Cordcutting Thread

[kevindavis007]

Cut the cord? No longer have Cable or Satellite TV? Well, I figure I start a thread where people can share tips or advice on how to cut the cord.


Me, I have Amazon Fire TV (might get a chromecast later on), Sling TV, Amazon Prime, Hulu (Free with Bing search rewards), and Netflix.

[Wingnut]

Book marked

[Restored]

It rarely saves you that much if you bundle. I haven't watched a network TV show in probably 20 years. Just football. I tried to follow The Dome and Grimm on Amazon Prime but lost interest after a while.

[Frank Cannon]

Shouldn't this be the Cordcuttering thread?

[Cripplecreek]

After years with comcast I'm giving Dish network a try and a try is likely all its going to be. I really like having access to all the HD channels (The Expanse is freakin spectacular in 64 inches of HD) but it really pisses me off to have to pay extra to watch the Detroit Tigers play.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Books, read books, lot's of books. All I have is antenna and having been away from watching TV for so long I really don't like it any more. Too much to do and books are more convenient. I'm a fast reader so the information transfer is much slower listening or watching than reading.

[ALurker]

It's been a two years since we disconnected DirecTV.  We've got an antenna for OTA broadcasts, conditions permitting (60-80 mi).

We subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime, but the Rokus are as often used on free channels like XTV, FilmOn, or just our local Plex Media Server, which has grown to a few TB of Movies and TV.  Plex is the fallback when there's nothing on (or tuning in) OTA and the internet is slow.

There are also various Plex plugins. Most are for adding various streaming channels. But one (SS Plex) is useful for downloading content  in the background, to watch later without any buffering issues.

[Ghost Bear]

"Cuttering"?   :huh?:

Responding to bookmark. I'll also give my bona fides: although wife and I have a full cable package from AT&T Uverse, we also pay for Hulu, Netflix streaming, and Amazon Prime, and watch them regularly.  I also set up a Plex server to handle my recorded media (mpeg2 and mp4 mostly) and have played a little with Plex plugins for streaming, although to be honest I wasn't too satisfied with it.

Interested in learning what others have done or tried...

[Wingnut]

"Cuttering"?   :huh?:

Don't do it....

[roamer_1]

I have a computer hooked directly to my TV, and find anything at all that I might want to watch...

BUT, For folks that want a more ordered presentation, I can recommend Roku. For somewhere between 30 and 100 bucks or so - a one time purchase of their controller, It allows painless access to all of the subscription systems (Netflix, Hulu, Crackle, Amazon, etc,) as well as a many channels of free programming, especially if you have kids (lots of kid stuff is free).

The nice thing is, if you decide to try Amazon for instance, rather than buying their gear, only to find you don't like it, the very same subscription is available through Roku without having to buy any other gear.

The bad part is, you'd need a box for every TV, or move the box or stick between TVs...

That's why I stay foot loose and fancy free. I can easily find used computers capable of running a TV, and a cordless KB/glide pad costs about 30 bucks... For my 3 tvs, I am happy to buy the pooters rather than invest in Roku boxen.
 
YMMV

[Victoria33]

Ping to go back to this thread.

[DCPatriot]

The phone companies did NOT go out of business when long distance was an extra charge, or Caller ID was standard equipment.

So, IMO, the cable and FIOS companies can cut their customers' bills IN HALF and STILL make a fortune.

..same concept as federal tax rates lowered, bringing more taxpayers to the pool.

[roamer_1]

BTW, for those using a computer to run their TV:

An RDP or VNC server running on that computer makes it simple to access from a laptop, notebook, tablet, or phone.

I normally have a laptop nearby, and while 90% of the time, I can operate the TV using the cordless keyboard (connected to the TV's computer) from my chair, sometimes I will need to read something on the TV that is too far away to see.. A movie synopsis as an instance... It is a simple thing to get on the laptop, fire up TightVNC's client (Tight is a free and open source VNC server/client system), log into the TV machine's VNC server, and presto, the desktop of the TV is on my laptop. I can read it, and do any operations I might want to right from the laptop's monitor, keyboard, and mouse, log back off, and enjoy.

[Sanguine]

BTW, for those using a computer to run their TV:

An RDP or VNC server running on that computer makes it simple to access from a laptop, notebook, tablet, or phone.

I normally have a laptop nearby, and while 90% of the time, I can operate the TV using the cordless keyboard (connected to the TV's computer) from my chair, sometimes I will need to read something on the TV that is too far away to see.. A movie synopsis as an instance... It is a simple thing to get on the laptop, fire up TightVNC's client (Tight is a free and open source VNC server/client system), log into the TV machine's VNC server, and presto, the desktop of the TV is on my laptop. I can read it, and do any operations I might want to right from the laptop's monitor, keyboard, and mouse, log back off, and enjoy.

Sounds cool.  I wish I knew what it meant.

[roamer_1]

Sounds cool.  I wish I knew what it meant.

LOL! in simple terms... You can see the desktop of another computer on the desktop of the computer you are operating on. You can run that remote computer using the computer you are operating on.

Sorry if I geeked out there...

As it regards operating the TV, it means I can operate the TV through the computer connected to it, using the laptop by my chair == I don't have to get up and go over there.

@Sanguine

[Sanguine]

LOL! in simple terms... You can see the desktop of another computer on the desktop of the computer you are operating on. You can run that remote computer using the computer you are operating on.

Sorry if I geeked out there...

As it regards operating the TV, it means I can operate the TV through the computer connected to it, using the laptop by my chair == I don't have to get up and go over there.

@Sanguine

Ok, now I understand!

Thanks.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Surprised VNC wouldn't be too slow to use to watch tv, it's always been significantly slower than RDP when I've used it. It has it's uses.

[Idiot]

I cut the cord over 10 years ago and have never looked back.  I got a Roku  then tried Netflix and could never find a movie that I really wanted to see.  I'd like to hear some experiences with Sling Tv....I'm considering it.

My poor dear 87 yr old mom is on Suddenlink cable.  A few days ago she got a notice that she'd need to get a new box for each of her 3 TV's.  I call them and they say....we'll let you have 2 boxes for 2 years for free, then it will cost $3.99 a month each after that.  The third box will cost $3.99 a month from the get go.  Then they say....well if you go down to the local Suddenlink office they'll probably give you the 3rd box for free.  So lucky me....I drive to Suddenlink and stand in line for 1 hour and finally get to talk to someone.  They say...well we won't give you the 3rd box for free tough luck...lol.  Then tell me that they need the old 7 yr old boxes (3) or she'll be charged $40 each for them.  So go back to dear old mom's and search and come up with 2 old boxes that haven't been on a tv in over 5 years.....then go back to Suddenlink and stand in line for another hour to return them.  I tell them she only has 2 to return...  Supposedly they won't charge her for the 3rd....but I still have to check on that.  I can't imagine why anyone stays on cable.  The Suddenlink lady said they are losing tv customers but are doing a booming business on the internet side.  I despise Suddenlink............

[Ghost Bear]

I cut the cord over 10 years ago and have never looked back.  I got a Roku  then tried Netflix and could never find a movie that I really wanted to see.  I'd like to hear some experiences with Sling Tv....I'm considering it.

My poor dear 87 yr old mom is on Suddenlink cable.  A few days ago she got a notice that she'd need to get a new box for each of her 3 TV's.  I call them and they say....we'll let you have 2 boxes for 2 years for free, then it will cost $3.99 a month each after that.  The third box will cost $3.99 a month from the get go.  Then they say....well if you go down to the local Suddenlink office they'll probably give you the 3rd box for free.  So lucky me....I drive to Suddenlink and stand in line for 1 hour and finally get to talk to someone.  They say...well we won't give you the 3rd box for free tough luck...lol.  Then tell me that they need the old 7 yr old boxes (3) or she'll be charged $40 each for them.  So go back to dear old mom's and search and come up with 2 old boxes that haven't been on a tv in over 5 years.....then go back to Suddenlink and stand in line for another hour to return them.  I tell them she only has 2 to return...  Supposedly they won't charge her for the 3rd....but I still have to check on that.  I can't imagine why anyone stays on cable.  The Suddenlink lady said they are losing tv customers but are doing a booming business on the internet side.  I despise Suddenlink............

Good to know, as I was considering Suddenlink as an alternative to Uverse...

[roamer_1]

Surprised VNC wouldn't be too slow to use to watch tv, it's always been significantly slower than RDP when I've used it. It has it's uses.

@Weird Tolkienish Figure

Nah, I don't watch via VNC - Too slow for that... and so is RDP, btw. at least on my LAN.

Like I said, normally I operate the TV with a wireless KB/Glidepad.
Otherwise, I use VNC to operate the TV, and see small print on it, as it is sometimes too far away to read if the font isn't rigged to enlarge...  Reading a movie synopsis as an example... I'll do what I need to, logoff, and watch the show normally on the TV. If I wanted to actually watch something on the laptop, I'd stream it directly.

[Gefn]

Bookmarking.

My contract with Verizon is up in July. I would love to save money.

[roamer_1]

Bookmarking.

My contract with Verizon is up in July. I would love to save money.

I am saving seventy bucks a month, every month... for one step up from basic cable. Well worth doing. I paid for the gear to run my TV (the computer, wireless keyboard/glidepad, and wireless networking) inside of the first two months... Two months later, the gear for the Master bedroom TV, and two months after that, the gear for the guest bedroom TV... Ever since then it has been *FREE*

[roamer_1]

A few days ago she got a notice that she'd need to get a new box for each of her 3 TV's. 

That was the straw that broke it for me... eight bucks a piece for 3 boxes, roughly 30 bucks a month increase, jacking up my bill by about 25% in one whack, and boosting it over it's value line, which it was already teetering upon in my mind.
NUFF. No damn more. Period.

Why the hell am I paying these folks for 250 channels, when I can never find anything to watch? Especially when 30% of whatever I don't particularly care to watch is commercials?

I would never go back to that.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Bookmarking.

My contract with Verizon is up in July. I would love to save money.

I'd like to cut the cord... now to convince the wife...

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

There are a slew of cord cutting articles in the new lately:

https://www.google.com/search?q=cord+cutting&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS729US729&oq=cord+cutting&aqs=chrome..69i57.2182j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#q=cord+cutting&safe=off&tbm=nws

Much of your paycheck goes to cable TV (way too much) and much of that money goes straight to the Democrat Party.

Something to keep in mind.

[Axeslinger]

I'd like to cut the cord... now to convince the wife...

@Weird Tolkienish Figure
Do it!  With slingtv or PlayStation Vue and a roku you'll not miss out on anything AND it's only about $30/month

I cut the cord about 3years ago and don't miss it AT ALL

[Applewood]

I started with Sling TV a few weeks ago. They have a 7 day free trial period, after which you have the option of canceling. There are two basic packages -- blue and orange, or you can get both.     There are also optional add-on packages for anywhere from $5 to $15 a month.  I'm paying $25 a month for the blue package, so even if I get one of the add-ons, my bill will still be cheaper than cable.

Right now I only have Sling TV on my tablet and phone.  Have to get a Roku or something similar to hook it up to the tv.  As far as local channels go, I will need an antenna, but I'm contemplating not bothering with local channels at all. Only local channel I watch is for local news and weather, and I can get that on my other devices through the station's apps.  I've also heard that Sling is developing some way to get local channels, but that technology is still in its infancy.

The only other problem is that my WiFi is through cable. Once I can decide on an alternative and disconnect cable tv,  I can get rid of cable for good.

So far, I like Sling.  I can get channels my cable provider doesn't have, such as Axs.  The streaming has been very good. No major problems with scrambling or blackouts.  Of course, a lot of that depends on your Internet or Wi-Fi service and perhaps where you live. But for me, so far, so good. 

Used to have a bundle -- cost me around $150 a month.  Finally gave up the phone, pared down the TV service to basic and used WiFi.   Still costs $107 a month. Still too high.

I will be very happy to rid myself of cable once and for all.  Why should I be paying so much for terrible choices and even worse customer service?

[Elderberry]

Y'all have convinced me to give it a try. I've not tried before because I didn't think I could get access to the Wife's favorite programs. It looks like with Hulu, she'll have most of what she watches. I'm going to pick up a Roku and give it a go.

[Applewood]

FWIW -- a recent article comparing Sling TV and other streaming services:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/playstation-vue-vs-sling-tv-vs-directv-now-vs-youtube-tv-vs-hulu-with-live-tv/amp/

[Wingnut]

[roamer_1]

Squinch your eyes a bit, and that guy might just be Eric Estrada.
How the mighty have fallen. 

[geronl]

As expected Spectrum has hiked the price here too, especially for internet.

[geronl]

Squinch your eyes a bit, and that guy might just be Eric Estrada.
How the mighty have fallen. 

If you think that's bad, it is official Star Wars canon (I think) that Jar Jar Binks is now an impoverished street entertainer....

[roamer_1]

As expected Spectrum has hiked the price here too, especially for internet.

  If it gets too bad, split the cost with your neighbor... It's not illegal to give your neighbor access to your router... Another beautiful thing about cord cutting.

[Elderberry]

I just picked up a Roku and am trying out PlayStation Vue. The wife likes it so far. I missed having Gunsmoke on TVland, so I'm downloading a whole mess of episodes.

[Elderberry]

I got a warning from AT&T that I was going to exceed my Bandwidth limit of 1TB. I never even knew I had a limit. I found out that they just started imposing one around March of this year.
I starting watching my usage and discovered that it went way up after we starting using Playstation Vue. Part of the problem, I found was the wife would turn off the TV, but not cancel the streaming that was taking place. Also my daughter, taking online classes, complained about networking problems when streaming was taking place.

Yesterday I set up router port rate limiting on the Roku port. It would not handle 512kbits/s at all. I could not tell any difference in picture quality with 1 or 2 Mbits/s rate limiting. I did notice the speed changed going thru menu selections.  I have not experienced any buffering issues. I am now confident that I can stay under the bandwidth limit and not have to pay for unlimited bandwidth.

We are going to pull the plug on Dish later this month.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

WTF needs dirty channels in this day and age?

I remember trying to watch the Spice Channel on squigglevision (IOW scrambled) back in the early 90's.

[Elderberry]

Guys at work used to order the cable filters by the case and re-tune them to whatever channel people wanted to receive.

[kevindavis007]

Looks like a lot of more people are cutting the cord:
http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,266315.0.html

[Applewood]

@kevindavis

Thanks for referring us to the post and article. 

It's sad in a way. All these providers are swirling the bowl. You would think they would try to come up with ways to hold onto their customers.  But they just keep driving people away, then fret when profits shrink. 

If I ever get my act together and get Sling TV hooked up to my tv -- so long Comcast.

[kevindavis007]

@kevindavis

Thanks for referring us to the post and article. 

It's sad in a way. All these providers are swirling the bowl. You would think they would try to come up with ways to hold onto their customers.  But they just keep driving people away, then fret when profits shrink. 

If I ever get my act together and get Sling TV hooked up to my tv -- so long Comcast.

@Applewood


Your welcome..


Well the providers don't get it and they will go away in 5 years..


I have the Amazon Fire TV and I love it.  I have Sling TV (excellent service) however, I might go with Hulu TV service when it is available.

[Drago]

Another vote for Playstation VUE (like their layout/"DVR" capabilities)(to be fair I haven't tried SlingTV or DirecTV Now yet).

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/network/vue/

https://www.sling.com

https://www.directvnow.com

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

If I ever get my act together and get Sling TV hooked up to my tv -- so long Comcast.

HDMI cable from the tablet to the TV?

[Elderberry]

HDMI cable from the tablet to the TV?

I found a guide for U

 "If you're new to streaming TV, here's your guide

    By Gail Pennington St. Louis Post-Dispatch Jul 16, 2016 (…) "

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/television/gail-pennington/if-you-re-new-to-streaming-tv-here-s-your/article_e8a9dd76-3117-5dcd-852d-031971fb162b.html

[Applewood]

HDMI cable from the tablet to the TV?

I have a "smart" tv, so I think what I need is a Roku.  I gotta look into this further.  Already have Sling on my tablet and phone.

Thanks.

[Applewood]

I found a guide for U

 "If you're new to streaming TV, here's your guide

    By Gail Pennington St. Louis Post-Dispatch Jul 16, 2016 (…) "

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/television/gail-pennington/if-you-re-new-to-streaming-tv-here-s-your/article_e8a9dd76-3117-5dcd-852d-031971fb162b.html

Thank you.  I need all the help I can get. 

[roamer_1]

I have a "smart" tv, so I think what I need is a Roku.  I gotta look into this further.  Already have Sling on my tablet and phone.

Thanks.

@Applewood
I don't have a whole lot of experience with the 'smart' side of my tv - I actually disabled it by feeding it a bad IP address... So the smart side of my tv doesn't even work.

But evidently, at least with Samsung, you can buy or download applets for most popular streaming services.

I know I was able to access Amazon (with a subscription) and youtube and such.
But the interface is so hinky and problematic, that I seriously believe you would like the Roku better.
BUT, it costs you nothing to attempt to use the inbuilt features of the tv... It probably has a SlingTV applet already.
YMMV.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

I have a "smart" tv, so I think what I need is a Roku.  I gotta look into this further.  Already have Sling on my tablet and phone.

Thanks.

I don't know what Sling or Roku are, but if you can watch what you want on your tablet, and your tablet has an HDMI output, you can use an HDMI cable (need the right one, my tablet takes a mini HDMI) to take the video and sound from your tablet and run them through the TV.  Might not be the long term solution you're looking for, but the cables are cheap and nice to have around anyway.

[jmyrlefuller]

Some totally free video channels that don't require any subscription whatsoever and are totally legal:

WeatherNation TV
http://www.weathernationtv.com/video/
This is an upstart network in the mold of The Weather Channel. Its selling point is that it sticks to forecasts and only forecasts, without any of the reality TV shows or AGW hype.

NASA TV
https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
This is the official TV station of NASA. It carries space program video and educational programs. Because it's the federal government, everything is free to redistribute.

Tuff TV
http://www.tufftv.com/tuff-tv-live/
This is a small network that features a male-oriented selection of programs, including cooking, outdoors, pro wrestling and a wide variety of sports.

Rev'n
http://www.revntv.com/watch/watch-online/
This channel is mostly automotive-related programming.

Newsmax TV
http://www.newsmaxtv.com/
This channel was originally conceived as a news outlet, a plan that fizzled when it lost its satellite carriage. Its current mission is carrying simulcasts of conservative talk radio shows.

Bloomberg Television
https://www.bloomberg.com/live
Bloomberg has carried a live feed on the Internet for as long as I remember, one of the very few to have done so since the pre-broadband era.

[Smokin Joe]

bkmk