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Entertainment Free TV

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by tchow, Feb 13, 2014.

  1. tchow

    tchow New Member

    Free TV



    Telus, Shaw, and Bell are not the only sources of entertainment, the link can be severed and still get a healthy dose of news, drama, comedy and movies. People have forgotten that broadcast TV used to be free, the only obligation is to watch a short commercial. TV still can be free. The three basic free TV methods are Streaming, OTA, and FTA. The simplest form of streaming can just be a computer logged onto a free streaming web site and watch the hosted material on the computer screen. THE computer can be connected to the TV via it's external monitor port or the HDMI port if it has one and sit back on the sofa and enjoy the streamed material just like any TV program. Alternatively You can use Google's chrome cast to stream the material wirelessly to the TV. Streaming don't even need a computer . There are hundreds of media players that can log onto IMS servers and stream thousands of hosted material to the TV . By far a media is the easiest to connect to the TV and set up, Most come with wired and Wireless connection. If the media player is too far from the router or access point to provide a reliable wireless connection and running of a new cat 5 patch cord is not possible , an AC power bridge can be used to connect one of the Lan port on the router to the media player. The media player by far is the easier to install. There are only 3 connections needs to be connected. power connector from the AC adapter, network connection to the cat 5 port and the HDMI or component video to the TV. After a simple set up for the unit to acquire the network address and you can start watching TV drama and movies from mainland China, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan, Japan as well as England and the United States. The most recent episode as well all past episode ever aired. There is just one little problem , quite often clicking on recent TVB episodes, especially ones in Cantonese you will be greeted with a server error, can not play file, or connection refused message. The unit will not elaborate the nature of the error, in reality it is not an error , it is blocked by the server because it detected your unit is not in China due to copyright agreements. . An HTPC or a computer on the other hand is not as restrictive, One can use a VPN, add on, or extension to the browser to bypass the block. With a HTPC attached to the TV via a HDMI port and wireless keyboard located by the sofa one can start enjoying TVB drama the same day it is aired in Hong Kong, in step with Fairchild 2 HD on Shaw cable. You can watch the current TVB drama on azdrama.sx without any block because it is not hosed within China , but this site only offers the most current episodes, old episodes are removed very quickly to cut down concurrent users on this site to save on bandwidth usage. The best sites to use is hosted in China, Youku and Toudu are two of them. Not only the current episode is offered the same day, all past episodes seems to stay on the server forever, you can catch old dramas from as far back as 2008 or older, great for old older folks to watch drama episodes they watched years ago, both Chinese and American shows.

    OTA " over the air" is the next subject for free TV, like it used to be in the days gone by, before Shaw and Rogers wants your money. They tried hard to scare people saying that when the broadcast industry goes digital as mandated by the government, TVs will not be able to receive commercial TV stations. This simply is not true. They are right in one tiny aspect. Old analogue TV will not work anymore, most if not all TVs produced in the last 5 years have a built in Asic tuner to receive the new digital format. Even older TVs can use a $60.00 converter to continue receiving commercial broadcast. The American government issue every household a converter coupon to help the people who didn't wanted to buy a new TV yet. Let's get back on subject. A good indoor antenna in lower mainland location except Fraserview area can receive all the channels originating from mt.Seymour. An out door antenna mounted barely above the roofline can pick up station such as KCPQ Fox 92 miles towards Seattle. In signal poor area like Fraserview a 10 ft. antenna above the 35 ft standard house height facing Seatac and a lower antenna facing Mt. Seymour yields all the local channels plus KVOS,KCPQ and a host of US channels up to 13 channels in high definition and no monthly bills! BTW because broadcast stations now transmit in digital and in the UHF region of the EMF spectrum, the antenna are not as big as they used to be, very easy to install! A simple UHF antenna will give us all our locals and some American network channels, enough to satisfy just about everybody, except the specialty channels.

    FTA : We now come to the 3rd method of free TV, "free to air" programs broadcast with no encryption, digital clear for anyone to watch. Satellite reception will complete the package to satisfy just about everybody. Vancouver is a multicultural society, so let's start with Galaxy 19 , the satellite orbiting at 97 degrees W latitude. This bird airs 55 Arabic Language channels, 46 English, 26 Farsi, 11 Thai, 9 Vietnamese, 6Turkish, 9 Kurdish, 6 Russian, 4 Lao, 3 French, 3 Urdu, and a host of other channels in various Languages to a total of 218 depending on the time of the day, no wander there are more dishes pointing at Galaxy 19 than any other satellites. There is only one Chinese Language channel on Galaxy 19, that is HzTV and it is a Buddhist channel. Where are the other Chinese channels? Two degrees toward the east at 95 degrees is Galaxy 3C., with a single output Duo block LNBF , you can catch this satellite with the same aim and ad get more Arabic and English broadcasts. Here you will find CCTV4, CCTV 9 , and CCTV news, MacTV , PHKC and HzT V.Moving over to Satmex 6 at 116 degree west you loose the mainland channels but keep PHKC, MacTV , Hwazan instead of HzTV , and two more Chinese channels , G&E TV and DA-AI . The Chinese contain both Cantonese and Mandarin, similar but no quite Fairchild and Talenvision.

    This is just an overview on free TV, to remind everyone that free TV is alive and well, we can definitely do without the cord! WE can discuss each method in details if this post generates interest on the subject.
     
  2. tchow

    tchow New Member

    AMC 21 @ 125 ° W is a must have satellite . It offers Montana PBS, PBS HD East and West, OETA, OKLA, OETA Kids, VME, WORLD, Create TV and more . Create TV along is worth having a dish pointing at this bird. It is the TV channel for cooking, arts and crafts, gardening, home improvement , and travel. Check out their web site www.createtv.com and see for yourself!
     
  3. Vivek Golikeri

    Vivek Golikeri Active Member

    As television through the internet becomes more refined and commonplace, web tv might gradually do the same thing to cable television that fax machines and later emails did to telexes. Additionally, television through the internet will enable people to access television stations anywhere in the world.
     

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