The cost to move to America is quite steep, though, and there are significant drawbacks.
this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2024
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Asklemmy
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Dunno where you are but most countries I've visited in Europe have hundreds of free TV channels broadcast over the air. Minimal ads because a lot of the channels are tax subsidised, or like the UK, a loicense innit
Where I am, you get a TV streaming box from your ISP for a few euros, and streaming is free for about 200 channels; ad breaks are around one minute long every 30 minutes
Heck, here in the UK, we have a TV licence and the OG ad-free service, the BBC.
Yeah, the BBC has had its fair share of controversies over the years, but Iโm still glad itโs there and still ad-free.
People who say the TV licence is a ripoff should be made to watch US cable TV. I nearly gouged my fucking eyes out with a rusty spoon.
The BBC produces the best quality TV programming on the planet
An awful lot of shite as well
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I am aware. I am also aware that I haven't used cable tv over a decade and I do not regret ditching that garbage
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The transition from analog to digital really hurt my desire to watch OTA TV (you caught me! I'm not under 25).
With analog broadcast, any weak signal or interference produced a little bit of static, but you could still see and hear what was being said. With digital, any weak signal means dropped frames and silence or weird glitches. You completely lose what's happening. Even with a powered antenna, I have frequent issues with weak signal. I could probably try to get a rooftop antenna installed, but there's no guarantee it would be any better. It's just easier to find other entertainment at this point.
Ditto. We went from having five channels, one snowy on a bad day, plus a bonus 6th channel when the stars aligned, to two channels at best.
The broadcasters and regulators took a basic fact about digital signals "We can get a better quality signal with less transmission power" and saw it as a challenge to set up their digital transmitters with the most conservative estimate of minimum power required. I haven't studied well enough for my amateur radio exam to know if I'm comparing apples to oranges, but I'm still shocked to see descriptions of transmitter power go from 100kW in one case to below 20kW.
I hear that. We have an attic yagi aimed directly at Seattle from 10 miles away, and we still get the occasional dropout even on our strongest signals.
Still when it works, it works really well. We watch Nature and Nova on Sundays, and the wildlife footage looks incredible.
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Ads, ads everywhere.
Besides there, there is also a 4k OTA standard, ATSC 3.0. Most TVs don't support it yet, but some do. Worth googling before you buy. You can also get something like an silcondust 4k standalone tuner and plug that into your home network instead. You then load its app to watch over the air TV in 4k.
If you do buy the silicondust tuner, you can go further and get a DVR going. Plenty of free projects that will help you setup and record TV like jellyfin, and many of them will auto-skip the ads too with an application called comskip.
Atsc 3.0 requires an internet connection for it's bullshit DRM
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I don't care about cable TV. In Hungary nearly all news broadcasts over here are just propaganda machines and spitting out literal garbage content. Also the ads.
UbO + Internet + torrent goes br
23 year old here btw
This (applies everywhere). Besides it's all aimed at boomers and not at all engaging. People who are internet savvy can easily find better free content.
See this is what Iโm talking about. Cable is not the same as over the air. Iโm not sure how your cable works in Hungary content/pricing-wise, but I do find it funny that a lot of younger people in this thread are lumping the two together.
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Im really glad I moved to germany, aside from all my bad experiences there, the whole place was a shithole from the beginning. I just want to See that place burn
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The ads on over the air programming are so so terrible. And even with a great antenna the many channels aren't exactly the highest quality content even if they didn't have ads.
YouTube has taken the place of over the air TV and for good reason.
It has taken the place in people's behaviour but it has not taken the place functionally. No doubt, you use technology to filter ads out of YouTube viewing, and one could do the same with OTA broadcasts.
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Whatโs the password for the โUHFโ wifi?
Password is WeirdAl.
We've got it all on UHF!
SUPPLIES!
You mean OTA TV? I don't even watch sports, the rest has 10 minute advertisements. And considering it's digital, I don't find it interesting at all. Yes, a weird reason, but anyway.
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Yes.
https://fmhy.net/videopiracyguide#live-tv-sports
Although I don't tune in to live sports, I just share resources to find free livestreams/media with others :P
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why would I use that when I have a *arr setup?
Nice try, Channel Master.
(Assuming you mean DVB-T). In some place OTA is just the standard. Where I'm from cable TV is simply unheard of and all terrestrial digital channels are free with varying degree of ads.
Another great example of how things work so different in different parts of the world
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You can also watch Pluto TV. No sign in or fee. Lots of 24:7 dedicated channels for shows like Midsommer Murders, MST3K, Americas Test Kitchen, etc as well as variety genre channels
Are you my wife? Since we discovered Pluto, our TVs are constantly flipping between America's Test Kitchen, MST3K, Antiques Roadshow and Jersey Shore if we're feeling especially rowdy.
There's also a Mr Rodger's Neighborhood channel that our we leave running in the mornings for kid and dogs when we leave hah.
Ah, good old linear TV!
Linear TV over an antenna? Well that's only technically free. You'd need to buy a receiving device - that costs money. You need to watch ads - that costs time.
Well considering many paid tiers of streaming services also serve ads, I consider it free-er than that.
Also, most of the hardware is already inside your TV. You just need a $20 antenna.
I have no TV. I watch all my movies and series via a big PC screen which has no TV functionality.
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Are you talking about the US? You really should be mentioning that
Living in tornado alley, having a TV antenna and a weather radio is almost a requirement. If the Internet gets knocked out, OTA still works. Also, my Internet is shit so I wouldn't rely on it if a tornado is bearing down on my location, but I do also love watching 9ยฝ hours of nonstop tornado coverage when nasty storms might come my way.
Outside of that, I know to tune in at about :15 past the hour during newscasts to catch the weather report, which gets uploaded to their website later anyway. If the football game is on, I might catch that if I care to watch. I don't really watch OTA otherwise.
But I'm 32 lol
I assume this depends on where you live, though.
17 here, my grandparents used it before switching 1-2 years ago. Can't imagine the ads are any better that less people watch it and staticy stations were annoying.
I myself don't watch TV that much, mainly YouTube or music. In the last month I've watched ~3 episodes of impractical jokers on the family TV, and 8 episodes of South Park on my Steamdeck before bed.
People would be talking about it if there was anything actually worth watching on OTA channels
Have you looked? A bunch of the new shows on Hulu are broadcast. Lots of reality TV. PBS rules.
Also a bunch of movies. Especially shitty Christmas movies around the holidays which are a personal favorite.
I love my rabbit ears. Watch local news and the super bowl if I care that year.
Vaguely aware that's a thing you can do, but I have no reason to use it as I don't really watch anything on regular TV anyway
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