editor Posted July 16, 2022 Share Posted July 16, 2022 The building where I live requires us to have DirecTV service. Unfortunately, DirecTV doesn't have some of the channels that I like. But, it turns out they're available over the air. So I dug through my tub of wires and parts and gizmos and hooked up my TV antenna again. Originally, I just hooked it up quickly enough to get the two missing channels that were most important to me: Movies! and MeTV+. I have since hooked the antenna up to a crappy $20 Chinese ATSC DVR, and eventually noticed that I don't use the DirecTV anymore, so I decided that today I would fix the antenna so it looks nice and re-scan the television. I'm something of a radio and TV nerd, so it was interesting to me to see so many channels available OTA. Naturally, most are crap. But that's not much different from DirecTV, which seems to be 90% pornography, shopping, and sports. So here's the list of what I scanned today, for those you who are curious about what can be seen for free: Display channel Station ID Network Primary language Content 2-1 KPRC-TV/Houston KPRC-HD NBC English Variety 2-2 KPRC-TV/Houston StartTV StartTV English Variety 2-3 KPRC-TV/Houston H&I Heroes and Icons English Variety 2-4 KPRC-TV/Houston DABL Dabl English Lifestyle 2-5 KPRC-TV/Houston GetTV GetTV English Variety 3-1 KBTX-TV/Bryan KBTX-DT CBS English Variety 3-2 KBTX-TV/Bryan KBTX-CW The CW English Variety 3-3 KBTX-TV/Bryan KBTX-™ Telemundo Spanish Variety 3-4 KBTX-TV/Bryan Grio TheGrio English Variety 11-4 KHOU/Houston Twist Twist English Lifestyle 11-11 KHOU/Houston KHOU-HD CBS English Variety 13-1 KTRK-TV/Houston KTRK-HD ABC English Variety 13-2 KTRK-TV/Houston LOCALish Localish English Lifestyle 13-3 KTRK-TV/Houston KTRK-D3 This TV English Variety 13-4 KTRK-TV/Houston QVC QVC English Shopping 14-1 KETH-TV/Houston TBN HD Trinity Broadcasting Network English Religion 14-2 KETH-TV/Houston inspire TBN Inspire English Religion 14-3 KETH-TV/Houston SMILE Smile English Religion 14-4 KETH-TV/Houston Enlace Enlace Spanish Religion 20-1 KTXH/Houston KTXH DT MyNetworkTV English Variety 20-2 KTXH/Houston Movies! Movies! English Movies 20-3 KTXH/Houston TheGrio TheGrio English Variety 20-4 KTXH/Houston BUZZR Buzzr English Game shows 21-1 KVQT-LD/Houston Newsmx2 Newsmax TV English Specialty 21-2 KVQT-LD/Houston Retro Retro TV English Variety 21-3 KVQT-LD/Houston Elohim Elohim Spanish Religion 21-4 KVQT-LD/Houston Classic Classic Reruns TV English Variety 21-5 KVQT-LD/Houston Cristo Cristo TV Spanish Religion 21-6 KVQT-LD/Houston H-land Heartland English Lifestyle 21-7 KVQT-LD/Houston Life-V VidaVision Network Spanish Religion 21-8 KVQT-LD/Houston INTV English 21-9 KVQT-LD/Houston Biz-TV Biz Television English Talk shows 21-10 KVQT-LD/Houston NowMTV NowMedia TV English and Spanish Variety 21-11 KVQT-LD/Houston ACE American Classic Entertainment English Variety 21-12 KVQT-LD/Houston ABTV ABTV Vietnamese Variety 21-13 KVQT-LD/Houston MBC Millennium Broadcasting Channel English African 21-14 KVQT-LD/Houston LaTele LaTele Spanish Movies 21-15 KVQT-LD/Houston KVQT-15 none none none 22-1 KLTJ/Galveston KLTJ-DT Daystar English Religion 22-2 KLTJ/Galveston KLTJ-ES Daystar Español Spanish Religion 26-1 KRIV/Houston KRIV DT Fox English Variety 26-2 KRIV/Houston Decades Decades English Variety 26-3 KRIV/Houston FOX WX Fox Weather English Weather 27-1 KQHO-LD/Houston VietSky VietSky Vietnamese Shopping 27-2 KQHO-LD/Houston S.E.T Saigon Broadcasting Television Network Vietnamese Variety 27-3 KQHO-LD/Houston Fodd&FU Food and Fun TV Vietnamese Variety 27-4 KQHO-LD/Houston VNBC VNBC Vietnamese Shopping 27-5 KQHO-LD/Houston Vietmed Vietmedia Vietnamese Variety 27-6 KQHO-LD/Houston IVTV VTV Vietnamese Variety 27-7 KQHO-LD/Houston Availab Vietnamese Variety 27-8 KQHO-LD/Houston theV Global Mall TV Vietnamese Shopping 27-9 KQHO-LD/Houston AWM AWM TV Vietnamese Variety 27-10 KQHO-LD/Houston Peace and Happiness Television Vietnamese Lifestyle 28-1 KUGB-CD/Houston KUGB-CD Novelisima Spanish Variety 28-2 KUGB-CD/Houston KUGB-CD none English Infomercials 28-3 KUGB-CD/Houston KUGB-CD Shop LC English Shopping 28-4 KUGB-CD/Houston KUGB-CD Magnificent Movies Network English Movies 28-5 KUGB-CD/Houston KUGB-CD none English Infomercials 28-6 KUGB-CD/Houston KUGB-CD none English Infomercials 28-7 KUGB-CD/Houston KUGB-CD Classic Reruns TV English Variety 32-1 KEHO-LD/Houston KEHO-LD English Variety 32-2 KEHO-LD/Houston KEHO-LD none none none 32-3 KEHO-LD/Houston KEHO-LD none English Infomercials 32-4 KEHO-LD/Houston KEHO-LD Magnificent Movies Network English Movies 32-5 KEHO-LD/Houston KEHO-LD Stadium English Sports 32-6 KEHO-LD/Houston KEHO-LD Shop LC English Shopping 32-7 KEHO-LD/Houston KEHO-LD English Variety 34-1 KUVM-CD/Houston KUVM-CD LATV Spanish and English Variety 34-2 KUVM-CD/Houston KUVM-CD English Variety 34-3 KUVM-CD/Houston KUVM-CD Magnificent Movies Network English Movies 34-4 KUVM-CD/Houston KUVM-CD none English Infomercials 34-5 KUVM-CD/Houston KUVM-CD Magnificent Movies Network English Movies 34-6 KUVM-CD/Houston KUVM-CD English Variety 39-1 KIAH/Houston KIAH-DT The CW English Variety 39-5 KIAH/Houston CourtTV Court TV English Lifestyle 45-1 KXLN-DT/Rosenberg KXLN-DT Univision Spanish Variety 45-2 KXLN-DT/Rosenberg Unimas UniMás Spanish Variety 45-3 KXLN-DT/Rosenberg Mystery Ion Mystery English Lifestyle 45-4 KXLN-DT/Rosenberg NTD New Tang Dynasty Television Chinese Variety 45-5 KXLN-DT/Rosenberg DIGI-TV Digi-TV English Variety 46-1 KBPX-LD/Houston Nuestra Nuestra Visión Spanish Movies 46-3 KBPX-LD/Houston Nudu Nu DuMont Television English Variety 46-4 KBPX-LD/Houston Heartla Heartland English Lifestyle 46-5 KBPX-LD/Houston GEB GEB Network English Religion 47-1 KTMD/Galveston KTMD-HD Telemundo Spanish Variety 47-2 KTMD/Galveston EXITOS TeleXitos Spanish Variety 47-3 KTMD/Galveston NBCLX LX English Variety 47-4 KTMD/Galveston COZI Cozi TV English Variety 47-5 KTMD/Galveston OXYGEN Oxygen English Lifestyle 49-1 KPXB-TV/Conroe ION Ion Television English Variety 49-2 KPXB-TV/Conroe Bounce Bounce English Variety 49-3 KPXB-TV/Conroe CourtTV Court TV English Lifestyle 49-4 KPXB-TV/Conroe Defy TV Defy TV English Variety 49-5 KPXB-TV/Conroe Laff Laff English Comedy 49-6 KPXB-TV/Conroe TruReal TrueReal English Variety 49-7 KPXB-TV/Conroe NEWSY Newsy English News 49-8 KPXB-TV/Conroe HSN Home Shopping Network English Shopping 51-1 KYAZ/Katy MeTV MeTV English Variety 51-2 KYAZ/Katy MeTV+ MeTV+ English Variety 51-3 KYAZ/Katy Azteca Azteca América Spanish Variety 51-4 KYAZ/Katy Story Story Television English History 55-1 KTBU/Conroe Quest Quest English Variety 55-3 KTBU/Conroe Nacion Nación TV Spanish Religion 57-1 KUBE-TV/Baytown KUBE-TV ShopHQ English Shopping 57-2 KUBE-TV/Baytown none none English placeholder 57-3 KUBE-TV/Baytown SBN SonLife Broadcasting Network English Religion 57-4 KUBE-TV/Baytown Charge Charge! English Variety 57-5 KUBE-TV/Baytown none English Infomercials 57-6 KUBE-TV/Baytown Mi Raza TV Mi Raza TV Spanish Infomercials 57-7 KUBE-TV/Baytown CRTV none English Infomercials 57-8 KUBE-TV/Baytown JTV Jewelry Television English Shopping 57-9 KUBE-TV/Baytown UChurch Spanish Religion 57-10 KUBE-TV/Baytown AChurch Three Angels Broadcast Network Spanish Religion 57-11 KUBE-TV/Baytown VieTV VieTV Vietnamese Variety 61-1 KZJL/Houston Estrella TV Spanish Variety 61-2 KZJL/Houston KZJL-2 Estrella News Spanish News 61-3 KZJL/Houston Estrella Deportes Spanish Sports 61-4 KZJL/Houston ShopLC Shop LC English Shopping 61-5 KZJL/Houston POSI-TV Positiv English Movies 61-6 KZJL/Houston QVC QVC English Shopping 67-1 KFTH-DT/Alvin KFTH-DT UniMás Spanish Variety 67-2 KZJL/Houston GetTV getTV English Variety 67-3 KZJL/Houston GRIT Grit English Westerns 67-4 KZJL/Houston HSN Home Shopping Network English Shopping 67-5 KZJL/Houston KXLN-HD Univision Spanish Variety A couple of things to note: I live downtown, so many lower-frequency TV signals are blocked. That's why you don't see PBS. Between the RF-filtering windows, the concrete construction of my building, facing north, and being surrounded by skyscrapers, I barely get any VHF reception. It's mostly UHF. The channel numbers are mostly fake, but I listed what they claim. That's the nature of TV today. You can have channel 7 and channel 54 both broadcasting on the same channel 25 transmitter, but identifying themselves as channels 18 and 44. It's the price we pay for wireless internet. In Houston, a bunch of the TV stations realize that their signals aren't being seen by people in my situation, so they're transmitting on multiple channels. Which is why the channels you see and the channels I see may not be the same. KHOU, for example is transmitting five programs on channel 11. But I don't get channel 11, so I pick up two of KHOU's programs via KTBU channel 55's transmitter, which is actually on channel 33. The smaller the station, the less likely it is that what's on this list will be correct tomorrow, next week, or next month. In fact, in the two weekends I put this list together, several of these changed. There are gaps. I don't have infinite patience. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 The ATSC tuners don't last long. We had a TV we bought overseas that did not have a tuner. I bought 3 tuners in 6 years, they all got hot and died. I quit replacing them and just use the Roku. my wife decided she wanted to watch OTA channels in that room, and told me to buy a TV with a tuner. So, I went to MicroCenter, and came home with a Samsung 42 inch 4K TV that cost less than $300, which is practically free. It gets all the channels you list, plus some more. Since we live in the Greater Heights area, we get all of the channels, as there's nothing between us and the transmitters. On our other TV, we've been using a Mohu Leaf 30 antenna for 11 years(when we dropped cable and started watching streaming and OTA). It looks like a flat piece of plastic. Both TV's have better quality with the major OTA networks than you get with cable, as there's no compression on the signals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnu Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 What I want to know about is a DVR that can record OTA and output to my digital tv. I have found several options over the years but none have made me interested enough to purchase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted July 17, 2022 Author Share Posted July 17, 2022 1 hour ago, gnu said: What I want to know about is a DVR that can record OTA and output to my digital tv. I have found several options over the years but none have made me interested enough to purchase This is the one I bought. It's not very good, but it gets the job done. It has a number of flaws, including the inability to record something if that program goes past midnight. It's just a single tuner, so only one program can be recorded at a time. And if it's recording something being broadcast in 1080, it breaks the recordings into hour-long segments. If you're on a Mac, that's not a big deal because you can just stick all the bits together with QuickTime Player in two minutes. Again, it's not great. The remote is not great, and the interface is clunky and poorly translated from Chinese. But it's $25. I schedule all of my recordings for the next two weeks, and then just let it run. Two weeks later, I transcode the files into my AppleTV and watch them there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted July 17, 2022 Author Share Posted July 17, 2022 12 hours ago, Ross said: The ATSC tuners don't last long. We had a TV we bought overseas that did not have a tuner. I bought 3 tuners in 6 years, they all got hot and died. I quit replacing them and just use the Roku. my wife decided she wanted to watch OTA channels in that room, and told me to buy a TV with a tuner. So, I went to MicroCenter, and came home with a Samsung 42 inch 4K TV that cost less than $300, which is practically free. It gets all the channels you list, plus some more. Since we live in the Greater Heights area, we get all of the channels, as there's nothing between us and the transmitters. On our other TV, we've been using a Mohu Leaf 30 antenna for 11 years(when we dropped cable and started watching streaming and OTA). It looks like a flat piece of plastic. Both TV's have better quality with the major OTA networks than you get with cable, as there's no compression on the signals. Yeah, the ATSC DVR box I have gets super hot. But it was $20 ($25 on Amazon now), so if I have to replace it, it's not tragic. And you're right about the quality. People spend $10,000 on home theater gear to get the best possible picture, and then watch shows compressed into garbage by their cable and satellite companies. I noticed it a lot when I started watching Movies!. I originally watched it using an OTA dongle plugged into my Dish Network receiver, and it was fine. I moved and ended up with Cox cable service, and the picture was so muddy it was just unwatchable. I ended up getting another OTA antenna and switching between that and the cable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gnu Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 4 hours ago, editor said: This is the one I bought. It's not very good, but it gets the job done. It has a number of flaws, including the inability to record something if that program goes past midnight. It's just a single tuner, so only one program can be recorded at a time. And if it's recording something being broadcast in 1080, it breaks the recordings into hour-long segments. If you're on a Mac, that's not a big deal because you can just stick all the bits together with QuickTime Player in two minutes. Again, it's not great. The remote is not great, and the interface is clunky and poorly translated from Chinese. But it's $25. I schedule all of my recordings for the next two weeks, and then just let it run. Two weeks later, I transcode the files into my AppleTV and watch them there. Ah. I always ignored these because I thought it was for analog conversion only. I may have to check one of these out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mkultra25 Posted July 17, 2022 Share Posted July 17, 2022 I have been meaning for a long time to set up something that allows me to record OTA programs, but I've always been inclined to go down the path of a TV tuner card in my computer rather than a standalone unit connected to the TV. I currently have cable and internet via Comcast/Xfinity, but I also have a Roku for streaming as well as a Mohu Leaf antenna for OTA. In addition, I frequently download video files from the web via a browser plugin, and use ffmpeg to manipulate them as necessary. This usually amounts to transcoding or copying files to an mkv or mp4 container. I have 3TB of storage spread across two USB drives hanging off of my Oppo blu-ray player, which also does yeoman's duty as a media streamer for locally-stored digital files. As the Oppo is no longer manufactured or supported, it unfortunately doesn't handle newer codecs like H.265, so I have to transcode any files using that codec to H.264. I really need to get a new computer, as my elderly HP desktop definitely struggles to keep up when ffmpeg is doing anything processor-intensive. My next challenge is to figure out a way to archive recorded programs off of the Xfinity DVR. I have almost the entire run of Hawaiian Eye episodes that have been airing on MeTV+ recorded, and would like nothing better than to be able to upgrade the crappy copies I've had for a long time. I suppose an OTA DVR would be a much simpler solution, since in typical MeTV fashion it looks like they're getting ready to start re-airing all the episodes from the beginning once again, and as Ross pointed out, the OTA broadcasts aren't compressed like cable/dish offerings are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted July 18, 2022 Author Share Posted July 18, 2022 One note about the DVR i talked about- it records onto a USB stick. The files are .mkv's. I use Handbrake to translate them into m4a's that the AppleTV likes. As for getting the recorded shows off of your Xfinity DVR, see if there's a FireWire port on the back. That's how i did it when had Comcast service in Seattle. Older big screen TVs sometimes get their video unencrypted over FireWire, so there used to be a regulation that DVRs has to have this connection. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crock Posted July 18, 2022 Share Posted July 18, 2022 best thing about OTA is 2.3's weeknight star trek run, 7pm Star Trek, 8pm The Next Generation, 9pm Deep Space Nine, 10pm Voyager, 11pm Enterprise 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted July 18, 2022 Author Share Posted July 18, 2022 3 hours ago, crock said: best thing about OTA is 2.3's weeknight star trek run, 7pm Star Trek, 8pm The Next Generation, 9pm Deep Space Nine, 10pm Voyager, 11pm Enterprise And Batman and Superman Sunday mornings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted July 18, 2022 Share Posted July 18, 2022 4 hours ago, crock said: best thing about OTA is 2.3's weeknight star trek run, 7pm Star Trek, 8pm The Next Generation, 9pm Deep Space Nine, 10pm Voyager, 11pm Enterprise Veering slightly, we just got a new Samsung TV a while back, and it has "Samsung TV" on it. There is a channel of Doctor Who, which shows the older season, another of This Old House, and various other channels I haven't tried yet. https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/tvs/tvplus/all-channels/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted July 19, 2022 Author Share Posted July 19, 2022 15 hours ago, Ross said: Veering slightly, we just got a new Samsung TV a while back, and it has "Samsung TV" on it. There is a channel of Doctor Who, which shows the older season, another of This Old House, and various other channels I haven't tried yet. https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/tvs/tvplus/all-channels/ My LG TV has something like that on it, but I don't let my TV talk to the internet for various reasons. One of the things I like about OTA reception is that what I watch is my business. I'm not being tracked, profiled, or tabulated in any way. Even watching OTA on a TV hooked up to the internet will get you profiled, and your data sold. The "smart" TVs take periodic screenshots of what you're watching and sell the information to data brokers, who add it to your profile, and then sell it on to advertisers. Not my cup of tea. They have also been known to scan the devices on your home network to learn more about you. I'm lucky that my TV is old enough that I can keep it off of the internet just by not giving it my wifi password. Newer TVs are starting to latch on to any open wifi network they can find to send out data. The theory is that as 5G becomes more widespread, the TVs will just come with their own 5G connection, which is easier for the manufacturers to deal with, and also can't be blocked. When the tech companies talk about the miracle of 5G connecting everything (IoT), this is the result. It all sounds like a conspiracy theory, but it's not. It's why even if you pay $2,000 for a new TV these days, you're forced to watch the TV's ads. Since all of my TV watching is via AppleTV and OTA, my next TV will be just a regular display panel, like you see in airports. No "smart" anything. They used to be more expensive, but they're the same price as a good TV these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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