Future Tv

What will your TV look like in the coming years?

The answer is increasingly clear: it’ll be via the Internet, and it’ll be steaming.

That antenna up on the roof will become less and less used. While you might regard it as a fallback-solution if your internet temporarily drops out, the fact is that these days, that access–the internet–has become very reliable, and it’ll only get better.

Your only concern needs to be, “How do I get Internet service?” Because that’s going to determine reliability.

At the moment, “cable” may be the option you’re most familiar with. Providers string a (old-school) silver coaxial wire through the neighborhood and then connect a “tap” from that to your house, but increasingly it’s going to be “fiber” somewhere in the neighborhood, again with a “tap” that runs to your house.

Coax is old. Fiber is new (and faster).

But there’s an even better solution, and it’s available now.

Elon Musk’s Starlink service makes 300 Mb/sec available to your roof for $55.00 per month. (The cable provider’s 30 Mb/sec generally costs more and it’s slower.) For a limited time, the hardware is free, and if you can still manage a step ladder to the edge of a roof (without having to actually get up there – close enough is good enough) and do the installation yourself, the one-time cost is shipping. That’s it.

The televisions in your house will need streaming access. All newer TVs have it, and there will be an app for the streaming service of choice. Older TVs will need another box such as what Roku makes. You’ll need a subscription but the free variant should be sufficient.

For those of us who want some of the DirecTv-only channels such as NewsMax or Turner Classic Movies, the Roku boxes will suffice.

If you’re a techie-type, running Android on a Raspberry Pi is an option to Roku. But there’s a wrinkle: Google’s Play Store is very picky about what they will and won’t make available. While many of the streaming services such as Netflix are available to many Android devices, Google categorically rejects the Raspberry Pi’s variant.

But there are work-arounds for that device. Here are two:

1. LineageOS-based with GApps provides a admittedly-technical (somewhat) demanding process that includes Google Play Store.
2. Emteria-based is another Android-for-RPi solution with Google Play Store access.
3. LINK TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE - A third Android-on-RPi solution offers App-access by another route. I first encountered this (now lost) solution when looking for the DirecTv app but not knowing there was a Google Play Store solution for the RPi. But after finding #1 and #2 (above), this non-Google Play Store alternative is no longer needed. (I’m retaining it here “just in case” things change in the future.)

Your strategy should be:

1. Can I get the streaming services I want on the RPi Android? My wife and I both want a couple of channels we’ve historically watched on the satellite-based DirecTv service, so having their streaming app is essential for us.
2. Is your Internet connection fast enough? That’s a little harder to predict, but my recommendation is to start slow, and only increase it if you see delays or interruptions in the stream.

The cable-Internet salesman will undoubtedly try to sell you as much bandwidth as he can pitch, but a hands-on “user” report is better: My wife and I have a measely 6 Mbit service and I often watch Amazon Prime via the streaming service while my wife is watching through the DirecTv satellite dish. I don’t notice any delays or interruptions in the Internet’s ability to keep up, but admittedly we’re only using it for one device. Nonetheless, our ancient (slow) 6 Mbit service seems adequate for one stream, so by simple multiplication, 12 Mbit (or better) should be adequate for two,. And 18 Mbit might be sufficient for three TVs all streaming at the same time.

So, depending on your technical (and physical) capabilities, there are a number of non-broadcast and DIY solutions available now. And there’s no doubt that, in the future, there will be more, and easier, answers.