How to watch Doctor Who

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, and began to taper off during Matt Smith's 11th Doctor and Peter Capaldi's 12th Doctor, bottoming out during Jodie Whitaker's 13th Doctor.

There are fans that only like the original classic Doctor Who. There are fans that only like the newer series. There are fans that like both.

So, how does one watch Doctor Who? Well, that depends on which version you want.

Classic Doctor Who episodes -- all that exist, which is another story in itself -- are available on Brit Box. Additionally, some free ad-support television (FAST) services carry streams of Doctor Who. This includes Pluto TV, Xumo, Plex, and Roku Channel.

The revived series is available on HBO Max. Next year, new episodes will debut on Disney+, but for now, HBO Max is your home for NuWho.

Whichever show you like -- classic, new, or both -- you have options when it comes to inviting the Doctor and his TARDIS crew into your Streaming Life.

Free holiday content

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 look around the live channel guide, you'll see Christmas channels in other sections, but they are duplicates of what's in the Season's Greetings section. Of course, some other channels will occasionally have Christmas or other holiday content. These nine are all Christmas content, including movies, fireplace, music videos, and one Spanish language channel.

Xumo

The Comcast backed FAST service has a Holiday Hub that has 17 live streaming channels. This includes five music channels and a music video channel, but no fireplace channels.

Crackle

This long-time favorite now has a more family friendly approach since it was acquired by Chicken Soup for the Soul. Crackle doesn't have a live-streaming hub of holiday content, but does have a Holiday section of 160 on-demand movies. They are mostly Christmas themed, but there are other holidays represented, including Thanksgiving. Additionally, there are four selections in the TV section, mostly Kirstie's Handmade episodes.

Tubi

The Fox-owned Tubi has a Holiday Hits category with 200 on-demand selections. There is no linear content, but that is a fair number of on-demand movies and TV. Tubi has some fireplace and Christmas music based selections that run about an hour each.

Plex

This service has both live streaming and on-demand sections. However, it's doesn't contain the focus of other services. There is no Holiday or similar category in the Movies & Shows section. However, there are over 250 on-demand holiday themed movies. But beware: there are all sorts of sub-genre and mixed genre holiday movies, including horror films. Not everything is suitable for family viewing.

Unfortunately, in the Live TV section, there is no category for holiday content.

Others?

This is not intended to be an all-encompassing list of apps and services offering holiday content, but simple to share information about some of the ways you can watch it.

Why haven't I mentioned Roku Channel? Because, at least as of today, Roku Channel doesn't have a holiday hub of any type. Same with Sling TV free. On these services, you may find some content here and there mixed in with other programming, but there isn't a single place to go for holiday content within these apps. Perhaps they will after Thanksgiving. If they do, I'll provide an update.

Despite the disappointment that some of the services and apps don't have a section for holiday content, there are several free options for holiday content, mostly Christmas content. If that's something you want in your Streaming Life, you'll be happy.

Streaming the World Cup

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/month, but is included with Xfinity Internet plans.

Additionally, Tubi will have replays of some games available.

If you are a soccer fan that wants the World Cup as part of your Streaming Life, you have options.

Plex on Raspberry Pi, revisited

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 where the device is located (where the Internet service comes in; not the main room of the house) to get on it. Launching a browser can be done from anywhere on the network.

However, there are other tasks that need to happen from time to time, particularly updates to the operating system.

Now, with it running a full installation of Ubuntu Linux, there are many applications that are installed with a setup like that. And those applications are not needed to run Linux, but they do need to be updated from time to time, for security reasons. And that's the issue with a full GUI installation for a dedicated purpose device.

So, here's what I'm thinking I'll do. I will set up another device running a headless install of Linux. With just a command line setup, the updates will be simple enough. Running SSH will allow connection from another room. And, should things go horribly wrong, it would be easy enough to connect a monitor, keyboard, and mouse to access. But most of the time, accessing the command line is easy, and updates will be two commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade -y

That's easy, right? And you don't even have to get out of your chair.

But if it's working, why would I want to go through all this trouble. Well, it's not exactly working. There are some issues with updates. Oh, to be sure, you can do updates, but the Ubuntu installation is wonky, and command line updates don't always work. So, it needs some work, and I'm thinking the thing to do is to just put in a new, simpler installation.

I like things to just work in my Streaming Life, and right now, maintaining Plex isn't working as it should. And I will fix it. "It tasks me." And if you know that quote, you know I may fail gloriously if I allow it to blind me as the speaker of those words was blinded, obsessed. But when you get down to it, I just want it to work.

Watching college football games this weekend: Week 12

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, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ACC Network

• Sling Orange, 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 Choice, $90/month.

Big Ten Network

• 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 Choice, $90/month.

CBS

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Paramount+ Premium, $10/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

CBS Sports Network

• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Ultimate, $105/month.

ESPN

• Sling Orange, $40/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $55/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN2

• Sling Orange, $40/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $55/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN U

• Sling Orange, $40/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $55/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.
• Fubo TV Elite, $80/month.

ESPN3

ESPN3 is usually included with a service that carries standard ESPN/ESPN2.

• Sling Orange, $40/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $55/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN+

ESPN+ is a standalone sports programming service. It is not the same thing as regular ESPN that you get with cable or one of the live streaming services. Some content from ESPN, ESPN2, or other ESPN networks may be available on ESPN+, but often, it's content that is only available on ESPN+.

• ESPN+, $7/month.
• Disney Bundle, $14/month.

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.

Longhorn Network

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $51/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $70/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.

NBC

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

NFL Network

• 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.

Pac 12 Network

• Sling Blue, $40/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $55/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• Fubo TV Pro, with Fubo Extra, $78/month.
• Fubo TV Elite, $80/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/month, but is included with Xfinity Internet plans.

SEC Network

• Sling Orange, $40/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $55/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Choice, $90/month.
• Fubo TV Ultimate, $100/month.

Stadium, Mountain West

• Website, free.
• Stadium app, free.
• Plex, free.
• Roku Channel, free.
• Sling Free, free.
• STIRR, free.
• Tubi, free.
• Xumo, free.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Stadium app, free.

FloSports

• FloSports app, $13/month.

Team1Sports

• Team1Sports app, free

This list of networks covers all the games airing today. It also covers games next week through Friday, as the early games next week are all on one of these networks.

NOTE: Longhorn Network is not needed this weekend.

To watch all the games, having an antenna won't really matter, as in order to get all the networks carrying games, the services also carry the OTA stations. So, how much to watch them all?

The services necessary will cost $98. That's $78 for Fubo TV Pro + Fubo Extra, along with $7 for ESPN+, and $13 for FloSports.

If you want college football in your Streaming Life, you have options, though it can get expensive depending just how many games you want to watch.

Antenna: avoid bad antennae when making your choice

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.

Choosing an antenna the easy way: let someone do it for you

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 years back, I ran across Tyler the Antenna Man's YouTube channel. I watched one of his videos and, while I don't claim to be an expert, much less "The Antenna Man," I do know a little bit about what I'm doing. I did my research. But, I figured I'd watch more of his videos and see just what he was all about.

Turns out, I was impressed with his knowledge. His videos are for the general public. He doesn't exactly dumb it down for people who don't understand or care about all the things that go into picking up TV signals, but he does explain things in a way that's good for most people.

I had picked out an antenna for my mother's place, but hadn't purchased it yet. Part of the problem was finding somebody to put it up. It's not just the physical installation of the antenna an pole, but the electrical lines that ran there. Those are dangerous, and I'm not looking to play reckless games with an antenna. I needed someone to install.

Tyler's Website offers a consultation service (I think I paid around $40 back in 2020; it is still that price today) for both an antenna, but also installer options. He found someone that would install it for me.

Tyler's antenna recommendation was a good one, and he did find someone to install it, so I was happy with the decision to use his service.

The installer had antennae that would do the job, and the one he brought was one of the ones Tyler had recommended. I felt good about it all, and the setup still works. I expect many long years of service from it.

Am I recommending Tyler the Antenna Man. Yes, I suppose I am. But I'm also saying that if you do the research properly, you'll wind up with the same conclusion.

My research showed that I didn't need his services, but I'm happy enough with his services that I bought that I can feel good about recommending him. If nothing else, it ensures you aren't overlooking something, and gives you peace of mind. If that's worth $40, then it's a bargain.

An antenna is a great complement to your online viewing, and should be considered as part of your Streaming Life. I've been happy with my choice to put up an antenna.