I am of the opinion that anyone in the OTA coverage area (users who were using locast), would be able to get most if not all of the same channels with an antenna. And in much higher quality (both video and audio). In some cases, it would require more work and ingenuity. You probably need a directional antenna, and you might need to get up on the roof to mount it. And you would need to aim it just right. But, if you are serious about the highest quality free TV, this is really the only solution. I have been using antennas for years. I've got two of them. They are not visible from the street looking at my house. And I live in a city with big buildings and lots of traffic. But I am kind of a perfectionist and would never settle for Locast, so I put the time in to do it right. But you can do it too.
this couldn't be further from the case. there are a TON of people who can't get signals OTA.
Why do you think people were using Locast ... don't you think they have tried antennas etc... in the past ?
In the best of all possible worlds people would have the knowledge and physical ability to do just as you describe. But in the best of worlds, none of this would be necessary. You’ve probably already experienced the flaws that come with perfectionism, if not, soon. There are plenty of legitimate reasons why antennas are not practical or possible for many. I’m just spitballing solutions. Maybe helpful, maybe not.
Go here and enter your location then share the results link.
@psperry it’s an intriguing idea. And as I love to say at my work.. “I can do anything given infinite time and money”. Technically I would think it’s definitely possible to have some kind of centrally managed “pool” that brokers connections between folks. You could even require somebody to share as many tuners as they want to consume. Legality would be a question mark and if it was as attached to a business of any kind it would likely be attacked if it became large enough. They would probably claim that it’s a “rebroadcast” of their content.
Interesting idea. It could be arranged sot of like some nonprofits which have local “chapters.” I know for instance Habitat for Humanity works that way with local chapters that cover x city or in sparsely populated places maybe several counties. When donating you can earmark it for an individual chapter or overall. Maybe a Locast successor could follow a similar pattern where donations are kept in the DMA they belong to. They could even set it up where if your area isn’t served yet ypu can still give a donation which would be earmarked for your area and is held towards start-up costs for a local “chapter.”
@Macnbaish @tismark, I am thinking a way to keep this simple and more feasible would be a kind of tuner sharing without using some sort of cloud managed torrent. I will use myself as a use case:
I have a antenna and can get most channels from my location. but I am missing NBC. So I go on the forum and ask if there is anyone in the Atlanta area who is getting NBC and is willing to share a tuner. I am willing to reciprocate if there are channels they need. So someone who's willing to share PM's me and and we exchange QR codes (or something). We use the codes to set up a new source in Channels and the rest of Channels DVR works as always. It's just has an additional source.
Seems this would be at least as legal as Plex's content sharing. I'm sure there are many complexities that I haven't thought of and I don't actually expect to see this happen, but it seams feasible.
Bottom line in any scenario is the big media cartel has lots of money and lots of lawyers.
They don't need to be on the right side of the law. They just need to have enough of the above to make it too expensive to defend yourself.
Simply not accurate.
Locast presented its best legal arguments and lost -- it can't claim the non-profit exemption while collecting more money than it needs to fund ongoing operations and maintenance.
They could restructure their operations and possibly be compliant. I mean, stopping their expansion and implementing a policy of refunding any excess donations monthly should work just fine.
That they chose to shut down means it's probably dead, but that's not 100% certain. It's unclear to me why they thought that simply stopping the interruptions would get them into compliance -- as long as people were donating more than they needed, they still fail the requirements for using the non-profit exemption (regardless of how much pestering they're doing).
So it's possible that they just shut down for now so that they wouldn't being operating out of compliance with the law (now that it's clear what the law is) and are figuring out how to come back. But given that the solution I described seems pretty simple (refund donations in excess of operating costs), the shutdown probably indicates that they've thrown in the towel.
An option would be to lower the donation for maintenance costs and seperatley ask for donations for expansion in markets (once minimum funding was achieved) and once new market is viable, launch that market with the reduced operating donations thereafter.
Not sure sure they can pivot, but likely they still have interest from certain companies that struggle with the broadcasters (DirecTV, Dish, etc) and those looking to pivot to streaming services instead of more costly traditional delivery means. But it may be more viable for them to create a new entity VS trying to re engineer Locast.
I tried it boosting all my channels to %100 no glitches the amp did not overload the hdhomerun tuners. Driving 2 connects quatro and 1 Quatro Scribe plus TV. You have to play around where to put it and how. I simply laid it flat on my self. Let me know how yours turns out good luck.
First, I'm in the worst location for OTA - period. My home is within a complex and in the middle of the complex surrounded by buildings and I'm on the first floor. Tried the antenna in different locations. Regardless of where I place it, the only channels that will come in are ATSC 3.0. This isn't too bad as they are my most watched channels: ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC and myTV. Picture is great on all of them.
Overall, better than I was anticipating. It's a very nice antenna, BTW.
The negative is since I can't get ATSC 1.0 I have only 2 tuners of the 4 available. I'll use the TVE versions as a backup except for CW which doesn't have TVE.
My try some other mounting options this weekend when I have more time.
Most likely the only way you are going to get those 1.0 channels is if you can get that antenna outside and higher in the sky. I live in a densely populated city and on a hill with neighbors above me directly in the line of almost all towers. I was only able to stably get my 1.0 channels once I got the antenna high above their rooflines. Are you allowed to get up on the roof of the complex and run a long line down?
Your experience with 3.0 is the best endorsement of why we need that standard to be rolled out even faster! I'm very jealous.
I have been unable to receive this channel via antenna, but the FCC says I'm in the Boston Market:
25‑1 (34) WFXT FOX BOSTON MA 
46.4 327.8° 342.1° 64.90 Fair 24.22 L
or this one:
2‑1 (5)
24‑1 (5) WGBH-TV
WFXZ-CD PBS
Biz BOSTON
BOSTON MA
MA 46.4 327.8° 342.1° 56.22 Poor 28.22 L
Being 'in the market' doesn't mean you can get the signal. Maybe it's in another direction, and you're using a directional antenna, or maybe that particular station is behind a large obstacle, or the station is further away or weaker power. Or many other factors.
But with an estimated field strength of 64.9, it's going to be hard to get that signal under basic installs, even with an outdoor antenna. In my case, I have a roof mounted directional antenna, and I can't get channels under about 74 field strength within my directional field.
Giving us the shareable link of your rabbitears to give us an overall picture of the stations in your area, the direction they are in, and what you are successfully receiving helps to determine what your situation might be.
Also mentioning what antenna you are using and how/where you have it mounted helps.
Those are low VHF Channels (anything with a physical channel of 6 or below). Unless you have an antenna that specifically picks up low VHF, you will not get them no matter what you do. PBS in particular screwed over a lot of people by selling their better frequencies during the FCC repack and picking up these much, much worse ones. It has happened all over the country.
This could totally be a directional thing or an obstruction thing, just not enough detail. I'll let you know I'm in the Providence, RI market (yet actually 10 miles closer to the transmitter than you are) and have no issue with this channel:
What app is this screen shot from? I looked on my Windows app and found nothing like this.
http://download.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/hdhomerun_tech_windows_20210210.exe
Silicondust Commercial TECH Software
- Current release: 20210224
Free