My Streaming Life

Some of us that are older will occasionally tell of the days of "turning the antenna." If you are older, you probably know what I'm talking about. Back in the days before cable but after the dinosaurs, the only way to watch something on TV was with an antenna. And, depending on how far you lived from the various TV towers, you could find yourself in a situation where turning the antenna was required. We lived in an area where we could pick up TV signals from both Savannah, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida. And, if you look at a map, you'll see there's nowhere that exists that can point an antenna at both places and pick up the stations. They're too far apart to allow that. That meant that a decision had to be made where to point the antenna. Since Savannah was closer, the antenna was pointed to Savannah. Every now and then, we'd turn the antenna to Jacksonville. Sometimes Savannah would have local programming that pre-empted the network programming. Or th...

Comcast TV customers will be hit with an increase in costs soon, according to reports. The TV giant is raising the overall cost of cable TV by nearly 4% nationwide. From the reports, it appears the increase won't be uniform, with some places getting hit harder than others. Additionally, the price increases will impact other lines of business, including Xfinity Internet, although the increase for that isn't clear. Cable TV appears to be the hardest hit, with the Broadcast Fees going up by various amounts, including over $7 in one market : In a letter sent last week to the city of Taunton, Massachusetts, Comcast said the Broadcast TV fee would rise from $18.65 a month to $26 a month, effective December 20, 2022. (Comcast says the Broadcast TV fee is based on the cost of providing local stations in your market.) In addition, Taunton subscribers will see anywhere from $2 a month to $5 a month increase in various video plans, including Choice TV Select and the Digital Preferred Tie...

It was announced earlier this month that local NBC channels were beginning to appear on Peacock . At the time, my local NBC affiliate wasn't available. But that was weeks ago. What about now? Well, I'm still not getting local NBC. And from what I'm able to tell, many others aren't as well. It seems that the rollout isn't quite as staggered as I thought. I was expecting that some would get it along and along, as part of a steady rollout, with the last ones having it by end of the month. Turns out I was overly optimistic about the whole thing. Peacock did roll out NBC affiliate access to some markets, but it was only a few markets that got it. They have been saving up until November 30 for the rest. The good news is that's only a couple of days away. So, if you haven't received local NBC on Peacock yet, know that in a couple of days you will. The bad news, for me anyway, is that I upped my subscription after the rollout started, and for the past three weeks, ...

I've mentioned before about my way of subscribing to streaming services. It's a very cost-effective way of watching the content I want to watch. Now, first a few things that I do that you may not do. Or, more accurately, some things you do that I may not do. First, I don't subscribe to a cable-like service. Examples of what I'm talking about are: Frndly TV Philo Sling TV Vidgo YouTube TV Hulu+Live TV Fubo TV DirecTV Stream Those run from $7/month (Frndly TV, with lots of family friendly content), to $25/month (Philo, which has no news or sports channels), to $40/month (Sling TV, which is the cheapest with news and sports channels), up to DirecTV Stream (starts at $70/month). Some people just have to have their cable channels. I don't. So, I'm not paying for those services. Full disclosure: With me, there are actually two exceptions to this. During college football season, I'll subscribe to a service that has the channels I want. Generally, that's Sling T...

HBO Max has an ad-supported tier that's 1/3 off the price of the regular service. And, that discounted service is on sale right now. But is it worth it? Short answer: yes. Long answer: just keep reading. I subscribe to several streaming services. In fact, I have to check my streaming device menu to see just what all services I have a subscription. There's Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, Frndly TV, Peacock, Paramount Plus, AMC Plus, Disney Plus, Discovery Plus, Showtime, Apple TV Plus, and Starz. So, how much do I pay per month for all this? Around $10-$15 each month. How? Simple. I only subscribe to one at a time. I binge watch all the stuff I want to watch during that month, then the next month I'll subscribe to a different service. Some of the services are only $5 or so, and I may subscribe to two of those during a month. My goal is to keep it under $15/month. So, most of the time, it's one of those services, but sometimes it's two. Over a year, I get to watch a lot of st...

College football season in now in Week 13, the last full regular season week. All regular season games, excepting possible make-ups of postponed games, and the Army-Navy games, will conclude this week. Three games have already been played: two from the MAC on Tuesday, and one SEC game yesterday. All four unbeaten teams are also playing, including the Big Ten East Division being decided between Ohio State and Michigan. Of the other two unbeatens, both are favored with top ranked Georgia playing host to in-state rival Georgia Tech, while Texas Christian hosts Iowa State. If you want to watch all of the games this season, you need access to most of the networks, which can get expensive. Of course, you might not want to be able to watch all the games. This weekend, only one game will not be on these networks. Here are the networks carrying games: ABC ACC Network Big 12 (No games this week) Big Ten CBS CBS Sports Network ESPN ESPN 2 ESPN 3 ESPN U SEC Net...

Thanksgiving Proclamation Issued by President George Washington, at the request of Congress, on October 3, 1789 By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation. Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and—Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:” Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or th...

Today is Doctor Who day. Well, it is for those that care about that sort of thing. On November 23, 1963, at 5:46 PM, BBC aired the first episode ever of Doctor Who. Nobody figured that 59 years later, the TV show would still be relevant. Now, to be sure, the show has not been on for 59 years. In 1989, the 26th season of the show ended. From a London policeman walking in the fog outside 76 Totter's Lane on November 23, 1963, to The Doctor and Ace walking in the sunshine across a field, 26 years and 13 days had passed. The show was canceled, and would remain so for years. A 1996 TV movie made by Universal and BBC failed to be picked up as a series. On March 26, 2005, BBC aired the first episode of the revived series. Initially, it was considered to be a reboot of the series, but it developed into a continuation instead, with all previous episodes as part of the same canon. The show was a worldwide hit, and reached its peak popularity during David Tennant's time as the 10th Doctor...

Being a streamer and having streaming devices connected to the TV opens up a lot of possibilities for streaming holiday content. Let me drop this in right now: I'm not one that's afraid to say "Christmas." I say holidays because the content I'm talking about is more than just Christmas, although the bulk of it is for Christmas. Anyway, there are a lot of ways to stream content for Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other holidays using your streaming devices. And I'm talking about free content. That's right, won't cost you a cent. Most of this is free ad-supported television (FAST) content. Now, if commercials are a problem for you, this isn't the article for you. But, if you don't mind watching some commercials, and appreciate free content as a result, then you have lots of options for watching FAST holiday movies and TV. Pluto TV The granddaddy of FAST apps has a Season's Greetings section. It has nine linear (live streaming) channels. If you l...

Outside the USA, several sports fans care about the World Cup. That's the international soccer championship. There are a number of people that watch it in the USA as well, although its popularity is nowhere that of outside the USA. Kind of like the metric system. Anyway, for those interested, it's certainly possible to stream World Cup coverage in the USA. Live coverage will be on Fox, Fox Sports 1, and Peacock. Fox Antenna, over the air, free. Vidgo Plus, $60/month. YouTube TV, $65/month. Fubo TV, $70/month. Hulu+Live TV, $70. DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month. Fox Sports 1 Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $51/month. Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $70/month. Vidgo Plus, $60/month. YouTube TV, $65/month. Fubo TV, $70/month. Hulu+Live TV, $70. DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month. Peacock TV Peacock is a standalone streaming service that carries NBCUniversal programming, including much sports from NBC as well as exclusive sports programming. Peacock Premium is $5/m...

Recently, I was visiting a family member that had Plex running on a Raspberry Pi device. I had set that up in March and it had been running ever since. So, everything is good, right? Well, not exactly. When I set it up, I followed instructions of others who had set up Plex on Raspberry Pi. And they used the full Raspberry Pi graphical user interface (GUI). You know, with the windows and mouse and such. If you're setting up a personal computer, that's fine. That works well. But, it does take up resources, and that can be a problem. Not a huge problem, but everything the device has to manage and operate that is not needed is a waste of resources, and more importantly, something that can go wrong and cause a device to hang up. You see, Plex should run just fine without the GUI. It has a small Web server running, and if I want to use a GUI, it's easy enough to simply launch a Web browser. And that's how it's managed. We don't need to physically go into the room wher...

College football season in now in Week 12. All four unbeaten teams are also playing, and all are favored to win. Three are expected to be blowouts -- Georgia, Ohio State, and Michigan are big favorites -- but TCU is a close favorite. If you want to watch all of the games this season, you need access to most of the networks, which can get expensive. Of course, you might not want to be able to watch all the games. This weekend, only one game will not be on these networks. Here are the networks carrying games: ABC ACC Network Big 12 Big Ten CBS CBS Sports Network ESPN ESPN 2 ESPN 3 ESPN U SEC Network ESPN+ Fox Fox Sports 1 Longhorn Network (No games this week) NBC NFL Network Pac 12 Network Peacock Stadium FloSports Team1Sports Here is how to watch these networks listed. Note the prices reflect the announced price increases for Sling TV : ABC Antenna, over the air, free. Vidgo Plus, $60/month. YouTube TV, $...

I mentioned recently (again) about Tyler the Antenna Man. He's pretty good about keeping up with things. If you are thinking about getting an antenna, spend some time looking at his YouTube videos . You can learn a lot from him ahead of making your decision. He had a video earlier this week about a really popular, but really bad, TV antenna. Give it a watch, if you or someone you know is looking at getting a TV antenna. [ Direct link ] There are many antennae like this one in many stores, both brick and mortar and online. Be careful with your antenna choice. You want a happy Streaming Life. An antenna like this one can ruin it.

Although we had an antenna in my youth, by the time I was out and on my on, cable was big, and had all the channels I wanted, and more. When I got my own place, I didn't get an antenna because I got cable. That gave me all the local channels. My parents eventually got cable, and finally took down their antenna. I don't know why they didn't just leave it, but this is what they did. When I dropped cable back in 2011, I lost access to my local stations. I didn't often watch local channels, so it wasn't a big deal. There were some network shows I watched, but I was able to watch them on Hulu in 2011. So, I went without an antenna for a while. I put up an antenna and was able to watch local channels that way. Years later, my mother dropped cable, and I put up an antenna at her house. This time, though, it was a little different. She lived over 40 miles from the TV towers, and you can't just get any TV antenna to work. So, I had to do a little research. A couple of ye...

I've never watched Yellowstone. Apparently, I'm missing out on the next big thing. It seems to be a popular show. Some friends who recently cut cable were asking me how to watch Yellowstone. As I don't watch it, I didn't know what to tell them. But, I told them I would find out. You see, I didn't want them to jump to the conclusion that you couldn't watch it. Perhaps they couldn't, but I didn't know. I suspected they could. First thing I had to do was find out just what it was. I mean, yeah, I had heard of it, but it was nothing more than a small blip on my RADAR as nothing more than something that existed. I knew nothing else about it. Until now. My research showed that it was a huge hit show for Paramount Network. Okay, that's a TV channel you can find on cable, satellite, and streaming services. But Paramount has its own streaming service, right? Paramount? Well, yes they do, but the show isn't on Paramount Plus. Turns out that Paramount...

Roku has launched a Sports hub on its devices. The goal is to help users find live and upcoming events. And that is something that is needed. But how well did Roku do? Not as well as I had hoped. If you're a streamer, you may know that there are ways to watch a lot of content. Only, there is no one way to watch everything. Of course, that's true of cable and satellite as well. Some games are available over the air, and most cable systems will carry those, but satellite can be another matter. And, depending on where you live, and how easy it is to put up an antenna, you may or may not be able to watch live local channels for free. This is true of streaming as well. A lot of various networks may be necessary to watch your favorite team. In fact, it's likely that you'll need to be able to watch multiple networks to catch all your team's games. And that can lead to a lot of frustration. I'm using football as an example because it's football season, but this is g...

I've seen a few news articles over the last few days speculating that Walmart is discontinuing its Onn streaming devices. To me, that's not a big loss, as it's one of the worst streaming device lines. The Onn Streaming Stick is simply junk. I bought one in the summer of 2021 and tested it out. And it failed the test. It was slow, frustratingly so. And, it would hang up. I won't go on and on about the Onn Streaming Stick, but if you do want to see all the details of my thoughts on it, look at my post about it from June 2021 . There were/are two Onn devices though. The other one was much better. Even being better, it was not one I would recommend. I wrote about it in July 2021 if you want to read about that . In the last week, there have been reports about the devices not being available for shipping, and not being in stock at several stores. One higher profile article was on 9to5Google :  In the past few days Walmart has entirely ceased online sales of the Onn 4K and Onn...

Everybody suffers from network issues from time to time. I'm actually a bit of a computer expert. I don't know everything about everything. Heck, I don't know everything about anything. But I know a lot about a lot when it comes to computers. That includes networks. Now, to be sure, there are plenty of people, including people I know well, that know a lot more about networks than I do. But, I'm still pretty good. At the very least, I can set up my own network and troubleshoot issues accurately. Just because I'm the family's "computer guy" doesn't mean things don't go wrong. For example, I spent most of the week out of town. I had a business trip (two actually) and squeezed some out of town family time in the middle of it all. And, when I got back home after being away for a few days, I had a problem with my network. Now, picture this. I pull up in the carport and grab my phone to turn on the lights. Many of my lights are on the network, and I c...

College football season in now in Week 11. All four unbeaten teams are also playing, but not all are favored to win. Three are expected to be blowouts -- Georgia, Ohio State, and Michigan are big favorites -- but TCU is an underdog. If you want to watch all of the games this season, you need access to most of the networks, which can get expensive. Of course, you might not want to be able to watch all the games. This weekend, only one game will not be on these networks. Here are the networks carrying games: ABC ACC Network Big 12 Big Ten CBS CBS Sports Network ESPN ESPN 2 ESPN 3 ESPN U SEC Network ESPN+ Fox Fox Sports 1 Longhorn Network (No games this week) NBC (No games this week) NFL Network Pac 12 Network Peacock (No games this week) Stadium FloSports Team1Sports Here is how to watch these networks listed. Note the prices reflect the announced price increases for Sling TV : ABC Antenna, over the air, free. ...

Today is Veterans Day. We have observed it since the end of the first World War, and it became a U.S. holiday in 1954. The president issued a proclamation that year . Proclamation 3071—Veteran's Day, 1954 October 08, 1954 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation Whereas it has long been our custom to commemorate November 11, the anniversary of the ending of World War I, by paying tribute to the heroes of that tragic struggle and by rededicating ourselves to the cause of peace; and Whereas in the intervening years the United States has been involved in two other great military conflicts, which have added millions of veterans living and dead to the honor rolls of this Nation; and Whereas the Congress passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926 (44 Stat. 1982), calling for the observance of November 11 with appropriate ceremonies, and later provided in an act approved May 13, 1938 (52 Stat. 351), that the eleventh of November should be a legal holiday...

Peacock TV has been a good service for the cost. The NBCUniversal catalog is really big, and the free tier offers 1/2 to 2/3 of the catalog (depending on how you count it). The Premium service, which contains the entire catalog, plus lots of live streaming offerings, particularly sports programming, is a good deal at $5/month (free for Xfinity Internet customers). Peacock even has an ad-free tier, which is another $5/month, totally $10/month for everything and no ads for on-demand content (actually, there are ads on a very limited number of items; of course, all live streams have ads). The pricing of the service is similar to that of Paramount+ (no free tier for Paramount, by the way). But Paramount+ has one advantage. Well, had, since that's won't matter soon. Paramount+ $10/month tier includes local CBS affiliate streams. Peacock TV will soon be adding local NBC affiliate streams to the service. According to reports, it's already rolling out in some areas : Once the new ...

Netflix recently launched its new ad-supported tier . It's $7/month, and is the same as the $10/month plan, except you can't download content for off-line viewing, and there are ads. Being someone who doesn't do Netflix, I wasn't sure what it would be like. I dropped Netflix several years ago. I realized several years back that I didn't need to subscribe to everything all year long. Netflix was the first major service I dropped, and it was years before I ever used it again. I only subscribed to Netflix when they brought back Mystery Science Theater 3000, and only kept it until I watched all the episodes. Then canceled it again. They brought the show back for one more season, so I subscribed again, then dropped it again. Recently, I logged in (I only canceled service; I didn't delete the account) and picked the Basic with Ads tier to give it a try. So, how did it go? Well, so far, I've only watched a couple of things. First, I watched Monty Python and the Ho...

It's election day. Now, yes, I know, many people vote early. I won't go into the argument about early voting. Rather, I'm going to focus on how you can watch the election results. If you're streaming, and want to watch the results, there are plenty of free options. There are also paid options. Let's cover the free options first, okay. And, keep in mind, these aren't all of the free options, but these are the most popular. You may already know of these, but if not, and if you want to watch the election results, here are a few. NBC News NOW ABC News Live LiveNOW from FOX Newsy Reuters Most streaming devices have apps for these. And some live streaming services may have channels for these. I'm not sure if I'll actually watch the election results. Yes, there are some races in which I have great interest, and will have cast my ballot by end of day today, I'll probably simply have my laptop on an election results Website or have my phone next to me while I...

list of live streaming services that are raising their prices continues. This time, it's Hulu. Only I'm not sure you can blame this increase on the same reason as the recent Sling TV increase. Recently, Sling TV increased its prices by $5/month because of the settlement of a carriage dispute with Disney. Because of the increased fees Disney charges for their services, Sling TV has now gone up in price. This increase for Hulu+Live TV isn't because of a carriage dispute, however. Disney owns Hulu, so Disney is paying itself for the service. But, the fact that other services have gone up recently -- YouTube TV, Fubo TV, and Vidgo all saw increases ahead of Sling TV -- means that Hulu+Live TV now goes up as well, and it gets lost in the mix. Well, it's not lost on everyone. Disney caused the price increases in the other services, then the day after the last service they gouged announced an increase, Disney's own service (Hulu+Live TV is owned by Disney) went up too. I ...

I've been testing a privacy phone for a few months now, and have decided on the phone to go with. I'm using the Google Pixel 4a running Lineage OS. While the phone is a Google brand, it doesn't have Google Services running. That means some apps won't work, but most of the apps work just fine, or I have found alternate apps that work fine. However, not everything is fine. And that's the problem. There are still some things that are very difficult to do with my Lineage OS phone. And, it related directly to apps. This week, for instance, I'm out of the office at a conference, and the conference is using an app for keeping up with events and such. The app runs on iOS and Android, but it won't run on Lineage OS. At least, it won't show up in the Aurora Store, not the F-Droid Store. Maybe I should try to download from Google Play, but I'm trying to keep everything Google away from the phone. I don't want a Google back door. So, I'm still running an...

Watching college football games this weekend: Week 10 College football season in now in Week Ten. The highlight will be the only match-up of two unbeaten teams as Tennessee plays at Georgia. The other four unbeaten teams are also playing, and are all favored. Two are expected to be blowouts -- Ohio State and Michigan are big favorites -- but two are only one-score spreads -- Clemson and TCU are favored close. If you want to watch all of the games this season, you need access to most of the networks, which can get expensive. Of course, you might not want to be able to watch all the games. This weekend, only one game will not be on these networks. Here are the networks carrying games: ABC ACC Network Big 12 Big Ten CBS CBS Sports Network ESPN ESPN 2 ESPN 3 ESPN U SEC Network ESPN+ Fox Fox Sports 1 Longhorn Network (No games this week) NBC NFL Network Pac 12 Network Peacock Stadium Here is how to watch these networks liste...