Monday, March 12, 2012

The Antenna Blowing Down Probably Was The Best Thing That Happened to My TV Viewing

 This photo shows the antenna as it looked summer of 2010.  I was only able to get two channels(5 AND 13) that totaled to 5 because channel 5 had two, CW and ABC and channel 13 had 3 PBS.  Those were my choices ever since the switch to digital in 2009.  First I was able to get channel 13 and a couple of months later channel 5 was there.
Last June the antenna blew down one morning.  I didn't think to get a picture of it, was too busy taking it apart so it wouldn't cause damage to the house like breaking the window.

As we were planning living here permanently we had the landline and intratubes hooked up already.  At that time we still had cable in Hot-Lanta so I was able to watch TV shows online thru the cable website and we had Netflix.  I also had checked out Hulu(Hulu has shows from ABC, NBC, and Fox, but not CBS.  I get CBS shows from their website.) when I heard about it about a year before.  So I had many more options after the antenna blew down than I did with the antenna.  The only thing I missed was some of the live stuff like NFL football and NASCAR.( Altho, with only those channels available, I wouldn't have been able to watch NFL football or NASCAR  anyway, other than a couple races later in the year on ABC.)   Then last Fall heard about a site that does sports and was able to watch some football and NBC would live-stream their Sunday Night Football, including the Super Bowl.

Also missed watching the local news on TV.  Then again, I haven't been able to get local news since the switch to digital.  The station I used to watch for news hasn't come in since the switch and the one that I was able to get had shitty local news.

Then there was this on iGoogle.  When I clicked on it I was able to find many shows that were being streamed by people and put on the intratubes.  Some of them would have chat sessions along side of the show that was streaming and occasionally someone would put up a URL for another link for watching that type of show.  There's something called JustinTV that has a half dozen categories with dozens and dozens of choices.  Some involve someone using their web camera or iPhone to broadcast, but a lot are from various networks.

The biggest trouble with using these sites to watch NASCAR is that they would get shut down by the network and I would have to find another link.  Usually there is another link readily available, but some times I have to wait awhile before I can find another one.  Lately I've found an European site(last Fall I found one for football[ESPN America] that was from Europe) to watch NASCAR and it seemed better than the ones I've used before.  Yesterday I only had to change links a couple of times to watch the race.

5 comments:

  1. You can't get a Dish or UVERSE?
    No cable?


    Strange.


    I can't remember tv in the UP back in 77. I know we had it.


    Ron

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  2. I've had Dish and still have the equipment, but don't feel like paying for all those channels that I don't watch. Rather spend the money on the intratubes, which provides me with a lot more entertainment than just watching the boob tube.(Maybe if there were more nice big boobs I'd change my mind!!)

    We live too far out from town to get cable.

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  3. I just go to the Eagles to watch the races I want to see.

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  4. I'd never be able to figure out all that shit..ha

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  5. We gave up satellite for the same reason, paying for way too much that we didn't watch. We now have a rabbit ear antenna and pick up 15 channels. NASCAR and NFL are on one of the channels...can't remember which one...NBC? Granted, two of the fifteen are Spanish Language and four are BeJesus, but still. Then we added a one time charge of 50 bucks for a Netgear streaming box which gives us Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and a bunch of other stuff. Fuck a cable and satellite.

    Not sure how you can get live sports without the right broadcast station, though.

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