Almost got a really great shot of a roseate spoonbill that one time, right in our own little lagoon:
Eat your heart out, Albatrossity!
We are cord cutters, and we’ve cobbled together a menu of TV channels that is in many ways superior to our old cable package for a lot less money. But there’s always one channel that falls through the goddamned cracks, and today it happens to be the one that’s carrying a sporting event we wouldn’t mind watching. Since we’re many miles away from a city, an antenna isn’t an option. Oh well.
Open thread!
Baud
LOL
laura
49r’s and Minnesota tied at 7.
andy
I guess I’m lucky in that I think sports are dumb. I only spend about 20 bucks a month on streaming
trollhattan
Here’s a possibility, only because Florida is flat as a Trump attempt at a joke: In the Sierra foothills are “antenna monkeys” who will scale a tree and put up a mast and antenna. You may have something like that there, and with a rotor and clear sightline to one or more metroplexes, a decent antenna will pull signals–both teevee and FM radio–from great distances. The FCC tool will help you determine needed height.
When the analogue-to-digital swap happened, I went from getting all the local stations to basically getting none of them. Digital seems much more linear with little signal bounce or bending, placing a premium on clear line of site. A college sits between us and the antennas, out in the Delta.
raven
Youtube tv has a free trial, sign up and watch it.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Cut the cord too. Was on AT&T TV until last weekend when I installed our new Roku device only to find I couldn’t import the App because Roku and AT&T TV are involved in some sort of dispute. So I switched to YoutubeTV and like it better.
The interface is better IMO and we got NBC’s Olympic channel. I’m a winter sports geek so that’s a major plus. Watching women’s ski jumping at present.
Unfortunately we lost Comedy Central so no more Trevor Noah & Co. I need the Big Ten network for Michigan State basketball and none of the cable replacement streaming apps except AT&T TV have both.
raven
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Youtube tv does, I’ve watched the Illini win the last two on that.
eta, oh “both” got it.
Baud
My cord is cut. I mostly steam these days using Chromecast.
trollhattan
What do cord-cutters use for recording and DVR functions?
How hard is to to unbundle bundled internet-teevee-telephone service?
Planetjanet
@trollhattan: the streaming is on demand so you do not need to save to watch later. Even for live sports events, the replay will be available for a week or two.
raven
@trollhattan: YouTube tv has unlimited dvr and it’s up for 9 months.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@raven: I have a soft spot for the Illini. Spent a couple years in Champaign working for a university affiliated research institute. Nice to see them finally having a season that doesn’t totally suck for a change. It’s been a while – ever since they sent Bruce Webber packing in fact. I liked Bruce. Still do and he’s done good things at K State.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@raven: This. Most of the cable replacement apps have a cloud DVR feature. Many of them are limited to 20 hours of content but YouTube’s is unlimited.
trollhattan
@raven: @Planetjanet:
And you can still FF through commercials?
(Don’t know what the future holds when the teen goes off to college [shudder].)
chris
So close, BC! I have taken lots of those.
Here’s a couple of nature shots from my neck of the woods. Looking out my front door Wednesday afternoon and the same shot this afternoon. The climate hoax is going well.
raven
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I was born there and went back after the Army from 69-84. I ran the sports programs at the Urbana Park District and had David Foster Wallace on my tennis staff but had no idea what he would become. I was at the MSU game when we beat MSU with Magic and were “#1” for three days!
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@trollhattan: Yes you can. It’s a little clunkier than a true cable DVR but you can fast forward and rewind recorded content.
raven
@trollhattan: The ff takes some getting used to (I use ROKU) but I think you ff through anything you access.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@raven: I remember Magic at MSU vaguely… I was only 10 years old in 79. The championship game between MSU and Larry Bird’s Indiana State team is the first NCAA championship game I have any recollection of at all.
raven
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I had dish and tried youtube tv for 2 months to see if it was going to be ok. It worked great until I dumped Dish and then started having occasional buffering issues. One of the youtube cord cutter groups on FB suggested I switch off 1080 and got to 720 and it works better and I can’t tell the difference. I picked up basic cable because my wife said “you are not going to be happy during football if it starts that” so I’m paying for both!
Ninedragonspot
Very pleased with the election results in Taiwan. Tsai Ing-Wen clobbered Han Guoyu, gets four more years, the left-leaning DPP keeps its parliamentary majority. The election was orderly and demonstrated well why Taiwan’s democracy is worth supporting.
raven
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: He and Kelser were awesome. I had a friend who left Indiana for Illinois and he played the post on that Illini team. Great bunch with Eddie Johnson, Mark Smith and Derek Holcomb. The days when Peoria produced great players.
trollhattan
@raven:
Thanks, that’s helpful.
My cable’s on-demand component forces watching commercials for most, but not all standard broadcast/standard cable shows. No such limitation with premium content. They don’t have sports on demand.
Also, the hi-def fraction of what’s available is disappointingly small. One gets spoiled. It all helps build a shopping list for possible cutover to something else.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@raven: haven’t had any buffering issues so far. Keep my fingers crossed but there are other options if it becomes an issue. I have a fairly high speed connection (150 Mbps) so hopefully it will be OK.
raven
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: I have fiber with 1000megs!
WaterGirl
Except for the small detail that part of the bird is out of the frame, that is still a gorgeous photo. That is my favorite pink, such a light color, but definitely not white.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@raven: Nothing should buffer with that unless you ISP is throttling certain content providers since Trump decided to axe net neutrality.
trollhattan
@raven:
1000? You should be all set for Tokyo 2020! They’re supposed to roll out 8k broadcast for the Olympics.
WhatsMyNym
When I lived in Seattle, I was able to watch the digital channels in Tacoma (30 miles away) with just a simple antenna.
Check out AntennaWeb dot org for signals that mighr be in your range. “Antenna Man” is great YouTuber for info.
mrmoshpotato
Jan 11, 2020 – Front pager declares war on readership.
mad citizen
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Comedy Central was a frequently-watched channel when I had cable. Plenty of YouTube clips of the Daily Show is available, can’t remember if they put them up before airtime or not. Seth Meyers does that, a couple-three hours before his airtime, there is the Closer Look segment. I do enjoy watching plenty of Drunk History clips on youtube.
Have been watching the “History Guy” who does 10 minute videos on “History that deserves to be remembered”. Watched one on the history of television–invention, etc. He mentioned that in 2010 or so, it was 10% cord-cutters; in 2015, it was up to 14%. Apparently a new digital format (4K? can’t remember) is coming, so yet another conversion, etc., for us over-the-air people.
trollhattan
@Ninedragonspot:
Is that outcome a thumb in the eye to Bejing? Good, if so.
MazeDancer
Really cut the cord.
Use Visible by Verizon. 40 bucks a month for unlimited data, phone, text. Including hotspot. No contract.
Had to buy a Chinese Spy Phone (ZTE) for $19 to be the phone and hotspot. Though if you have an iPhone, you can use that
Can’t use Hulu Live with mobile data, so choices were YouTubeLive or Sling. Alas, Sling was always out of sync, so .YouTube Live is only choice. Hate the interface, but it works.
Saving 90 bucks a month is good.
raven
@trollhattan: That’s direct wired, as soon as you go wireless it’s cut in half!
Ninedragonspot
@trollhattan: It definitely frustrates Beijing’s desire to annex Taiwan. It would have been easier for China to hollow out Taiwan’s democracy with the China-friendly KMT in power. All talk of one country-two systems is DOA.
I should add that the Democrats need to step up their game in supporting Taiwan. For decades, there has been a steady stream of the most repulsive Republicans going through the area offering encouragement, with the result that many Taiwanese view Republicans as better allies than Democrats.
HinTN
That is a BIG and gorgeous bird, even if we have to imagine the spoonbill.
trollhattan
@Ninedragonspot:
Thank you, appreciate the additional info.
Everybody here seems afraid to touch upon Taiwan for fear of pissing off Beijing but I have to ask what does not piss off Beijing? I do remember the humor of Trump’s first phone call to the “wrong China” or whatever the hell that was.
I’ll be surprised if it comes up in the campaign specifically, but East Asia and the South China sea geopolitics will get play, in addition to the stupid tariff crap and North Korea.
Ninedragonspot
@trollhattan: The relationship between the US and China has changed a lot since January 2017. It’s a good moment for people to re-evaluate their thinking about Taiwan.
Albatrossity
Ha!
But I have lots of shots like that!