You know the type. Forensic files, Alaska survival, family guy reruns, etc. Its one of my guilty pleasures is watching hotel tv ha!

  • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 hours ago

    There are many m3u8 playlists online. You just need a player. I think VLC is the most common but people use other players specifically for iptv. For example I use simple iptv in Kodi.

    Unfortunately most playlists have lots of dead channels. There are online channel checkers but they’re pretty slow. Once you get a solid lineup of working channels, it’s smooth sailing.

  • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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    5 hours ago

    As long as you have a TV made after the digital conversion in like 2008, stick a paperclip into the antenna connector and get free channels. Seriously. You’ll be surprised how well it works. A real antenna is better and they’re cheap too. I do this and watch Telemundo for background noise and a little bit of Spanish learning.

  • cRazi_man@europe.pub
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    6 hours ago

    Sounds like normal UK freeview terrestrial TV. I think there are freeview streaming sites and apps if you search.

    • etherphon@piefed.world
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      7 hours ago

      Feels like they’ve been adding more ads, but still they have a ton of stuff, the movie selection is far better than most services particularly if you like not so new movies.

  • ryokimball@infosec.pub
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    16 hours ago

    Feel like this is one of those weird generational things, but isn’t happy hotel TV just regular cable TV?

  • smeg@infosec.pub
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    12 hours ago

    Many of the free tier streaming services are packed with this content. Tubi, Roku, Plex Movies & TV, Google TV.

  • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    12 hours ago

    Get an iptv subscription and just watch cable. As a bonus you can watch tv in Costa Rica and Dubai and China and shit

  • Jul (they/she)@piefed.blahaj.zone
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    15 hours ago

    An antenna? If you don’t have a TV, you can get a tuner dongle and antenna for your PC and use VLC or other streaming video clients. Unfortunately, the services that take over-the-air signals and put them online usually get killed off by lawsuits. But tuner dongles and half decent, compact antennas are pretty cheap.

    • bad_news@lemmy.billiam.net
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      3 hours ago

      If you live in a 100% ATSC 3.0 area in the US, no normal TV can decode the signal and you need to buy a $200 always online GoogleTV device that spies on you, and it still won’t reliably work. There’s a github of IPTV channels in playlists that’s updated frequently and has most cable channels available from US IPs with probably 70+% uptime.

      • Jul (they/she)@piefed.blahaj.zone
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        58 minutes ago

        Considering the community this is posted in, I think it’s fair to mention (if maybe not directly link to) there are devices that decode DRM and other encoding and pass on a stream that can be watched without needing all of that. The ones I saw were under $100. Though it’s definitely possible that these may get cracked down on eventually either by customs or changes in the DRM that requires internet connectivity to decode which has been discussed though seems dumb to need internet to watch a broadcast signal, but greed often causes stupid things like that.

  • rhythmisaprancer@piefed.social
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    15 hours ago

    There are many things like this on youtube that you can watch via third party software. The FBI files, all sorts of Alaska things, not sure about reruns. Ibjave used freetube for a long time but it doesn’t always work. Not working at all on Linux right now. At least not with the latest update. Newpipe still works if you are on mobile.