Over the Air in Calgary - Cutting out Cable

[Mitsu3000gt]

My Monoprice order arrived today with an antenna and various cable lengths. I will try remember to report back tonight if I can get it working as expected.

UPDATE: The monoprice antenna works perfectly. Provided the antenna is at my balcony windows I get 82-100% strength on all 6 channels, if I move it outside, I get 100% on all 6 channels. I should also note I need the in-line amplifier plugged in. Some people say it works better without, but it makes all the difference for me.

[Cword]

OTA PVR

I'm messing about with a Tablo ,
ended up installing it and the antenna in the garage where my best reception is.
I can reach the tablo over the household LAN with a number of devices (computer, andriod tablet, iPad) but have yet to put it's picture onto the TV screen. I'll have to add an Apple TV or Roku to direct streaming to the TV.

It's locked up on me a couple times this past week. Haven't yet figured out if I'm dealing with my own network config issues or new product growing pains.

http://www.tablotv.com

[thetransporter]

Originally posted by rage2

haha, even if they did, that would involve me fiddling and hacking to keep it running. Those days are long gone, I'm more than happy paying my $240/month. DirecTV looks great on an 80".

you have a good point. i do recall I had dishnet + atsc in one guide using Windows Media Center XP around 2007-8 thats if you choose to get media center or makes sense for you.

[mr2mike]

For hockey next year I was thinking to do game center. For the cost, it's less than cable. Then I don't have to go to the bar and spend $50+ to drink and watch the game on sportsnet.

[blairtruck]

Originally posted by mr2mike
For hockey next year I was thinking to do game center. For the cost, it's less than cable. Then I don't have to go to the bar and spend $50+ to drink and watch the game on sportsnet.

you are blacked out for your hometeam until 3 days after live game is played unless you use a proxy or something similar. and the quality is not hd for sure.

[rage2]

Blackouts was my biggest issue with gamecenter. Even unblock us was a hit and miss on bypassing blackouts. Second biggest problem is that you're a minute behind live, so group chats with friends is constant spoilers haha.

[blairtruck]

Originally posted by rage2
Blackouts was my biggest issue with gamecenter. Even unblock us was a hit and miss on bypassing blackouts. Second biggest problem is that you're a minute behind live, so group chats with friends is constant spoilers haha.

i used unblockus for the first time on this season and never had a problem. i did have a problem with the 3500k resolution and the glitchy effect at full screen on my bigscreen. hard on the eyes

also game center was 159 in canada and 99 in the USA, with unblocks you get it for the $99. that savings in itself pay for the whole year of unblockus

[Maxt]

If you're having trouble with OTA and have LED lighting in the house, turn off the LED lightng and see if the channels come back.
I could get 6 channels with indoor digital ready rabbit until I did the LED pot lamp upgrade in the kitchen.
I had to go to an outdoor antenna and raise it up twice to get all 6 channels back with the LED lighting on.

[toor]

If you can't find any old UHF rabbit ears laying around, the RCA 1050 is a sleek little $10 indoor antenna. You can also chop one end off those 1m Shaw coax jumpers and strip it as shown below:



The chopped coax picks up four channels, I'm 6-8km from towers on ground floor, no LoS and two interior walls.

[ZenOps]

Antenna design gets pretty complicated. But in Canada we have limited spectrum (limited channels) All of the current ones in Calgary are in the range of 515 to 683 (+6) Mhz.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennagen...eqlencalc.html

Meaning the optimal half wave element size is 10.9 inches if perfectly aligned, more like at least 11 because its never perfect. Most antenna use quarter and half elements, rarely do they use full. Extendable rabbit ears are adjustable to any length and can give full wave (but rarely is it better than half)

I switched over to a Bowtie outdoor with four quarter elements (about 6 inches each) and now get perfect reception on five of the six channels in Canyon Meadows.

[toor]

Ah yes you're right, found the spreadsheet I used to calc/meas/cut. Your measurement of 10.9" is centered on 515MHz which is a bit long for the upper channels, but what's a half inch among friends?

CBRT-DT 21 515
CFCN-DT 29 563
CKCS-DT 32 581
CKAL-DT 49 683
CICT-DT 41 635
CJCO-DT 38 617

Range 515
683

Center 599

234/599 = 0.39ft = 4.7" elements

[Mitsu3000gt]

Shaw just called me yesterday and threw a wrench in the mix haha. They offered me 160 channels including all the usual HD channels and two free PVR's all for $5/mo for 6 months. They told me the purpose of this was for people to see what channels they want for when people get the option to buy only the channels they want. They told me that soon there will be the option to buy only the channels you want, at a standard price not determined by the big telecom companies.

So, it looks like I'm returning my OTA box for now, might as well have HD cable back for $5 for the next 6 months at least.

They also said this was for broadband customers only, however I suspect if you call them you can get the same deal. At least for the next 6 months, I'm going to just use that.

[Mar]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
Shaw just called me yesterday and threw a wrench in the mix haha. They offered me 160 channels including all the usual HD channels and two free PVR's all for $5/mo for 6 months. They told me the purpose of this was for people to see what channels they want for when people get the option to buy only the channels they want. They told me that soon there will be the option to buy only the channels you want, at a standard price not determined by the big telecom companies.

So, it looks like I'm returning my OTA box for now, might as well have HD cable back for $5 for the next 6 months at least.

They also said this was for broadband customers only, however I suspect if you call them you can get the same deal. At least for the next 6 months, I'm going to just use that.

They offered me something similar a couple of years ago, the representative told me I'd get, "...high definition channels and a TV." Amazing. So the installer came and I was like, "Where's my television?" It was the most confusing conversation ever, I called Shaw back and they said, "No, you get high definition for free and television." Apparently television to Shaw means cable signals, even though television to the rest of the world means a physical television.

So that was all good, then they sent me a bill for $240.......WTF? I called them again and I was told they were giving me free high definition cable but I had to pay for the regular cable, something I didn't know. Then they try and tell me it's common sense, that they can't just give me a package without having cable, everyone knows you need cable as a base package. I haven't had cable in 10 years, how the fuck am I supposed to know this? They thought it was real bizarre I didn't know it but after about 6 months of me yelling at their staff over the phone they wiped my bill so I didn't have to pay it.

Then one day a guy from Shaw comes to my door and asks if I want the same free package. I tell him no and I'm about to shut the door because there's no way I would go through that hassle again but he tells me it's not the same and I grill him with every possible question I can think of to cover my ass. He tells me he can double my internet speed for $5 a month with no more charges after that. A couple of months later I find out that my bill will double after the promotional period to reflect the new package, I freaked out again. Fuck Shaw and fuck their inconsistent business practices, they can go to hell.

[Mitsu3000gt]

^^^

Well hopefully I don't have to deal with any of that haha. I got him to tell me what my total internet/TV bill will be both before and after the change, and the difference was the $5 + GST (I only pay for internet currently). I'm not sure what more I can do from my end except to wait and see. Should just be the $5, and I ran through both the individual and total pricing with them. We'll see I guess.

Shaw has been awesome for me over the years. Never a single problem, and I get over my 100 Mbps advertised speed, sustained, at all times of day. I realize lots of people have their horror stories but I've yet to have an issue of any kind. Fingers crossed this new deal is legit, even if I only use it for the 6 months.

[speedog]

Bump - for anyone wanting to try their hand at OTA, neighbor pulled down their old antenna from their roof and now it's free for anyone who wants it. Measures about 9' long by 10' wide when set up - pic below...


» Click image for larger version

PM me if you want it.

[toor]

Originally posted by speedog
Bump - for anyone wanting to try their hand at OTA, neighbor pulled down their old antenna from their roof and now it's free for anyone who wants it. Measures about 9' long by 10' wide when set up - pic below...

That's massive, most likely a VHF antenna, or dual-band with UHF or FM on those smaller elements. You need UHF for OTA HD and they're much smaller.

[speedog]

Originally posted by toor
That's massive, most likely a VHF antenna, or dual-band with UHF or FM on those smaller elements. You need UHF for OTA HD and they're much smaller.

I suspected as much as well - my old antenna I took down a year or so ago had a variety of much smaller elements at the one end and is currently picking up 6 channels of HD for my brother on an acreage to the west of Carstairs. Never the less if no one wants this antenna, then it will converted to garden stakes in the next week.

[Ca_Silvia13]

I just picked up a 22.00 OTA antenna from Wal-Mart. Works great! 6 crystal clear channels, 4HD, 2SD mounted inside my house in Shawnessey.

[e36bmw///]

nb

[ZenOps]

Dollarama Calgary restocked the "refurbished" RCA 1050 antenna for $3. I'm pretty sure its just slightly modified for better reception in Canada, but they can't sell it as a non-modded US version without the disclaimer.

Requires assembly (three screws to attach the elements) Sort of like a floppy stretched out bat, remember to remove the clear plastic before screwing it together. Designed to be taped to a window or wall.