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Thread: DTH vs Streaming ....What are you using and why ?

  1. #1
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    DTH vs Streaming ....What are you using and why ?

    DTH vs Streaming ....What are you using and why ?

    I am still using the good old digital cable but we will be moving to a new home soon and I will have to decide which one to use.

    If you are using a streaming service which one do you use ?

    What kind of broadband connection do you have to satisfy that kind to heavy data usage ?

    Lastly if using streaming service how do you watch music videos and news ? Does Netflix or Amazon Prime offer a music channel and a news channel?

    Note: I know absolutely nothing about steaming services.
    Last edited by linuxyogi; January 8th, 2020 at 04:07 PM.
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    Re: DTH vs Streaming ....What are you using and why ?

    Have you thought about OTA, depending where you are an antenna under 200 dollars(single lifetime payment) can bring in quite a few channels plus use streaming for other stuff to watch. TVFool.com has a map you can see what channels you can receive. Need about 5MB/s download for each single stream, one show at a time. More shows watch at a time need more download, higher quality also needs more bandwidth.
    Last edited by crip720; January 8th, 2020 at 05:27 PM.

  3. #3
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    Re: DTH vs Streaming ....What are you using and why ?

    I use YouTubeTV to watch television programs. I had Sony Playstation Vue until they dropped the Red Sox channel, plus Vue is being discontinued. The other common option is Sling.

    How much bandwidth you need depends on how many people will be watching on separate devices at the same time. I have had pretty big pipes, but a friend has just the most basic package and has no problem streaming video services.

    I rarely watch music videos; when I do I use YouTube. I watch news via YouTubeTV.

    Neither Netflix nor Amazon Prime provide music or news. Amazon has a separate music service. Netflix does not.

    If you are already a Prime subscriber, you have access to its video service already.

    I use a Roku stick to get all the services I subscribe to.
    Last edited by SeijiSensei; January 8th, 2020 at 06:11 PM.
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    Re: DTH vs Streaming ....What are you using and why ?

    DTH? Never heard that term before. Dropped CATV in 2012.

    I have 2 OTA antennas pointing at transmitters about 25 miles in 1 direction and 52 miles in another. They are joined into a single coax which feeds 2 network tuners (6 concurrent streams supported) that can be accessed by any device on the network that supports the ATSCv1 streams to watch live TV. Any device can also record those streams just like a VCR would - except it is basically a wget http download for a specific time, from a specific URL. tvfool.com is a very useful tool.
    Those 2 antennas are 1 commercial yagi and 1 that I built for $20 using designs found online with romex wiring, some screws, and a 2x4 board. My home built was tuned for the specific channels here which are mostly UHF, but some high-VHF too (PBS and NBC). Between the antennas, cables, amplifier, attenuator, I'd guess about $100 total investment since 2012. Each HRHR network tuner was $70 - a quad and a dual box. They are DLNA compatible, so any DLNA client has access that can play mpeg2/ac3/ts streams. Our roku cannot, it supports h.264/aac/mkv or mp4 containers only. Chromecasts are even more limited in the audio and video codecs supported.

    We have amazon prime for commercial free video/movies. Usually grab it using a Roku3 box. Will probably drop Amazon Prime at the end of this month and switch for a few months to Hulu or Netflix to get access to different shows. Each paid streaming service has exclusives, so changing services every 3 months or so will probably become our "new normal." There are probably 50 free, ad supported, streaming channels that you can get with a browser. We use the roku for those too. https://justwatch.com/us will show the major ones that are available. Tubi, Roku, Crackle, are the big ones. Through the Roku, most studios have their own ad-supported movie channels too. There is a crazy amount of legal, free, streaming out there.

    Point your browser to justwatch, open the free sources and see how it goes. You'll be an expert in no time. Picking a streaming box/device is a bigger commitment. You are partially choosing who gets to spy on your viewing choices. The device matters, but not nearly as much as the streaming channel. https://www.ft.com/content/23ab2f68-...b-77216ebe1f17 explains the tracking. Seems they put it behind a pay wall. https://moniotrlab.ccis.neu.edu/imc19/ is one of the sources.

    Music videos? Don't see the point. We listen to music, don't watch it. Generally, listen to music from our collection that we've built over decades. Most is from before MP3 times.

    Amazon has a music service. If you have Prime, a bunch of it is free. It doesn't work with my roku, but used to work in a flash-based browser. Last time I tried to listen, it didn't work in a standard browser, but it does work perfectly on a $30 amazon tablet. I haven't tried very hard to get it working in a browser.

    Have a 25/5 Mbps internet connection without any caps. Generally, only watch outside prime-time periods. If you watch 2 hrs a day, does the data cap matter? If you watch more, perhaps reading a book would be good?

    Not everyone can get TV reception for a number of reasons. Apartments facing the wrong way, mountains/hills in the way, or just too far away from any transmission towers. If the antenna doesn't have line-of-site to the transmission towers in your area, forgetaboutit. A relative lives 100s miles away from any transmission towers. For them, it is CATV or satellite or nothing. They have DSL for internet and are lucky to get 3Mbps/768Kbps. They don't stream video, obviously.

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    Re: DTH vs Streaming ....What are you using and why ?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheFu View Post
    DTH? Never heard that term before.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct...ision_in_India
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    Re: DTH vs Streaming ....What are you using and why ?

    In my country the local channels are simply not good enough so people here use cable or DTH.
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    Re: DTH vs Streaming ....What are you using and why ?

    I live with my grandparents and parents on 2.5 acres in southern Arizona. The wife and I use OTA for tv, along with Netflix and Prime occasionally. The majority of our media consumption is off of local media stored on the server shared around the house over the network and accessed by Kodi. Our streaming is very light. We almost never watch regular TV. I watch the occasional football game and the evening news. My mythtv-backend somewhat just sits there idling all the time. Nice to have, but not exactly used a bunch. We do exactly zero streaming with Kodi, all is local.

    My grandparents are across the yard with DirecTV and the occasional Netflix in the evenings. They like to watch TV shows on it, Blue Bloods and so forth. That is about it. They are to far from my place to get a wired connection. They do their Netflix and whatever on the computer with an older model 150mbit wireless bridge shooting across the yard.

    My parents are using a Roku regularly with OTA for local broadcast. Mom also spends as much free time as she can watching those little cute animal videos on YouTube. I'm trying to get my father to get a Kodi machine in his house and use our media, he's... I don't think he cares either way to be honest. But we have a gigabit line run in a conduit underground to their place so it's something I'm working on.

    All of the above runs off of a single 5mbit up / 11mbit down fixed wireless line. We live in kind of a deadzone, I have zero other options for internet out here except satellite and that is a laughable option where online gaming is considered. For obvious reasons I'd much rather have Cox out here on their gigablast connection... but their nearest box is half a mile away and they refuse to get us a line, even if we pay for it. So that's that.
    Last edited by Tadaen_Sylvermane; January 8th, 2020 at 11:58 PM.

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    Re: DTH vs Streaming ....What are you using and why ?

    Satellite for TV. Ubifi for the web from an AT&T tower 8.3 miles away. Luckily we are on a hill with line of site to the tower in the valley. With a Yagi antenna I get about 30Mbps. Way less than the 500 - 750 I was getting from Comcast when we lived in town, but sufficient.

    Why? 'Cuz our property is waaaay out in the styx. No cable. Poorly maintained twisted wire is about the only other option.
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