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Post by ironhold on May 7, 2019 5:31:31 GMT
Is there an app that lets you use your smart phone to pick up over-the-air television broadcasts?
There are at least four digital sub-channels in my area that are broadcast-only; the local cable company doesn't offer them, and so far as I know at least three of the four aren't available via satellite, either.
So short of either petitioning the cable company to add them in or buying a separate TV set just to watch those channels, I can't see them otherwise.
And among the programming on these channels are some old sitcoms I liked as a kid, so I kinda want to get at them.
Thanks.
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Post by GTCGreg on May 7, 2019 12:44:29 GMT
I don’t understand why you would need a separate TV to receive over the air broadcast. Almost all TVs that don’t still use a CRT have multiple inputs, including an antenna input.
As for using your smart phone, unless someone is offering streaming service of these channels, which I highly doubt, you would need more than an app, you would need a complete TV tuner. I know they do make TV tuners that plug into USB ports on a computer, but I have never seen one that would connect to a smart phone.
EDIT:
Turns out they do have one for a smart phone, at least an Android. Don't know about iPhone.
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Post by the light works on May 7, 2019 14:19:07 GMT
I agree, unless your phone has a TV receiver built in, there is no app that will simulate it. but any modern TV coupled with an antenna can get broadcast channels.
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Post by ironhold on May 7, 2019 15:52:48 GMT
I don’t understand why you would need a separate TV to receive over the air broadcast. Almost all TVs that don’t still use a CRT have multiple inputs, including an antenna input. As for using your smart phone, unless someone is offering streaming service of these channels, which I highly doubt, you would need more than an app, you would need a complete TV tuner. I know they do make TV tuners that plug into USB ports on a computer, but I have never seen one that would connect to a smart phone. EDIT: Turns out they do have one for a smart phone, at least an Android. Don't know about iPhone. Both TVs we have are plugged into the cable boxes, so we'd have to go into the in-system menu and manually switch out the input source each time anyone wanted to go between over-the-air and cable. My parents... don't always remember how to do that on the newer of the TVs we have. Hence why it'd be easier to potentially set up a dedicated rig somewhere. |
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Post by the light works on May 7, 2019 16:01:13 GMT
I don’t understand why you would need a separate TV to receive over the air broadcast. Almost all TVs that don’t still use a CRT have multiple inputs, including an antenna input. As for using your smart phone, unless someone is offering streaming service of these channels, which I highly doubt, you would need more than an app, you would need a complete TV tuner. I know they do make TV tuners that plug into USB ports on a computer, but I have never seen one that would connect to a smart phone. EDIT: Turns out they do have one for a smart phone, at least an Android. Don't know about iPhone. I could actually see a use for a cable TV USB plug-in for a smartphone - since there isn't really any common cable TV test set like a telephone test set - and good luck finding a cable TV small enough to use for a test set, nowadays. |
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Post by wvengineer on May 8, 2019 1:50:28 GMT
Some cable companies have packages where you can stream your TV to you mobile device (phone or tablet). See what they offer.
Hulu carries some live TV.
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Post by ironhold on May 8, 2019 2:08:48 GMT
Some cable companies have packages where you can stream your TV to you mobile device (phone or tablet). See what they offer. Already have that. It only has the channels I get through the cable package, which does *not* include the digital sideband channels in question. |
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Post by ironhold on Jun 11, 2019 23:40:10 GMT
I was recently informed about an app known as Locast.
You put it on your phone, create some log-in credentials, and - if you're lucky enough to live within one of a handful of major cities - you can indeed get TV on your smartphone.
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Post by the light works on Jun 12, 2019 6:03:37 GMT
I was recently informed about an app known as Locast. You put it on your phone, create some log-in credentials, and - if you're lucky enough to live within one of a handful of major cities - you can indeed get TV on your smartphone. so ARE you lucky enough to live in one of those cities? |
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Post by ironhold on Jun 12, 2019 6:10:12 GMT
I was recently informed about an app known as Locast. You put it on your phone, create some log-in credentials, and - if you're lucky enough to live within one of a handful of major cities - you can indeed get TV on your smartphone. so ARE you lucky enough to live in one of those cities? Nope. They have Houston and Dallas, but not where I am. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Jun 12, 2019 12:16:04 GMT
So what happens if you tell the app you live in Dallas?
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Post by the light works on Jun 12, 2019 13:57:50 GMT
So what happens if you tell the app you live in Dallas? I suspect there are specific signals broadcast on the cellular network to make this possible - so if you aren't in range of the signals, the app won't work. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Jun 12, 2019 14:17:12 GMT
So what happens if you tell the app you live in Dallas? I suspect there are specific signals broadcast on the cellular network to make this possible - so if you aren't in range of the signals, the app won't work. I doubt the streaming comes from a local server. Probably all channels come from a central server somewhere in the cloud. They may only stream channels from cretin cities but you wouldn't necessary have to be in one of those cities to receive the streaming. I would think that if you are connected to the internet, you should be able to receive the streaming channels from whatever city you want. Then again, I could be wrong. EDIT: Checked their website. They use geolocation fencing to tell where you are at. If you are not in a designated location, they block the streaming from that location. Unless you can fake your location, you can not receive streaming from a location that you are not physically in. |
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Post by the light works on Jun 12, 2019 14:32:33 GMT
I suspect there are specific signals broadcast on the cellular network to make this possible - so if you aren't in range of the signals, the app won't work. I doubt the streaming comes from a local server. Probably all channels come from a central server somewhere in the cloud. They may only stream channels from cretin cities but you wouldn't necessary have to be in one of those cities to receive the streaming. I would think that if you are connected to the internet, you should be able to receive the streaming channels from whatever city you want. Then again, I could be wrong. I looked it up: because they are bending copyright law, they have to use location control to be sure they only allow phones that are in an area where a channel is broadcast to receive that channel. - or to rephrase - they have a software restriction that means if a TV won't receive the signal, neither will the phone. in short, the company producing the app and uploading the broadcasts is claiming they have a legal right to do so because they are a nonprofit - and so are allowed to capture and rebroadcast signals without violating copyright. - but if they don't scrupulously stay within their loophole, they will get shut down like the last company that tried streaming broadcast TV. |
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Post by GTCGreg on Jun 12, 2019 14:42:30 GMT
I doubt the streaming comes from a local server. Probably all channels come from a central server somewhere in the cloud. They may only stream channels from cretin cities but you wouldn't necessary have to be in one of those cities to receive the streaming. I would think that if you are connected to the internet, you should be able to receive the streaming channels from whatever city you want. Then again, I could be wrong. I looked it up: because they are bending copyright law, they have to use location control to be sure they only allow phones that are in an area where a channel is broadcast to receive that channel. - or to rephrase - they have a software restriction that means if a TV won't receive the signal, neither will the phone. in short, the company producing the app and uploading the broadcasts is claiming they have a legal right to do so because they are a nonprofit - and so are allowed to capture and rebroadcast signals without violating copyright. - but if they don't scrupulously stay within their loophole, they will get shut down like the last company that tried streaming broadcast TV. You don't need a special app to receive the streaming. All you need is an internet connection and go to their website (locast.org). They can check you location by your IP address, but I wonder what would happen if you were using a VPN that indicated you are in a different location. I know my son can access location restricted netflix content by using his company's VPN that says he is in Germany. |
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Post by the light works on Jun 12, 2019 15:03:09 GMT
I looked it up: because they are bending copyright law, they have to use location control to be sure they only allow phones that are in an area where a channel is broadcast to receive that channel. - or to rephrase - they have a software restriction that means if a TV won't receive the signal, neither will the phone. in short, the company producing the app and uploading the broadcasts is claiming they have a legal right to do so because they are a nonprofit - and so are allowed to capture and rebroadcast signals without violating copyright. - but if they don't scrupulously stay within their loophole, they will get shut down like the last company that tried streaming broadcast TV. You don't need a special app to receive the streaming. All you need is an internet connection and go to their website (locast.net). They can check you location by your IP address, but I wonder what would happen if you were using a VPN that indicated you are in a different location. I know my son can access location restricted netflix content by using his company's VPN that says he is in Germany. I am guessing their system is probably hackable. of course, if you hack their system so your phone thinks you are in Dallas, then you will only get broadcast TV from Dallas. - and there comes a point where you have to classify it as a high tech solution to a low tech problem. www.amazon.com/Portable-Novelty-Televisions/b?ie=UTF8&node=979930011especially when there are (as I find from a quick search of Amazon) a plethora of cell phone sized TVs on sale for under a hundred dollars. (and it looks like they are cable ready, as well, which means if I land on another job where I have to test TV cable outlets, I might buy one) |
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Post by ironhold on Jun 15, 2019 6:33:46 GMT
Got my paycheck in today, so I did some browsing locally.
Unless the Best Buy the next town over had something, nobody's got portable TVs locally.
I went ahead and ordered one of the ones I saw on Amazon, and it should be here by this time next week.
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