• th3dogcow@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It is surprising to realise that this is not more common. In Japan, basically every home and apartment comes with rooftop antennas and coaxial connections in multiple rooms. No need to pay for cable TV (BS and CS) unless you want to get more channels.

    • SmashingSquid@notyour.rodeo
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      1 year ago

      A lot of places in the US are too far for using antennas. In my area all you can pick up is a religious channel and a channel named infomercial tv.

      • justTouchit@discuss.online
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        1 year ago

        80% of the US population lives in urban areas. An amplified antenna can pick up channels for many of those further out. Won’t work for everyone of course.

        • Fondots@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I live almost exactly 20 miles from most of the towers in my area, if I got rid of all the trees and buildings in my way I might even have line of sight to the towers

          Unfortunately my main TV is in the basement, and even with an amplified antenna I can’t quite seem to pick up more than 1 or 2 channels, and I don’t quite care enough to put up an external antenna on my roof.

      • shortwavesurfer@monero.town
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        1 year ago

        Well… You could, you just have to get it as high as you can manage. Lookup a radio horizon calculator as most broadcast antennas are 400+ feet above ground.

    • Cheez@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s one of those weird things that a massive amount of people in the world use but not Americans, so it ends up in articles about this hot new gadget that will change your life.

      btw have you ever heard about heat pumps?

    • corbin@infosec.pubOP
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, it’s gonna be interesting to see how that pans out. DVR manufacturers got thrown through a loop with the DRM changes, and LG just announced it won’t sell TVs with ATSC 3.0 anymore due to patent issues. Maybe it will just be thrown out entirely like 2.0.

  • iopq@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Good point about cabilization, seems like every service evolves into cable

    • breathless_RACEHORSE@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      60 miles away from the broadcast center, but luckily in a very flat area. I still have an old-school antenna set up on a tower and rotor, and can pull in between 25-30 stations if you include the digital substations.

      I got this set up from Radio Shack in the early 80s. Cable made me regret it for a long time, but let’s hear it for laziness allowing me to get good use out of it since I clipped all but internet service.

      Bonus: you can split out the signal and hook the antenna up to home stereos, and get TONS of FM stations that even my car won’t pick up.

      Old stuff gets useful again! Yay!

  • BoofStroke@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Especially with an hd home run and Plex. With a cheap tablet and phone tether I can watch my live tv and DVR recordings anywhere while camping in the van.

    • Cihta@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Anyone want an old HD homerun prime? It’s just collecting a lot of dust. Not sure if I still have the PSU but i think it’s just a standard 12v. I’ve had it utilize a cable card before no prob. But I don’t use it, never have.

      Model is HDHR-3CC

      IPTV probably easier though.

  • garretble@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’ve had some bunny ears for about 20 years now and they still work fine for the local channels. Never really need or watch regular tv unless it’s the Super Bowl or Olympics or a storm is coming.

    But it’s nice to have.

  • nostradiel@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I don’t watch TV for more than 15 years. I just don’t see a reason to not to be in control of what, when and how I want to see it. Also I don’t see a reason to pay dozens of £ for X streaming services when they are not able to have all content at one place. It’s just easier, cheaper and more convenient to be a pirate, download a file and put on to my NAS (what I do since age I couldn’t even afford to think on spending on some digital content) and see it through Kodi with Netflix like skin all at one place whenever I want, without adds and offline. And when I want to support a movie, I go to watch it in cinema…

  • jocanib@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Is this another thing that the rest of the world didn’t know the US doesn’t have?