True, many of my friends do exactly that. They skip the entire OTA tuner deal and just download the few things they want to watch. Although at the heart of it, that content is just OTA programming that was ripped off-air elsewhere by some other bloke using their hardware.

I just worry though, without broadcast TV, would they still waste time making content for the medium? Soap Operas, Game Shows, etc. I suppose can survive in a streaming fashion. But again, would they still bother to funnel money into producing the same kind of shows if BC TV didn't exist?

Then again, maybe it's just better if that sort of crap died and went the way of the dodo anyhow. If it survives in a streaming-only world then great. Otherwise Darwin's rules apply.

Exactly this.

The DVR setup using TCP/IP tuners like the Silicon Dust HDHomeRun series (which I have) is very easy, not quite 1-button, but close. It scans for the Tuner, creates a "DVR" and then scans for over the air channels and populates a list automatically. Then, it downloads the guide data automatically. The quality of the guide data so far as not been bad, not too many errors, but it only goes about a week into the future so far.

The Plex Pass might give you more than you expect, free lifetime DVR guide data as mentioned above is but one of the things the Pass gets you. Here's a quick list off the top of my head:

1. Registration with their proxy servers in case forwarding is needed for double-NAT situations, a nice feature every now and then.

2. Free OTA DVR guide data (as mentioned above, probably what, a $20.00/year value or so?).

3. Access to paid client binaries like for phones or tablets (such as iOS or Android). Some clients are free, like PC/Mac clients.

4. About 200-300 streaming TV channels, IPTV like HULU/FUBO/Sling, etc. It's the same slop you get on cable TV besides the premium stuff HBO, etc and live Sports, mostly. You know, 24-hour History Channel (but not the actual History Channel, like a "best of" thing.

So, the "Lifetime Plex Pass" gets you IPTV, worth about $50 a month, and Guide Service, worth about $20 a year, you're saving about $620 per YEAR. For IPTV and/or DVR service, that's not too bad comparatively. But now, it looks like the new price point is right up there - it looks like they have priced it so that unless things get more expensive (a likely possibility!) you're just about at the break-even point.

Also, just so no one thinks I'm a biased rabid drooling fan, here's a few of the things I DON'T like about Plex:

1. Seems to go "offline" or have internet connection issues related to the server being available. Sometimes the proxy bridging servers (mentioned above) help this situation, but not always.

2. Transcoding and speed issues related to that. Unfortunately, it seems like Plex tries to aggressively transcode EVERYTHING, even when it shouldn't or doesn't need to. There are some settings that affect this or are supposed to but there are still some issues with it (there are some good Reddit threads on this).

3. Customer Service just seems mostly like a search engine for some things that people have had issues with, and somehow never got responses or resolutions to. I hate tech support threads or forums that exactly describe the problem that I am having, but don't have a solution or any published answer or followup. "At that point the poster suffered a fatal coronary?"

OK, that's about it. I just wanted to comment about the mixed feelings I had since the price was going up. FWIW, I bought mine back in 2021 and back then it was just under $100.00, I show $95 and change, probably with tax. As I recall it went to $100, $110 or $120, then $150. Then I think it jumped to $250 where it's at now. It's still a VERY good deal until July 1, 2026, at which point it will become a FAIR deal, unless things change.

Note: I am not an employee or affiliated with Plex in any way, but I'm a reasonably happy customer. I've been using it now for about 6 years with my own local video server, a local TV Tuner (Silicon Dust HDHomeRun QUATTRO) and TV viewing PC, which will record 4 OTA channels at once. I have had very few issues, as I said it was beguilingly easy to get set up initially, very simple configuration and maintenance, and most things seem to work pretty well in general.

Mr.T

Yeah but this involves Minds that are Deep, so it's totally different.

And I see someone has already made an open source version...

This is just a wrapper. They will use it to lock down an actual life saving solution, so unless you pay the literal blood money, you can't access the cure - or even worse, poison yourself or your patient in the process.

No this is much worse than a non-solution to a non-problem, it's a distinct obstacle to sharing, distributing or using an actual solution to a real problem.

Well, not the dead ones, of course, if that was the "spirit" of your argument (uggh - bad pun, sorry).

But as for the living ones, yes, they do have SOME access and ability to use ham (not an acronym so no need to capitalize it) radio gear and frequencies, if they think it will help. Ham radio is also known as amateur radio.

Baofeng, or similar Cheap Chinese Radios (CCR's) sell for less than $30.00 on Amazon or eBay. You can't believe that none of the protesters have relatives or friends in other countries that could BUY the gear for them? Their main problem is they are short range and will likely require a similar radio at the other end to receive them.

For longer range communications, there are a lot of different QRP, or low power - less than 5 Watts - type of "HF" transceivers that can go much longer distances but require larger and longer antennas than walkie-talkie type radios. These are a little more expensive, usually around $100.00 or so and higher, all the way through several thousand dollars for really high-end digital (SDR) all-band, all-mode "HF" transceivers.

Also, recently there has been an emergence of "mesh network" type devices. Those are usually UHF/VHF, so a local radio IP-network type of service is established by a small fleet of walkie-talkie like devices operating in a peer-to-peer fashion as "hotspots" or portable access points, all nodes in the mesh. These are not necessarily operating on amateur radio specific frequencies, but could be.

So, the protesters should have some potential to use various amateur radio services or equipment, depending on their ability to buy or smuggle in radios that were either bought for them by confederates or family members, etc. or to access ones that were available to them prior to the crackdown.

Now we just need to determine the world's saddest song to play on it...

Very insightful. Very few things are truly a zero-sum game in life,
that attitude completely discounts any win-win situations stupidly, selfishly and needlessly.

Yet, the firings and beatings will continue until morale improves!

Correct. This was stating the required ride fee for any potential hitchhikers that might get picked up. It was meant as a joke (mostly).

Gentlemen!

We CANNOT have a Quantum AI Space Laser Agile Computing Constellation GAP!

Yep.

"Cow Corn", or Field Corn, as it's properly known, mostly goes to produce a large amount of a little product you might have heard of - automotive fuel - Ethanol, or "GASOHOL" as it's sometimes called.

Plus, it's still used to feed cows as noted, so land to grow Field Corn is not a waste by any means, it's use is more important than ever.

"Cow Corn" - it's not just for dinner anymore! (moo)

The only remotely interesting thing was about Apple making them change the computer since it became evil. I had heard before that they are militant in movie productions about not letting the "Bad Guys (TM)" have an iPhone!

I thought about that and it came to me that it was a huge spoiler for a suspense movie, a double agent having an Android would be a dead giveaway!

Also, I can't believe they're going to call the supercomputer "Colossus"! Holy fuck, did anyone of them even watch that movie?

What does the Time Variance Authority have to do with all this?

Mewbits?