what is needed to get live tv in truck

Discussion in 'Trucking Electronics, Gadgets and Software Forum' started by crosscut, Apr 2, 2009.

  1. lvjeffro

    lvjeffro Light Load Member

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    Apr 16, 2007
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    I used a USB modem and a slingbox and it was pretty awesome. Just had the slingbox hooked up to the internet and a cable box at my parents house, and watched tv out on the road like i was at home, but that was when sprint still had unlimited internet usage for 60/mo. now it is 5gb and that would be eaten up in a few hours of TV!!!

    If I was still out there, i would just buy DVD's and have a DVR at home taping all the shows you like to watch, so when you go home, you watch your shows or you can tape them and take them with you...
     
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  3. cplmac2

    cplmac2 Heavy Load Member

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    Nov 10, 2008
    Watford City, ND
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    Since the thread got bumped...
    I bought a Pinnacle HDTV usb mini-stick. The thing is tiny, about the size of an old rubber eraser you would buy for school. Anyhow, it ONLY receives ATSC, which is fine since the reception issue is the biggest problem. If I'm near a decent sized market I will get networks about half the time, if I'm anywhere in the country I will get a half dozen church channels and a couple PBS channels, in a city or close to one I'll usually get most channels. I'm really impressed with how easy it is to set up, and I'm really unimpressed with how well it works. If a truck drives by you or between your signal you will lose or freeze the channel, and as we all know at truck stops rest areas and other parking places for TRUCKS, trucks tend to drive by, frequently. The ability to pull in a signal is pathetic, although sometimes you can shimmy and jockey your truck around just enough to pull in the signal, that is until a truck drives by. I do really like that it has a signal quality meter and a signal strength meter for each channel although I'd be a LOT happier if they showed good signals more than they do. The processing of the signal as best I can tell takes place in the mini-stick and it does an okay job of this. My laptop is true HD with a native screen resolution of 1920x1080 which is very rare for a laptop but it allows me to see the real quality of the video. For what it is the quality is pretty good, but for HD it really is not very good. For most laptops that have resolutions around 1400-1500 it will be fine I think. All in all for $130 I can't really complain, but losing your signal to truck traffic for a trucker is just brutal and tough to live with. Still I'd rather have it than not.
     
  4. wsyrob

    wsyrob Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Sep 14, 2007
    Winston Salem
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    No need for DVDs. I use a usb external hard drive to store the video images. Works great. Just copy the files from the DVR and watch them on the laptop.
     
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