Here’s How To Watch The Rio Olympics When You Can’t Be In Front Of Your TV

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The Olympics are in full swing in Rio, with Michael Phelps claiming his 19th gold medal among other achievements. And you don’t want to miss any of it, but you can’t be in front of a TV all the time. Right? Oh, but you can!

If you’ve got a cable subscription, streaming the Olympics is simplicity itself. Just go to NBC Olympics, plug in the necessary credentials, and you’ll have everything in a livestream. It’s also where NBC keep recaps and archives events after a time delay. It’ll work on pretty much anything that can access the internet, although some quick mobile tests we ran found that you might want to stick to a desktop where possible and use a WiFi connection.

If you don’t have cable, however, don’t despair, you’ve got a few options. The first is Sling TV. Sling is essentially a service that livestreams various cable channels and over the air networks and, just in time for the Olympics, they’re offering a week-long free trial. If you don’t want the service, you’ll have to remember to cancel it, but it’ll easily stream the Olympics and it comes with apps for most set-top and mobile devices. Another streaming option is PlayStation Vue, which, contrary to the name, doesn’t require a PlayStation and is also offering a free seven-day trial. Again, you’ll need to cancel the service after the trial, although if you’re thinking of ditching cable, it might be worth experimenting with them to see if they can fit your TV watching needs.

Another option is, of course, just plugging in an antenna. NBC is pretty much wall-to-wall Olympics coverage at the moment, starting every day at 7:30 in the morning. You can get an antenna for your TV relatively cheaply from Amazon or a local electronics or hardware store. You’ll want to locate your local NBC affiliate’s antenna and place it properly, so be sure to both get an antenna with a long cord and place it as high as you can. Of course, you can’t take two weeks off of work just to watch the Olympics, but you can very easily get TV tuners for both laptops and your Android smartphone. These won’t exactly be marvels of engineering, so buy carefully.

And don’t forget, you can just buy a DVR and connect it to your antenna as well. So whether you want to watch as it happens or get everything down on a hard drive, you don’t have to miss a moment of the Olympics.

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