Cord Cutting in Tulsa

[patric]

Maybe the biggest mistake I was making early on was assuming most of this was following the AppleTV model where hardware was tied to a dedicated subscription service.

Im looking mostly at the Roku2 lately (which seems a better box than its successor the Roku3) and is provider-agnostic.

Of course, we also have to re-discover the TV Aerial, which was a telescoping, eye-poking thing that used to be built into TV sets but never quite worked until you dressed it up with some aluminum foil.  

Thank God high-tech has come to the rescue.

[sgrizzle]

Maybe the biggest mistake I was making early on was assuming most of this was following the AppleTV model where hardware was tied to a dedicated subscription service.

AppleTV doesn't have a subscription service

[saintnicster]

AppleTV doesn't have a subscription service

It's a super confusing sentence, took a couple times to read over.

But for the majority of the apps on the 2nd and 3rd gen AppleTVs, you needed an account with the channel or through a cable service to actually get most (if not all) of the content provided  (DisneyXD, History, etc).  We use ours mostly as a PBS video streamer at this point, since the TV itself now has built-in Hulu, Netflix, and Plex apps.  I'm curious if the platform updates in October/November will be worth the new device.

[patric]

AppleTV doesn't have a subscription service

I was thinking iTunes.

[Ibanez]

I have tried all the various boxes and much prefer the Amazon FireTV.  The Google Nexus player is solid as well, but lacks the Amazon app/store for streaming which I use a great deal since I have bought content that way.

The Roku are nice, but I've had a lot of technical problems with them after less than a year.

Our exercise room had, had being the key word, a Roku attached to the TV in there, which is less than 8 months old, and it is now having problems where it constantly says  "HDCP Unauthorized. Content disabled" which after investigation seems to be pretty common with their devices. This is the second Roku I have had do this. Change the HDMI cable, still had a problem. Changed the port on the TV that the Roku is plugged into, same problem. Plugged to Roku into a different TV, same problem. I then hooked a spare Chromecast I had lying around to the TV in the exercise room and it works without issue.

[sgrizzle]

I have a couple FireTV sticks and they lock up or need reboot more than Windows. I had one locked up and when I got it back on it would;t do anything. Turned out it kicked off a firmware update so I just couldn't use it for the next half hour.

On Hulu the video will stop but the audio will keep going, eventually the video starts going again. On Netflix and HBO all or part of the screen goes green static about every 5 or 10 minutes.

I have AppleTV, SmartTV and Tivo and I generally like the Apple interface better. They are getting smart search like Tivo but on Tivo it always gives me results for services I don't have and have turned off.

[Ibanez]

I have a couple FireTV sticks and they lock up or need reboot more than Windows. I had one locked up and when I got it back on it would;t do anything. Turned out it kicked off a firmware update so I just couldn't use it for the next half hour.

On Hulu the video will stop but the audio will keep going, eventually the video starts going again. On Netflix and HBO all or part of the screen goes green static about every 5 or 10 minutes.

I have AppleTV, SmartTV and Tivo and I generally like the Apple interface better. They are getting smart search like Tivo but on Tivo it always gives me results for services I don't have and have turned off.

That is odd. I have one FireTV and 2 Fire Sticks. Never had an issues with any of them. We had an AppleTV but I recently gave it away. I haven't found a SmartTV interface I like at all as they all seem poorly implemented or clunky. To each their own....it is nice having choices.

[Hoss]

That is odd. I have one FireTV and 2 Fire Sticks. Never had an issues with any of them. We had an AppleTV but I recently gave it away. I haven't found a SmartTV interface I like at all as they all seem poorly implemented or clunky. To each their own....it is nice having choices.

I think Samsung is doing Smart TVs right now about as well as any of them.  They are a little pricey, but I got a good deal on a 4k TV with Smart functionality back in Feb (55" for about 1200).

[sgrizzle]

That is odd. I have one FireTV and 2 Fire Sticks. Never had an issues with any of them. We had an AppleTV but I recently gave it away. I haven't found a SmartTV interface I like at all as they all seem poorly implemented or clunky. To each their own....it is nice having choices.

To me, the TVs are just lacking the processing power and well-defined OS. Java is crap and a CPU hog so trying to just say "make your thing work in Java" and then putty in a clunky linux OS running java on slow-for-2005 chips is going to be a poor experience for everyone. could be worse. could be Flash.

[saintnicster]

To me, the TVs are just lacking the processing power and well-defined OS. Java is crap and a CPU hog so trying to just say "make your thing work in Java" and then putty in a clunky linux OS running java on slow-for-2005 chips is going to be a poor experience for everyone. could be worse. could be Flash.

Which is why it seems why a lot of TVs are leaning towards fancy-ish web apps. Most everything in run remotely and piped over.   That, and you (hopefully) just have to make minimal UI and packaging changes between platforms

[TeeDub]

Beware of so called "smart TVs."    I just got an email from Amazon stating that my LG will no longer be supporting Amazon Prime streaming and offered me a discount on a HDMI stick.

If I wanted to run crap off a stick, I wouldn't have gotten the smart tv.

[sgrizzle]

Youtube dropped support for a lot of older streaming devices too. Most people keep a TV 5-10 years but a $50-$99 device they are willing to replace every 3 years without much of a problem.

[patric]

So I tried a Mohu Leaf flat antenna, used pushpins to hang it on an east-facing wall, and got 47 channels first try.

I never knew we had so may Spanish-language channels in Tulsa.
Lots of shopping and televangelists, too.
...but a handful of older TV show and movie channels that remind me of the early days of Tulsa Cable.

Ill be looking closer at this butt-ugly thing... its a TiVo, and it spans OTA as well as internet-fed programs:



http://www.techhive.com/article/2989652/home-players/tivo-bolt-review-the-best-dvr-gets-better.html

[sgrizzle]

You can get a Roamio OTA for antenna and streaming for $50 at Best Buy today. The only thing this offers is some commercial-skip features that may kinda sorta work.

[patric]

You can get a Roamio OTA for antenna and streaming for $50 at Best Buy today. The only thing this offers is some commercial-skip features that may kinda sorta work.

The TiVo Bolt is the successor to the Roamio, and is still rolling out features in the way of firmware upgrades.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/dvrs-digital-video-recorders-reviews/tivo-bolt-review/

If you have an older Roameo or TiVo Mini in another room, the Bolt is supposed to be able to stream to them as well.
The strength of TiVo is its interface, which is normally a monthly fee but the first year is free.  Worth investigating.