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TehFalcon

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 6, 2011
1,118
999
United States
My Question is how should I Go about this?

I'm sick of paying $200 a month for TV. So I Got 3 ATV's and subscribed to hulu plus and netflix. How Would I Go about my local channels for morning news and sports? I Was thinking about just using the Free OTA With an Antenna. Would this be the best way to go? And how could I Set it up to integrate with the ATV better? Without having to change TV Sources all the time.
 

Gator24765

macrumors 6502a
Nov 13, 2009
781
3
Texas
OTA works good, depending on what area you are in. I get my local channels in picture perfect HD.



When my contract is up with my cable company I am going to do this:


OTA for my local channels

Apple TV 2 for all of my media needs.

AirPlay via MBP for Sunday Ticket and Watch ESPN.
 

JoeBlow74

macrumors regular
Aug 2, 2012
218
9
My Question is how should I Go about this?

I'm sick of paying $200 a month for TV. So I Got 3 ATV's and subscribed to hulu plus and netflix. How Would I Go about my local channels for morning news and sports? I Was thinking about just using the Free OTA With an Antenna. Would this be the best way to go? And how could I Set it up to integrate with the ATV better? Without having to change TV Sources all the time.

I purchased an HD antenna at Costco from Antenna's Direct for $50. I installed the antenna on my roof and I pick up 36 local channels in HD. Just make sure you point it in the direction of the main towers and you should be good. I love my Apple TV.
 

jdag

macrumors 6502a
Jun 15, 2012
837
213
There's no way to really "integrate" the OTA with the AppleTV and you will have to switch sources to go from viewing the OTA to viewing the ATV.

There are 2 primary ways to accomplish this...

1) Connect the OTA and ATV directly to your TV and use the TV remote to switch inputs

2) Connect the OTA and ATV to a receiver and then 1 HDMI cable form the receiver to the TV. Then use the receiver as your way to select source.

You can also get a universal remote, such as a Harmony, which will allow you to program "Activities" so that 1 click will do the necessary power and source changes for you.

I run everything through my receiver and speakers and do not use sound from the TV speakers at all.

----------

AirPlay via MBP for Sunday Ticket and Watch ESPN.

How are you going to do that without being a subscriber? (Or, are you "borrowing" the subscription from a friend/family?)
 

Gator24765

macrumors 6502a
Nov 13, 2009
781
3
Texas
hahaha...I was wondering if I missed something! :D

lol well if you really want to know, and for the benefit of others doing the same...

My parents have the NFL sunday ticket and will not be using their mobile devices to view so I will be using their unused portion of their subscription. Nothing wrong with that in my book.
 

jdag

macrumors 6502a
Jun 15, 2012
837
213
lol well if you really want to know, and for the benefit of others doing the same...

My parents have the NFL sunday ticket and will not be using their mobile devices to view so I will be using their unused portion of their subscription. Nothing wrong with that in my book.

That was my exact assumption.
 

tbayrgs

macrumors 604
Jul 5, 2009
7,343
4,867
My Question is how should I Go about this?

I'm sick of paying $200 a month for TV. So I Got 3 ATV's and subscribed to hulu plus and netflix. How Would I Go about my local channels for morning news and sports? I Was thinking about just using the Free OTA With an Antenna. Would this be the best way to go? And how could I Set it up to integrate with the ATV better? Without having to change TV Sources all the time.

You could take a look at something like EyeTV. You'd be able to record OTA TV using your Mac just like a DVR and I believe you can set up their software to automatically encode recordings for the Apple TV and dump it into iTunes.

If it wasn't for my wife and her TV viewing habits, I'd dump satellite in a heartbeat. My kids already do most of their watching either from our library of movies or Netflix and while I do like a lot of sports, I could probably live with whatever was available on ESPN3 and OTA.
 
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