WaPo Article on Internet TV - Boxee & Hulu

  
Replacing Your TV Antenna with an Internet Connection by Using Boxee or Hulu

By Rob Pegoraro

Washington Post, Sunday, January 31, 2010 

Last weekend, I caught up on a few TV shows I'd missed, but the experience wasn't a rerun of my usual viewing routines.

Although I watched these programs on the high-definition set in the living room, no digital video recorder or cable on-demand service brought them there.

Instead, I turned to the Web -- but using an Internet connection as a TV antenna didn't mean I had to tap a keyboard to summon my choice of content.

I just had to install two free programs on a computer, Boxee (http://boxee.tv) and Hulu Desktop (http://hulu.com/desktop), that bridge the gap between the Web and the biggest screen at home.

continued...

The Return of the Rabbit Ears!

Great article in the LA Times.  Check it out!

Rabbit Ears Make Comeback in Digital TV Era


  

Winegard FreeVision FV-HD30

Winegard FreeVision FV-HD30

I havent gotten my mind around this one real well. However it seems to be a rather uninspiring antenna.  It has negative gain on VHF High and the UHF gain curve is a huge hump producing 6 dB gain in the middle and sloping off at the upper and lower ends.   It may be better than the HD 1080, but you would think that Winegard would have improved from their last less than stellar performing offering.  The 76 series remains the last great series from Winegard.

Antennas Direct Micron & Micron XG

Antennas Direct now has available the Micron and soon the Micron XG.   Can be used on a table top, or mounted to the wall.  The XG version will also have a reflector screen for improved gain and directivity.  Looks pretty sharp.

Word on the street is that it is basically a ClearStream1 Convertible with a different skin that some may find more aesthetically pleasing, however the Micron is not designed to be used outdoors like the ClearStream1...and that is good news, because the ClearStream1 is a great small antenna that performs well with its tapered wide surface area loop!

Another great product from Antennas Direct!

Mircron 

The Future of Video Entertainment & Television Broadcasting

The Future on TV

The Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2010

 Creative destruction and a new scramble for America's couch potatoes.

excerpt...

In this world, Fox Broadcasting's victory Friday in winning retransmission fees from Time Warner Cable might seem a case of one corpse feeding on another, slightly healthier corpse. Broadcasters are supposed to be on suicide watch because they lack even cable's dual revenue streams (advertising and subscription). But the free-to-air TV distributors may yet have a card up their sleeves.

... live-transmission TV doesn't make much sense in an on-demand world—that is, except news and sports, the only programming that large numbers of people are likely to want to consume at exactly the same moment.

It just so happens that over-the-air broadcasters, now that they have multiple, crystalline hi-def digital channels at their disposal, may prove the best way to deliver live programming over a given geographical area. After a recent column on this subject, several readers emailed to say they've already dropped cable and now get their video from a combination of free HDTV plus on-demand downloads from the likes of Netflix, iTunes or Amazon.

And surely one of Ben Bernanke's unenumerated greenshoots lately has been the unexpected surge in HDTV antenna sales since last year's digital switch. Look to Western Europe, where the digital transition began earlier. Viewers willing to rely on over-the-air digital broadcast TV have grown to 42 million from 31 million in three years, according to the International Television Expert Group. They are expected to hit 59 million in 2013. A new European standard-setting body called HbbTV (for hybrid broadcast-broadband TV) has even been launched to consecrate the wedding of on-demand and over-the-air.

snip...

In the long run, we wouldn't care to bet which programming aggregator will be a winner, but here's a guess at what TV viewing will look in five years: You will point an iPhone-like device at the nearest screen in order to play any kind of video, whether stored on the device's own memory, downloaded from a third-party site or plucked from an over-the-air signal.

Somehow, too, programmers will get paid, or there won't be programming. One thing is also clear: If you're playing in this sandbox, there is no better leverage than owning rights to college and professional football, especially during bowl season.

This Old House How to Install a Roof Antenna

Ask This Old House - Installing a Rooftop TV Antenna

There are several issues with improper installation in this video, but it gives you a nice overview of what an antenna installation entails.

Segment starts at about 5 minutes 26 seconds on first video, or about half way.