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OT: Local channels with streaming

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MIghtee

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Aug 9, 2019
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Recently moved and cut the cord. Have been doing Sling TV and was planning to do an antenna to get ABC, NBC, CBS. Unfortunately, I can only get NBC via antenna (indoor...not gonna bother with mounting an outdoor one). Instead of Sling I can do Hulu + Live TV and get NBC and CBS. We already do Hulu, so it wouldn't be any cost difference to drop Sling TV and add the live TV to our Hulu account. So the question:

Could you live without ABC for college football season? Looked at the TV schedule and doesn't look like they show a ton of games:

http://www.espn.com/college-football/networks

Are their games available on ESPN app?

I know this is an old topic but we were on cable for so long that I've never had to look into any other way to get local channels. We don't watch local news or any new TV really, so the only use I have for local channels is sports.

Main concern, obviously, is our games but I'll have that pretty much covered with ESPN/SEC Network Streaming.

TIA!
 
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If you are a college football fan, you will want ABC and ESPN. Most indoor antennas are useless unless you live in an area where all of the major network broadcast towers are located nearby. Otherwise, you need a long range antenna.

I live in Greenville and our towers are all in the mountains near the state line or Asheville area. I would install a large antenna in your attic. Its not as hard as it sounds. Run a coax cable from the antenna to the input on your cable box on the side of your house. I installed a 100 mile range antenna in my attic. Mounted a PVC pipe to a couple rafters and attached the antenna to the PVC. Took an hour tops.
 
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MIghtee said:
Recently moved and cut the cord. Have been doing Sling TV and was planning to do an antenna to get ABC, NBC, CBS. Unfortunately, I can only get NBC via antenna (indoor...not gonna bother with mounting an outdoor one). Instead of Sling I can do Hulu + Live TV and get NBC and CBS. We already do Hulu, so it wouldn't be any cost difference to drop Sling TV and add the live TV to our Hulu account. So the question:

Could you live without ABC for college football season? Looked at the TV schedule and doesn't look like they show a ton of games:

http://www.espn.com/college-football/networks

Are their games available on ESPN app?

I know this is an old topic but we were on cable for so long that I've never had to look into any other way to get local channels. We don't watch local news or any new TV really, so the only use I have for local channels is sports.

Main concern, obviously, is our games but I'll have that pretty much covered with ESPN/SEC Network Streaming.

TIA!
Click to expand...

You may find you can't get games on the ESPN app if you have no cable (or streaming service) subscription for log-in credentials. I know you can log in through Sling, but I don't know about Hulu.

If you want to stick with an indoor antenna, look for one that is amplified. Before I switched to an outdoor antenna I had good luck with a leaf (flat) antenna mounted on a wall near a window.

Find out where the broadcast towers are in your area in relation to your house -- antennaweb.org and tvfool.com are two options. Entering your address will show the distance of the towers from your house. In general, putting the antenna at/near a window on the side of the house closest to the broadcast towers will get the best reception.

You will need to move your antenna around the room to find the best location for the most channels. You will need to rescan/reprogram your TV each time because changing the antenna location will affect reception.

If you live more than about 40 miles from the broadcast towers, you may need an outdoor antenna to have a better chance at reception.

If you change your mind and opt for an outdoor antenna, there are professional installation services available. Sling used to offer it even if you don't subscribe to Sling.

I live in suburban Greenville, have an outdoor antenna and can get 60+ channels most of the time.

One other thing: Depending on where you live, some stations will be changing frequencies (actual channel, although the virtual channel remains the same) in early September. You will need to rescan after that.
 
Hulu+ has every ESPN through the app, local channels, etc. don’t particularly like the channel guide...YouTube Tv has a better interface. I tried both and kept Hulu.
 
MIghtee said:
Does it have a good channel guide? Previous channel option?
Click to expand...
Excellent channel guide and unlimited dvr. At least in the Roku interface it does not have a previous channel option. But you can customize the live option so it is still very friendly to channel switching. I have used PSVue, Sling and Youtube TV. Youtube TV wins by far. I also have an outdoor antenna connected to a Tablo network DVR. It works great. I got it before Youtube TV was available in my area and the other streaming did not have the locals. I am not sure I would get a Tablo now if I was starting out but it is pretty awesome for recording locals including all the extra channels OTA. Plus it has automatic commercial skip. No fast forwarding needed. You access it through the Roku just like the other streaming options. So no need to run cable through the house to each (or any) TV.
 
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AngloCock said:
Hulu+ has every ESPN through the app, local channels, etc. don’t particularly like the channel guide...YouTube Tv has a better interface. I tried both and kept Hulu.
Click to expand...

What was YouTube lacking that Hulu had? YouTube has ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS and the SEC Network, plus all the locals. Hulu has all that but doesn't carry ABC.
 
I was looking at cutting the cord recently, but it simply isn't in the cards due to the family dynamic in the house right now. But I made a list comparing the channels each offered so I'd be sure that I had ALL my sports channels covered, as well as some others. Not each service offers every channel. Might be something to consider. We were going to have Hulu + (great because has local channels), Sling Blue (I think), STARZ and HBO subcriptions, and it was still going to be significantly cheaper than Direct. But again, we need to stay simple for the time being. But I will be cutting the cord when things change.
 
USCBatgirl21 said:
I was looking at cutting the cord recently, but it simply isn't in the cards due to the family dynamic in the house right now. But I made a list comparing the channels each offered so I'd be sure that I had ALL my sports channels covered, as well as some others. Not each service offers every channel. Might be something to consider. We were going to have Hulu + (great because has local channels), Sling Blue (I think), STARZ and HBO subcriptions, and it was still going to be significantly cheaper than Direct. But again, we need to stay simple for the time being. But I will be cutting the cord when things change.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it gets to be a bit much when you have to have 5 different streaming services. For me, we can pretty much get by with regular Hulu. The ONLY reason I'd need to stream any live TV is for college football.
 
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Myself, a cord cutter (from Direct TV) couple years ago. I have an older model "TERK" antenna bar and placed in my attic (above my den) laying across two "collar beams". The cable for the antenna is led to the outside of my house through a ventilation "louver vent" in the attic, then down the corner of the exterior brick my chimney and then over and into/through a "foundation vent" and then led over to the sub-floor right under my TV and through a small hole there and then plugged into the TV. A lot less complicated than I'm making it out to be. I get all my locals (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, FOX) - a total of 40 channels and they all come in very clear. I assume TERK still makes a high quality antenna. I use SLING (Orange) for my mini-bundle programming.

P.S. I now have saved around $2500 since I cut the cord 2 years ago.
 
Ahhh, well, I'd pretty much settled on YouTube TV only to find out that the ONE streaming device that doesn't yet have YouTube TV is Amazon Fire...which just happens to be the device I use. I do have an Apple TV that was received as a gift, but I really don't like the user interface/controls. May have to make do with it for football season anyway.
 
I thought I read recently that YouTube had settled their spat with Amazon and Amazon devices will now work with their streaming.
 
Garnet chicken said:
I thought I read recently that YouTube had settled their spat with Amazon and Amazon devices will now work with their streaming.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they JUST added the official YouTube app to Amazon Fire but it won't support YouTube TV until sometime later this year
 
MIghtee said:
Recently moved and cut the cord. Have been doing Sling TV and was planning to do an antenna to get ABC, NBC, CBS. Unfortunately, I can only get NBC via antenna (indoor...not gonna bother with mounting an outdoor one). Instead of Sling I can do Hulu + Live TV and get NBC and CBS. We already do Hulu, so it wouldn't be any cost difference to drop Sling TV and add the live TV to our Hulu account. So the question:

Could you live without ABC for college football season? Looked at the TV schedule and doesn't look like they show a ton of games:

http://www.espn.com/college-football/networks

Are their games available on ESPN app?

I know this is an old topic but we were on cable for so long that I've never had to look into any other way to get local channels. We don't watch local news or any new TV really, so the only use I have for local channels is sports.

Main concern, obviously, is our games but I'll have that pretty much covered with ESPN/SEC Network Streaming.

TIA!
Click to expand...

Is moving closer to civilization an option?
 
USCBatgirl21 said:
I was looking at cutting the cord recently, but it simply isn't in the cards due to the family dynamic in the house right now. But I made a list comparing the channels each offered so I'd be sure that I had ALL my sports channels covered, as well as some others. Not each service offers every channel. Might be something to consider. We were going to have Hulu + (great because has local channels), Sling Blue (I think), STARZ and HBO subcriptions, and it was still going to be significantly cheaper than Direct. But again, we need to stay simple for the time being. But I will be cutting the cord when things change.
Click to expand...


What was missing from Hulu+ that sling blue has?

I have Hulu+ now and compared my cable list to theirs before I switched and don't recall any missing channels. I used sling several years ago instead of upgrading cable package to get some extra channels during football season because it was cheaper and I could cancel whenever. Only kept cable as long as I did because when I moved and could get a deal on a bundle for a new customer.
 
Will4Clemson said:
What was missing from Hulu+ that sling blue has?

I have Hulu+ now and compared my cable list to theirs before I switched and don't recall any missing channels. I used sling several years ago instead of upgrading cable package to get some extra channels during football season because it was cheaper and I could cancel whenever. Only kept cable as long as I did because when I moved and could get a deal on a bundle for a new customer.
Click to expand...

There were some channels (non sports) that we watch regularly that were on Sling but not on Hulu +. I don't have the list any longer, but I remember it being that way. It was just in the last couple months that I compiled the list.
 
Any techies here? My streaming quality isn't great. Ran a speed test on my Fire TV Stick 4K and I'm streaming at 165 mbps. TV is a 2016 4K Samsung with HDR and 120 hz native refresh rate. I also tried streaming through my Apple TV 4K connected directly to ethernet and streaming quality was still just good, not great. Watched "Finding Dory" with the fam on Friday night and some of the darker scenes underwater were totally blotchy. Live TV and brighter scenes are ok, but it's not totally crisp.

Any tips?
 
@ 165 Mbps you should not have these problems with streaming. You make check your router to see if it's up to speed. Also check your HDMI cable connections and the cable itself. Most streamers have no problem using 25 Mbps to stream successfully.
 
USCBatgirl21 said:
There were some channels (non sports) that we watch regularly that were on Sling but not on Hulu +. I don't have the list any longer, but I remember it being that way. It was just in the last couple months that I compiled the list.
Click to expand...

Got it - I was worried my in depth study of the sports stations overlooked something lol.
 
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Question to all you streamers... How do you "channel surf"? I understand if streaming, it is a pain to switch channels if you are trying to watch multiple games. Unlike satellite or cable, I hear it just takes to long to flip back or forth if two games are on at the same time you would like to watch. Especially a Saturday nights when numerous games are on.. Is this accurate?
 
MIghtee said:
Any techies here? My streaming quality isn't great. Ran a speed test on my Fire TV Stick 4K and I'm streaming at 165 mbps. TV is a 2016 4K Samsung with HDR and 120 hz native refresh rate. I also tried streaming through my Apple TV 4K connected directly to ethernet and streaming quality was still just good, not great. Watched "Finding Dory" with the fam on Friday night and some of the darker scenes underwater were totally blotchy. Live TV and brighter scenes are ok, but it's not totally crisp.

Any tips?
Click to expand...

Go to your router, see if there's a section for QOS (Quality of Service). Figure out which is your Fire TV and make sure it on the top of the list. Most of the time it is the router that can't handle the volume from all the devices in your house.
 
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uscfutbol said:
Question to all you streamers... How do you "channel surf"? I understand if streaming, it is a pain to switch channels if you are trying to watch multiple games. Unlike satellite or cable, I hear it just takes to long to flip back or forth if two games are on at the same time you would like to watch. Especially a Saturday nights when numerous games are on.. Is this accurate?
Click to expand...

Fairly accurate. Sling TV does have a previous channel function which helps. Neither Hulu nor YouTube have that. Sling TV has the best guide, in a grid format, but none of them are nearly as easy to use as cable. And, obviously, you can't type in a channel # and jump to a channel. So, if you're bouncing around b/w three games, it will require going to the guide each time and changing channels.
 
yesiam# said:
Go to your router, see if there's a section for QOS (Quality of Service). Figure out which is your Fire TV and make sure it on the top of the list. Most of the time it is the router that can't handle the volume from all the devices in your house.
Click to expand...

Problem is, my Apple TV 4k is connected directly to ethernet, so that takes the router out of the equation.

I don't really get it. We just moved from a house where we had Verizon Fios and could only get 75 mbps, but the streaming quality was better than where are now with 150+ mbps.
 
lakemurraycock1 said:
Or do youtube TV and get all the locals and the sec network.
Click to expand...
MIghtee said:
Recently moved and cut the cord. Have been doing Sling TV and was planning to do an antenna to get ABC, NBC, CBS. Unfortunately, I can only get NBC via antenna (indoor...not gonna bother with mounting an outdoor one). Instead of Sling I can do Hulu + Live TV and get NBC and CBS. We already do Hulu, so it wouldn't be any cost difference to drop Sling TV and add the live TV to our Hulu account. So the question:

Could you live without ABC for college football season? Looked at the TV schedule and doesn't look like they show a ton of games:

http://www.espn.com/college-football/networks

Are their games available on ESPN app?

I know this is an old topic but we were on cable for so long that I've never had to look into any other way to get local channels. We don't watch local news or any new TV really, so the only use I have for local channels is sports.

Main concern, obviously, is our games but I'll have that pretty much covered with ESPN/SEC Network Streaming.

TIA!
Click to expand...
All ABC games are on ESPN3.
 
uscfutbol said:
Question to all you streamers... How do you "channel surf"? I understand if streaming, it is a pain to switch channels if you are trying to watch multiple games. Unlike satellite or cable, I hear it just takes to long to flip back or forth if two games are on at the same time you would like to watch. Especially a Saturday nights when numerous games are on.. Is this accurate?
Click to expand...

HULU has groupings for my stuff & recently watched, so on my recently watched all the ESPNs & SEC are usually right there for commercial scanning, when its South Carolina playing I don't surf
 
Horseshoe 04 said:
HULU has groupings for my stuff & recently watched, so on my recently watched all the ESPNs & SEC are usually right there for commercial scanning, when its South Carolina playing I don't surf
Click to expand...
Thanks, because Sling groups my history, favorites and alerts me to all USC articles; I have stuck with them. Plus the $15, then $20 and now $25 (I get more sports channels that I can not watch them all.), I have stayed with them the last 3 years.
Now I believe I will change to HULU, if it is not cable prices.
 
Last edited:
Skip the satellite and go with Hulu Live TV has the local channels and the normal cable channels all in the same app and gets you watch ESPN access. It's what I did last year and have no complaints.

I watch 1 game on the main TV, one game on my phone and one on my tablet through the ESPN app all at the same time
 
A_F_Deerhunter said:
Thanks, because Sling groups my history, favorites and alerts me to all USC articles; I have stuck with them. Plus the $15, then $20 and now $25 (I get more sports channels that I can not watch them all.), I have stayed with them the last 3 years.
Now I believe I will change to HULU, if it is not cable prices.
Click to expand...

you can test drive it free on your lap top for a while. I pay $44/mo
 
MIghtee said:
Fairly accurate. Sling TV does have a previous channel function which helps. Neither Hulu nor YouTube have that. Sling TV has the best guide, in a grid format, but none of them are nearly as easy to use as cable. And, obviously, you can't type in a channel # and jump to a channel. So, if you're bouncing around b/w three games, it will require going to the guide each time and changing channels.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That is the main reason I will not switch. I love changing channels between time-outs, quarters, halftime. Sometimes i even surf between plays. I love the dish recall button that recalls the last 6 channels you viewed and making the instant switch.. Plus I love my PIP with up to four channels viewed..
 
MIghtee said:
Well, that's the info I needed...thanks!! I can go with Hulu then. Same price as Youtube TV but it includes the regular Hulu service which is $12/mo.
Click to expand...
To me regular Hulu is not a whole lot unless you're looking for specific movies or shows. On demand shows or old movies that are not that good.
 
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