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.

Internut TV Update

Had several comments on my last post.  Here I'll answer them.  It wasn't so much of a powerful wind that blew down the antenna, but the combined effects of six months or more of high winds.  According to those that were here during the time I was gone, they had a lot of windy days, more than normal.  With the mast swaying back and forth, it was a case of metal fatigue that broke the pipe at one of the threads, that being the weakest part of the pipe.

Squatlo commented on the good old days pre-remote.  I guess I'm back to that as there is no remote for the confuser and when a program ends, I have to get up and go to the confuser to chose something else to watch.  Altho, my HDMI cable to connect the confuser to the TV is long(12ft) enough that I could have the confuser close enough to reach from my chair.  I have a wireless router so can use the confuser anywhere in the house.

This shows the setup for the TV, confuser and DVD player(under the confuser).  Also shows that there is still construction going on , it never ends!!

As for having the internut in the boondocks, I think it's great.  I remember 10-15yrs ago when all we had was dial-up and stuff would take forever to load.  (Turned watching porn into a chore!!)

A New Way of Looking at TV for Me

The picture below shows the setup I had for a TV antenna complete with a rotor to turn it to tune to the two TV channels I could get over the air.  With the new digital system there were actually 5 channels.  One had a CW channel and an ABC channel, the other had 3 PBS channels, the local one, a HD one and what was probably the West Coast feed as it seemed to be 3 hours behind the HD one.

TV antenna as it looked last year and last month when we got here.

The picture below shows what is left of my antenna setup after the wind blew the antenna down a few days after we arrived here.  I've been kicking myself for not taking a picture of the antenna when it was hanging from the brace and hung up in a tree.  It happened first thing in the morning before I had even had time to have a cup of coffee, so that may explain my lack of foresight!!

What's left of the mast and brace for the TV antenna after the wind blew it down and I took down the parts that came down. 

After the antenna came down we were reduced to watching DVDs.  Then we got internut DSL service here in the boondocks UP on the Tundra.  Now we have more options for TV viewing than we have ever had and that includes when we had a satellite dish.

Because we still have Comcast cable in Hot-Lanta, we can watch the shows we could watch on cable (even tho we are 1200 miles away, we can watch online) in Hot-Lanta, just a day or so later.  We have a NetFlix account and and can watch most of the TV shows or movies  they have.  We can only get one DVD from NetFlix at a time, but can watch as many as we want over the intratubes.

Over the summer I will be doing research on what all is available to watch via the intratubes.