Posted on 06/04/2012 11:48:32 AM PDT by ctdonath2
The Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games is on Friday, July 27, 2012.
What alternate viewing options will there be for watching the 2012 Olympics? Anything palatable (i.e.: easy to use, more options, fewer ads, lower cost, than the standard TV channel)? Rumors? Confirmed facts?
Watching paint dry is always popular. And more interesting.
Too bad there is not a free streaming alternative like Hulu, AmazonPrime, or ESPN3.
(HE'S BACK! RUN EVERYBODY!)
Why can’t you put an antenna up?
I put one in my attic to pick up over the air. $100 for antenna & cable (you do need the better grade of cable for HD transmissions).
ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS plus a slew of local independent stations.
Go to zap2it.com; put in your zip code in the listing box; click on “Broadcast (antenna)” for the listings in your area. You’ll be pretty amazed how many free tv stations there are in your area.
There are 78 listed in my area—78!
When I was young, watching the Olympics was a mandatory event. I just couldn’t drag myself away from them (even the winter Olympics).
Any more though, it’s like “so what?”
When they started to allow pros in is when I suddenly lost interest. It just turned me off when they did that.
I’ll try again. Last time it got me, at best, a super-grainy rendition of PBS.
The Cold War was what made the Olympics fun, there was something exotic about seeing athletes from behind the Iron Curtain, like Vasili Alexeyev. It’s no fun anymore without the Commies to root against.
Besides, now pretty much all of the athletes live and train here in the US.
There’s only one small problem. Yes...they’re planning to do a lot of stuff online...BUT you have to be a subscriber to a cable system in order to watch anything. In my area, that’d be Comcast.
I had the same problem trying to watch the Vancouver Games...and I was only about 100 miles away from Vancouver.
I am considering it.
I wish I could bypass the US coverage, it sucks donkey you-know-what.
I would love to get the BBC coverage.
Those near the Canadian border can access their coverage. There will be tons of coverage online but how accessable that will be to those in the US I have no idea but you get an idea from this short item. http://www.mediacastermagazine.com/news/london-2012-equals-four-screens-5-500-hours-olympic-broadcast-media-consortium/1001428380/
Digital is only going to be it works or doesn't: no graininess. It's kind of a mixed blessing, actually. A station that was watchable if you could tolerate some snow in the analog version will not even bring up a picture from the digital transmission.
Don't believe the folks who tell you a special HD antenna or cable is needed, though; UHV stuff from years back works fine although you do want modern coax instead of ribbon cable. My window antenna from the 60s brings in great HD -- Obviously much better than the compressed cable crap we also get (only because its bundled in the rent).
UHF = UHV
The actual over the air broadcast english network in Canada is CTV.
I saw one TV ad a couple of weeks ago about the Olympics. NBC is supposedly going to broadcast all events via Internet. I haven’t looked for details.
Their standard web site is: http://http://www.nbcolympics.com
I recall when I lived in the UK ten years ago, that you were supposed to pay a fee of around $75 per year if you had a TV. I never paid it, but I heard that the BBC had specially equipped trucks (lorries) that would cruise around to detect unlicensed TV sets. That's even worse than the tactics our cable TV companies engage in.
1) You need the better cable: rg6 quad.
2) Get an antenna signal booster. I have a PCT model, and they make a world of difference.
The antenna boosters sold at Home Depot, Walmart, etc... are ****. Don’t waste your money.
3) Get a GOOD antenna. You don’t need an expensive one, but you do need a good one. Again, the ones sold at Home Depot, Walmart, etc... are ****.
Determine if you need a VHF/UHF combo antenna, or if you can get by with just a UHF antenna (most HD stations broadcast on UHF, but not all—I had 2 stations in my area that went VHF, so I needed a combo antenna).
Go to antennaweb.org and put in your street address. It will give you information on all the stations in your area, and show you a map of the antenna farms so you’ll know which direction to point your antenna.
I have this antenna ($41) and it works great:
I have this UHF one ganged with the one above pointing at a secondary antenna farm in my area ($44)—OK, a little out of my area.
The farther you live away from the antenna farm, the larger antenna you’ll need. Winegard rates their antennas on their site. Once you know how far away the antenna farm is, look up the antennas on Winegard’s site and get one rated for at least that distance.
I’ve had good luck with the Winegard antennas (have put them up in my house and several relatives), but there are other good brands.
antennaweb.org looks like it is hosed up for some reason.
You can use AntennaPoint.com as an alternative to find the antenna farms in your area.
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