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OT: Tech advise relative to watching PSU games without cable

Ranger Dan

Ranger Dan

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Aug 31, 2003
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York PA
I spend my Saturday's in the fall split between hunting and watching Penn State games. When I'm at the hunting cabin in Bradford county, there is no cable TV and barely any antenna reception. I'm not up to speed on all of the cutting edge technology, but I understand that there are options like slingbox to relay cable.

I have Comcast cable, an iPhone, and a Kindle Fire. What are the best options for me?
 
Ranger Dan said:
I spend my Saturday's in the fall split between hunting and watching Penn State games. When I'm at the hunting cabin in Bradford county, there is no cable TV and barely any antenna reception. I'm not up to speed on all of the cutting edge technology, but I understand that there are options like slingbox to relay cable.

I have Comcast cable, an iPhone, and a Kindle Fire. What are the best options for me?
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If you get a good connection there via verizon or AT&T, you an stream b1g network and many of the broadcast stations.

You will have to subscribe to B1G directly but you probably already are through Comcast. With AT&T TV, you can stream off of your cable box to your LTE connected device for almost every station.

Get an LTE device, connect to B1G network, when you connect it will ask you to give them your Comcast credentials and , assuming those pass, you can watch on you LTE device.
 
Thanks for your help, Obli, but I'm afraid that I'm a little more remedial than you are expecting. I have an iPhone 5S and a Kindle Fire... what do I do?
 
A word of caution about using your smart phone to stream without having a wi-fi connection.....

I was hunting in western Maryland a couple years ago, same situation you're in: no cable, no nothing but my smart phone. I have mobile hot spot as part of my mobile service, so I connected to it with my Kindle Fire to watch PSU-OSU football.

I only watched until halftime for two reasons. First, they were putting the beat down on us and it was just too brutal.....and I was with an OSU fan. Second and more importantly, it used more than half of my monthly data (5GB) to watch one half of a football game! This was using the ABC HD app and I'm sure that accounted for some of it, but any streaming video uses a chunk of data in a hurry on your mobile plan.

If anyone knows how to avoid the excessive data consumption, I'd be thrilled to hear it, too.

Otherwise, I prefer NapaNit's choice of critter cam while you're hunting, then I'd recommend heading to the nearest sports bar for game time.
 
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Ranger Dan said:
Thanks for your help, Obli, but I'm afraid that I'm a little more remedial than you are expecting. I have an iPhone 5S and a Kindle Fire... what do I do?
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on your Iphone, you down load the Comcast app or the big ten to go app, or both. If you get the Big 10 network via Comcast and have a high speed internet connection ( that LTE thingy on your phone in the top left hand corner next to the ATT signal strength meter) you are good to go. Now mind, if you don't have unlimited data plan, you may have an issue with using a lot of data ( I have an unlimited plan so it does not affect me). Sign in to one of the apps above before you go camping, it is pretty easy actually, just follow along. You will need either your Comcast id or account number.
 
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sluggo72 said:
on your Iphone, you down load the Comcast app or the big ten to go app, or both. If you get the Big 10 network via Comcast and have a high speed internet connection ( that LTE thingy on your phone in the top left hand corner next to the ATT signal strength meter) you are good to go. Now mind, if you don't have unlimited data plan, you may have an issue with using a lot of data ( I have an unlimited plan so it does not affect me). Sign in to one of the apps above before you go camping, it is pretty easy actually, just follow along. You will need either your Comcast id or account number.
Click to expand...

What he said.
 
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Is there a reason (other than cost) why Dish or DirecTV aren't options?

Otherwise, use the Xfinity app from Comcast - if you can get a cellular data signal at your cabin. But note, AT&T/Verizon have data limits on most of their current plans.
 
pmjoe said:
Dish or DirecTV aren't options
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Yes, because we'd have to pay for service all year even though we are only there one weekend every other month on average. Also, the place is actually owned by my in laws, so there could be no changes to infrastructure without their consent... which means there can be no changes to infrastructure.
 
This isn't gonna work unless you want to pay almost $100 for the game. Your service probably sucks in the woods anyway and it won't be possible, but doing this over your phone is going to crush your data. We have 8 gigs a month shared. If you watch a 3 hour game on your phone in HD, it's going to be all that data + overrage charges (~$15 gig), and then you have no data for the rest of the month, so you'll get dinged a couple more times.
 
Ranger Dan said:
Yes, because we'd have to pay for service all year even though we are only there one weekend every other month on average. Also, the place is actually owned by my in laws, so there could be no changes to infrastructure without their consent... which means there can be no changes to infrastructure.
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Does Dish network still require a contract? If not, you could just get it for the months you want it. For the dish you could just mount it on a pole in a bucket of cement that you could take with you. For such a temporary setup it would be adequate and easy to do. If you already have satellite service you could just get an extra dish and bring your receiver. Also, googled dish no contract and found stuff like this...http://www.dishmyhome.com/flextv.html
 
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dwiz said:
This isn't gonna work unless you want to pay almost $100 for the game. Your service probably sucks in the woods anyway and it won't be possible, but doing this over your phone is going to crush your data. We have 8 gigs a month shared. If you watch a 3 hour game on your phone in HD, it's going to be all that data + overrage charges (~$15 gig), and then you have no data for the rest of the month, so you'll get dinged a couple more times.
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He could always change his plan or buy extra data for the month. Also, I don't think LTE is an absolute must since most apps lower the pic quality depending on speeds. On a phone or tablet that's really not an issue. 3g might be pushing it, but anything above it should be fine. If he wants to watch it on a TV he would most likely need a cheap second device that he could stream to via WiFi or bluetooth.
 
Lots of DirecTV customers watch games in the Beaver Stadium parking lot using a dish and receiver that is powered from their car. This solution would work anywhere where you can receive a sattelite signal.
 
Ranger Dan said:
That may work if I had DirecTV or Dish, but I'm a Comcast chump....
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Check out this option. http://www.winegard.com/anser

I know you don't have Direct TV or Dish, but with this system you can actually do a pay as you go.
Take the dish and the receiver with you when you go to the mountains. The dish will automatically find the satellites you need. It is portable so you won't be making any permanent changes to the cabin. Set it on a table hook up the wire in about 5-10 minutes you are good to go.

I see you live in York. I live in Dallastown. I actually have this system and I would be happy to show it to you so you can see how it works.
 
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Thanks Cookie... that solution seems OK, but I didn't see any networks and some games will be on ABC or other "non-cable" channels. Also,it may be cost prohibitive. I really only "need" it for a couple of Penn State games each year, not that I wouldn't watch other games.
 
Ranger Dan said:
Thanks Sluggo... this was what I was thinking about originally, but didn't know how to get a signal without a wifi.It seems that using my iphone as a wifi hotspot would eat up my allocated data within my plan and be cost prohibitive. I guess it won't hurt to check into a temporary upgrade to unlimited data...
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Seems like the easiest course might be a road trip to a local watering hole that is showing the game. Judging from that area, that may be easier said than done.
 
KnightSlayer said:
a local watering hole
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There are bars within 20 minutes or so that would have the games on... and that it what it may come to. It's kinda a one team (family) vibe, so if I say I want to go out to watch the game then it becomes a big ordeal because not everyone else will want to go out somewhere to watch the game as opposed to stay at the cabin.
 
Ranger Dan said:
Thanks Cookie... that solution seems OK, but I didn't see any networks and some games will be on ABC or other "non-cable" channels. Also,it may be cost prohibitive. I really only "need" it for a couple of Penn State games each year, not that I wouldn't watch other games.
Click to expand...

With this system you would be able to get all the channels including all the major networks, ESPN, Big 10, etc.
 
PSUSignore said:
Here's a timely announcement that will make your life easier. Free streaming will now be available on gopsusports.com. http://onwardstate.com/2015/08/19/gopsusports-com-receives-facelift-includes-live-game-streaming/
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Other than being able to live stream the radio broadcast of the game, I don't see how this helps him with his limited data budget.

Now don't get me wrong, this is GREAT! I am truly surprised by this move by PSU. I sure hope the live-stream video doesn't go belly up with the # of users that will try to use this method.

In fact, this is exactly what those looking to cut cable were looking for, and FREE to boot!
 
Peetz Pool Boy said:
For you smart techies, how many GB's of data would one use for audio only vs. video? If I have 4 Gb of data that I rarely use, would I be able listen without going over my data limit?
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Audio takes very little bandwidth, but who wants to listen to porn?
 
Peetz Pool Boy said:
For you smart techies, how many GB's of data would one use for audio only vs. video? If I have 4 Gb of data that I rarely use, would I be able listen without going over my data limit?
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There's this thing called a "radio" that doesn't have any data limit and has far better announcers who actually describe what's happening.

Maybe ~3MB/sec for video and ~0.06MB/sec for the audio but that all depends on the encoding which can vary a lot. You'd also have to find a source that just provides the audio stream separately.
 
pmjoe said:
There's this thing called a "radio" that doesn't have any data limit and has far better announcers who actually describe what's happening.

Maybe ~3MB/sec for video and ~0.06MB/sec for the audio but that all depends on the encoding which can vary a lot. You'd also have to find a source that just provides the audio stream separately.
Click to expand...
I won't be located anywhere near the PSU football network, so I'm seeking alternatives. I guess I'll try either the gopsu or the IHeart app and hope for the best.
 
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