I plan to go entirely off the Internet then. I've been streaming Netflix Starz play through my PS3 and watching Hulu.com and Fancast.com from my laptop (both through HDMI). I also bookmarked the content from the major networks, because they don't all make the content available through Hulu or Fancast (Castle on ABC is a good example).

I will probably get my sports fix from the local (uh, Miami) station feeds, but I can also get it from ESPN. News comes from the local radio or a Internet feed from one of the cable providers (CNN or Fox).

I don't watch a lot of TV and I've found that I can get nearly all of it without the huge bill. Some might not consider $80/month a big deal, but when you only have it for a few shows, it seems expensive. Plus, I can watch everything when I want without adding even more for a DVR.

Take a look at Hulu and try subscribing to a few of your favorite shows. Also, take a look at the types of devices Netflix can stream to and you might find you already have one (quite a few Blu-ray players will stream Netflix). If you still can't find a show you want to watch, try searching the content providors web site and you might be surprised to see they offer the most recent episodes of your favorite shows.

I have a decent Internet connection that gives me about 4MB download fairly consistently. I have this going through a Linksys wireless router and have configured a second Linksys as a wireless client to give me 4 Internet ports for my TV. I use one for my Samsung Blu-Ray player, one for my PS3 and I have two spares. I use the wireless signal for my laptop when I'm watching Hulu and have a 25' HDMI cable running from my 65" Toshiba DLP to my recliner so the laptop is close by if I want to change channels.

All that said, some of the content from Hulu has compression artifacts when shown on the 65" TV, but overall, I'm satisfied.

Good luck.