I'm having trouble sleeping tonight because I have a blog in mind and my mind keeps turning over and over so I'd better start this part of it.
There are three subjects I blog on.
Politics...you get enough of that from me on Facebook.
Sports......usually my thoughts are short enough to post on Facebook.
And television and my continuing evolution on cord-cutting.
I said goodbye to DirecTV last year. It was just too expensive and since I don't get AT&T internet where I live, and was paying Verizon for internet, phone and tablet, it just made sense to go with streaming for my Live TV.
I tried a lot of free (and not so free) trials and the only service that wasn't affected by my internet speed was YouTube TV. The downside was the dispute between Google and Amazon means no official YouTube TV app on Fire Stick. I had limited success with an unsupported app I sideload but I since reconnected my Google Chromecast and it works almost flawlessly with YouTube TV. The only real problem is occasionally my Mifi device will sometimes restart on it's own but I just wait for it to reload and it (the picture and feed) comes back.
I am also relying less and less and my Amazon Fire Stick mainly because when I reach my high speed data limit...22GB.....things won't load or stop in the middle and i get a message that i don't have enough bandwidth.
In addition i am quickly discovering new over-the-air channels. I have long been disappointed that i could not receive retro tv at 50-2 because they show classic Doctor Who nightly. 2 episodes weekdays at 8:00 PM and 4 on Saturday from 6:00 to 8:00 and Sunday from 7:00-9:00. After looking up ways to improve my signal I did a re-scan for channels and BOOM! I get the channel and 3 others at 50. The bad part it I don't get great reception, which as a teen growing up who fiddled with rabbit ears to watch Doctor Who and other shows on UNC-TV I'm somewhat used to poor reception but back in the analog days this meant a fuzzy picture. These days with digital, a bad signal is pixelated, skips and freezes making it not very enjoyable to watch. So I have ordered a new antenna with a longer range to try and see if it can be improved.
On a second re-scan I was also receiving channels at 28. My favorite is 28-6...Decades. Check out this weekday afternoon lineup
2 episodes each
2:00 The Mary Tyler Moore Show
3:00 The Bob Newhart Show
4:00 Newhart
The latter was a later series set in Vermont whose infamous finale featured Bob Newhart's character being hit in the head with a golf ball and waking up in bed with Susanne Pleshette in the character of his wife from the previous "The Bob Newhart Show". One of the funniest moments in TV history. The trouble is if I move my antenna to try to get better reception of 50-2, it affects 28, etc. So also trying to remedy that.
I recently downloaded an app called "No Cable" which gives local TV listings plus advice on antennas. According to one feature with an amplified indoor antenna I should also be able to receive 33 (UNC-TV) and 40 (My Network TV) and their subchannels. So I have ordered an antenna with 140 mile range as opposed to the 50-60 mile range I have now. One thing keeping me up is I can't wait for it to arrive. I will post now and try to get some sleep but I will come back tomorrow and post the results.
So the update is i wasted my money. The new antenna didn't pick up as many channels I finally hooked the old one back up, repositioned it a few times and finally got the 39 channels I was receiving before. All channels going in good-great and channel 50-2, etc. Was still choppy. I guess the range of the antenna isn't the issue it's just my location. I could look into outdoor antennas but it seems like a lot of work with no guarantee. Lesson learned.
