We live in this weird age where companies like NBC still require cable subscriptions in order to stream the Olympics on an AppleTV, laptop, other streaming device, etc. I’d be happy to throw them $30 to get the full non-live coverage, but I guess they don’t think that’s a good deal. Whatevs…
It sounds like the best bet for people without a cable TV subscription might be just to buy an Over-the-Air antenna and rock it 1980s style. Has anybody looked into how to watch the Olympics without having a cable TV subscription?
One idea might be to look into VPN-ing into Canada, especially Toronto. TSN and CBC are usually great about streaming Winter Olympics coverage nonstop. It’s great because Canadians are super interested in the sports, and the commentary and coverage is all in English.
I’ve got the same problem. Seeing it on one or two broadcast TV channels isn’t good enough for me because I want to see everything in the sports I care about, not just the highlights. IIRC, 4 years ago I just avoided the news and anyone who would spoil it until I could get it through bittorrent. It really pisses me off because I would be willing to pay for it if they just let me.
This. As a bonus, the Canadian networks are much better at covering the olympics, giving you broad coverage of the majority of participants and events, from skilled broadcasters with a great depth of knowledge of the sports (and, you know, other countries besides their own).
HDHomerun. I use the Prime with my Cablecard to watch/record TV, but they have models that will record OTA digital broadcasts. And I picked up a cheap digital antenna for like $15 last month.
The only downside is that, due to various patents on TV guides, the HDHomerun folks can’t do the traditional on-screen digital guide. Their solution is, well, sorta painful. But it works.
I’ve used ibVPN for the last few years. Only had a few minor issues and it’s reasonably priced…not necessarily the cheapest, but you get what you pay for. I occasionally have to try a few different servers to get a connection that works for streaming…possibly their more popular servers get blacklisted by the stream providers…but I can almost always get it working eventually.
I use Private Internet Access. They have a very strong (as in, very little latency) VPN/IP in Toronto. It’s so good that sometimes when I connect, the default “connect now” – which should connect me to the lowest lag/latency/ and fastest VPN chooses Toronto over DC.
Thanks everybody. I’ll poke around to see what is most simple since I’d like to limit to reasonable cost without purchasing additional hardware, if possible.
There’s nothing to stop you from using a third-party DVR solution with an HDHomerun tuner, btw.
Also, one of the nice things about OTA high definition is that it often looks sharper than the HD that a Comcast might provide. The cable companies are notorious for compressing the shit out of their HD channels.
This is what we are doing this year. Last summer olympics I actually set up a VM with MythTV to handle the recording, glad to abolish that. It’s the only thing we use OTA for and the complexity involved with MythTV was not worth the effort. Plex is stupid simple, if less flexible. Hopefully it won’t screw us, I have run some spot checks but the Olympics is a lot of recording.
I recommend you all get in on Canada’s CBC app and stream. They consistently have great announcers and coverage.
I use the CBC Android app, then cast it to my TV.
CBC, known for its award-winning broadcasts of the Olympic Games, today announced an all-star line-up for PyeongChang 2018. The team of expert commentators, analysts and reporters will keep Canadian audiences engaged, informed and entertained as they experience the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 across all of CBC’s platforms.
Pretty sure you do, unless you live in Canada. I like to connect to the Vancouver server on my VPN and stream CBC via browser. I just use my TV as a second screen on my PC, but a Chromecast or similar would likely work just as well.
I tried this out and it looks like it’s going to work great. I’m not sure I’ll be recording anything, but with luck, I’ll be able to stream live coverage and beam it to the AppleTV. I just tested and it looks good.
If you come across any CBC Olympics scheduling tips, let me know! Thanks for the suggestion!
