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  #1  
Old 07-27-2012, 04:25 PM
Zsofia Zsofia is offline
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Can you watch the Olympics in the US legally with no cable/antenna?

I haven't really wanted to see anything sports related since we "cut the cord" - we have Hulu Plus and Netflix Watch Instantly and are Amazon Prime people, so mostly we're covered with whatever we want. Can we watch the Olympics that way? Or through YouTube? The Opening Ceremonies seem like they're pretty wack, I'd like to catch that in a nice HD format - will NBC show me that online? I looked at their site and it seems they have some silly "must subscribe to cable package" thing.
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  #2  
Old 07-27-2012, 04:33 PM
fiddlesticks fiddlesticks is offline
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Perhaps they'll have highlights for free, but the bulk of the "live" content is all behind the service provider login as you've found.

The "free" option is antenna TV, but if you don't have that anymore, you are out of luck I think.
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Old 07-27-2012, 05:39 PM
jtur88 jtur88 is offline
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If you're within about 30 miles of a TV station that is on the air, you can rig up an antenna out of coat hangers and odd bits of wire and hook it to your TV. Then use your TV settings control to temporarily switch to Antenna.
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Old 07-27-2012, 05:44 PM
suranyi suranyi is offline
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Do you have any broadband internet at all? You can stream most things through NBCOlympics.com.
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Old 07-27-2012, 05:45 PM
Suburban Plankton Suburban Plankton is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by suranyi View Post
Do you have any broadband internet at all? You can stream most things through NBCOlympics.com.
Only if you subscribe to a cable provider that supplies NBC. If you don't have cable for any reason, then you can't watch the 'official' live feeds
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Old 07-28-2012, 01:26 AM
cochrane cochrane is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88 View Post
If you're within about 30 miles of a TV station that is on the air, you can rig up an antenna out of coat hangers and odd bits of wire and hook it to your TV. Then use your TV settings control to temporarily switch to Antenna.
And of course you need a digital TV capable of picking up ATSC transmissions, or else a digital-to-analog converter if you have an analog set.
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  #7  
Old 07-31-2012, 04:25 AM
BigT BigT is offline
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YouTube is running some of them--it'll be mentioned on the top of the front page when it's close.
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  #8  
Old 07-31-2012, 12:01 PM
Duckster Duckster is offline
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Quite a few people are upset with NBC's coverage in the USA. Many are using technical workarounds with VPN to make it appear their US-based computers are sitting overseas (foeign IP address) so they can access the BBC live feeds and presumably, better coverage. Some are free while, others charge after an initial grace period (time or download limit).

No links offered since the actual process may not be entirely kosher based on location and your ISP agreement.
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Old 07-31-2012, 12:40 PM
Shagnasty Shagnasty is offline
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Lifehacker has an article on this today. They describe a questionable technique but I don't think it is actually illegal for the end user.

http://lifehacker.com/5930437/how-an...ercome-nbcfail
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  #10  
Old 07-31-2012, 12:45 PM
antonio107 antonio107 is online now
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Is CTV.ca's coverage of the olympics also region locked? I'm guessing so, but I throw that one out there, too!
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  #11  
Old 07-31-2012, 12:47 PM
antonio107 antonio107 is online now
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I'd also recommend a few websites that would stream the BBC feed for you free without region locks, but since those sites are also notorious for streaming US pro sports for free, I'd rather not talk about them on here. That Lifehacker link mentions a few of them.
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  #12  
Old 07-31-2012, 01:38 PM
jasg jasg is offline
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Dopers in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia can watch it for free.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolog...f-them/260494/
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