Not necessarily. For instance, Palm Springs is in the LA broadcast market. So, accessing Locast from PS will give you the LA stations, not the PS/Riverside channels that are available via antenna.
As another data point, while I am technically within 20–30 miles of the LA broadcast towers, I cannot easily receive the channels, even with a large chimney–mounted antenna. My house is in the lee of foothills that sit between my house and the towers, impeding reception.
I tried my DirecTV login with TVE, which is inactive on "vacation hold", and alas it did not work.
FYI, I was hoping the free channels would work.
However, I paid $60/yr for Locast, and it worked fine. My old 50 yr old antenna gets channel 2.1 intermittently, so I'll use Locast until I can replace the antenna. I found a good local guy who tunes it, uses that geolocate website that tells you which antenna is likely to work etc.
When adding TVE sources, Channels first attempts to log you in to your provider's site. Only after Channels can successfully login, then Channels will attempt to sequentially authorize the TVE channels. If an invalid login is given, then the scan will error out and no authorizations will be attempted, and the source will not be added.
I imagine that your "vacation hold" is marking your account inactive, and therefore failing to authorize in Channels' first step.
I'm back! and, thanks to you Helpful people... ok, with Locast, and, free Sling, I have some channels I have recorded! ... on my way... NOW... question... loads of sites offer 7 day trial, IF I got one, and signed in to my Channels TVE, and load these new channels... WILL they automaticly Dissapear? after the 7 day trial? or, once your in, you win? thanks
Once the trial expires and your subscription ends the authentication will fail and you will no longer be able to tune the channels. That would be my expectation anyway. It’s possible that some channels may continue to work for a period of time before blowing up, not sure.
As mentioned earlier, you can cancel your subscriptions and might be able to retain the free channels, channel numbers 6700+.
But everything else requires authentication when tuning the channel. Channels below 6700 will stop working.
I'm not sure what channel numbers 6700+ means... I Am curious, about all these so-called Millions of 'cord-cutters' who use antanne, I guess I don't 'get it' yet.. btw, had fair success last nite, tonite Total Failure... I'm wondering if this isn't quite ready for Prime Time yet?
When you subscribe to TVE through a provider, not all the channels use the provider login. Some are totally free streaming channels that anyone can view over the internet with a web browser. Channels DVR adds these free channels to your list of TVE channels when you set up a TVE provider. If you later cancel the subscription with your provider, the free channels which are listed in the interface as numbers greater than 6700 will still work. But all the other channels that require authentication when tuning (probably everything you would normally watch) will stop working.