Dear Lifehacker,

I have no desire to pay for cable, and I love free over-the-air TV. I was planning to use Aereo to stream my favorite shows to my computer and tablet, but the Supreme Court just shot them down. Is there another way to take broadcast TV with me on the go, or watch it across the house, legally?


Sincerely,

OMG OTA HDTV

Dear OMG OTA HDTV,

We're big fans of cutting the cord, and while we were surprised at the Aereo decision, it wasn't totally unexpected. Still, there are some lessons to be learned, and some alternative solutions which get you the same effect—completely legally. Let's talk about them.


Who Is Aereo, and What Happened?

If you're not familiar with Aereo, the company offered streams of local broadcast television over the internet to your computer or mobile device. If you lived in a supported city, you could watch your local channels on the go for a nominal fee ($8 or $12/month depending on the plan you chose). The upsides were obvious: You can watch your home team play without worrying about blackouts, watch the local news even when you were away from home, and more. On top of all of that, Aereo bundled those channels with Netflix, Hulu, and other apps you may already use for streaming video. Plus, you had the option to use Aereo's "cloud DVR," which let you record those programs and play them back at will. It was a great on-the-go TV experience.

Then the lawsuits came. Major broadcast companies like ABC, Disney, CBS, NBC, Universal (aka Comcast), and even PBS all filed suit. They claimed that Aereo was infringing on their copyrights by allowing users to record and stream local channels directly over the internet. Those broadcasts are supposed to be free to consumers, and the networks said Aereo was essentially "rebroadcasting" their media, and acting like a cable company by charging for the service. If that's what Aereo wanted to do, the networks said, they should be paid the way cable companies pay them. Aereo defended themselves by saying that all they were doing is taking free TV (which broadcasters are required to provide) and sending it to customers who could get it anyway using different technology. They were simply a conduit—an equipment provider—as they explained it. Because consumers have a right to broadcast television, and have the right to record it and use it for private, personal purposes that are non-commercial, Aereo said their service was legal.


Then this week, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6/3 decision that Aereo was indeed more like a cable company than a pure equipment provider. The result spells the end for Aereo as we know it. You can read the full court opinion here, check out a detailed history of Aereo and rundown of the decision over at Gizmodo, and this great discussion of the legal context over at Hacker News for more.


Aereo Isn't Alone: Other Companies Offer Similar Features


Aereo has vowed to keep up the fight, but for now the service is dead in the water. Luckily, if you like the idea of taking your free, local broadcast television with you on the go, there are other options that let you do just that, legally.

The first thing you'll need is an over-the-air TV antenna. Aereo got you around that requirement by charging you to connect to its network of antennae. However, the beauty of over-the-air TV is that it's free, and you don't need a middleman. If you're not sure how to get started, check out our guide to over-the-air TV and the best antennae . We offer up recommendations there, but you've shared your favorites too. Once you have your own antenna, you're ready for the next step: A home DVR that records broadcast TV and streams it to your devices.



The Simple.TV connects to your antenna and records the programs you choose. You connect your own USB hard drive to it, and it acts as a video server that can record programs to the drive and stream them across your home. Simple.TV supports Roku, Chromecast, iOS, Android, and streaming over the web on any PC or Mac. They're pricey though: a Simple.TV box will set you back $200 direct, and while you can use it out of the box, a $60/yr premium subscription gets you useful features like across-the-internet streaming, a programming guide, and the ability to pre-program recordings. You can pick up one of the older boxes (complete with a lifetime premier subscription) at Amazon for $115, and that's probably your best deal—those boxes had video passthrough, so you could watch from the same antenna you're using to record. The newer boxes have two TV tuners, but don't pass video through to your TV.


The Channel Master DVR+ is another option that's pricey (starts at $250), but it comes with an integrated programming guide, HDMI output to your TV for pass-through viewing, and no fees at all for the box's DVR capabilities. It comes with 16GB flash storage on-board (enough for about two hours of TV), and you can connect an external hard drive for more storage and recording time. It also connects to your home network via Ethernet (a Wi-Fi dongle is extra). The only downer is that it doesn't allow you to stream recorded shows to other devices (although they note it's compatible with Slingbox units if you want that watch-anywhere experience) or other screens in your house. However, once you've paid for it, it and all of its features are yours, no subscriptions or fees.



The Tablo from Nuvyyo is similar to the Simple.TV in that you connect it to your antenna, connect an external hard drive, and then stream video via Ethernet or Wi-Fi from the box to your TV via Chromecast, Roku, or Apple TV (via AirPlay). You can also stream to tablets using the Tablo iOS and Android apps. The mobile apps also work as programming guides and remote controls for the DVR features, which is a nice touch. You can get Tablo units with two or four tuners depending on how much you want to record and watch. The boxes themselves are $220 for the two-tuner model (on sale right now for $200 at Newegg) and $300 for the four-tuner model, and if you want the programming guides, it's another $5/mo.

These are just a few, but they're the closest "buy it once and own it forever" solutions you can get. Our friends at the Consumerist run down these options in detail too if you want to read more. Alternatively, PC Mag recommends the TiVo Roamio Plus, largely on the basis that if you're going to buy a DVR, you should get one that offers the best possible interface, and it's a solid point. The Roamio Plus earned an Editor's Choice from them, but its $400 price tag ($325 on sale at Amazon) and $15/mo subscription fee are definitely turnoffs compared to the others above. Still, it's worth considering if you want the added features the TiVo offers, and a box that "just works" by comparison to some of these newer, more rough-around-the-edges solutions.


Roll Your own Solution with Your Home Theater PC


If you're ready to roll up your sleeves, you can always consider building a home theater PC, or upgrading the one you have with a TV tuner card. We've shown you how to build a killer HTPC on the cheap before, and even how to choose the best TV tuner card for it. Even if you don't want to build an HTPC, you can install a TV tuner in your current PC, connect an OTA antenna, and watch live TV right there using the bundled software. Many TV tuners even ship with DVR software that lets you record live TV and download programming guides from the Internet.


If you decide to use a TV tuner in an HTPC, note that XBMC supports this natively, as does Windows Media Center (they even have a helpful demo to show you how it's done.) From there, add in a desktop video server like Plex or Subsonic , and you can stream those recorded programs to your smartphone, tablet, other computers, or even other TVs. You can even stream over the internet when you're away from home. To be fair, we're simplifying the process here. There are a lot of moving parts in a DIY antenna/DVR/HTPC setup, and it can be tricky to get working—but once it is, it's a hands-off solution that doesn't charge subscription fees, can save as much video as you like, pass through to your TV, and stream to all of your devices, everywhere, without worrying about fees or formats.

Five Best Desktop Media Servers Getting your music and movies from one computer to another computer across the house or across the Read more


We hope that gives you some options. They range from the pricey but simple to the less expensive but complicated and time-intensive, but that's how most off-the-shelf versus DIY tech solutions tend to be. Good luck, and let us know what you pick!

Sincerely,

Lifehacker

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