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Free Streaming service for OTA Antenna Channels

spierceisu

spierceisu

Well-Known Member
Jan 28, 2007
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Ankeny
I have an antenna but my signal is not great in my basement even though I live in NW Ankeny close to the towers in Alleman. The antenna I have is an amplified indoor antenna and it doesn't cut out but the picture quality on Fox in particular is not that great. Is there a free streaming service to get the OTA channels on? I cut my Hulu Live subscription to save money so only live TV I get is OTA. I miss some games but it is hard to justify the cost of all the streaming stuff now. I still get channels but like I said the picture on Fox on one of my TVs (the one I watch football on the most) is not as good. It is a 4K TV and the picture on streaming is great so not a TV problem.
 
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Do you have coax cable running around your house? You can put the antenna in a place on a higher level and connect it to the existing coax lines. Then plug your tv into a coax in the basement. If you still get crappy reception, add a booster. They're cheap.

If you want to get fancy, find the splitter and run an outdoor antenna to every room that has coax running to it.
 
I'm dumb but I never understood why you can get over the air channels free but you have to pay for them if you stream it over the Internet. Why can't I stream for free.
 
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spierceisu said:
I have an antenna but my signal is not great in my basement even though I live in NW Ankeny close to the towers in Alleman. The antenna I have is an amplified indoor antenna and it doesn't cut out but the picture quality on Fox in particular is not that great. Is there a free streaming service to get the OTA channels on? I cut my Hulu Live subscription to save money so only live TV I get is OTA. I miss some games but it is hard to justify the cost of all the streaming stuff now. I still get channels but like I said the picture on Fox on one of my TVs (the one I watch football on the most) is not as good. It is a 4K TV and the picture on streaming is great so not a TV problem.
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I live in NW Ankeny too. Made an antenna out of a 2x4, coat hangers, and a connection I bought from radio shack for about $3. Put it up in my attic and ran coax cable down to where my previous provider ran their feed into our house (there’s a box on the outside of the house). Unplugged their cable and plugged mine in. I get OTA channels on all tvs except have some issues with getting fox in my bedroom at times.
 
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Somewhat related, in regards to missing some games. Sling now offers a 24 hour pass for their Orange Tier (ESPN, ESPN2, others) for only $4.99 + tax. Used it for Arkansas State and will use again for Arizona. Thought about this Saturday too but there are plenty of OTA games to watch. (For OTA we have Legacy Tablo 2 tuner whole house DVR, amplified indoor antenna, picks up Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, CW, plus others; also $4.99 per month.) If we can just keep our games off FS1 all will be good.
 
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Get an AirTV or HDHomeRun. They connect to your antenna in the attic and will stream that signal to your TV.
 
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I put an attic antenna plus a full rooftop wing antenna in my attic and ran them to the coax running throughout my house since everything else is Wifi based. We get great reception even though we are at bottom of hill, 40 miles from the relay towers. (I had to assemble the rooftop antenna in the attic as it was way too big to fit through access door. I also can't quite get it turned directly toward the towers as the wings hit the roof trusses and can't turn any further).
 
This only kind of counts, but Stanford has a research project that involves them streaming OTA channels online. It's been a while, but I used it a few times before.

A couple of important notes: It's Stanford's local stations, so that affects what NFL games you get on it (and obviously local news/programs). Also, they only allow up to a certain number of users, so during heavy-traffic times, you might not be able to get on. One time, I logged in an hour or so before an NBA finals game or something to essentially beat the rush.

Puffer

puffer.stanford.edu puffer.stanford.edu
 
MJ271 said:
This only kind of counts, but Stanford has a research project that involves them streaming OTA channels online. It's been a while, but I used it a few times before.

A couple of important notes: It's Stanford's local stations, so that affects what NFL games you get on it (and obviously local news/programs). Also, they only allow up to a certain number of users, so during heavy-traffic times, you might not be able to get on. One time, I logged in an hour or so before an NBA finals game or something to essentially beat the rush.

Puffer

puffer.stanford.edu puffer.stanford.edu
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Thanks for this. Being west coast, this might be a good option to watch Purdy and the niners when they're unavailable in Iowa. Especially now that streameast is gone.
 
ruxCYtable said:
Another vote for Tablo. Had it in my old house. Antenna goes to one box but you can watch on any TV with a streaming device in your house.
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i had some luck before just throwing rabbit ears or other antennas on individual tvs, but found always having to adjust, etc.

Tablo was awesome. I had a coax that was already run outside as there used to be a dish on my house, so i just used that, put a small antenna outside (that gets way better reception than individual tvs could get) and works super slick. Like that it has DVR function, channel guides, etc.
 
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This thread has a "back to the future" feel.

Oh the good old 1960's & 70's, pre-cable days, where homes had large rooftop antennae with set-top boxes to rotate the antennae to hone in on the best picture.
 
We had one of these bad boys growing up late 70s and 80s. Also had the rotational control by the TV, so you could point it anywhere for different broadcast towers. 2, 7 ,9, 12 ... what more did you need?

Also made for an easy way to climb up on the roof!


1758218426248.png
 
KnappShack said:
Set top box to rotate the antennae??

Whoa! I didn't know we had Rockefellers posting on CF!!
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I bought one of those in 1992 just to try and pick up Cedar Rapids stations which would show a couple of ISU basketball games per season (QC didn't show ANY). It didn't work for sheet as I was just too far away, the image was always snowing and crackly.
 
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