by ·Comments Off on KlowdTV loses beIN Sports

KlowdTV logoKlowdTV is an OTT provider that’s trying to build a virtual cable system from scratch, one network at a time. They’ve got the skinniest bundles around, and subscribers get a lot of flexibility in picking channels. That’s why it’s so sad to write that last week KlowdTV lost one of its best programmers, beIN Sports.

Some background: beIN Sports began its life as Al Jazeera Sport before being spun off as its own company, still owned and operated by folks in Qatar. You know how, if you’re reading Moby Dick, then everything looks like a whale? The last couple of weeks, I’ve been reading The Ugly Game, a book which claims to describe exactly how soccer enthusiasts in high places in Qatar supposedly spread a lot of wealth to ensure it would host the World Cup in 2022, a plan that’s still controversial.

What I’ve heard is that those deep-pocketed Qataris were also happy to spend big for TV rights to good soccer leagues and then happy to require very little from any system that wanted to distribute beIN Sports, all to build its exposure as soon as possible. For example, beIN Sports is included with several other channels in Sling’s $5/month Sports Extra add-on. In Sling’s international packages, beIN is frequently thrown in for free or in the standalone $10 World Sports package. It’s in fuboTV‘s $7 package. It’s on Dish and DirecTV, and you get the picture.

Last Thursday, KlowdTV CEO Bill O’Hara sent an email with the sad announcement that the beIN Sports channels “will no longer be available” on his service. He wrote, “We are continuing to explore ways to continue our relationship, but at this time there does not appear to be a viable way to continue providing the beIN sports channels.” In a nice gesture, KlowdTV gave subscribers two free months of what’s left of its sports package, which still includes Gol TV and other channels.

I’m a big fan of KlowdTV, which is why I subscribed. One themed package plus one hour of virtual DVR time is just $5/month, extra packages are $3, and several a la carte channels are available separately. So what blocked beIN? Was it a simple rate increase, or that fuboTV wanted OTT exclusivity, or something else? KlowdTV is exhibiting at the NAB Show in a couple of weeks, so I hope to know more then.

by ·Comments Off on Surprising result in TV antenna faceoff

In the aftermath of CES, I mentioned that I picked up three new indoor TV antennas. Now that I’ve put them to the test, I have some surprises to share with you.

Four different TV antennas ready to testFirst, a few notes about the testing. Since digital TV reception is pretty much a pass/fail proposition, I used the signal-to-noise ratio readings from my indispensable HDHomeRun networked tuner, expressed through the Hdhomerun (sic) Signal Meter app. Those SNR numbers tell me how well the antenna is working, and symbol quality readings tell me whether I’d be able to view the channel. Most of the over-the-air channels that broadcast to FreeTVBlog World Headquarters come from the west-northwest, although a few OTA channels of interest come from the north. Primary testing took place just inside a west-facing window.

As one baseline, a ran a quick set of readings from my rooftop Cable Cutter antenna. I installed it carefully to pick up the weak northern signals while keeping the primary WNW signals; those WNW SNR numbers are a little less than optimum as a result. Then I turned to the west window and my indoor champion: the HomeWorX HW110AN. Flat against the window, the HomeWorX posted SNR numbers as good as the rooftop for the WNW channels except for the three Denver channels that still use VHF.

Next up was the Cable Cutter Mini, also from HD Frequency. Because of its lineage, I expected great things from the Mini, but the results were underwhelming. Flat against the window, the Mini handled VHF 9 better than the HomeWorX but was weaker on 7 and 13. Then I had an inspiration. Turns out that the Mini’s SNR improved greatly when I held it perpendicular to the window. I went back to the HomeWorX and saw the same thing: positioned like an old-style pointy yagi antenna, these smaller antennas could pick up VHF signals okay even though they were designed more for UHF reception.

Another CES antenna that shouldn’t really count was included in the box for the Aura, an Android- and Kodi-based OTA receiver that I’m looking forward to reviewing soon. The little telescoping stick is a lot like the compact antenna I bring along with my laptop tuner on road trips. The Aura’s antenna picked up the strongest stations, and would make a decent starter for someone disconnecting cable, but it wasn’t in the same league as the others.

(Speaking of telescoping antennas, an even smaller one is attached to my TabletTV T-Pod unit. An apples-to-apples comparison isn’t possible, but it also failed to tune in Channel 9 from the window. TabletTV would be better with an external antenna jack, and it would also be better with movie listings with titles instead of “Movie,” but I digress.)

My final CES antenna was the Magic Stick TV, and my expectations were low. As you might guess from its company’s name, PVC Antenna Inc., this is an indoor-outdoor antenna sealed in about 10 inches of narrow PVC pipe. The Magic Stick TV’s slick packaging and its glib CES presenter had me thinking infomercial bait. When I held the antenna lengthwise against the window, its VHF numbers were similarly unimpressive, but pointing it like a boom microphone, I got even better VHF numbers than the other two indoor antennas had delivered at their perpendicular best. Shifting back to lengthwise, its UHF numbers matched the other two, and in one corner of my office I could just barely pick up those northern channels. If I had to pick among the three, the Magic Stick TV would be the winner.

Although the Magic Stick TV’s performance was unexpected, my biggest surprise was that the position of the antenna, both relative to windows and to its presenting angle, changes reception much more than the antenna itself. The top three that I tested posted identical numbers on most channels when positioned perfectly. Depending on which channels you care about and how much you’re willing to fiddle with the antenna, any of these three should work fine. Based on its low price, I’d still recommend the HomeWorX.

 

by ·Comments Off on Fun new free channels on satellite
TV news reporters clowning around before their report

With my FTA satellite receiver, I can watch live remote footage as reporters set up and sometimes clown around before their 30 seconds on air.

Did you know that there are over 250 free TV channels that don’t require internet access or a subscription? They’re available through free-to-air satellite via a medium-sized (30-inch) dish and some inexpensive equipment. (When I mention this, newcomers usually look at me like I’m crazy or nefarious. I’m definitely not nefarious, but I digress.) Because there are so many channels, and because they come and go without warning, I created FTAList.com, which is now in its 10th year of operation. FTAList only carries permanent (until they change) TV channels, but there are also dozens of radio channels. My favorite FTA sessions are live feeds of news crews and sporting events, but those are gone within hours; your best bet to find such ephemeral TV is constant scanning or Ricks Wildfeed Forum.

Long-term (over a month) readers may remember that this blog was once known as FTABlog, because its original purpose was to talk about free-to-air satellite news and other FTAList stuff. The last few days, I’ve been checking the skies to update those FTA channel listings. So what the heck, let’s talk again about what’s new on free satellite TV these days.

Over at AMC 21 (125 degrees west), there are more PBS feeds than you can imagine, including some PBS channels you might not get locally: PBS Kids, V-Me, World, Create, and FNX.

On Galaxy 18 (123 W), the University of Washington channel is gone (although available as a live stream on the internet) but KBS World is available again after years of being scrambled. Both were around during the FTA glory days, so I notice them more than some others.

Another channel that emerged after years of scrambling is Macy’s Satellite Network on AMC 15 (105 w). It’s not all that interesting, but there are several Macy’s music channels on the same transponder.

Azteca 7 popped up in a couple of places, Eutelsat 117 (116.8 W) and in Azteca 13’s old slot at Galaxy 25 (93.1 W). Azteca 7 shows some pro football games (in Spanish, of course); it had the Pittsburgh-Denver playoff game last Sunday.

The majority of Ku-band FTA channels can be found on one satellite, Galaxy 19 (97 W), so it also occupies the majority of my updating time. Sadly, I’m not that interested in most of the channels there, either because they’re preoccupied with someone else’s flavor of religion or in a language I don’t understand or both. I’m happy to see Retro TV hanging in there, and I wish more of its sister channels were also available.

So there’s a quick update on some of the FTA changes I saw this month. For more complete channels listings and information about how to watch, visit FTAList. Next time, I’ll return to terrestrial TV, and the best antennas to receive it.

by ·Comments Off on CES Security Theater must have worked
Doors labeled "Do Not Open" propped open with a wooden block

Good thing the bad guys weren’t trying to get in to the back of the Sands Hall, where a wooden block defeated CES security.

I wasn’t going to write this post for a couple of reasons. The first is something I learned in another life as a sports reporter: Never complain about the conditions in the press box, because most of your readers would be happy to switch places. The second is that writing about something that wasn’t a problem feels a little petty and boring. Then Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols of Computerworld posted an op-ed about the security theater farce at CES. He got it mostly right, except that I saw some security dogs and a few extra guards around the Las Vegas Convention Center but he didn’t.

What happened was that a couple of weeks before the show, the CES folks warned that they were going to start searching bags and generally implementing stricter security at the show. As Vaughan-Nichols put it, “Many of us wondered how these new security measures would accommodate our usual trade show behavior. Was there any hope of making appointments on time?” You should read his report, but the short answer was that bag checks, particularly for press, were perfunctory at best. My photo of the back of Sands Hall, where (presumably) some exhibitor had placed a heavy wooden wedge to keep the emergency exits open, should suggest the true security level there.

And you know what happened? Nothing! Same as the year before and the years before that, when CES (or the International CES, or the Consumer Electronic Show, or whatever they were calling it at the time) was just as interesting a target for bad guys. In all the years I’ve attended CES, I’ve always felt perfectly safe at its venues. It’s a sad fact that if some moron wants to go on a spree, there’s not too much we can do about it before the fact. But it’s also true that statistically, I’m more likely to be hurt during the drive to the airport or slipping in the shower when I get home.

I’m a cynical guy, so I wonder about possible hidden motives. My theory is that the primary goal was to restrict bag size, especially those annoying rolling bags, to keep the exhibit floor area less crowded for the same number of attendees. That would also match the kind of response that Vaughan-Nichols experienced. If so, the plan worked very well, and I’m all in favor of it. I expect more of the same, including its labeling as “Security” to better convince Joe Rolling Steamer Trunk that they’re doing this for his protection.

by ·Comments Off on More CES: The stuff I didn’t see

Although I saw a whole lot of surprising stuff at CES this year, there was a lot more I didn’t see. A big part of that was because, due to other commitments, I had only one day to pack in all my meetings and booth tours and such. Since FreeTVBlog World Headquarters in Denver is so close to Las Vegas, I flew in on the horribly early first flight of the day and flew back on the last. In between, I had 12 hours in the Sin City, netting about 9 hours at CES. I had tried this tactic once several years ago, so I already knew that it was both possible and not recommended. If that’s all you’ve got, it’s worth it, but you really need two or three days to properly experience CES.

So that’s one reason why I didn’t see the new over-the-air DVR announced by Magnavox, not a name synonymous with cutting-edge digital technology. Another was that the DVR didn’t show up in the Magnavox parent Funai Electric’s exhibitor notes, and Funai didn’t have a booth per se. Anyway, CNet posted a review with some photos, which was helpful because the Magnavox press release page has posted only one article since 2012. CNet says that the DVRs “are all due out in the fourth quarter of 2016.” That’s a very long time from now. Sometimes products are announced at CES as trial balloons; remind me in November whether the Magnavox OTA DVR is any closer to a Best Buy shelf.

Another reclusive announcement came from Vidgo, but at least it had a proper press release to go with it. Vidgo is an over-the-top streaming service, currently in beta, with “the most channels of live linear TV and video-on-demand”. When I think of the most channels of OTT linear TV, I think of FilmOn, but I digress. Vidgo will be available in three tiers, offering “live linear premium, sports, movies, music, local and international content.” It says it will launch in US 15 markets by July, with nationwide coverage by the end of the year. Will Vidgo be a significant player or just a larger version of KlowdTV? Maybe we’ll know by fall.

Yet another streamer with a lot of channels is FreeCast, the more sophisticated name for the former RabbitTV. FreeCast announced its Select TV box, some sort of hardware version of its online aggregation service. The reason I don’t know more about it is that the FreeCast folks cancelled my appointment with them the day before CES opened, so all I know is what its press release said. These folks are masterful marketers, and the first RabbitTV product was really just its aggregation software on an important-looking USB stick, so is the Select TV something cool or a weak version of ChromeCast? I’ll let you know if I ever find out.