Anyone replacing satellite tv with AppleTV

[Cheese]

My wife heard from a friend that many are replacing their Satellite TV with an Apple TV unit. They simply stream the local channels, news, sports, movies, etc., from their mac. IS this something that is being done successfully? Wouldn't everyone have this box in their house if they could spend $99 to eliminate an $80 monthly bill. I don't even know if this is a viable option. Just wondering...

 

[bergnj]

My GF and I have DirecTV and ATV. We have been slowly stopping the recorded DirecTV shows and watching more and more from Netflix streaming and iTunes rentals. The idea is to watch less crap and get through more movies.

This week she gave me the go ahead to cancel DirecTV. It is going to be a huge cancellation fee, but it will pay for itself in 6 months.

If you need live sports and daily shows, then this probably won't work well for you.

 

[87vert]

I canceled my DirecTV and simply use an over the air antenna for locals then the apple TV's for the rest.

 

[Shanewilliams]

The poster above me is dead on tight! I eliminated my dish network a few months back by buying the atv. For my household it was an easy decision. We watch a good deal of childrens tv(spongebob, Dora, etc..) and shows on A&E(intervention, ax men, pawn stars) other then that we usually watch movies. I am able to catch my local channel(news) through my antenna. As the previous poster mentioned if you're a sports watcher this might not be for you. Unless of course you have a xbox 360 and can use it for espn. So, it's pretty much going to come down to a family decision. If you can live with a fairly decent selection of movies and previous seasons of your favorite tv show, then the atv and netflix route will save you a great deal in the long run. If you still need your MTV, lifetime and various other channels then I'd keep the satelite on a little while longer until we see what direction apple is taking the atv!

 

[Icaras]

This is a great idea as I have direcTV like most of you here.

But I do need to ask: where would you go to stream local channels and is it in HD?

 

[aristobrat]

This is a great idea as I have direcTV like most of you here.

But I do need to ask: where would you go to stream local channels and is it in HD?

When I ordered HD locals for my DirecTV, I expected them to come and install a new satellite dish, but instead they came with a new ANTENNA for my roof. Turns out back then, I lived in a market where they didn't offer HD locals via satellite.

So they put a regular TV antenna (small) on my roof and aimed it, and I got all of the HD locals in PERFECT quality. Locally, not from their satellite.

Ended up dropping their service once I figured out that I didn't need them to get my locals in HD.

 

[s15119]

I cancelled my cable about a week after getting my ATV2.

 

[Icaras]

When I ordered HD locals for my DirecTV, I expected them to come and install a new satellite dish, but instead they came with a new ANTENNA for my roof. Turns out back then, I lived in a market where they didn't offer HD locals via satellite.

So they put a regular TV antenna (small) on my roof and aimed it, and I got all of the HD locals in PERFECT quality. Locally, not from their satellite.

Ended up dropping their service once I figured out that I didn't need them to get my locals in HD.

Sounds good! However, I'm still curious to the OP's observations of other people streaming local channels from their Macs.

How does one go about doing this?

 

[87vert]

I use a small antenna I picked up from Target for $10 that sits in the window near the TV

Checkout http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

You can put in your address and it will tell you what channels you can get and what type of antenna you need.

When I first set it up I use a piece of coax cable I stripped off the last 6 inches of covering and looped it around and was able to still pickup most of the local channels, it all depends on how close the broadcasts are.

You can get an amplified antenna and get a bunch of channels, with my cheap antenna I get about 25 channels all in 1080p HD.

The only thing I miss out on is hockey as I still get CBS and FOX for football, but that just gives me a reason to go to the bar

 

[newagemac]

I had Directv and cancelled it when I got the Apple TV, the EyeTV software, and an antenna. With the antenna, I can get all the networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, my20, and PBS all in HD for free and quite a few other channels as well all for free. Then with EyeTV I record all our favorite shows like Modern Family, Glee, 30 Rock, and NFL games and it automatically exports the shows to your iTunes Library in a format the Apple TV can handle.

The Apple TV has nice 30 second skip and 10 second back playback controls that make it easy to skip the commercials too. If you have a Harmony Remote, it's the Page Up and Page Down buttons and it's fast. Works better than the DirecTV DVR for skipping commercials. On the aluminum Apple Remote you have to hold down the left button or right button for a couple of seconds so it's not as immediate but works well. Of course regular fast forward and rewind can be used too.

For everything else we use Netflix and rent the occasional iTunes movie. Like someone else said earlier, we now watch more quality TV and movies rather than the crap we used to just "have on". And we watch far less commercials because iTunes and Netflix have none. Saving almost $100 a month now. There is a huge thread in these forums about doing this.

 

[mstrze]

In very rare cases can you stream any local TV...certainly none to AppleTV...but to a PC, sure. Usually though, live TV is limited to news broadcasts.

Local TV is free for the grabbing...all you need is an antenna. As other posters have said you will get TONS of free channels. Digital TV offers sub-channels in additiona to the main channels so most cities will have 12-15 channels available (with each local giving you 1-3 sub channels...most markets have at least 5 main channels these days..ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, FOX.) I have one local that does 5 seperate sub-channels!

Here in Houston, including all of the foreign-language alternatives, I would say I get 30-35 channels free over the air!

There is a Terk set-top antenna I HIGHLY recommend. I live 25-30 miles away from the broadcast towers and my locals come in crystal clear with rare dropouts.

It amazes me how few people realize they can still pull in free TV...we have gotten so used to paying a cable or sat company. PLUS, the signal you pull in for free will be better than your cable or sat signal, since those are compressed. OTA (over-the-air) is straight from the broadcast tower without any further compression.

I did drop DTV for 6 months,, then when I called at the end of my contract to cancel, then slashed the price in half AND gave me HD and an HD DVR for free so I stayed, but I was happy not having them for that 6 month period.

We spent about $120 on season passes for our favorite shows instead of paying ($75 x 6 months= )$450...a real cost savings!

Others are correct...sports fans will not like this setup. Regular network games will be viewable, but that's all. I never watch sports, so it's not an issue with me.