And I think this may be another reason Comcast is getting sneaky with their caps. Though it may be plenty, I predict Comcast will try to add a more minimal cap. Either that or jack up the internet rates. They know eventually, people are going to cancel their cable subscription due to the ease of just streaming it. Plus, I can count the shows I watch on cable television with my one hand.

PsychoticLad

What Not to Wear is on TLC not Discovery Channel.

What? Why are you looking at me like that? My wife likes the show.

Late_Night

MythTV works for me.

PeterSimpson

This was a great article and the way the economy is going I may just go "off the grid" since tv isn't even worth paying the hundreds of dollars a year that I pay now. There has to be a better way that isn't illegal, and this is it. You guys should keep doing this every couple of months in my opinion, thanks again.

maven2k

Fox.com is pretty good as well. You have to install their little drm player applet, but its not really a big deal. Plus you get actual HD quality. And the shows go up pretty quickly after they air. Fringe was up yesterday after airing on Tuesday. 1 commercial per break instead of 3 minutes, which is fine by me.

Log1c

@Goatspunk: This article was about "legal" methods.

nightsky

nice informative post. thanks.

kahri

is there an echo in here?

lldsandsll

because torrents are frowned upon by television networks and can possibly lead to a Cease and Desist letter or even worse, a MPAA lawsuit

cracksbacks

@Goatspunk: This guide is here so the you-know-who doesn't cap our you-know-what up our you-know-where for torrenting.

Elk

@Goatspunk: Because torrent files are blocked from being downloaded at my school and I have no way to get around it. =(

velocium

@Goatspunk: Because I am blocked from downloading torrent files at my school and have no way to get around it. =(

velocium

Why not just use torrents?

Goatspunk

nt nws. nt wrth th ffrt. nt t s th ggrgtn f wht's vlbl th.

lldsandsll

Extensive article, well thought out, well written, A+.
Now why couldn't you do this BEFORE I got cable, like a month and a half ago?
Cause Comcast has been one of the worst experiences I've ever had.

And who all caught the finale of Metalocalypse on sunday?
Hell yes.

Phenostar

Is there a way to get an US IP address outside the US?.

I used to connect to a VPN in the states so I had full access to Hulu. I don't have this option anymore.

Thanks for your help.

DeLarge

ESPN360 may have a few good choices but most of the big events are not online. So as a sports nut, I have to have cable.

SportsCentre

@Mark Wilson: Ah yes...I missed those in parenthesis next to the..um...Discovery...Networks...ok I'm a tool.

Late_Night

Both TBS and TNT have content available as well. However, I would grade them a D- as they are Windows only.

oompa

@valiumdeficient: Thanks but I tried something similar to this, most of the proxies were still blocked or it was painfully slow to load pages.

Maksimir is hitting new lows.

@Ajh: i concur, i get 20+ digital channels and a few are hd with my tiny antenna, works great for when i'm at work and need to watch a football game in widescreen high def on my laptop.

yungjerry703

Yup, up here in the land of _real_ hockey mums, we have the choice of over-the-air digital, or chopped up chunks that the Canadian network websites dish out.

Fortunately I have line-of-sight to Rochester from my south-facing condo, and a pair of rabbit ears.

Unfortunately I _don't_ have line-of-sight to the Canadian ATSC masts, so not so much local programming for me...

notfred

@Late_Night: TLC is part of the Discovery Networks.

Mark Wilson

And let's not forget about Ted - Torrent Episode Downloader.

[www.rulecam.net]

I'm not saying you should use it, I'm just saying that it exists and downloads your shit for you.

WTF?! Ponies!

@Maksimir is hitting new lows.: @Viakenny: @Ashground:

For those of you who are outside the states, check this out -

[www.ghacks.net]

valiumdeficient

Looking at the grades you issued, I'm not sure its' worth the effort, even it is cost effective.

taylors_dad

That caption should be changed. They use bitchtorrent for everything..

Jrsy

Just tell me where to get Law and Order episodes online. Not NBC, Hulu, USA, or A&E offer new or even old eps.

Where can I get my law and order?

elgringoguapo

Oi! You forgot to mention most network websites block their content to foreign ip's - namely those of us in the Great White North... yankee bastards..

Maksimir is hitting new lows.

however, many of those services are US-only, which leads many non-US users (myself included) to the torrentsphere.

Viakenny

Nice article, but missing one important angle -- do any of these stream outside the US? Or, as a Canadian, am I still stuck torrenting everything?

Ashground

The best advice here is reminding people that their broadcast stations broadcast in hd now.

I grew up in a household without cable tv. We sitll had tons to watch with an antenna. A majority of the programs people watch are on broadcast stations. I have the bare minimum broadcast cable option now which I had to request specially and insist on. I can't hook up an antenna outside like I want to...(It comes to about $5 a month added to the horrible cable bill that is the only broadband option in town.)

Ajh

I almost forgot! Thank you for the great article. I am going to do some research of my own after work. I've been kicking the idea around for a bit.

PsychoticLad

Corrections:
1) Hulu does have limited 30 second commercials
2) CBS will have the last 2 episodes of CSI. I know because I watch 'em!

goingthewongway

The Discovery Channel family of channels is the one that's always been the biggest disappointment to me. Their audience overlaps heavily with heavy online users yet they have by far one of the weakest online offerings. Very frustrating.

Ron-Mexico

I LOVE DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES!!!!
Can't wait for the new season where all the ladies have grown up... ALOT

xsecretfiles3

Man...the Golden Girls are a lot hotter than they used to be.

Chromeo

I'm really interested in getting a digital antenna and just getting the basic stations. I've lived without TV long enough to not really need its mindless shows, but I do appreciate the news, etc. Where do you use the ANT1500? I'm in Brooklyn so I'm pretty certain it'd work fine, but I want to make sure. It's really annoying reading reviews of all these digital antennae and not knowing which one to choose.

kpburke

can someone address how to keep up with live-action channels (i.e. news networks, weather channel, etc)? If I am going off the grid, I don't want to learn about what's going on in society through Law & Order plots (they're known for incorporating recent headlines). is over-the-air the only option here?

redclear55

Great post. This is probably one of the main points for torrents.

you'll be looking at a picture that's far more beautiful than streaming web content or what you can buy from Amazon or iTunes (at the time of this writing)

Joseph

I use cable and a TiVo S3, but I am starting to use the PS3 w/ PlayOn and the normal streaming from WMP11.

Hulu is nice, and works very well with PlayOn. Espn works ok through it (looks horrible, limited shows). Of course with the regular streaming you can fill in the content gaps with the torrents.

Not as easy to do with kids shows, but you could try and fill the time with netflix (which we also use). And it works pretty well as our kids get to watch basically no TV during the week due to our busy schedule.

jiffy

@Maksimir is hitting new lows.:

I was going to post that. I happen to be a "yankee bastard" but my IP says otherwise :(

thisisasignin

The CW has the worst online player. It's sofa king laggy and doesn't have Smallville. ABC.com has their shows streaming in HD and it's pretty good.

BloggyMcBlogBlog

ESPN deserves a big FAIL on all counts in my opinion. They only allow access to their streaming video site from ISPs who agree to pay them for the privilege. If you're not a customer of one of those ISPs, you're out of luck. Absurd! Note to ESPN: this isn't cable television. It violates all tenets of network neutrality, and I'd expect a more damning reaction to this sort of behavior from Gizmodo and its readers.

cass

You forgot veoh.com (Hulu alternative)

brutek

@oompa: Also, CWTV and SciFi have stuff available. SciFi is decent. CWTV is very low quality.

oompa

@Late_Night: :)

Mark Wilson

@Harlan: My understanding on this is the antenna you have now should be enough to get a signal, but it may not look that great.

falandil

I use Hulu all the time. I love it.

y2julio

I've refused to pay for cable or satellite for years now. I just can't justify the cost when I watch maybe 3-4 hours per week of TV.

So, this article was really very helpful. There's a few cable shows I've been wanting to see with very little way of seeing them.

I may just need to build a media PC after reading this.

falandil

Online video is fine if you don't care that it's crappy quality and usually sub-SD resolution.

Having invested in a very nice 1080p LCD television, I'd rather not use it to watch QVGA video with very high compression.

drbuzz0

I'm a little mystified still on the OTA antenna types. We've got an old one on top of the house, and this article's saying to get any UHF/VHF antenna has me mystified. I've been told a couple times that the antenna will be useless once things shift to digital. Is that true or not? I've got a Tivo HD, so the tuner part's no trouble. I just don't know if I need a new antenna or not.

Harlan

can someone please just tell me where i can find all the caveman episodes? ... i am serious.

mac_tanaguchi

I can't complain about DirecTV. I went the OTA HD and media center PC route, and it just doesn't compare to all the HD content I get now.

kwicherbichin

@notfred: At least that way you'll be the first to know when the invasion is coming when Fox news broadcasts it on their evening edition.

Oh topic: Those are all great options but i still can't get rid of my cable. The wife isn't interested in learning how to get her shows from the internet and she likes to watch them when they first air. For an example of her stubbornness, I have a mythtv box set up in the living room where she can schedule all her shows to record and watch them whenever, but she chooses to still write the times on the calendar on the fridge and check that schedule every night.

auslander

I dropped my DirecTV subscription back in Jan. and have been watching TV online ever since. Some shows, such as Prison Break are shown in 480p and look pretty good on my 24" iMac.

Galley

Torrenting TV via MIRO.

READ the comments, as the article does leave out an important step, which is addressed in the comments.

I've used this method and it does work. Obviously, the quality of the video can be variable, due to the individual doing the video capturing.

Still and all, free TV episodes via the internet.

tuckerch

@designguybrown: Good point. I can't use Hulu in Canada, and it sucks.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

After cancelling my cable, I've had issues with antennas as well. I can't get an HD broadcast to save my life. Everything I see is 4:3 SD. Not really a biggie though, I barely watch TV (which is why I cancelled cable)

I'm surprised that the PlayOn solution wasn't included. Yeah, it's free for now, but the CBS linup on it is pretty stunning. Everything from Jericho, to Twin Peaks, to Hawaii-50 to the Love Boat through CSI and beyond. And you can watch Hulu, Netflix and YouTube. I've been very happy with it.

Enochrewt

@y2julio: Me too. I no longer need an actual television.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

i didn't read all the comments - so if it was already posted - here it is repeated: what if you don't live in the US and you want legal and you are not willing to set a bunch of different region-blocking-settings on your software - what then, eh?

designguybrown

@falandil: False. The antenna will be fine. Digital is digital, there is no in-between. As long as you have a strong enough signal to get the signal you'll be fine.

You will not need a new antenna.

KStrike155

No mention of QAM?

jkrell

Another site similar to Hulu is Fancast.com.

engstewart

While cable and satellite program providers will continue to serve the great majority of homes as the primary signal source, missing HD local reception, compression issues, higher costs, billing add-ons, service outages, contact difficulties, in-home service waits and no shows have left many of these subscribers looking to OTA antennas as a good, alternative and Off-Air viewers happy with their free programming.

But TV reception starts with the right antenna and Off-Air TV is FREE.

Viewers should certainly try their old antenna first. It's true that any of these older antennas will pick up some signals, maybe all the broadcast signals a viewer wants to receive, depending on their location. If they're getting all the OTA channels they want, than they're good to go.

While Antennas can't tell the difference between analog and digital signals, there are definitely certain models which have higher DTV batting averages than others. Not all antennas are equally suited for DTV. A percentage of viewers will require something a little more tailored for DTV reception.

With one of the newer and smaller OTA antennas, with greatly improved performance, power and aesthetics, viewers may also be able to receive out-of-town channels, carrying blacked out sports programs not available locally, several additional sub-channels or network broadcasts. And for those with an HDTV, almost completely uncompressed HD broadcasts (unlike cable or satellite).

OTA viewers can go to antennapoint.com to see quickly what stations are available to them, the distance, and compass heading to help in choosing and aiming their antenna. And if they decide to buy a newer antenna, they should buy it from a source that will completely refund their purchase price, no questions asked, if it doesn't do the job.

antennaguy

@theblackdog: We said you were crazy because you have a nasty habit of exposing your privates to schoolchildren and you walk around the neighborhood in your robe and slippers, lecturing squirrels about the dangers of Martians, and collecting used chewing gum wrappers.

That you switched your ISP at the time was entirely coincidental and has nothing to do with our belief that you are, in fact, crazier than a shithouse rat.

WTF?! Ponies!

And people said I was crazy when I flipped Comcast the bird and only got DSL from Verizon in my new apartment.

I am so going to be able to keep up with TV now. Still, boo to Discovery channel, I want to be able to watch Mythbusters online dammit.

theblackdog

@bilups: i don't need no friggin' converter box! i star in "Pirates of The Carribean" every day!

aaaarrrrrrrhhhhhhgggggggg!

**limps on wooden peg leg**

hindsight2020

@antennaguy: you should mention that starting next year, people have to get a converter box to continue using their antenna.

bilups

No mythbusters? I guess it's $100/month cable for me

bilups

@Adam Rock: YEAH it is. :-)

Harlan

If only these options were available in the great white north. Screw you CRTC and your ban on letting us access anything good.

I can't even get torrents because of $#%@! Bell's evil throttling practices. Thankfully I've rediscovered usenet and can be as sneaky as a ninja with ssl.

SAN66

"Psych" is a completely awesome show.

Adam Rock

MTV has music videos. Now there's a novel idea.

reddingofish

Got rid of my cable a couple of months ago and am not looking back.

ted for Mythbusters, ghost hunters, Fringe, anything playing on a schedule.

utorrent for Garth Marenghis Darkplace, Man to Man with Dean Learner, League of Gentlemen, all my BBC gems and the odd show I cant find anywhere else.

Stabio

CBS is the absolute worst at everything. In the digital age they're Neanderthals. How is it possible that I can't watch my football team in hd? Or the us open? The most CBS broadcast in he is the local news. And to top it off their online offerings are the weakest of the major networks.

Sorry for typos I'm on the iPod

snakepliskin

@bilups: NO!!!!!

Sorry, no. Analogue broadcasts are ceasing, but digital broadcast are alive and strong - that's the good stuff anyway.

I'm just surprised people are still confused about this matter.

itchytooth

@mr_bigglesworth: Actually i think Comedy Central has no Country restrictions, I am in Portugal and watch the Daily Show and South Park often through the site. Now Hulu has, and it's a pain.

joandrade

now, if your not in america, you'll probably need something to hide your ip address, or use a proxy. i've found hotspot sheild launch pretty good, its not a proxy, i think it just (somehow) hides your ip address, but it means you can watch the daily show (and whatever the hell else is on tv these days) plus some more daily show

mr_bigglesworth

The big problem with online anything is the lack of channel surfing. I'm perfectly happy with torrents for the few shows I want to see, but most of the time I'm just bored or sleepless, flipping through the list for anything remotely interesting... sometimes it's MythBusters, Robot Chicken or a crappy movie on TMN and its dozen siblings.

If a web site could offer streaming video with emulated flipping, that could serve my needs. Seriously, just let me tune in to the middle of a bunch of shows, and if I like one I can start it over from the beginning. I'm not enough of a TV watcher to know what I want. If I did, I'd be torrenting.

billco

@cass: I mind when ISP's tell websites they need to pay extra to serve customers who have already paid for a connection to the net.

I don't mind sites telling ISP's they need to pay extra.

One is a shake down, the other is just poor planning at best and more likely a recipe for ensuring you never become relevent.

Merricat

Two websites for free tv. The quality is not great, but it's streaming and it's FREE!
www.surfthechannel.com
www.alluc.org

kityglitr

@Adam Rock and Harlan: That's what I'm talking about! As I scrolled through the comments, I figured somebody had to right that record!

Otherwise, great post!

92BuickLeSabre

It would be even better if everyone wasn't forced to use Adobe's choppy ass flash (to force ads). They need to start optimizing their software. I can't get a full screen flash video to run smooth at all (except for Adobe media player)

droopy1592

@WTF?! Ponies!: I don't know what you're talking about *adjusts tinfoil hat*

theblackdog

Yeah, cable and internet together costs me like $40 from Comcast so it's not that big of a deal.

Glare

@Glare: Is that the promotional price or the regular price? Comcast told me it would shoot up to about $80 after the first six months.

theblackdog

Hey, I LIKE Burn Notice.

Hand_O_Death

@Ashground: You can watch everything that Comedy Central has online outside the US. I love watching the Daily Show, not a chance such a show could come to Germany. For everything else I guess you're stuck with BitTorrent or the option that valiumdeficient pointed out.

hanswurst0815

(obviousness) I believe if you live outside of the US, like me, you can't watch squat.
I'll move along.

judacris

i got to agree about how sucktastic comcast is. i'd rather use io, but i don't get it here. thanks for the tips but i really only watch discovery channel and G4 so that kinda sucks. oh well

devilsrequiem

check out the channels in www.veoh.com

kangaroo

@Phenostar: The only information this article contains is that most major networks have websites (*gasp* really!?) and that they offer content on them. Also, there are some stations that broadcast television over the AIR for FREE! If you couldn't figure that out on your own - you deserve to deal with comcast.

yeti

None of these come closet to be as convenient as downloading an AVI that I can put on my phone, my laptop or burn to a DVD. As usual, the content and the delivery type that consumers want most is unavailable. The networks refuse to properly compete for our business and call us pirates when their material is most effectively provided by a third party.

xkevin108x

Was this video to enlighten those that hadn't caught on months ago or what? During Lost they even say on the screen to view in HD online!

zayden

I thought there was some good news
but most of sites are location based

TBM-Fan

For those of us outside the U.S. that want to view these sites, you just need to go and download a spiffy tool called Hotspot Shield, it creates a VPN to a U.S. Server and you get to launch all the sites you want.... Now if only I can get it to work with TVersity/xbox360..ill be in heaven....almost Joe

SudiptiRaphman

I've never heard of any of these shows !

andysnat