I am looking to switch from Cable to Over the Air local stations and just keep the Internet service at home. I may start posting again here and talking about the change. I've seen and read a lot about Over the Air TV and was recently at my Brother-In-Laws. He has the antenna's for it as he is usually home Sunday (his day off), so he watches a little then. It wasn't a bad signal at all, it helped me see how the picture was. Now I just need to get my house ready for this and start checking.

I've recently read this article (Life Hacker - How to Choose the Best Over the Ait Antenna for...) which has a few good pointers, along with this site (TV Signal Locator) for checking the area on how well TV stations will be picked up by the Antenna. A few things on my list will need to be checking our current antenna (yes, I have a large old school one still attached to our chimney. I will need to hook it back up and see if I can get anything on it, or if I need a newer Antenna. I will more or less need to pickup a Converter box, maybe, not sure about it yet. I should be posting in the coming weeks and or month or so about my experience.

Here's a what the TV Fool Radar map shows. I'll more or less need a omnidirectional Antenna, seeing that TV stations signal is coming from all directions.

Original Post was from back in 2005, I didn't get a chance to see the month as I deleted it then went back to it from another Tab that was open in Chrome. Enjoy. My daughter jessie sits down to color with her new Erasable Colored Pencils. Karen and I are sitting watching tv. The conversation jessie has with herself and somewhat talking to us.

Jessie: "What? there's no white pencil in this."
Me: "Baby girl, you dont need white, your drawing on white paper."
Jessie: "But I need to make clouds!!! and I can't do it with out white"
Me: "but you dont need it, you can use another color and make an outline of a cloud."
Jessie: "No, I need white, Clouds are white."
(This went on for about 5 mins. until I gave in... I just couldnt explain it enough that when drawing on White paper, one does not need White.")

I turn and look at karen and we both smiled and laughed, As karen said "Oh the joys of childhood dilemmas.

Testing...

This thing still on?

Was reading...

Was reading a few posts and a few of them i thought wth?

So yea... I'll post again when I remember I have this.

Yes...

I am still here... Like you cared.

Speed Test while streaming NetFlix...

Speed Test Results while NetFlix is steaming to the Wii.

Hulu...

Not to fond of Hulu at the moment.. it is jumpy and skipps a little, even with FiOS. and on the Laptop it plays for a few minutes and then bufferes again.

Another Speed Test...

Done at 9:32 PM

Verizon DSL Speed Test: Part 2

FiOS is now installed and tested by the tech. I might add the tech I had was very informative and great.

Now on with the tests... Note: I should be getting 15mb down / 5mb up.

FiOS Speed Test 1, Java Based, Using 'Test speed to Los Angeles, Ca, USA' via LinkLine.net

FiOS Speed Test 2, Flash Based, Using 'Test speed to Los Angeles, Ca, USA' via LinkLine.net

The Flash Test was horrible, I got a better rating from the Java. I've also heard that the Flash Speed tests are sometimes not reliable. So I will try another speed test via http://www.speedtest.net/ which is were the tech went to to test and check the speed.

FiOS Speed Test 3, Flash Based, Using 'Test speed to Los Angeles, Ca, USA' via Dreamhost.com

Wow, that other one gave me a faster speed than I should be getting. Just for shits and giggles I ran two more tests roughly 5 minutes apart.

Test # 3.2

Test # 3.3

All in All I am satisfied with the speed tests, now on with the file download. This is the same file from the same location as before.

Approximate Download Speed at Begining of Download

5.7 MB/s - 46.5 MB of 75.6 MB, 5 secs left

The download of the 75.6 mb file took less than a minute. So I will have to say that yea, the different is huge, from 14 minutes to less than 1 minute. Fantastic.

Verizon DSL Speed Test

Here are some DSL speed test results via http://www.dslreports.com.

DSL Speed Test 1, Java Based, Using 'Test speed to Los Angeles, Ca, USA' via LinkLine.net
http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?loc=2&premium=

DSL Speed Test 1, Flash Based, Using 'Test speed to Los Angeles, Ca, USA' via LinkLine.net

http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?flash=1

Both Speed tests have pretty much the same speed. Next I will download some drivers, note where I am downloading them from, the size and how long it takes and what it gives as the average speed is.

File: ATI Catalyst™ Display Driver (v10.2)

Size: 75.6 MB

URL: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Legacy/Pages/radeonaiw_xp.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.16&lang=English

Direct Download URL: https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/10-2_legacy_xp32-64_dd_ccc.exe

Started download at: 12:34 PM

Approximate Download Speed at Begining of Download

166.2 kB/s - 3.5 MB of 75.6 MB, 7 mins left

Approximate Download Speed at Halfway point of Download

94.5 kB/s - 37.9 MB of 75.6 MB, 6 mins left

Approximate Download Speed at 1 minute left of Download

92.7 kB/s - 70.4 MB of 75.6 MB, 58 secs left

Finished Download: 12:48 PM

Overall download: 14 Minutes

Highest Wait time for download

106.3 kB/s - 10.8 MB of 75.6 MB, 10 mins left

I'll download the same file later with FiOS, and I'll try to do it t the time time of day.

Update 2: Verizon FiOS Plan

So I finally ordered Verizon's FiOS, just the Internet and Phone. Signed up for the 15/5 Fiber Optic internet and the same package for the phone (Freedom Plan). Verizon will finish the installation on Monday. They've already brought the Fiber connection up from the street and to the house. Monday they will complete the install by putting in the box. I'll post photos later of the installation.

What I plan on doing is removing the HBO, Show Time, Stars and other Movie channels from my Dish Network services to, hopefully bring the bill down by about $40.00 a month. In its place I have signed up for NetFlix, at the moment I am on the free trial for two weeks and so far I am liking it, why I didn't sign up sooner is beyond me. The connection I have now (DSL 768/256) actually streams surprisingly well. The buffer is great, its a bit blocky here and there but for the most part its good, even on a laptop (wireless).

One of the other things I need to setup is testing my internet connection speeds before I get the FiOS service, I want to compare the speeds with several different methods using different file type downloads, Speed Test reports and a few other things, like uploading and what not. So come Monday after about 3pm I should have the service installed. Check back then for a report on the installation and service.

~Cheers!