Inverse relationship to a commercial length

I'm a pretty dedicated cord cutter because in addition to being a codger in good standing, paying for media seems to be about as wise these days as paying for long distance telephony.

The YouTubes are my only paid-for subscription @ $13 a month.
I do this for the ability to 'load and go' selected content and to lower my phone's screen while driving so that I can listen only and not be one of the many horrible people that I see on the roads watching video while trying to drive.

One of the additional bennies for my $13/mo is that I'm not bombarded with commercials.
The commercials do not bother me very much because I still see them on OTA TV.
I put about $150 worth of antennae and amplifiers in my attic for local TV that we probably watch about 4 hours per month.
A little more perhaps during college football season...
There's also Pluto, VuIt, and other aps that show commercials for allowing you to watch their stuff.

I considered subscribing to the YouTubes for regular TV, but at well over $80 month it's far from being worth it for me, and besides.....I never have time to watch all of the video from my subs from the $13 plan.

My mileage.
Yours will vary.

 

For YouTube on our TV, son switched us to from an Apple TV, to SmartTube on a ChromeCast. Somewhat involved install, but worth it: totally ad-free, including commercials within the videos. Hopefully continues thus, say if YouTube takes action.

 

website issues

 

We have antennae tv = $0.
A couple of months ago our only TV went out.
Bought a 32" Roku TV from Walmart for $120.
Once you buy the Roku TV there is no other investment for the content.
Everyone seems very satisfied with this arrangement and my cost after the $120 for the TV = $0, so I am very satisfied.

I find I hardly watch TV these days especially don't watch any news content - heaven forbid.

My guilty pleasure on TV is the Longmire TV Series about a modern-day sheriff out west. For my $.02 they can keep the rest of the programming.

At my age things like You Tube have passed me by and I'm not sure I missed anything in that process.

 

Tablo antenna dvr works for me. Includes an app to watch live or recorded content throughout the house. Commercial skip on some recorded content or fast forward if desired. A better way to watch nfl if you allow it to record for an hour first. Amazon Prime for shopping with included shipping also provides a huge video library without commercials. Kanopy free movie app with no ads using a library card. PBS app for their programming with no commercials. I use YouTube with commercials rather than $13.99 per month (more if subscribed through an IOS app). Netflix through a relative’s subscription.

Last night’s Tablo ota recording

 

The only reason I spend the $13 is that I have an inexpensive cell plan with a small data bucket, which makes the load and go a must for listening to the Tubes on the road.
My CFO likes the Amazon Prime (who doesn't?) which also gives me video content but lately I haven't had much time to dip into that. I do not even remember if I have the ability to lower the screen while I watch stuff from Bezos Prime - which isn't a deal-breaker for me.

I might look into Kanopy and Tablo.
I have a DOD library account with a vast collection of books but I'm not sure about the video.
Of course they TRY to force me to use Libby but there are still ways around that - at least for now. (IYKYK)

I'm reviewing Tablo as I tap this out.
I had some cheap ChiComm knockoff tuner/DVR that I bought as a $25 signal strength meter so that I could peak my antennae signals. I live between two TV markets that are offset about 160-degrees whose transmitters are both > 40 miles away.
Government is forcing us to use ATSC1.0 at the behest of paid media, and they are counting on 99% of the people in our great land to give up on OTA TV and just pay to view.
Since subscription TV plans are getting more and more expensive, and 'cord cutters' are taking more and more of a bite out of everyone's profit margins, we will probably be forced into the newer ATSC3 standard - but I'm hoping for backwards compatibility to get me to the finish line -
ANYWAY......My $25 'Flailing Unicorn' tuner/dvr failed the ID10T owner test.
IIRC lightning zorched a plug-in power supply for an alarm system and I was while I was juggling barrel connectors trying to figure things out, I believe I zorched the 'happy dragon' (or whatever) cheap Chicomm tuner/dvr.

EDIT:
The Tablo is a superior product.
It's highly rated and would meet my needs but it's a little spendy, and it does not have a real-time signal strength meter.
I'm planning on upgrading my antennae in the near future and thus I'm either going to have to troubleshoot the ChiComm unit or just dope-slap myself and get a $25 replacement.

 

I use a direct to tv connection when aiming the antenna which is a rare occasion once lined up. Lots of channels with redundancy since I also get two markets in opposite directions.


Since most ota hd is on uhf now (with virtual original channel numbering) I found a flat panel uhf antenna picks up both directions. This is combined with a directional vhf for the remaining, forced to low power, vhf hd channels.



End result good reception and local hard disk recording of Austin and San Antonio channels.

 

Nice set up.

We have an indoor 12''x12" flat panel antennae - your set up puts ours to shame!

 

For OTA I cobbled this a few years back, coupled with a powered splitter. Almost never watch though, just stuff like the Olympics.

 

Wow.
I can actually say that I sort of know somebody that still watches SNL.....

 

Fast forward helps. Depending on the host, some episodes are excellent through weekend update.

 

i mute the youtube ads and read the comments below while waiting

 

Lol... I pay Youtube $10 a month... Haven't seen a single ad on that website in 10 years of watching it every night. It's money well spent!

 

ChromeCast gizmo was $40 CDN. SmartTube a free download. You do need a hacker in the family I think; no way I could install it, no clue.

downside: it’s just for one device.

 

I must have to pay a $3.99 +ttl surcharge to Alphabet for political unreliability.

It's worth it, and it's still much much cheaper than the delta between my $25/mo cellular plan and a comparable unlimited plan.

 

Pretty neat.
Does it pull in the stations pretty well for you?

 

Locally we have 5~6 channels, and most of them are transmitted from a mountain perp to that wall, and off in that direction (far side). The screen helps, boosts signal a bit.

We’re in North Coquitlam, and the mountain is Seymour, to the west.

Just luck to have a second floor wall at 45 degrees like that.

so yeah, not a lot of channels, but good strength. Still we almost never watch lol. Mostly YouTube.

 

That's good.

When we built our home we made it energy efficient and it included installing roof sheathing with a radiant foil barrier.

Little did I realize at the time how that foil would disrupt radio and TV signals into the home.

 

But at least you can impress your tin foil hat friends...