Author Topic: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)  (Read 5930 times)

rebecuna

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Here's my basic question: can I watch live sports on major networks through my computer if I have internet but no TV/cable?

We haven't had a TV in years, and I don't want the ugly box in my living room just for occasional sports, but DH is really missing watching NFL, in particular. I know there are tuner kits you plug into your computer to get your TV through your laptop, but it's unclear to me what those would attach to if you don't have an existing TV or cable? Would you just connect to an antenna? Would that work?
Like this: http://www.amazon.com/Avertv-Hybrid-Volar-Windows-MTVHVMXSK/dp/B002U6KT8U/ref=cm_cd_al_qh_dp_t
plus this: http://www.amazon.com/August-DTA180-Digital-Antenna-Television/dp/B004041YYS/ref=pd_sim_e_4

I'm bogged down by the techie-ness of some of the threads here, though they're full of interesting information. I've read 20+ pages and haven't seen anything like my question, so maybe someone can just point me to it?
Thanks!

OptimusFrugal

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2013, 09:39:16 AM »
If a TV with an antenna works at your house,  that tuner will work there too.   I have a tuner similar to that on my windows 7 PC and it works with MediaCenter (software that is a part of windows 7)  to watch and record TV shows from the tuner.

After you plug in the tuner,  just open the Mediacenter program and go through the setup.  The tuner will search for available channels etc. 

StarryC

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2013, 10:23:30 AM »
You would plug the thing with a USB on one side and a round thing on the other into your computer USB port.  The "round thing" is a "coaxial" hook up.  The second thing you posted has a cable that hooks up there.

It works like a radio.  The waves travel over the air and hit the antenna (the second thing).  Then they are transferred to the "tuner" (the first thing) that interprets them into video and sound and then sends the data to your computer. 

So, yes, if the waves get to where the antenna is, you can watch whatever program is on those digital tv waves. One way to find out if your house is in the range of the waves from nearby transmitters (stations) is this website: http://www.antennaweb.org/Address.aspx Put in your address. If the stations are listed as yellow, a simple antenna will probably work.  If you live in a valley surrounded by mountains, or 50+ miles from the nearest city in the mountain west, it probably won't. 

However, the one you linked is pretty low quality and not very adjustable.  I'd recommend one like this:  http://www.amazon.com/RCA-ANT111-Basic-Indoor-Antenna/dp/B000HKGK8Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1384881382&sr=1-3&keywords=antenna

rebecuna

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2013, 01:05:20 PM »
Thanks, that's very helpful! So, on the antenna checking website it comes back saying I need a large directional antenna mounted on my roof... that sounds bad. And it also says "Up to 1 channels from 1 over-the-air stations may be received at this location"... that doesn't sound like enough. Am I out of luck?

We just bought this house this summer, and there is a huge satellite dish mounted on the side of the house... I don't suppose that's helpful at all, is it?

StarryC

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2013, 01:25:19 PM »
Here is what I would do.  Do you see anything in your house that looks like a TV hookup?  Like this: http://www.hardwarestore.com/coax-cable-wall-plate-116346.aspx

Or maybe just a cord coming out of the floor or ceiling that ends like the antenna cable ends (a metal ring with a sharp wire sticking out in the center)? 

I'd go around hooking up a TV or computer with the tuner to one of those and see what happens. I'd also go out to the satellite dish and inspect it.  What are the cords coming out of it?  Where do you think they go?  Maybe there is a way to get rid of the satellite dish and replace it with a big antenna and use the existing cables. 

Probably the satellite dish is for this system: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_receive-only  I've never had one, and Wikipedia says the channels have been taken off line.  But I don't know that for sure. 

But, what this probably means is that you live too far from the transmitters for an antenna to work.  For sports, I'd recommend checking out the streaming options for each individual sport, U-stream, live radio broadcasts, and the cost of beers at a sports bar compared to cable. 

nawhite

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2013, 01:52:01 PM »
This may be a much simpler idea if it is available in your area: https://www.aereo.com/

Basically you pay about $10 per month and they give you access to an antenna in your city and stream it all to your computer or tablet. They even let you DVR a show. You get access to any station available over the air in your area including sports. Sounds like it fits your use case well, but it is $10 / month.

Its invite only for now but if you'd like an invite let me know.

Bruised_Pepper

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2013, 02:01:30 PM »
Does your husband have a specific team that he wants to watch/follow or does he just want to watch a football game every week to keep his testosterone pumping?  This is an important distinction when talking about sports access.

rebecuna

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2013, 05:32:00 PM »
Yes, I have TV hookups in 2 rooms, coming out of the floor. I'll get a tuner and see if that will work (I'll be able to return it to Amazon if it doesn't work, right?)  But will I need the antenna first also to be able to test the tuner?

I read about aereo yesterday... I'm 2 hours west of Boston, and it looks like aereo works in the next county over from me to the East, so maybe it will expand? Or maybe that's as far from Boston as it can reach.

Does your husband have a specific team that he wants to watch/follow or does he just want to watch a football game every week to keep his testosterone pumping?  This is an important distinction when talking about sports access.
He would be really happy just to be able to watch the Patriots. Other teams are not really important to him.

Bruised_Pepper

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2013, 05:58:36 PM »
He would be really happy just to be able to watch the Patriots. Other teams are not really important to him.

Okay, here's how the football schedule works--sorry if you already know all of this, but it's how games are assigned between the two major football channels:

The NFL is divided into two conferences: the AFC and NFC.  Every year, each team plays 12 games within its own conference, and four games with a team in the opposite conference.  Two of those non-conference games are played at home, and two are played as a visitor. 

The Sunday afternoon games (1:00 and 4:00 on the East Coast) are split between CBS and FOX.  CBS has the rights to all games where the visiting team is in the AFC, and FOX has the rights to all games where the visiting team is in the NFC.  Since each team hosts two non-conference opponents during the season, each team will play up to 14 of its games on one channel, and up to 2 on the other.  The Patriots are in the AFC, so they would play the vast majority of their games on CBS--so if that "up to 1 channel" you could receive via antenna is CBS, you're in luck.  Each local CBS/FOX affiliate will pick a game to play in each time slot.  Since you live near Boston, your local CBS/FOX affiliate (whoever has the rights to the game in question) will almost undoubtedly pick the Patriots every time.

Of course, one game a week is also played on Thursday night, Sunday night, and Monday night, regardless of the visiting team's conference rule.  Sunday night games belong to NBC, who gladly streams their game for free online every week on NBC.com.  Easy.  The other two games are broadcast on ESPN (Monday) and NFL Network (Thursday), so they are only available on cable/satellite.  I am currently unaware of any legal streaming possibilities there, so whenever the Patriots play on these networks, your husband will need to find a bar/friend's house to watch at.  This of course will require a fee (beers at the bar and drinks/snacks/travel time at his friend's house).  Unfortunately (I guess) since the Patriots are consistently good and wildly popular, their games appear more frequently in the primetime slots, so it's a little more cumbersome being a Patriots fan than a Jags fan. 

So:
- You get Sunday night games from NBC online
- Monday night and Thursday night games are cable/satellite only, so find a communal TV
- The Sunday afternoon Patriot games will be mostly on CBS, so you need to focus on getting this channel

Hopefully that one channel you can get is CBS.  If not, I've heard some fans buy a slingbox and ask one of their friends to stream them the game (I'm not familiar with the product so I can't endorse it).  Similarly, my parents (who have glorious Sunday Ticket) used a webcam pointed at the TV to stream a game to my brother when he was in college.  My dad also used to tape his team's game and send them to a man in England (they met on a fan forum).  Your husband likely knows people in Boston (or at least in better antenna-reception areas) who he could arrange something like this with.  Even if he has to offer payment for the service, it's still cheaper than subscribing to cable. 

MLB and NHL (other sports too, but I'm not a fan of any others) offer their own online viewing package (MLB.TV and NHL GameCenter) for out-of-market games.  So, if you're a fan of a team not in your viewing market--for you, anyone other than the Red Sox and Bruins (and maybe a few others) you can watch if you buy the subscription.  There are ways around the blackouts if you're in-market (definitely for the NHL, haven't tried it yet for MLB), but I won't go into that since it sounds like he's just an NFL fan. 
« Last Edit: November 19, 2013, 06:01:40 PM by Bruised_Pepper »

JessieImproved

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #9 on: November 19, 2013, 06:59:52 PM »
I hope he doesn't watch college, because without cable, you're SOL for ESPN and affiliates.  This is why we still have cable (aka I like being married ^_^).

rebecuna

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #10 on: November 19, 2013, 07:11:55 PM »
Thanks, Bruised Pepper! That's helpful. Back when we had a TV, Monday night games were prime time... no longer, huh?

Great idea about the sling box. I actually know someone in Boston with one, I think... sending him an email now.

We also own a vacation rental property that has Comcast cable, so I've been able to use that account to, say, watch the Olympics. I'm not sure what else that gets me, though... does it help at all for cable-only games?

JessieImproved

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #11 on: November 19, 2013, 07:17:46 PM »
We also own a vacation rental property that has Comcast cable, so I've been able to use that account to, say, watch the Olympics. I'm not sure what else that gets me, though... does it help at all for cable-only games?

If you have a Comcast account, you can use your XFinity login to watch ESPN and such online.

Bruised_Pepper

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #12 on: November 19, 2013, 07:27:34 PM »
Thanks, Bruised Pepper! That's helpful. Back when we had a TV, Monday night games were prime time... no longer, huh?

Great idea about the sling box. I actually know someone in Boston with one, I think... sending him an email now.

Let us know how that works.

We also own a vacation rental property that has Comcast cable, so I've been able to use that account to, say, watch the Olympics. I'm not sure what else that gets me, though... does it help at all for cable-only games?

With cable, you'd still only get one CBS and one FOX affiliate, so I'd assume they'd show the local games for that area (unless they broadcast the main channels from New York/Los Angeles...not sure exactly how that works with cable.)  You'll almost definitely have ESPN through cable, so you'll get Monday night--NBC used to own the rights to Monday night, but they swapped with ESPN a few years ago.  And depending on your package, you might get the NFL Network for Thursday night games, but since it's such a specialty channel, it's probably only available on the higher programming tiers. 

I'll point out for anyone who happens to live out of their NFL team's market that the local CBS/FOX affiliates may show your team depending on your team's popularity and strength (and if their game doesn't conflict with the local team), but you'll likely miss a majority of your team's games without extra help.  The official NFL viewing package is not done through the league like other major sports leagues, but exclusively through DirecTV.  Since most of us aren't signing up for satellite service, I hear you can purchase the product, Sunday Ticket, for your computer "if you can't get satellite where you live"--I've heard cases that DirecTV doesn't verify this, but I've never tried myself--but the cost is extraordinary...$350-400 for a season.  DirecTV's contract ends after the 2014 season, and there are whispers that they may not renew the exclusivity portion of the contract.  In the worst case, competition may start and lower the price, but still require expensive TV service to get the product.  In the best case, Google or similar acquires it (they're interested) and sells it independent of television subscriptions.  So, we might see a lot more access to football in the next few years, and if an internet company acquires the rights, maybe even a push for a la carte programming across the board.  Stay tuned.

Bruised_Pepper

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #13 on: November 19, 2013, 07:30:07 PM »
We also own a vacation rental property that has Comcast cable, so I've been able to use that account to, say, watch the Olympics. I'm not sure what else that gets me, though... does it help at all for cable-only games?

If you have a Comcast account, you can use your XFinity login to watch ESPN and such online.

Ah, good point.  Certain cable subscriptions will also give you access to WatchESPN/ESPN3/whatever it's called, where you could watch ESPN channels and some other not otherwised televised events--like all the obscure college sports IIRC. 

rebecuna

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #14 on: November 19, 2013, 07:34:12 PM »
We also own a vacation rental property that has Comcast cable, so I've been able to use that account to, say, watch the Olympics. I'm not sure what else that gets me, though... does it help at all for cable-only games?

If you have a Comcast account, you can use your XFinity login to watch ESPN and such online.

Great! That's what I was hoping. I don't think DH realizes we can do that... I think we should start there, for simplicity and since it's free!

kh

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Re: Can someone explain over the air TV on a PC? (or: live sports with no TV?)
« Reply #15 on: November 20, 2013, 05:21:07 AM »
Reddit.
/r/NFL/ has every game, with sticky posts for live streams. Free, easy.