Cutting the Cord

[bracconiere]

That's my issue. My internet is $102.60/mo. My only alternative to Cox is AT&T DSL at literally 3 Mbps download. That's not a typo. It's *3* Mbps. So I'm screwed because there's no competition whatsoever.

i can get cox, DSL, or aparently the power company has something over the power lines....and yeah $100 a month for what is in this day an age like still being on 56k.....

 

[AJinJacksonville]

I get live TV...but it's OTA with a coax running from an antenna in my attic direct to the living room TV...haha. Not live via Internet however. It still amazes me that Comcast can strong-arm markets like that...no options, no alternatives...I mean, I'm truly stuck like Chuck if I ever even wanted to try anything different. My in-laws live about 10 houses down the street (same subdivision...I know I know) and they have UVerse. Cheaper and higher speeds.

I'm stuck with Comcast. It's crazy.

 

[bracconiere]

My in-laws live about 10 houses down the street (same subdivision...I know I know) and they have UVerse. Cheaper and higher speeds.

maybe something like this? lol or two.....

https://www.ebay.com/i/224121400467?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28

 

[Transamguy77]

I haven’t had cable in years I have a few streaming platforms, Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube Red and Disney plus. Now before you start adding up what That costs my kids pay some of that, my daughter pays for Hulu and my son pays for YouTube, T-Mobile pays for Netflix and I pay for Amazon and Disney plus. and it’s all streamed through a Roku.

@bwarbiany can you get Spectrum where your at? When I was in Ca It took several months but I was able to get it and just the internet was about $60 a month and you can just get the app on your streaming device so you don’t even need a box to watch anything they offer.

 

[AJinJacksonville]

maybe something like this? lol or two.....

https://www.ebay.com/i/224121400467?chn=ps&mkevt=1&mkcid=28

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

 

[NGD]

@bwarbiany for that price I hope your getting good speeds. If you havent checked At&T for awhile, check again. They’ve made a decent push for the last few years to upgrade their infrastructure in Ca. They’ve been upgrading around my area lately but still sucks comparatively. We went from 16 to 30mbps down...so it get gets interesting when 4 people have vid conference calls at the same time.

@AJinJacksonville hit up At&t again if its been a bit. Hard to believe they didnt run fiber in your neighborhood. If your handy with computers, its not hard to to add a Silicondust Connect Duo to an old PC to record 2 channels at a time.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Gettin' pissed off with "cloud" DVR.

Most of us learned early on with DVR is that it's great for time-shifting certain things, especially sports. Let's say you have a game you want to watch that starts at 1 PM, but you can't get to it until 2 PM. So... You get to the TV at 2 PM, hit start on your recorded content, and it starts from the beginning. If you have a DVR in your own house, you can sometimes even fast forward through commercials to get closer and closer to live.

Well, with cloud DVR many of these recordings have restrictions put on them by the content owner that you can't fast-forward through commercials. Which, alright, I get it. Sports is the last bastion of "appointment television" that needs to be consumed live or close to it, so they want to protect their ad revenue. It's annoying, but I can deal.

Now, however, they're starting to add restrictions where you can't start content that you've recorded on a cloud DVR from the beginning, unless the broadcast has completely ended. So if you want to start watching your 1 PM football game at 2 PM, you have to pick it up LIVE at 2 PM. You can't go back and see the previous hour... UNLESS you wait until after 4:30 when the entire broadcast has ended. At that point you can start watching from 1 PM.

What the hell is the point of this? Isn't the goal to make me watch commercials? What interest do you further by making me wait another couple of hours to start the game at the beginning if you're still going to make me watch commercials?

It's going to make me stop caring about sports. I'm a Purdue fan. That's soul-crushing on the best of days... Why would I continue watching if it just gets harder and harder to do it at all?

Guess what, content owners... How much ad revenue are you going to be getting from me if I'm walking the dog or out playing golf instead?

 

[tracer bullet]

That sucks. I guess I like my Tivo's more than I knew.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

That sucks. I guess I like my Tivo's more than I knew.

I've never had a DVR experience that I've liked more than my circa-2004/2005 TiVo integrated with DirecTV.

15 years later, and not a single DVR UI/UX that I've used since has even come close.

 

[passedpawn]

I've never had a DVR experience that I've liked more than my circa-2004/2005 TiVo integrated with DirecTV.

15 years later, and not a single DVR UI/UX that I've used since has even come close.

Maybe give YoutubeTV a look. We've been using it for a while. Very few complaints, and I'm a complainer.

 

[matt_m]

We don’t watch sports but we’ve settled on Netflix, Hulu at the ad-free level, and YouTube Premium just to remove the ads, or at least the ads the content providers aren’t building right into their shows.

I bet 75% of what we watch is on YouTube. Subscribed to a bunch of random channels we’ve stumbled on plus a lot of suggested content related to those and music when we want to watch something but not really watch if that makes sense.

We barely use our OTA TiVo anymore. Everything it records is on Hulu.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

Maybe give YoutubeTV a look. We've been using it for a while. Very few complaints, and I'm a complainer.

Yeah, but it's $64.99/mo. I'm already getting annoyed by Hulu's price increases. I could be looking at cable for some of these prices.

All I really want is ESPN (and its variant channels), Food Network, and Bravo (gotta have my Top Chef fix). Obviously I really want Big Ten Network, but as mentioned I find a Purdue loss to be upsetting and a Purdue win to be merely a relief, not something that makes me happy, so I might as well not worry about anything that I can't easily get.

Thinking of going back to Sling. I'd have to give up Bravo to stay at $30/mo, but I'd get ESPN and Food Network. Would also have to price their DVR service as I'm not sure it's included in their base cost.

I'm at the point where I've realized that none of this is really all that important, so I'm looking to get away with as little as possible.

 

[kxavier_23]

I’ve been using streaming services for over 3 years now. Some come and go, but Megatronmods is the most stable. $20/month for about 5,000 channels.

Then I use CinemaHD for anything recorded. Free

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I’ve been using streaming services for over 3 years now. Some come and go, but Megatronmods is the most stable. $20/month for about 5,000 channels.

Is that one legal? I've used Pluto which I know is legal, which is primarily older and a limited content portfolio, supported by ads. But I think any of the services that have live streaming content from major channels are likely "too good to be true".

 

[kxavier_23]

Is that one legal? I've used Pluto which I know is legal, which is primarily older and a limited content portfolio, supported by ads. But I think any of the services that have live streaming content from major channels are likely "too good to be true".

I use a VPN service with it to stay safe. Never had any ISP issues.

 

[passedpawn]

Yeah, but it's $64.99/mo. I'm already getting annoyed by Hulu's price increases. I could be looking at cable for some of these prices.

All I really want is ESPN (and its variant channels), Food Network, and Bravo (gotta have my Top Chef fix). Obviously I really want Big Ten Network, but as mentioned I find a Purdue loss to be upsetting and a Purdue win to be merely a relief, not something that makes me happy, so I might as well not worry about anything that I can't easily get.

Thinking of going back to Sling. I'd have to give up Bravo to stay at $30/mo, but I'd get ESPN and Food Network. Would also have to price their DVR service as I'm not sure it's included in their base cost.

I'm at the point where I've realized that none of this is really all that important, so I'm looking to get away with as little as possible.

It's been going up. When I signed up, it was $49/mo.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

It's been going up. When I signed up, it was $49/mo.

Yep. When I first cut the cord I used Sling, which was $20/mo. I ended up moving to Hulu which might have been $39.99/mo at that point, but is now going up to $54.99 w/o the "ad-free" and without their enhanced DVR which does allow you to FF through commercials on recorded content. And Hulu's UI is TERRIBLE.

Thinking I need to change, but might just choose to go down in price and features, not up.

 

[davidabcd]

Sling is annoying because they split up the sports channels. Also, I don't know of one source that's reasonably priced that has them all ($50 is too much, based on principle).
If the powers that be want to make me jump through hoops to watch Football Thursday-Monday, I'm not interested. I don't watch hockey, basketball or baseball anymore because the games tend not to be on over-the-air TV so I couldn't get in a groove with following them. College is leaning that way.
It was especially surprising to find that I don't miss watching hockey or baseball.