Finding the right TV antenna

If you're a cord cutter, or wanting to be, one thing I would suggest is getting a TV antenna. Depending on where you live, that can be an easy thing or a hard thing. For me, it was not easy.

I live around 40 miles (not less than, but not much more than) from the major TV towers that serve my area. Picking up a good, clear, consistent TV signal means an outdoor antenna for me. That may or may not be the case for you. So, how do you determine this?

There are a few of different Websites that are popular for this. I like different aspects of both, but found that, at least in my case, one give a more accurate picture of what I needed.

One that's highly recommended is TV Fool. It does a pretty good job, However, it underestimated my antenna needs. I tried an indoor antenna -- it called it a "set top antenna" -- but that didn't get me what I was after.

Another thing it didn't quite get right was the actual frequency of one of the Savannah station. It said WSAV is actually broadcasting on channel 39. However, the FCC says it's channel 16 after the most recent repack (which was a while back). So, the database isn't always up to date.

Another popular Website is AntennaWeb. It was a little more accurate when it came to telling me what antenna I needed.

It also got the actually channel for WSAV correct. It actually overestimated for some of the channels. I did need a large antenna with a pre-amp to pick up WTOC, but not the other major channels. However, the larger antenna doesn't hurt.

I had actually purchased a smaller antenna and was able to get the UHF stations without any problem. But, WTOC, being a VHF station, only came in with difficulty. Now, I will say that it was good most of the time. But, every minute or two, there would be a hiccup. The large antenna and preamp solved that.

The other Website is the FCC. They actually have a pretty good map and information about the station, but make no recommendation about an antenna. After all, it's the stations they oversee, not the receiving antennae.

Note the map. I blew it up on two of the stations so you could get a view of what that looked like. It's actually the best for locating the TV tower, in my opinion. As for picking an antenna, it's not that great, but then again, that's not what it's trying to do.

So, what do I recommend? All of them. None are perfect. But using them all, you can get a lot of good information that helps with troubleshooting issues. And honestly, I would expect issues.

But you don't want issues, do you? You just want it to work. And, if I were to pick one that would decrease the chance for issues, I'd say go with AntennaWeb over the others. If it says you need a large outdoor antenna, you probably need a large outdoor antenna.

If you go with TV Fool, be prepared for getting the UHF stations under its recommendations, but expect to be disappointed for VHF. If you're close enough to the tower, you may not be disappointed, but if you live a ways off, as I do, don't expect it to always get it right. If you can live with the UHF stations, you'll be okay with TV Fool.

If you want to get the signal to more than one TV? Well, that's a whole 'nuther thing. This will help you know what antenna you need to get a signal to a device. To get it to more than one device is something we'll talk about later.

And you thought your Streaming Life would be simple. Well, life isn't. No matter what kind of life.

Another Hulu price increase

It seems like just a couple of months ago that Hulu announced a price increase. That's because it was. And now, word is that Hulu is upping its prices. But it's not exactly "another" increase. Let me explain.

In September, Hulu announced that its pricing of their standard plan was going up by a dollar a month. Rather than $5.99 it would be $6.99 each month. Still a good deal, but a price increase is a price increase, and that's never fun.

Now, word is that Hulu is upping the price of their Hulu+Live TV plan is going up by $5/month. I haven't seen a notice from Hulu, but Engadget is reporting the increase will happen in late December, but will include an offset that might make it more palatable:

Disney plans to add Disney+ and ESPN+ to your subscription, and you have no choice in the matter. On Friday, the company sent an email to current subscribers informing them of the impending change. Starting on December 21st, all Hulu + Live subscriptions will include access to Disney’s two other streaming platforms. Previously, you could get Hulu + Live TV on its own.

And with the change, the price of Hulu + Live TV plans is increasing by $5 per month for both current and new customers. Come the 21st, the ad-supported tier will cost $69.99 per month, while the “no ads” package will cost $75.99 every 30 days. If you’re a Hulu + Live TV customer with an existing Disney+ and or ESPN+ subscription, those will roll into the new plan.

Is this a good thing? Well, no. But yeah. Actually, no.

If you have Hulu+Live TV with the Disney bundle -- Disney+ and ESPN+ -- it's currently $73/month. So, that will actually go down by $3/month. But, if you don't want the bundle, just Hulu+Live TV, you will pay $5 more, and get the bundle anyway.

It's a good thing in that if you want it all, you get it for a better price. But, if you only want the one service, you lose that option, and to get that one service, you have to pay more, because the bundle is the only way to get it.

I'm not personally interested in Hulu+Live TV, but if you are, you'll bet paying more, but getting more. If that's something you want in your Streaming Life, you'll be getting a good deal.

Roku sale

I'm don't normally post information about sales here. But these are a couple of good deals. And, in the interest of transparency, I can earn a commission on one of the two. But I'm not posting for that reason. I'm posing because it's a good deal.

What brought this up is I had a conversion this week with someone who is interested in streaming. I recommended a Fire TV Stick 4K, or a Roku stick. At the time, I didn't know about this first deal.

This is a good price. I don't have a link, because the deal isn't until later today, and there is no link. Just go to the Walmart Website, or your nearest Walmart store, and take advantage of this deal.

Walmart is (or will be, at the time this is first posted) selling a Roku device for $15. No, it's not a top of the line device, but it is a Roku streaming device, and it's a good price.

The device is listed as a Roku LE. That's not a standard name for a Roku device. Some years back, they brought back the Roku 1 (model 2710) as the Roku SE. They both were model 2710. They just renamed it for a sale. It appears they're doing something similar. This time, Roku is selling, though Walmart, a device called the Roku LE.

This one is white, and it looks to be a Roku Express. I suspect it's model 3930 (the current Express). Maybe it's some left over Premiere devices (model 3920) but I doubt that.

It's a pretty good deal. I mean $15 for a Roku device is pretty good. The remote alone is $15. But that's not the only sale going on. You can find a Roku Streaming Stick 4K for $30, which is 40% off.

I think  that's a pretty good deal, too. This looks to be a good time to get a Roku if you're just starting out. The LE, even as a low end device, is still a good deal. And the price on the Streaming Stick 4K is hard to beat.

If you are looking to begin your Streaming Life, this is a good time for that. I've enjoyed mine for over a decade. I hope yours goes as well.

Best Animated Films

As I complete moving my movie collection from the old Plex server to the new one, I'm moving movies into collections. As part of my library, I decided a while back to get all of the movies that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I wrote about that recently.

Best Picture winners aren't the only collections I have, though. A couple of decades ago, they added a new category: Best Animated Feature. The resurgence of animated films was the reason for the category. In 1991, for the first time, an animated film was nominated for Best Picture: Beauty and the Beast.

In 2001, the Academy added the new category, with Shrek taking the award.

When I decided to add Best Animated Feature to my library, I already had many of the movies that had won the award, but not all. However, once I made the decision, it was easy to get the ones I didn't have. Well, most of them. Spirited Away, which won in 2002, was hard to find at the time, but can be found easily today. It was the last one I got to complete my collection of that group of Oscar winners. There have been a couple of award ceremonies since then, and I've easily obtained that year's winner, if I didn't already have it.

My library now includes the Best Animated Feature collection:

• (2001) Shrek
• (2002) Spirited Away
• (2003) Finding Nemo
• (2004) The Incredibles
• (2005) Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
• (2006) Happy Feet
• (2007) Ratatouille
• (2008) WALL-E
• (2009) Up
• (2010) Toy Story 3
• (2011) Rango
• (2012) Brave
• (2013) Frozen
• (2014) Big Hero 6
• (2015) Inside Out
• (2016) Zootopia
• (2017) Coco
• (2018) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
• (2019) Toy Story 4
• (2020) Soul

Most of these movies are ones I've enjoyed. Keep in mind, though, that I have them because they won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, not necessarily because I wanted to see them. But, I decided, and have kept with the decision, to get the award winners and watch them. Winning the award does interest me, so I don't mind putting the money into a good film. Of course, as with the Best Picture winners, there are some that I won't like.

Most of them are good films, and I'll continue to add the Best Animated Feature winners to my library, and my Streaming Life.

AMC+

I've not watched AMC in years. In fact, the last time I watched it, it was still American Movie Classics. Well, mostly.

I liked the old network, as well as Turner Classic Movies. The reason? Classic movies. Or movie classics. I love old movies. And when I had two great classic movie channels from which to choose, I was happy.

It hasn't gone by American Movie Classics in quite some time. I've never watched a show on AMC. Now, I have watch a show that aired on AMC, but I didn't watch it on AMC. I watched Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Low Winter Sun. I started with catching up Breaking Bad after hearing good things about it, liked it, and bought the episodes. So, I watched them, but not on AMC.

Same with Better Call Saul. When it was announced, I bought the episodes as soon as they went on sale.

I'm trying to remember how I ran across Low Winter Sun. Probably on Amazon. I think they has a free preview of it. I liked it --Mark Strong and Lennie James are great actors -- and bought the season.

And, I know a lot of people like other shows that are on the network, but I haven't watched them. But, I just might.

You see, AMC+ is on sale. Heckuva price, I think. $2/month for a year. I might just give it a shot. Just, do I want to commit for a year? Well, if I tried it at regular price, that's $9/month. Three months would cost more than a year. So, if there's a time to try the service, this would be it.

Now, I need to determine if I want to give it a shot. I could do a 7-day free trial, but I'd need to make sure I had the time to set aside to five it an honest look. But really, who has that kind of time. So, if I did try it, and wanted to give it an honest try, I'd need to go a full month for sure.

This special is running for a few days, so I've got some time to decide. Do I have enough time to have another service in my Streaming Life? Or would it be a waste of money, despite how good the content might be?

Roku update issues

I promote myself as a long time cord-cutter/streamer. And I am that. And the streaming device I use the most is Roku. I've been a participant in Roku support forums for much of that time.

Recently, there have been a lot of reports form people complaining that their Roku devices aren't working properly after getting the update to OS 10.5.

Roku announced the update in September, and it is getting around to everyone's devices. Roku rolls out updates over a period of weeks and months. Not everybody gets it at the same time. That's probably in case things go bad, you don't have millions of users impacted all at once.

If that is the reason -- and yes, I believe it is -- then that recognizes that things can go wrong. That's not actually a bad thing, the acknowledgment that things can go wrong. Things often do go wrong, and it's nice that they aren't arrogant enough to say it will be perfect, and any problem isn't their fault.

Of course, just because it can be Roku causing an issue, that doesn't mean it is Roku causing an issue. That's why troubleshooting is needed. Try this, what happened? Try that, what happened? That's how troubleshooting works. Most people don't get that.

Another thing people don't like is when things go wrong. And, they shouldn't like it. They paid good money for a Roku device, and should get good use from it. Problems are, well, a problem.

I've watched many updates over the years, and this one seems to have more than others have had. Maybe it's just that so many more Roku users are there that it seems like more issues. However, a small percentage of a large number is bigger than a small percentage of a small number. It could be that the percentage of users with issues is in line with past releases, or even better than past releases. Still, it seems to have more issues.

The thing is, I've not had any issues with this update. I got the update on one device fairly quickly, but it's taken longer for other devices to get it. But my devices have the update, and everything works fine.

Why is it that I don't have issues that others have? Am I just lucky? I don't think so. I suspect I have more issues than I realize, but with my experience dealing with issues, I don't get all worked up, and take a careful measured approach to it. So maybe I am having the issues, but just deal with them better? I don't know.

My overall impression is that I don't have issues with Roku devices or updates. I know that's not actually the case, though. Heck, just recently, I had a Roku Ultra device die on me. So, I suppose I do have issues with Roku devices. However, it seems like I have fewer than most people.

Does attitude make the difference? Am I just lucky? I don't know. My Streaming Life is good. I'm not sure why it's better than some.

Philo adding another channel

While I don't use a live streaming service year-round, normally getting a service during football season only, I have tried all the major ones. One of my favorites is Philo. It has a good selection of channels, and is one of the lower priced services.

With Philo, there are no sports or news channels, but that's actually a good thing, in my mind. I used to watch a lot of TV news shows, but have since found that I'm happier not watching it. I still read the news, but I don't watch talking heads telling me what to think. If news was treated as news, that's one thing. But we have news being treated like a reality show. So, I don't care to watch it, as I think I get less informed watching news than how I get news today.

So, with news not a priority for a live streaming service, Philo is one of the best. And its getting better.

Remember how last month, it was announced that Frndly.TV was adding GAC Family and GAC Living to their lineup? Well, Philo has GAC Family already, but according to reports, is adding GAC Living within the next month.

Philo and GAC Media have agreed to a deal that will make both GAC Family and GAC Living available on Philo. GAC Family has already been carried by the service per an agreement with Discovery, but now, users will have access to the additional programming of GAC Living just in time for the holiday season. GAC Living is set to launch on Philo in early December.

This is a good thing. Of course, depending on what you want to watch, Frndly.TV may be a cheaper option than Philo. But, if the other content from Phil0 is worth it, then it's something you'll want to add.

At $25/month, Philo is a bargain, especially compared to the prices of the other services that carry it. Sling Blue plus Heartland Extra is $42/month. Hulu+Live TV with the Entertainment Add-on runs $73. Fubo with Fubo Extra is also $73.

While Frndly.TV is the cheapest way to get GAC Living, if you want a bit more, then Philo's new deal with GAC makes it an excellent choice to add GAC Living to your Streaming Life.

It's Hulu time again, maybe

I have subscribed to Hulu for ... well, since it was called Hulu Plus and there were two different Hulu services. In other words, for a while. But, during my purge earlier this year, I dropped Hulu. It turns out that I hadn't watched anything on it for some time. So, even though it was only $6/month, that was me paying $6/month for a service I wasn't using. "Heck," I said to myself, "I'll resubscribe in the fall when the new shows start."

I figured in September, I'd resubscribe. But, I didn't. I don't think it even crossed my mind. October came and went. Now we're halfway through November -- yes, we are half-way through November as of this past Monday -- and I still haven't subscribed to Hulu. I suppose I'm waiting on the new episodes to start.

Well, I actually don't know when the new episodes start. But I accidentally found out that some have started. The Rookie, that police show with the guy from Firefly on it, has started. Four episodes in, I think. Maybe five.

Anyway, I suppose it's time to subscribe to Hulu again. I may wait until next week. I still got a lot going on with work, as well as my Plex server. I still have to set up my collections. All the movies and TV shows are moved from the old one, and I'm getting other shows I never finished putting into Plex, primarily the new Doctor Who episodes. I've been working on that along and along.

Speaking of TV, I have Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (don't ask), The IT Crowd, The Outer Limits (1963), and The Twilight Zone (1959). Of course, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is there. So, I've been dealing with TV shows, just older shows. The new ones can wait. But for how long.

I'll probably wait until next week to subscribe to Hulu again. Except that's the week of Thanksgiving. Hmmm.

Some time in December then. Yeah. I'll subscribe to Hulu before the year is out. Probably.

I really though I would miss Hulu a lot more than I have. But, I won't abandon it for good. It will once again be a part of my Streaming Life soon. Or some time.

Dead Roku

My Roku Ultra died. It's the second Roku I've had go bad in nearly 11 years. And, the other one was a Roku Ultra, too.

Until recently, it was my primary Roku device. When I replaced my defective sound bar with a Roku Streambar, the Ultra was assigned to a secondary TV. Well, this weekend, I went to use it, and I couldn't get it to work. It had power, but there was no output to the TV. I changed HDMI cables and ports, but it wouldn't work.

I was able to get a Roku Premiere+ (the Express form factor, model 3921) running, so the TV has a Roku on it, but my Roku Ultra isn't working.

In 2017, a Roku Ultra (model 4660) I had went bad, not long after I got it. Roku replaced it without issue. The device worked well for another four years. That is, until this weekend.

I don't think I'm going to replace it, at least, not yet. The Streambar works well, and the three-year-old Premiere+ works well. This is the first time since I got my first Roku that I haven't had a top of the line model. Next time I need a Roku device, I will get one, but using some of my retired stock works for now.

I'm certainly not soured on Roku by this. The device is four years old, and that's not too bad. I've never used an Amazon Fire TV Stick that long. I get fed up with them well before then. I have Apple TV devices, if I need to use them. But, I do prefer Roku, but it's not necessary that I run out and replace this one with a new one.

I have enough streaming devices, including some that do work very well, to keep my Streaming Life functioning just fine.

Sling TV Free

I've mentioned before that Sling TV was the first live TV streaming service I tried. The reason for that was simple. At the time, it was the only live TV streaming service. I tried it, thought it was alright, then canceled.

Why did I cancel? I wasn't really watching it. I only used it during college football season, and when the season was done, I canceled. Actually, when I first subscribed, it was early in the year, I did a month, just to see what it was all about, then I canceled, then I signed up again when football season started. After the season, I canceled again.

Ever since then, I would subscribe during football season and cancel after the season. But, Sling TV wasn't the only service I would use. Other services would offer specials that were a better price than Sling TV, and I'd try them. Then, when the special was over, rather than pay the higher price, I would go back to Sling TV to finish the season. Right now, in fact, I'm not subscribed to Sling TV. I have Fubu TV because I wanted to try it, then when the month was done, they offered me a great price to keep me from canceling. So, I'm keeping Fubu TV for another month. I probably won't keep them longer, because, as I've said, I only want a live TV streaming service to watch football. Fubo is great for that. For me, though, Sling TV will do the job just fine.

Now, I know you're wondering where I'm going with this. "Sling TV Free?" What's that about? If I can get Sling TV Free, why would I pay for another service?

Well, Sling TV Free isn't all of Sling TV. The service does offer some live streaming free, along with some on-demand content. It's not gonna be the same stuff you get with the Orange or Blue package. Well, you actually do get all of this with Orange and/or Blue. This is stuff you get just by having the app, regardless of if you have a subscription or not.

You get some news channels, some entertainment content, even some sports, but not the big cable channels. For example, the news channels include ABC News Live, CBSN (CBS News), Newsy, and such. It does not include CNN, MSNBC, or Fox News, and that's probably a good thing, to tell you the truth.

You also get on-demand content, to include TV shows and movies. Again, not the same as Hulu or Netflix, but still a selection of content.

Did I mention that Sling TV Free is free? Because that's a good price.

Even if I were to subscribe to another live TV streaming service -- and right now, I do -- I would keep Sling TV app on my streaming device. It still has free content, and some of it is certainly worth watching. I suspect you will be able to find something you would enjoy watching.

Now, be aware that every time you launch the app, it asks you to subscribe (or, in my case, resubscribe). But, there is a "Skip, Watch Free Content" button down at the bottom. I use that.

With Air TV, and without a Sling TV subscription, you just watch the free content, and that includes your antenna content. So, at the locations with an antenna, the Sling TV app is how I can watch local channels via Air TV.

If you have an antenna, or are thinking about putting one up, getting an Air TV device and using the Sling TV app is a great option. But the Sling TV app by itself, without Air TV, is a good option for free content.

If you want to have free content, this is one way to go. Or an additional way to go, along with whatever other apps you use. It's certainly a part of my Streaming Life.