Cable cutters... how do you watch the races?

I'm not passing judgement, only pointing out facts.

But there sure seem to be a lot of people in this Internet era that expect to get everything for free, and willing to take it if it isn't offered as such.

THAT'S passing judgement.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I'm not passing judgement, only pointing out facts.

But there sure seem to be a lot of people in this Internet era that expect to get everything for free, and willing to take it if it isn't offered as such.

THAT'S passing judgement.
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You are absolutely right and I meant no harm in my remark. From what I read some Nascar fans find streams to races that presumably they are watching gratis. As far as I know that sort of thing is not illegal but I assume it is denying the carrier of the race some coin.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Glad to read someone else gets it. If people only would realize what is available out there they could save themselves a lot of $'s and have absolutely everything available to them to boot.
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I think more people would avail themselves of different services if they had someone who could set things up and walk them through the operation. What seems easy and a no brainer for some people is daunting to others.
 
IanMcVittie said:
I think more people would avail themselves of different services if they had someone who could set things up and walk them through the operation. What seems easy and a no brainer for some people is daunting to others.
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I've posted videos over in the Cable Cutters Thread - Chit Chat edition. It takes no more than five minutes to set up a firestick iptv connection. Heck, I recently posted a video for a Terrarium TV setup. Again, about a five minute procedure. The awesome thing about it is that it is free. No live channels on Terrarium, but all of the television shows & movies your could ask for.
 
IanMcVittie said:
I think more people would avail themselves of different services if they had someone who could set things up and walk them through the operation. What seems easy and a no brainer for some people is daunting to others.
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I posted something similar late last year. In response, @LouieLouie generously offered to assist me. I haven't gotten back with him because I'm still on the hook with Dish until May.

I did get the Samsung configured for the wifi at home over the weekend. That resulted in a bunch of icons with familiar names (Hulu, etc.) but I haven't clicked any of them yet.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I've posted videos over in the Cable Cutters Thread - Chit Chat edition. It takes no more than five minutes to set up a firestick iptv connection. Heck, I recently posted a video for a Terrarium TV setup. Again, about a five minute procedure. The awesome thing about it is that it is free. No live channels on Terrarium, but all of the television shows & movies your could ask for.
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Thanks, that let's me know Terrarium won't fit my sports viewing habits.

We must be the only household on the planet whose movie needs can be met entirely with TCM.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Glad to read someone else gets it. If people only would realize what is available out there they could save themselves a lot of $'s and have absolutely everything available to them to boot.
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Eh, I guess I've just had bad luck. I signed up for Set TV and it got shut down a week later. Tried to sign up for another service and had issues getting it to even take my information on the website. Tried to sign up for yet another (Boom Boom or something) and it was "out of stock" whatever they mean by that.

I finally cut the cable cord, but I don't trust any IPTV to last and I don't want to bother chasing the latest and greatest every month or so. Youtube TV has been great so far, and performs flawlessly thru Roku.

As far as Terrarium TV goes, it barely works for me anymore. It used to work great but nowadays I have about a 10% success rate when it comes to finding a decent stream. Kodi is still as glitchy and inconsistent as ever, but it's free so I can't complain too much.
 
2 Sweet said:
Eh, I guess I've just had bad luck. I signed up for Set TV and it got shut down a week later. Tried to sign up for another service and had issues getting it to even take my information on the website. Tried to sign up for yet another (Boom Boom or something) and it was "out of stock" whatever they mean by that.

I finally cut the cable cord, but I don't trust any IPTV to last and I don't want to bother chasing the latest and greatest every month or so. Youtube TV has been great so far, and performs flawlessly thru Roku.

As far as Terrarium TV goes, it barely works for me anymore. It used to work great but nowadays I have about a 10% success rate when it comes to finding a decent stream. Kodi is still as glitchy and inconsistent as ever, but it's free so I can't complain too much.
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Try Cinema, better than Terrarium
 
Spotter22 said:
Well you said this

"Just so everyone is clear, that's technically a violation of your cable / satellite provider's terms of service."
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Who's doing it?

More to your point, masking an IP behind a VPN doesn't mean account sharing isn't a violation, just that you're not as likely to get caught at it.
 
My TV viewing has really changed over the years. I watch less than I did before but read more. I watch very little American TV other than sports and the rest is filled up with programming originating from the UK and foriegn language shows on Netflix. I have never binge watched anything and doubt I ever will.
 
KTMLew01 said:
I have a Verizon prepaid phone. Their levels are $40 with three gig data-$50 eight gig-$70 unlimited. The website clearly states you can't use hotspot with unlimited. THEY LIE! I'm typing this on my laptop. So maybe i should try some type of Firestick? Just ordered a new OTA antenna Monday. It's supposed to be here tomorrow. My current flat indoor antenna is pretty glitchy with weather changes. Actually have it outside connected to old cable coax. Started to buy a motorized antenna but all the cheap ones seem to have issues with the motors. I'll mount the new one on a 10' pole and turn it by hand to find the sweet spot.
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So...that was a waste of time. New Yagi style antenna was worse than the10"x10" flat panel hang on the wall crap i had. Was outside removing new antenna and realized what signal I had with it was just the 30' of coax. Could see the TV thru front door. The antenna was doing NOTHING. Gonna send it back and just wait till I can afford cable again.
 
KTMLew01 said:
So...that was a waste of time. New Yagi style antenna was worse than the10"x10" flat panel hang on the wall crap i had. Was outside removing new antenna and realized what signal I had with it was just the 30' of coax. Could see the TV thru front door. The antenna was doing NOTHING. Gonna send it back and just wait till I can afford cable again.
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A Yagi Style antenna is a directional antenna rather than a multi-directional antenna. I could be that you weren't pointed directly at the broadcast tower. Even if you are only off a few degrees, it can cause a huge loss of signal. You may want to look at something more like this ==> I purchased one of those last year. I don't remember paying that much though so I'm sure they are available for much cheaper. It allows you to pick up signals from multiple directions. I live about an equal distance and pull in the signal from three different cities that have OTA channels. With that antenna, there's no need to aim it in any particular direction.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
A Yagi Style antenna is a directional antenna rather than a multi-directional antenna. I could be that you weren't pointed directly at the broadcast tower. Even if you are only off a few degrees, it can cause a huge loss of signal. You may want to look at something more like this ==> I purchased one of those last year. I don't remember paying that much though so I'm sure they are available for much cheaper. It allows you to pick up signals from multiple directions. I live about an equal distance and pull in the signal from three different cities that have OTA channels. With that antenna, there's no need to aim it in any particular direction.
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Stupid question, but if the antenna has to be pointed at the tower, do you need multiple antennas pointed at multiple towers if you want to get more than one station?
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I've posted videos over in the Cable Cutters Thread - Chit Chat edition. It takes no more than five minutes to set up a firestick iptv connection. Heck, I recently posted a video for a Terrarium TV setup. Again, about a five minute procedure. The awesome thing about it is that it is free. No live channels on Terrarium, but all of the television shows & movies your could ask for.
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I have a problem with many "how to" videos shown on line. Most can't describe what they are doing and my brain won't compute.
A little comedy here but did you know the basic step to watching TV is to turn it on yet most manuals will not tell you that. :D
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Stupid question, but if the antenna has to be pointed at the tower, do you need multiple antennas pointed at multiple towers if you want to get more than one station?
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A Yagi Style antenna would have to be pointed towards the towers that you are trying to get a signal from. They normally come with a rotating mount. You may or may not have to rotate that sort of antenna to pick up the signal properly.

The multi-directional like I mentioned above, and also have installed in my location, does not have to be rotated.
 
Team Penske said:
I have a problem with many "how to" videos shown on line. Most can't describe what they are doing and my brain won't compute.
A little comedy here but did you know the basic step to watching TV is to turn it on yet most manuals will not tell you that. :D
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There are multiple steps that have to be taken in order to install some IPTV services. The video's that I've posted show you those steps and are extremely simple to follow. I think many are under the impression that this type of think is very difficult. That couldn't be further from the truth. I agree there are some that go into every detail unnecessarily but then there are others that are pretty straight forward.

I think people that have not used a streaming service have a hard time visualizing how it all works. I think they also get confused because of all of the viewing options that they have available to them.

The nice thing is that most services these days have zero commitment, no contracts and the like. I can't really speak for cable but the two leading Dish companies out there start you off with a two year commitment with a penalty for breaking that commitment. Each time that you try to upgrade your equipment with them, a new 2 year commitment is attached to that upgrade. Once your 2 years are done, you can disconnect from them without breaking the contract.

I had to wait until February of last year to exit my Dish Network package. I decided to go strictly streaming. I went with Vue TV. A service that I saw @AndyMarquisLive talking about. I researched many different options but that was the only one that would give me my locals and all of the other channels that I watched with the exception of our local sports network. There wasn't an option out there other than cable or satellite that would give me that local sports network. That forced me to look at alternatives. I asked around and found out information about IPTV services. I tried a 3-day free trial of one and was hooked immediately. Not only could I get my regional sports channel, I got every sports channel and a whole lot more. It also gave me access to every NASCAR broadcast which is what this whole thread is to be about. I've derailed it enough with the IPTV talk. If anyone is interested in info on these types of things, there is a thread over in the Chit-Chat section that has a lot of information.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Stupid question, but if the antenna has to be pointed at the tower, do you need multiple antennas pointed at multiple towers if you want to get more than one station?
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unless you live in urbanburbia most over the air antennas are pretty worthless. Live in a valley, have obstructions along the beam, or the individual TV broadcast antennas have a wide spread among them or over 25 miles in distance. Been there done that.
 
StandOnIt said:
unless you live in urbanburbia most over the air antennas are pretty worthless. Live in a valley, have obstructions along the beam, or the individual TV broadcast antennas have a wide spread among them or over 25 miles in distance. Been there done that.
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Not entirely the case. At least not in my instance. I live in a valley about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh picking up all of their locals with the exception of ABC.
 
whole lot of variables, that is why I said urbanburbia.
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dpkimmel2001 said:
A Yagi Style antenna is a directional antenna rather than a multi-directional antenna. I could be that you weren't pointed directly at the broadcast tower. Even if you are only off a few degrees, it can cause a huge loss of signal. You may want to look at something more like this ==> I purchased one of those last year. I don't remember paying that much though so I'm sure they are available for much cheaper. It allows you to pick up signals from multiple directions. I live about an equal distance and pull in the signal from three different cities that have OTA channels. With that antenna, there's no need to aim it in any particular direction.
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I probably never exceeded four revolutions a minute but definitely spun it around several times/directions. My actual problem is probably the free TV is picked up. The tuner on it seems to be much more sensitive than any i've ever had. The flat indoor antenna i have used in the past has always received 15-20 glitch free channels. This TV seems to struggle across the board. I sent the new antenna back to Amazon and ordered another this evening. Oddly enough about 5 dollar difference for a motorized type. I'll get a couple sticks of 1" conduit to put it on. There are already some mounts on side of house. But i'm stream of consciousness rambling now...:rolleyes::eek::D:D:D:D:D:bsflag:
 
2 Sweet said:
Eh, I guess I've just had bad luck. I signed up for Set TV and it got shut down a week later. Tried to sign up for another service and had issues getting it to even take my information on the website. Tried to sign up for yet another (Boom Boom or something) and it was "out of stock" whatever they mean by that.

I finally cut the cable cord, but I don't trust any IPTV to last and I don't want to bother chasing the latest and greatest every month or so. Youtube TV has been great so far, and performs flawlessly thru Roku.

As far as Terrarium TV goes, it barely works for me anymore. It used to work great but nowadays I have about a 10% success rate when it comes to finding a decent stream. Kodi is still as glitchy and inconsistent as ever, but it's free so I can't complain too much.
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I was hesitant to try TikiLive myself for that reason, but it is listed on MAVTV's website as a provider so it's at least legal. I'd be hesitant to try anything that's not YouTube TV, Playstation Vue, Hulu Live, DIRECTV Now or Sling. The rest seem to fade away.
 
Misinformation abounds but it is what it is I guess. You can take advantage of what's available to you or not. I think it's great that there are so many options out there. A little homework on the subject went a long way to help me save a lot of money over this past year. Was only trying to pass on what I've learned to help others save $'s as well.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Misinformation abounds but it is what it is I guess. You can take advantage of what's available to you or not. I think it's great that there are so many options out there. A little homework on the subject went a long way to help me save a lot of money over this past year. Was only trying to pass on what I've learned to help others save $'s as well.
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Like you Ive saved over 1,000 a year by using available technology, no way in hell I would do it any other way now. Ive built Firesticks for friends and family and they are saving too.
 
I'll snap a pic of new antenna tomorrow. Only used one 10' section of conduit as it's not likely to make a difference due to trees. Plus IMO you get very high you would need to run support cables. It still will occasionally drop signal but at least don't have to go outside to tune this one. Just tap the remote a time or two to get it better. I need a different TV. Will get one when i eventually go back to work.
 
I am really getting excited reading this thread. I don't have a clue what anyone is saying but it is exciting. Some have mention Roku ?? I have an ARNU box that runs on KODI. Sure wish I could figure out how to find racing on it.
 
KTMLew01 said:
I'll snap a pic of new antenna tomorrow. Only used one 10' section of conduit as it's not likely to make a difference due to trees. Plus IMO you get very high you would need to run support cables. It still will occasionally drop signal but at least don't have to go outside to tune this one. Just tap the remote a time or two to get it better. I need a different TV. Will get one when i eventually go back to work.
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I hope this goes without saying but just in case. During the installation of an antenna, it's really important that you re-scan for the channels between movements of the antenna. The television has to lock in the signal through the scan process before it would be made available to you for viewing.

Just to kind of give you an example of what I am talking about. I go rving a lot in the summer. Each and every time that we go to a new location out of our local viewing area, I have to re-scan for the channels so that I am able to pick up the channels local to that new area. When I get home after a trip I have to do the same from my home location. It's not like the days of old where you simply tune to the local stations number, turning the antenna and eventually getting the signal. Digital reception does not work that way.

Using one of those links I provided earlier. Enter you location to find out what direction the stations are that you are looking for. Point the antenna in that direction. Run the 'Scan Channels' option on the television. It will only then lock in the channels for viewing.
 
We used to use Sling, but for the last year I have Hulu...had a better Sports Package (at least at the time I switched). I pay just under $60 a month total for my Hulu but that includes HBO.
 
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