Aereo's Antenna Farm

aereo is being sued by abc, it could be a turning point in media history. they are stealing the signal and selling it. it's not as simple as that, but things may never be the same.

 

...believe it went to US Supreme Court this week...does not sound like the SCOTUS judges were very supportive...owner says he probably folds company if it's ruled against.

 

Too bad.

Aereo is an interesting concept. I could defend either flag in the SCOTUS case, but generally speaking I'm thinking that it would be refreshing to be able to get local content without having to pay $50-100 a month to one or two cable providers mostly paying for content that I am not at all interested in.
I do not think that Aereo is stealing the signal, but I do think that their solution is probably coloring outside the lines, since they're re-selling.
I do think that this technology could be adapted to offer live OTA signals over the internet, eliminating the need to buy cable to get network and public TV clearly, but there might not be enough profitability to make that viable in markets were OTA reception is an issue.
Most people aren't old enough to remember when VCRs were going to be the death of the movie and TV industry and how we came close (in a 5-4 decision, IIRC) to not being able to legally record OTA TV signals in our homes.
Currently I'm only paying for Netflix, and so I'm struggling with the black art of antenna theory and wave propagation to try and get local TV, and I work for Big Bell - so I have ponies in the race.

I'd happily stroke a check to Aereo to be able to stream content in my own market in real time...and then save it to my own recorder to watch later, which would be....and would have been 100-percent legal.
It they (Aereo) go Tango-Uniform after what will probably be a SCOTUS loss, then I think that there is a market for an adaption of the technology - but we'll see.
My track record for predicting SCOTUS cases is demonstrably as poor as everybody else.

 

Local channels have always been free. All it takes is an antenna. People have forgotten this for some reason. In fact, OTA HD quality rivals that from cable or satellite because the latter two uses compression in order to carry all the channels in a single wire.

This is not new technology. $100 Slingboxes have been offering live online streaming for over a decade. I had a Slingbox connected to my sister's home with cable TV 10 years ago so that my brother and I could watch ESPN. My brother watched from Japan. The difference is that Slingboxes did not have DVR functions and did not allow you to record any content, it had to watched live.

And finally, Dish Network is working on a live internet tv service that does not require a satellite dish installation. I don't think aereo will last long even if the judgement is in their favor.


iPhone ?

 

+1
I'm almost 70 air miles east of NYC, I have a rooftop antenna for football season because the quality of CBS-HD and FOX-HD OTA (Over The Air) from the antenna blows away the compressed garbage Cablevision feeds us.

It will be a shame if Aereo gets shut down, anything that competes against big monopoly cable is good!

 

I've had an old fashioned antenna on my chimney for decades, get 36 channels, most in 720p/1080i, and free.

If I can't find something to watch, then it's time to find something else to do.

I've saved myself tens of thousands of $.

 

I wasn't aware that Slingboxes were able to stream OTA signals without antenna(e) or a cable or satellite subscription.
The problem that you face once you get away from a large city lies in reception.
It's clear (punn almost unintended) that the new digital format offers a far superior picture but there are sometimes problems with digital reception if you live between markets or your channels are half HVF and half UHF. This usually necessitates either a large outdoor antenna and/or a rotor.
Before this year it wasn't much of an issue since I could put up an antenna large enough to require aircraft warning lights...but I live in town now and getting the antenna just right has been problematic for me so far.
Snooty city dwellers usually frown on an NSA style antenna farms and BUDs (Boig Ugly Dishes.)
To make matters worse I'm hemmed in by trees, so I cannot redeploy the small satellite dish without permits and prostrating myself before the city "arborist." and paying four figures for removal.

I'll solve MY antenna problem, but I can deeply empathize with those who just want local content without having to pay big media most of $100 a month most of which goes to offset zillion dollar licensing fees for content that I do not watch....and THEN having to settle for sub-par picture quality, outtages, rate hikes, etc.

 

ota is not 'free', there is a cost involved and down the road, someone is going to be paid or it will go away. it might be in your cable bill now.

 

No, Bisco OTA is actually free, you just have to invest in an antenna and feedline! But every major city on down have ABC CBS NBC and PBS as staples of the OTA format. Discovery and History and the like are Cable shows, apples & oranges!
I have heard if Aereo wins, CBS will shut down all OTA broadcasting. But there is that little rule that the stations must maintain OTA for if nothing else people who don't have cable Directv, the other main reason is Emergency Broadcasting! I work for ABC, They will figure out a way to get a piece of the pie!

 

You used to be able to slip a Slingbox in between your cable or OTA connection so that it's operation was seamless. That's why my sister allowed me to install it in her home. It used up a bit of her upstream internet but otherwise she won't notice anything. Those days are over. They don't sell Slingboxes with digital tuners anymore. Comcast cable in our area just last year scrambled their digital channels, so you can't use cable either. Now you need a cable or satellite box connected to the Slingbox.

I use a ~$70 Clearstream antenna from Costco with the optional VHF attachment and mount it on the roof. It is about the size of 20" monitor, not that big. It is connected to a dual tuner HDhomerun directly into my router. An old windows 7 PC serves as my DVR. No monthly subscriptions. The VHF channels don't work all the time. But I can still watch the latest 2 episodes of any show on Hulu for free.

I have heard that HOA's cannot restrict you from receiving any of the three TV services due to emergency broadcasting. They can only restrict you on installation location.

 

Actually?
I think that the BEST thing for the broadcast industry would be for Aereo to win the SCOTUS case, and the fact that someone in the broadcast industry got away with even thinking out loud that they could threaten to stop OTA broadcasting is illustrative of the problem that exists in this industry.
I'm not 100-percent sure but I deeply suspect that the bigs got some federal cheese for switching to digital broadcasting, and I also deeply suspect that the reason (stated) for this switch has nothing to do with Americans being able to watch "Dancing With the Stars" in Hi-Def.
The government even handed out zillions of dollars worth of converters to transmorgify the signal so that your old cathode ray tube TV could receive these signals.

Remember when listening to a song involved either waiting for it to come up on a radio stations song rotation OR buying the whole CD.....before that the whole tape....and before that?
Anybody remember those days?
The term 'Pirating' actually predates the internet. No....not as far back as wooden ships per-se but the idea that placing a tape recorder in front of your radio to capture your favorite song was a bad thing to do.
Even worse?
There were scofflaws that were using dual tape decks to actually (gasp! ) copy tapes!!
There was even a symbol associated with this nefarious activity:


So....
Fast forward to the mid 1980's.
Anybody remember this???


The idea that people could actually "steal" TV shows (and fast forward through the commercials) actually resulted in another SCOTUS case. Fortunately the good side won out in that one....but frankly I think that Aereo goes one step beyond into the realm of re-selling, which is too bad...if for no other reason because of $100 cable bills and TV executives that think that they can halt OTA broadcasting.
This alone tells me that the industry needs to be shaken up once again.....
And probably again after that.

Meanwhile....I guess it's time to get one of these:

In some areas restricting location just about means that you cannot have an outside antenna, and if you live in-between 2 major TV markets you either have to chose between the two, buy 2 antennas, or get a rotor and greatly complicate your recording task.

 

OTA isn't technically free. It is just that the advertisers are picking up the bill for us. Which is why I don't see how a TV station would have a problem with what Aereo is doing. Unless they they are stripping out the ads, those adbertising companies are still getting the exposure they paid for. It probably just irks the TV stations that somebody found a way to make money off what they just throw up in the air for free. Do the cable and satellite companies pay the OTA stations fees to carry them?

IIRC, digital TV signals take up less of the airwave spectrum than the old analog ones. This gives the Fed bandwidth to apply to other, growing uses, like cell phone signals.

 

I fixed that for you....
The "sell for billions" was the whole idea behind the FCC frequency reclamation project.
It was never about better TV for the masses.
If they wanted better TV reception they never would have split digital TV into VHF and UHF bands requiring two antennas (or a large combo UHF/VHF antenna) for digital TV reception.

 

the article i read was of the opinion that this court case is the best thing that could have happened for consumers. win or lose, just like free music, the industry will never be the same.

 

apologies, i just meant that there is a cost involved and someone is paying it. i do have an hd antennae for when my cable goes out.

 

It's amazing how much processing is eliminated with the OTA feed. My old UHF antenna is still the best. Good UHF coverage. I will take a UHF Yagi any day!!!

 

i have a $50. rca flat indoor antenna that works great. (looks like a notebook and sits under the tv) but i'm only 10 miles from broadcasters.