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Looking back


SpiceWare

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Hard to believe, but its been three years since I cut the cord. I did so because I estimated $800 a year in savings while still being able to watch the shows I wanted to watch. Those savings would be what I used to pay DirecTV ($146 a month) less purchasing shows à la cart - buying seasons via Amazon, iTunes, and physical media (Blu-ray & DVD sets). There would be a tradeoff though as I wouldn't be able to watch that content the same day it aired. For most shows it would be minor with just a day or two delay, but for series on HBO and Showtime the delay would be nearly a year.

I did go a bit overboard in setting up my Mac mini DVR, spending $3716 in total. Most people aren't going to invest in a RAID storage system for their transient recordings, but I'm also using my mini for other things such as storing my ripped DVD and blu-ray content, as well as various emulation options. While I could easily rerip my media if the hard drive failed, it is time consuming so I opted for a RAID setup to reduce the probability of having to do that.

One thing that surprised me was that over time I decreased the number of series I purchased à la cart:

  • 2013 - 11 series
  • 2014 - 6 series
  • 2015 - 5 series

The reason for the drop was manyfold: shows ended (or were cancelled), I lost interested in shows (such as The Walking Dead, which became too depraved and depressing), and I kept finding other "new to me" series to watch via OTA (such as Psych, Burn Notice, The Listener, etc.) as well as free series via Amazon Prime* (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Red Oaks, Oz, etc) which decreased the desire to find other series that I would have to pay for.

Another part was that in 2015 premium streaming options like HBO Now and Showtime became available. I tried both and have kept Showtime for their series (the movies, not so much). However, I cancelled HBO due to the crappy picture quality when watched on a Mac. I can get a bunch of HBO's older content via Amazon Prime, and it looks amazing in comparison to HBO's service. I'll check out HBO again in a few months with Game of Thrones returns - hopefully they've fixed their picture quality problem. If not I'll watch it on my iPad Pro, where the picture was just fine, then cancel the subscription when the season ends.

There's been an exciting new development, last month Amazon added à la cart channel subscriptions - something that many of us have been wanting from the cable companies for many years now. I counted close to 30 options so far (with links for those I could find):

I was already interested in CuriosityStream, so signed up for it after Christmas. I'm able to watch those shows via Amazon's web site as well as via the Amazon Video app on my PS3 and iOS devices.

 


PS3
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iPhone
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iPad Pro
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Selected CuriosityStream channel
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Works fairly well. I'll write up something more in depth about CuriosityStream and Amazon's à la cart channel subscriptions at a later date. One thing to note is most(if not all) of those channels have a free trial - for CuriosityStream it's 30 days while for Starz you get 7.


So how was that $800 a year in savings estimate? It was way off - I ended up saving $4575 over the past three years, for an average savings of $1525 per year!

 


* yes, Amazon Prime does have a yearly subscription cost. However, I subscribed to that long before for the free shipping. The yearly subscription and the free shipping end up being a wash, so I consider their streaming video service to be free. I only consider "Prime" video free though, anything I pay extra for gets counted as an à la cart purchase in my savings calculations.

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Darrell, this seemed like as good a place as any. I have the Haupauge tv tuner for my xbox one. I bought that so that I could have a satellite type TV guide and I would be able to pause live TV. I am supposed to (in the future) be able to record to an external hard drive. Unfortunately, my signal seems to be degraded when run through the Xbox One vs directly through the TV. This stinks as I watch the Superbowl because I was looking forward to being able to rewind to form my own opinion on the previous play.

 

A conversation with Microsoft claimed that my amplified antenna was not compatible with the Xbone tuner. This does not make sense to me. It's the same setup. The only difference is putting the Xbone in the middle. I tried the small telescoping antenna that came with the tuner and it seemed to be "slightly" better on channel 5 (my Superbowl channel), but still had slight artifacting after a few minutes.

 

That all being said, I am watching the Superbowl straight through the TV. Any thoughts on this?

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Yeah, there's actually a big difference - you're using the Haupauge's tuner instead of your TV's. I'm not familiar with the Xbox setup, but it looks like the Haupage is your only option.

 

Did you by chance add a splitter to connect both your TV and the Haupauge to the antenna? If so, try eliminating that and plugging the antenna directly into the Haupauge.

 

If you'd already tried that then the most obvious answer is the Haupage's tuner isn't as good as your TV's, and it needs a better antenna to compensate.

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Yeah, the antenna goes into an amplified splitter so we can tune the bedroom TV also. It came as a package so I am using it as it was intended. Maybe sometime in the near future, I'll try to mount the antenna on my old satellite mount outside for a better signal. Did not need it with the TV tuner. Oh, well. Thanks Darrell.

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Antenna amplifiers (whether built-in or external) are only good for reducing signal losses due to cable length / quality and splitters (note: some devices have internal splitters). Amplifiers have no impact on signal strength (and will degrade the signal as they also add noise). Given this, the amplifier should be as close to the antenna as possible.

 

To increase the signal strength / quality mount the antenna outside, as high as possible, and aimed at the transmission tower. Physically larger antennas also provide a more powerful signal but are more directional.

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