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bradl

macrumors 603
Jun 16, 2008
5,952
17,447
Football
  • Amazon Prime has Thursday night Football.
  • Peacock (NBC) has Sunday football, my wife was whining about Football, so I subscribed at the lowest with commercials price $6 a month. Today, we tuned up Peacock and was confused why I was watching NFL Football, CBS Sports? 😳
  • Fill in the blank…
The answer: https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-ente...m-some-cbs-bet-cw-shows-and-paramount-movies/

But Wednesday's licensing news with ViacomCBS indicates Peacock is aiming to act more as an aggregator, with less of a fixation on becoming a dedicated hub for its own programming and franchises, a la Disney Plus.

Peacock is NBC's combatant in the so-called streaming wars, a seven-month window when media giants and tech titans are releasing a raft of new streaming services to take on Netflix.


Now, honestly, I’m waiting for the cable companies to disappear, and new packages to be organized between the Corporste Giants back to the same old cable high prices… just give me Ala carte… 🤔

Better idea; save the money, and use it on telling the NFL to ditch the padding, and teach their players how to tackle properly. Then gridiron will be a decent sport. ;)😈

BL.
 
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maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
Better idea; save the money, and use it on telling the NFL to ditch the padding, and teach their players how to tackle properly. Then gridiron will be a decent sport. ;)😈

BL.
The NFL doesn't care about player health - they care about money, pure and simple
 
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bradl

macrumors 603
Jun 16, 2008
5,952
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The NFL doesn't care about player health - they care about money, pure and simple

Oh, I agree! They have the players hide behind the padding to give them a false sense of security that the padding will protect them. When you have codes like Rugby and the AFL teaching how to tackle better and hit just as hard without causing injury and without padding, you have a better sport there altogether. But I agree that the NFL are money grubbing leeches.

BL.
 
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Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,947
4,879
New Jersey Pine Barrens
Well, I finally reached the end of the road with Discovery Plus. Got an e-mail saying that starting November 2, they're raising the ad-free pricing from $6.99/mo to $8.99 (a 29% increase). That's outrageous! Had been thinking about cancelling for awhile anyway, there's less and less new content that interests me and I've already watched all the old stuff.

To their credit, cancelling was very easy, just took a few clicks. They offered 3 months for $4.50 (IIRC) if I stayed... no thanks. ;)
 

Huntn

macrumors Core
Original poster
May 5, 2008
23,968
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The Misty Mountains
I signed into Amazon Prime today to be advised that if I wanted to avoid dreaded commercials, I’d have to cough up $2.99 a month in addition to Prime Membership to one of my corporate media masters. Even though, there were only 2, approx twenty second commercials advertising prime shows, to ease us in, it’s the principle that annoys me and as time goes by, they‘ll increase the times and I assume will move to include 3rd party advertisements. 😳 Still deciding, if I’ll pay to get rid of commercials.
 

Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,947
4,879
New Jersey Pine Barrens
I got rid of Amazon Prime when my subscription expired last spring. Haven't missed it a bit, I almost never watched anything there and rarely order anything from Amazon anyway.
 
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MisterSavage

macrumors 601
Nov 10, 2018
4,841
5,739
I signed into Amazon Prime today to be advised that if I wanted to avoid dreaded commercials, I’d have to cough up $2.99 a month in addition to Prime Membership to one of my corporate media masters. Even though, there were only 2, approx twenty second commercials advertising prime shows, to ease us in, it’s the principle that annoys me and as time goes by, they‘ll increase the times and I assume will move to include 3rd party advertisements. 😳 Still deciding, if I’ll pay to get rid of commercials.
Oh yeah, you know they're going to boil the frog slowly and start increasing those.
 
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Huntn

macrumors Core
Original poster
May 5, 2008
23,968
27,051
The Misty Mountains
I got rid of Amazon Prime when my subscription expired last spring. Haven't missed it a bit, I almost never watched anything there and rarely order anything from Amazon anyway.
My prime membership is based mostly on the amount of goods I purchase from them…
 

Huntn

macrumors Core
Original poster
May 5, 2008
23,968
27,051
The Misty Mountains
I signed into Amazon Prime today to be advised that if I wanted to avoid dreaded commercials, I’d have to cough up $2.99 a month in addition to Prime Membership to one of my corporate media masters. Even though, there were only 2, approx twenty second commercials advertising prime shows, to ease us in, it’s the principle that annoys me and as time goes by, they‘ll increase the times and I assume will move to include 3rd party advertisements. 😳 Still deciding, if I’ll pay to get rid of commercials.
What’s **** irritating is when I decide to pay the $2.99 monthly to remove commercials on Amazon Prime Video, tune in to Prime to watch Bosch Legacy which is labeled as FreeVee, the “free with commercials” Amazon streaming service, but I still have commercials for this series. Bosch was an Amazon series, but they ended it and then rebranded it, so they could move it to FreeVee… Bastardos! 😤
 

Huntn

macrumors Core
Original poster
May 5, 2008
23,968
27,051
The Misty Mountains
Is anyone using a HD antenna? We were visiting a friend who is not tech savy, who asked if I could hook up what looked like an inexpensive HD Antenna, I connected it to the coax cable connector on the smart TV in her downstairs bedroom, and ran a channel search. She lives about 20 miles from downtown Tulsa, and it picked up 50 channels! I never imagined. I liked it because it was a rigid rectangular frame with a slot on the back so I could hang it from a nail in the wall.

When we got home I ordered one with many thousands of purchases and good reviews, but it was a flimsy piece of rectangular plastic that had to be taped to the wall. I sent that back.

So if you have one, what are your experiences with it? I live about 30 miles from city center and not sure how that places me in regards to broadcast towers. It is amusing that some of these antennas advertise as having a 900 mile reception range. Could this possibly be accurate? 🤔
 
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Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,463
16,160
California
Is anyone using a HD antenna?

Not any longer, but I was using a small (about one foot high) UHF antenna like below for a while and I got all the local channels, including PBS and the networks in crystal clear HD. I just had it sitting on top of the TV. I moved to cable once my local cable company came out with a HD DVR. I recently moved to YouTubeTV and am super happy with that move. Same channels as I had on cable for about $80 less per month, plus better picture quality and unlimited DVR.

223122920307-3.jpg

This web site might help you pick an antenna. Enter your zip code and it will tell you what channels you can get OTA and what size antenna you will need to pull them in.

 
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Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,947
4,879
New Jersey Pine Barrens
I'm in a rural location about 45 miles from Philadelphia. Got an inexpensive amplified HD antenna 10 or 12 years ago, reception was pretty poor, wouldn't want to depend on it. Moved the antenna up to the attic, pointed it at Philadelphia. That was better but still not acceptable for me. But, really, there's nothing I want to want to watch on broadcast TV anyway... so no loss. :)

Many years ago, I lived near Lake Ontario in New York 40 miles or more from the nearest stations. Put an antenna on the roof with a rotator. Watched a lot of "snowy" TV that faded in and out from various cities. No cable tv available, satellite dishes were not really a consumer item yet, so that was the best we could do. Some fun memories, but those days are long gone!
 
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poorcody

macrumors 65816
Jul 23, 2013
1,338
1,583
We used to have an antenna shaped like a long stick with a dish at the back setup in our attic. Pulled stations in from places I didn't even know had stations. Actually we could aim it in different directions and pick up far away places. Was especially good when the digital signals came around...

In the end though, I can't stand commercials and standalone DVRs have a lot of drawbacks. YouTubeTV is just too good for all of its features and conveniences, even if it has gotten more expensive than I'd like.
 
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Herdfan

macrumors 65816
Apr 11, 2011
1,349
7,896
Is anyone using a HD antenna?

So if you have one, what are your experiences with it? I live about 30 miles from city center and not sure how that places me in regards to broadcast towers. It is amusing that some of these antennas advertise as having a 900 mile reception range. Could this possibly be accurate? 🤔

I have one set up, but not currently using it. I wasn't planning to at this house but was forced to when Tegna and DirecTV were fighting over carriage fees. So I grabbed a cheap one from HD and it worked just fine getting me my station.

At my old house, I had two antennas in the attic with each pointed at different towers. I did this there because at the time I was an HD snob and didn't like the compression messing with my PQ. Now 15 years later, better compression codecs and my older age mean the satellite feed is good enough

Check out the Channelmaster site. You can put in your address and it will show you where the transmitters are relative to you and suggest what antenna would be best. Looks like most of the stations transmit from the Sugarland area.

https://www.channelmaster.com/pages/tv-antenna-map

As for the 900 mile range, sure it's possible. The small dish at my house picks up a satellite signal from 23,000 miles away so its possible theoretically, but probably not practically.
 
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MisterSavage

macrumors 601
Nov 10, 2018
4,841
5,739
In the end though, I can't stand commercials and standalone DVRs have a lot of drawbacks. YouTubeTV is just too good for all of its features and conveniences, even if it has gotten more expensive than I'd like.
So as someone who had a standalone DVR you're happy with YouTubeTV? It was hard for me to give up my TiVo!
 

poorcody

macrumors 65816
Jul 23, 2013
1,338
1,583
So as someone who had a standalone DVR you're happy with YouTubeTV? It was hard for me to give up my TiVo!
Yeah the DVR is so good on YouTubeTV that I never watch anything that isn't recorded (even sports I let the game start and come in a little later while it's still live so I can skip through the commercials). The unlimited space means you can record anything that you might even remotely be interested in (e.g. I record various news channels all day long so if something happens in the news I can go back and see when it started). And you don't have to compete with family members for recording space. You can also access it from any device, locally and remotely, which I also use a lot. And when you travel you can record local channels wherever you are.

I suppose the only downside is it only holds recording for nine months, but in my experience, if I haven't watched it by then, I never will.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,463
16,160
California
Yeah the DVR is so good on YouTubeTV that I never watch anything that isn't recorded
I pretty much do the same. I can't remember when I last watched anything live.

I really like the way YTV records all the old episodes of a series. I enjoy the show Chasing Classic Cars and I have it set to record. It now has all nine seasons recorded for me and I have been working my way through the episodes I missed when the show first came out.
 
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MisterSavage

macrumors 601
Nov 10, 2018
4,841
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Yeah the DVR is so good on YouTubeTV that I never watch anything that isn't recorded (even sports I let the game start and come in a little later while it's still live so I can skip through the commercials). The unlimited space means you can record anything that you might even remotely be interested in (e.g. I record various news channels all day long so if something happens in the news I can go back and see when it started). And you don't have to compete with family members for recording space. You can also access it from any device, locally and remotely, which I also use a lot. And when you travel you can record local channels wherever you are.
Thanks for the info. I adjusted instantly to cutting the cord and living that streaming life but the parents are struggling when they visit. 😂 YT TV sounds like it would be what they're used to.
 

Huntn

macrumors Core
Original poster
May 5, 2008
23,968
27,051
The Misty Mountains
So as someone who had a standalone DVR you're happy with YouTubeTV? It was hard for me to give up my TiVo!

I pretty much do the same. I can't remember when I last watched anything live.

I really like the way YTV records all the old episodes of a series. I enjoy the show Chasing Classic Cars and I have it set to record. It now has all nine seasons recorded for me and I have been working my way through the episodes I missed when the show first came out.
What I like about recording programs is that if they by chance have commercials I can fast forward through them. When streaming with commercials FF is blocked during commercials…
 
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Huntn

macrumors Core
Original poster
May 5, 2008
23,968
27,051
The Misty Mountains
I have one set up, but not currently using it. I wasn't planning to at this house but was forced to when Tegna and DirecTV were fighting over carriage fees. So I grabbed a cheap one from HD and it worked just fine getting me my station.

At my old house, I had two antennas in the attic with each pointed at different towers. I did this there because at the time I was an HD snob and didn't like the compression messing with my PQ. Now 15 years later, better compression codecs and my older age mean the satellite feed is good enough

Check out the Channelmaster site. You can put in your address and it will show you where the transmitters are relative to you and suggest what antenna would be best. Looks like most of the stations transmit from the Sugarland area.

https://www.channelmaster.com/pages/tv-antenna-map

As for the 900 mile range, sure it's possible. The small dish at my house picks up a satellite signal from 23,000 miles away so its possible theoretically, but probably not practically.
I purchased a second antenna (link), and hooked it to our first floor bedroom TV, and placed the antennas in a window. We live about 30 miles from city center. For the results, I would most likely blame my distance away versus the capabilities of the antenna. I think it’s a hoot that the antenna is advertised as having a 400+ mile range. As is, I pick up about 50 channels but most are crappy content and reception quality. What I was really hoping for was the tradional anchor channels NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX For for purpose of football games, or the Acedemy Awards. All channels I get are subject to disruptment. The antenna was only $24 so I’ll ask the wife what she thinks. I’m inclined to send it back…

  • CBS- decent some quality degradation at times.
  • NBC- poor reception
  • FOX- decent
  • FOX Weather- decent
  • The CW
  • Other- MeTV (old shows), SHOP, Movies, Grit, Laff, Scripts News, COZI HSN, JTV, and others, stuff I never heard of or would not normally watch.
 
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MisterSavage

macrumors 601
Nov 10, 2018
4,841
5,739
What I like about recording programs is that if they by chance have commercials I can fast forward through them. When streaming with commercials FF is blocked during commercials…
Yeah that is an absolute must for me. When I sign up for streaming services I would never consider the ad-supported tiers because I loathe ads.
 

Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,947
4,879
New Jersey Pine Barrens
I subscribed to the ad-free version of Discovery Plus, I think it was $7/mo. After a year or so they bumped it way up to $10 (IIRC). Actually a good thing as I'd been debating whether to cancel anyway and that made it an easy choice! But I read an article somewhere in the business news that this is the new trend - the streaming companies can't make enough money from the ad-free subscriptions so they are driving everyone to cheaper ad-supported plans where they make more from the advertisers.
 
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Huntn

macrumors Core
Original poster
May 5, 2008
23,968
27,051
The Misty Mountains
Added to post 1:
Paramount+ Essential $5.99 a month, $59 per year includes commercials bummer. https://www.paramountplus.com/
Paramount ++Showtime $11.99 a month. $120 per year. This eliminates commercials on streamed shows, and if you buy it by the year, you are paying $4 per month for Showtime. A good deal if you are into showtime programming.
 

Richard8655

macrumors 68000
Mar 11, 2009
1,925
1,372
Chicago suburbs
Is anyone using a HD antenna? We were visiting a friend who is not tech savy, who asked if I could hook up what looked like an inexpensive HD Antenna, I connected it to the coax cable connector on the smart TV in her downstairs bedroom, and ran a channel search. She lives about 20 miles from downtown Tulsa, and it picked up 50 channels! I never imagined. I liked it because it was a rigid rectangular frame with a slot on the back so I could hang it from a nail in the wall.

When we got home I ordered one with many thousands of purchases and good reviews, but it was a flimsy piece of rectangular plastic that had to be taped to the wall. I sent that back.

So if you have one, what are your experiences with it? I live about 30 miles from city center and not sure how that places me in regards to broadcast towers. It is amusing that some of these antennas advertise as having a 900 mile reception range. Could this possibly be accurate? 🤔

About 30 miles from city center here and using a Clearstream 4 installed in the attic.


It's fine with stable signals from the major local broadcasters. But with the long lead going downstairs an antenna signal booster (~$25?) was needed and works well. My main goal is the local PBS stations and results are good. But I think at a 30+ mile distance, a heaviy duty model (like this) best high up like in an attic or roof works best. I tried one of the inexpensive, square flat plastic models taped to a window or wall, but results weren't good.
 
Last edited:
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