That might be with the old streaming service that now is AT&T TV.
That worked but what does DTv gain from that?
So the next time AT&T/DirecTV has a carriage dispute about carrying certain locals and being forced to bundle some other channels owned by the same parent media conglomerate, they can direct their users to Locast streams when the contract expires but negotiations continue, thus strengthening their bargaining position.
(And that is exactly what happened some years ago during their carriage dispute with ViacomCBS. In order to strengthen their bargaining position, AT&T added the Locast app to DirecTV receivers, and when the ViacomCBS channels were blacked out, a placard was instead displayed which informed subscribers of how to use the app to get their local CBS feeds. That was also the point in time when AT&T made a six figure donation.)
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Now that makes a lot of sense. Thanks.
Locast's biggest competition will be NextGen TV / 3.0. If multi-path interference and obstructions were no longer an issue (even using a crappy antenna inside an apartment in a densely populated city), Locast would have no reason to exist.
But we are talking 5-10 years until this is available everywhere and equipment is standardized and readily available!
This looks great but I'm skeptical. If this is to roll out in a big way, it would make rebroadcast fees irrelevant and that is the biggest part of the broadcasters current revenue. Broadcasters would either have to innovate (unlikely, but I'm all for it), or go back to the regulators for another carve out that allows them to charge somebody (ultimately you and me) for not really doing anything new. Call me a cynic.
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Just an fyi, i just got a notice from spectrum that come June, they ate raising their fees. Broadcast fee is also going up. Everything is going up. Locast is starting to look good to me now.
Actually, this is where the broadcasters gain the most benefits. One of the things they will be able to do is create paywall channels, so basically cable/satellite/OTT through the airwaves. They will not be able to do this for their main channels (that would violate FCC rules), but they could do it for sub-channels. Now imagine Disney has a local ABC affiliate that can sell sub-channels for the ESPN family of stations. Or similarly, they could sell an on-demand package (another capability of 3.0). In that way, instead of people like us using DVRs, the OTA stations could offer all their programs on-demand that works everywhere for a price (NextGenTV adapters could easily be included in phones).
Yes, it will require innovation, but it actually gives broadcasters the ability to make money through innovation. They have to do this anyway because the cable/satellite/OTT market that they make retransmission fees from continues to shrink. I'm not saying it is dying tomorrow or even ever, but that it will be greatly diminished to the point where it will not be their #1 revenue source.
And so if they get it from us directly or as a pass-through from the cable/satellite/OTT companies, we are the ones paying for it anyway. That doesn't change, just the service and who we are paying changes.
Interesting. Seems like a lot of infrastructure build to accomplish what's already being done on the internet. Kinda like trying to invent a better audio tape after CD's were already dominant -- But I guess Dolbly tried that for years and achieved some pretty impressive results -- that nobody remembers. Best of luck to them. I guess everyone needs something to do.
I did the math and for me to buy an HDHomeRun Quatro and get the antenna that would work for me we're talking $240 to $260. That's 4 years of Locast donating at the $60 annual amount. Considering there is no telling where TV will be even a year from now sinking that much money into hardware that will most likely be outdated by that time doesn't make sense. That's my opinion anyway. I'd rather pay Locast and go year to year. At $60 if a better option comes along I won't feel too bad about making the switch.
My personal belief is that if Locast wins this will be more incentive for broadcasters to beef up their own apps and leave linear TV behind. In some sense that is exactly what people have been asking for forever. Purchasing only the networks you want would be the al carte scenario. Though you'd have to jump from app to app to watch things behind a paywall. Paramount+ already does that with the NFL and soccer. Peacock is getting NFL in the future as well. And, I just read that Sinclair is working on a direct-to-consumer regional sports app. If Locast wins I just can't see broadcasters shrugging it off. Thats billions of dollars Locast will cost them.
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but the HDHR gets you superior video, superior audio, superior reliability, faster tuning, faster comskip, and shows that air exactly at the scheduled time (to the second). I would prefer the HDHR over Locast even if I was donating $0 to Locast. I prefer nice things and don't think purchasing equipment for superior video and audio is frivolous.
OTA has existed for over 60 years, using the same radio frequencies. OTA is not going anywhere and will continue to expand to make use of continuously innovating higher quality formats. Locast, however, might not be around in a few years.
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My understanding is HDHR limits you on the amount of recordings and screen you can be on. Whereas TVE and Locast don’t do that. I’m not sure that’s correct but it’s my understanding?
Locast limits you to 4 streams.
You also can not channel surf, ie, load a channel then switch to another quickly...without triggering their lockout for max streams used.
That info is in their FAQ on their website.
I do think some TVE providers have a max concurrent stream limit.
Maybe someone needs to better explain the HDHR 4 tuners to me. My understanding is that I can’t record 4 shows at once while watching live tv on say 2 TVs at the same time. Is this true? Currently I’ve had 4 or 5 shows recording while I’m watching live tv in the living room and my my kids are watching live tv in the other room. Is that possible with HDHR?
You get 4 streams with a 4-tuner HDHR. You can watch 4 streams concurrently, record 4 streams concurrently, or any combination of the two.
Also, if you have enabled "Tuner sharing" on the client apps, you can also watch and record the same channel. So you can record 4 OTA channels, and you can have any number of clients watch live any of those 4 recording channels at the same time, too. (This is the same experience with a Locast account, albeit with better audio and video quality.)
In addition, it is easy to add additional OTA tuners to give you more streams; additional Locast accounts are not easily added, nor directly supported in Channels.
they say this but i have not found this to be the case. i have no issues randomly jumping between channels (although i did have another lockout related issue over the past month or so)...
Sorry, I’m confused. Are you saying I can have any combination of recordings and shows but it can’t exceed 4 either way?
With a single 4-tuner HDHR, you can record 4 different channels and watch those 4 channels live on any/all of your TVs at the same time with tuner sharing. If you wanted more than that, you can add another HDHR.
I'm saying with a 4-tuner input, you can have 4 streams coming in. You can have 4 different streams, you can:
- Record 4 different programs, and watch any of those streams live from any number of clients
- Stream live 4 different programs to any number of clients, and record any of those 4 streams
- Record 2 streams and watch live 2 different streams
- Record 3 streams, and watch live 1 different stream
- …
I think you can see where this goes