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We've cut the cable (1 Viewer)

So last night I installed a new TV and Soundbar at my oldest daughter's place. I just grabbed a Mohu mini antenna (I think rated for 25 miles) for her since she didn't even care about local channels, assuming it would at least get her a few channels (she's about 20 miles from Minneapolis). Instead, the TV came in crystal clear on all the normal channels with a minimum of moving the antenna around. Is it possible that this little mini antenna is better than my Amazon basics 40 mile Mohu knockoff? We often run into channels going in and out of service with the bigger antenna, despite being the same distance away as my daughter, and have to constantly move it around. If so it's an easy $18 to spend on the new mini, or I'd pay the money to upgrade to the larger Mohu if it really does make a difference over the Amazon version.
A lot depends on the house location. If there is clean line of sight you can jam a coat hanger in the tv and be fine. 

 
I get that, which is why I thought it was odd - our house is in a much better position for a clean line of sight than hers. I'll probably give the mini a try and see what happens, as I can always hook it up to the TV in the garage that we pilfered another antenna from or just return it. I'm just curious if Mohu really is that much better than other brands.  

 
Pretty sure Sling doesn't have Big Ten Network. 
This is one reason for me to stay with Vue, and the fact that getting both ESPN and Fox Sports locals on Sling requires subscribing to both Sling options, and that's $40/mo. Basically BTN costs me $5/mo by staying with Vue.

However, after the OSU/Michigan game until the Reds start in April, I don't need Fox Sports Local or BTN. I could dump Vue and just pay Sling $20/mo for ESPN during that time.  

 
It took me a little longer than most, but I'm at the breaking point.  Tired of wasting the money on cable we don't watch.  Everything lately is just streaming or shows we could have streamed. 

Antenna/mount arm ordered today.

Fire-stick at house today

And setting up Vue account to pair with Netflix/Amazon Prime account.  Not sure if I'll need Hulu, but I'm guessing I'll need to add that. 

I think that should do the trick for us.  Going to pilot test it for a week so to make sure there is nothing we are missing, but the days of DirectTv are numbered.
Everything was going great until I mounted the antenna on the side of the house and not getting anything for channels.  Did the auto search and landed 18 channels, thinking perfect I'm golden.  Then I scrolled through and it is all garage TV (PBS, ION, etc).  I did get NBC, but could reach CBS, ABC, and Fox.  I didn't want to screw it to the roof for fear of water leakage, but I thought about mounting it to my stink pipe with a metal hose clamp.  

Trying an antenna amplifier off the antenna first to see if I can boost it a little more. I'm about 75 miles from two larger cities that have the big 4 channels. 

If the amplifier doesn't work, I'll be moving this to the "Can you negotiate with Direct TV" thread.   :kicksrock:

 
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Kodi (well, not technically kodi, but you know what I mean) had an HD stream of last night's GoT that I started at 10:20 east coast time (only 20 minutes after it ended). 

 
Tablo is a nice Live TV and DVR option. Once you make the initial investment it costs $0 per month. That's what I like about it. Trying to kill off as many recurring fees as I can.  So far it works pretty well. 
this is only for local/national channels (NBC, CBS, etc.)?

 
Is there a way to order pay per view fights using these streaming services 

I'm almost ashamed to say it but I will have to buy the Mayweather - McGregor fight if I host my fantasy leagues draft because they are on the same day

(someone please say no so I don't have to host) 

 
Does Sling now allow more than one person logged in at a time? 
Sling's orange plan only allows one person to use the service at a time. (This plan has ESPN channels)  

Sling's blue plan allows multiple users (I think 3) but they don't have ESPN because Disney want's to prevent multiple streams. 

I was looking at their channel lineups the other day. Was bummed to see the restrictions. I have PS Vue and don't have a problem with multiple streams. 

 
When I looked at the 2 services last year Sling only allowed one person to be logged in at a time, Vue allowed 5 people at once (all watching different things) 
My wife was upstairs watching one thing yesterday and I was downstairs watching something else. No issues with Sling.

 
Sling's orange plan only allows one person to use the service at a time. (This plan has ESPN channels)  

Sling's blue plan allows multiple users (I think 3) but they don't have ESPN because Disney want's to prevent multiple streams. 

I was looking at their channel lineups the other day. Was bummed to see the restrictions. I have PS Vue and don't have a problem with multiple streams. 
I have Vue as well. Everyone in my house seems to be happy with it. 

 
Do you have Orange or Blue? Do you have ESPN?
I have both and ESPN. I pay $55/month for Orange+Blue, the 4 add-ons package, and the DVR add-on. We've watched on different devices at the same time and have not had any issues. We get some buffering here and there, but nothing crazy.

 
DirecTV Now absolutely crapped the bed for the Game of Thrones premiere last night and has the worst guide imaginable, so I cancelled them. At least I got a fire stick out of it.

May give Vue a whirl. Pricing seems fair for what I need, it has a DVR, has a solid guide, and seems to be the least buggy of all the options so far based on experience and what I've read.

 
DirecTV Now absolutely crapped the bed for the Game of Thrones premiere last night and has the worst guide imaginable, so I cancelled them. At least I got a fire stick out of it.

May give Vue a whirl. Pricing seems fair for what I need, it has a DVR, has a solid guide, and seems to be the least buggy of all the options so far based on experience and what I've read.
Sling was great for GoT :shrug:  

 
this is only for local/national channels (NBC, CBS, etc.)?
It's for all channels you can get on your antenna--locals plus a bunch of other random channels in my area, 40-some-odd channels I think.  It's basically your antenna picking up HD channels, then it plugs into your Tablo to DVR whatever you want off those channels, and then your Tablo can stream those feeds to any device that gets a Tablo feed (your Rokus/Fire Sticks, or iPads, etc.)

 
Everything was going great until I mounted the antenna on the side of the house and not getting anything for channels.  Did the auto search and landed 18 channels, thinking perfect I'm golden.  Then I scrolled through and it is all garage TV (PBS, ION, etc).  I did get NBC, but could reach CBS, ABC, and Fox.  I didn't want to screw it to the roof for fear of water leakage, but I thought about mounting it to my stink pipe with a metal hose clamp.  

Trying an antenna amplifier off the antenna first to see if I can boost it a little more. I'm about 75 miles from two larger cities that have the big 4 channels. 

If the amplifier doesn't work, I'll be moving this to the "Can you negotiate with Direct TV" thread.   :kicksrock:
75 miles away is going to be tough, especially if the towers of the stations are on the other side of the city than you. You might get it to work, but I wouldn't bet on it. 

 
75 miles away is going to be tough, especially if the towers of the stations are on the other side of the city than you. You might get it to work, but I wouldn't bet on it. 
Yeah I'm not holding my breath on this.  I was hopeful when the antenna advertised 135 mile range, but obviously that was done in a metal can.  

I'm going to guess if the amp does give me an extra 15 miles on cloudy or snowy days it is going to be a struggle to keep a clear image. 

 
"AT&T Uverse is not available in your area"

yeah, but my neighbor has it

"we're sorry but it is not available in your area"

you mean at my house, specifically?

"in your area"

how is it possible that the neighbors on either side of me have Uverse.. and they live 15 feet away from me... but i can't?

(here's a link to DSL & DirectTV service. neither of which is available "in your area")

i don't want those. i want Uverse. how can it not be available at my specific address but is for 2 people next door to me?

"sorry, it's not available in your area at this time"

yes, i understand that but what specific technology prevents me from receiving the Uverse signal? old cable lines going in to my house? an invisible shield around my house? are we blackballed for calling for service at our current address?

"sorry, it's not available in your area"

:hot:

 
Right, the student thing to me (I believe) was no different than if I had had the Sunday ticket on DirecTV.  You watch any out of market regular season game you want to for 17 weeks, and you get Redzone on top of that (I think they just added redzone 2 years ago).  I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that gamepass allows you to view games both live and after they've aired - pause, rewind, rewatch....
What kind of information did you need to provide to verify your account? Is it as is simple as going on fiver and buying a .edu email account and then just using my personal info to buy Sunday Ticket? Or do I need to find an actual student and have them sign up for it using their info, credit card etc...?

 
What kind of information did you need to provide to verify your account? Is it as is simple as going on fiver and buying a .edu email account and then just using my personal info to buy Sunday Ticket? Or do I need to find an actual student and have them sign up for it using their info, credit card etc...?
My sister had (and I believe still has) a valid .edu e-mail which I used.  I believe they do check the address to verify is a legit school (her's is from a larger, very well known university).  I'm not sure if they asked for address or anything, but if they did that along with the credit card used were all mine.  I believe the account itself, though, is in her name. 

 
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Tried the psvue dvr last night, it was horrific, hard to imagine a worse experience.  I'm glad I cut the cable but I'm already sick of all the commercials I'm watching.  My cable experience was completely commercial free except for live sports.

 
Tried the psvue dvr last night, it was horrific, hard to imagine a worse experience.  I'm glad I cut the cable but I'm already sick of all the commercials I'm watching.  My cable experience was completely commercial free except for live sports.
This is why I use Tivo and others here use Tablo. Fast forward through commercials. 

Unfortunately these DVRs only record channels you get over the antenna, but for us that's most of what we watch anyways. And buying a season of a cable show on Amazon is commercial free too. It's only the stuff on Vue that has commercials, and I only have Vue for sports. 

 
I am able to fast forward through commercials on things that have been added to "My Shows" on Vue. Are you watching them on demand or something?

 
Proud to see my kids watching Despicable Me 2 on the Tablo the other day :thumbup:

the commercials totally freak them out though. Kids today. They lose attention in 30 seconds. Used to enjoy commercials as a nice break in the action,  time to chat with people in the room, take a leak etc. Kids today are so used to no commercials they totally spazz out about it. 

This is good for them. Builds character. Endure a little hardship in life. 

 
This is why I use Tivo and others here use Tablo. Fast forward through commercials. 

Unfortunately these DVRs only record channels you get over the antenna, but for us that's most of what we watch anyways. And buying a season of a cable show on Amazon is commercial free too. It's only the stuff on Vue that has commercials, and I only have Vue for sports. 
I have a tivo network setup but rarely use it now.  After using firetv to access Amazon and Netflix content(it's so much cleaner and faster) the only thing TiVo is good for is ota stuff and almost all of that I can get thru other apps on the firetv.  Most of what we watch is not ota which stinks because I love TiVo.

 
Since cutting the cable, it's been great. Will never go back. Saving some money, don't miss a thing, and in fact there are some features I have now that I didn't have before. Tons of free programming OTA and saved on my Tablo, but also some features on sling that I use all the time. The "On Now" tab is one I use constantly on a Saturday afternoon on the couch -- quick access to all the crappy action movies, rocky movies, godfather movies, etc, that are great to doze off to on a weekend.  It's made channel surfing a lot faster and easier. 

No brainer to cut the cable IMO 

 
Cheapest country to order nfl game pass is Brazil for $174.99. I paid for it through Google payments and was only charged $124.99. Not sure why. Same price as last year in Turkey. 

 
for those of you wiht Roku, I added private channel "USTVNOW" over the weekend and it appears to give you ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC, PBS, My9, for free. Read online that the Networks are out of Harrisburg, PA. Hoping to get NFL games...we will see.

They also offer some premium options...Looks like 28 channels with "limited DVR" for $29/mo or 28 channels with unlimited DVR for $39/mo

http://watch.ustvnow.com/home

 
for those of you wiht Roku, I added private channel "USTVNOW" over the weekend and it appears to give you ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC, PBS, My9, for free. Read online that the Networks are out of Harrisburg, PA. Hoping to get NFL games...we will see.

They also offer some premium options...Looks like 28 channels with "limited DVR" for $29/mo or 28 channels with unlimited DVR for $39/mo

http://watch.ustvnow.com/home
You sure they don't charge you after that trial period?  seems too good to be true if you get all those broadcast channels free. 

 
You sure they don't charge you after that trial period?  seems too good to be true if you get all those broadcast channels free. 
Not sure. From the website...

Initially when you sign up you will be registering for our free plan that let you share our antenna to receive all major terrestrial stations that as an American citizen or resident you would normally be able to receive for free (ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC, PBS, My9). Click Here to signup for our free plan. After this you have the option to upgrade to our paid plans:

 
Not sure. From the website...

Initially when you sign up you will be registering for our free plan that let you share our antenna to receive all major terrestrial stations that as an American citizen or resident you would normally be able to receive for free (ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC, PBS, My9). Click Here to signup for our free plan. After this you have the option to upgrade to our paid plans:
What do the paid plans get you?  The naughty channels.   

 
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What do the paid plans get you?  The naughty channels.   
ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, My9, NBC, PBS, A&E, AMC, Animal Planet, BBC America, Bravo, CNBC, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel, ESPN, ESPN2, FX, Fox News, Freeform, History, Lifetime, MSNBC, National Geographic, NBC Sports, Nickelodeon, Spike, Sundance, Syfy, TLC, Universal, USA.

 
Going to make one attempt to lower cost with Spectrum (was TWC). We pay 170/month for Internet/cable (including fees such as "turbo Internet", extra 20/month). Way too much to pay to watch, essentially, Big Bang theory/Friends/Shark Tank reruns. If unsuccessful will be cutting cable also. Plan is to go with PlayStation Vue since it allows streaming from 5 (?) devices and we have 2 play stations hooked up in house-PS3 in living room and son has PS4 in his room. We have Amazon Prime video and Netflix (on SIL account).

4 TV's in house: Living room, our bedroom, son bedroom, garage. Garage TV is a roku TV with OTA antenna, get 20 ish stations but the main networks (for football) are hit and miss in terms of reception. Going to use a fire stick and OTA antenna in our bedroom which should be fine since it's only used while falling asleep.

Pretty confusing trying to juggle options to make sure everyone has TV if/when we cut cable. This thread has been awesome. Anything I'm missing?

 
Otis said:
You sure they don't charge you after that trial period?  seems too good to be true if you get all those broadcast channels free. 
I've been using them for years without getting charged.

 
mr. furley said:
is this still valid? how does it work?
Sign up for PIA ($3/month) 

Download the app and sign in with your username and password.  Open app and connect to Brazil.  Once connected google nfl gamepass.  Go to that website and sign up. It's completely fine to use your USA credit card.  The only thing they check is your IP address.  $175.

ETA: You get every game: preseason thru Superbowl.  Includes Redzone and NFL Network.  Rewind and watch condensed versions of previously played games going back to 2011.  Everything, no back outs, no restrictions. 

 
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