We've cut the cable

[Moe.]

Just now, ChiefD said:

How are you guys getting ESPN?

Does the ESPN+ app carry the same games as ESPN? For example, I can watch an ESPN game now through my ipad through the regular ESPN app, but I have to have a cable subscription to just access a normal game.

Does the ESPN+ app fix that issue? Or do they limit what games you can watch?

No, ESPN+ is separate from what they air on their networks. You do not get access to that stuff with an ESPN+ membership. You would still need a cable or streaming service subscription to watch non-ESPN+ content on the ESPN app. 

[Moe.]

I think ESPN+ is great for people who want to be able to watch sports, or have sports on in the background, but they don't necessarily care what sport or which teams they are watching. You get access to some pretty decent stuff through ESPN+, but it won't be enough on its own for the vast majority of sports fans. 

[Gustavo Fring]

Just cut the cord and went with the following: 

• Sling TV (orange and blue subscription)
  • The Sports Extras package also has NFL Redzone, which is a must for me, so I'll add that closer to NFL season. 
  • Offers Showtime/Starz but not HBO. 
• Amazon Prime - will be subscribing to HBO through this when GoT starts back up. 
• Netflix

Did the 7 day free trial with SlingTv and we loved it, so sticking with that for now.   I like being able to still watch live television when I want to catch a sporting event, but they also provide a good amount of OnDemand content.  

[Payne]

11 minutes ago, Gustavo Fring said:

Just cut the cord and went with the following: 

• Sling TV (orange and blue subscription)
  • The Sports Extras package also has NFL Redzone, which is a must for me, so I'll add that closer to NFL season. 
  • Offers Showtime/Starz but not HBO. 
• Amazon Prime - will be subscribing to HBO through this when GoT starts back up. 
• Netflix

Did the 7 day free trial with SlingTv and we loved it, so sticking with that for now.   I like being able to still watch live television when I want to catch a sporting event, but they also provide a good amount of OnDemand content.  

Looking at the same setup except still toying with Hulu instead of Sling.

The HBO free through AT&T was a nice find on this thread. 

Would really like to follow up on how this setup is working for you. 

[ChiefD]

So you guys doing HULU - I'm guessing I can stream this through the XBOX one? Yes?

[ChiefD]

Another HULU question: can you just chromecast it though an ipad or smartphone to your TV?

[Moe.]

@ChiefD yes to both 

[ChiefD]

5 minutes ago, Moe. said:

@ChiefD yes to both 

Awesome, thanks. Been looking to cut the cable for years, and it looks like HULU Live might give me all I need. Should be able to save about $75 a month. 

[JoeSteeler]

On 3/5/2019 at 4:22 PM, acarey50 said:

Any better deals on HBO? It seems it rarely goes on sale through cord cutting options - I see that Hulu had a deal last year around April where you could get it for $5/month for 6 months then it went back to $15/month, which seems to be the standard.

I've got Amazon Prime and Hulu, just curious if anyone had found a cheaper way to get it than the $15/month as an add-on to those services.

Split hbo now with a family member?

the only way I know how to get it under $15 is through DIRECTV now. $5/mo to add it to any DIRECTV now package

[ConstruxBoy]

On 3/4/2019 at 6:58 PM, bleachercreacher said:

We’ve considered going with a streaming service for a while now.  Comcast made me mad this weekend so I started a PlayStation Vue free trial.  On my local channels, the sound is slightly off from the video and it drives me crazy.  Is this always a problem, or will it get better?

Have not noticed this in a year of Vue. Just that the locals are at a lower volume level than the other channels so you need to crank it when you switch to them. 

[Peak]

The latest DTVNow update screwed up my firestick yesterday.  The app wouldn't load on my phone or firestick.  It kept asking me to get the "update", but there was no update to download.  Saw online it was impacting many people the same way.  It was back on as of this morning, but what a crappy customer service experience.  Still no word from ATT on the issue - what caused it, or if there will be any lingering impacts.  

[culdeus]

On 3/5/2019 at 3:22 PM, acarey50 said:

Any better deals on HBO? It seems it rarely goes on sale through cord cutting options - I see that Hulu had a deal last year around April where you could get it for $5/month for 6 months then it went back to $15/month, which seems to be the standard.

I've got Amazon Prime and Hulu, just curious if anyone had found a cheaper way to get it than the $15/month as an add-on to those services.

Use the service and when the show you want finishes then cancel.   I mean got is 6 episodes.  Worst case 30 bucks. 

[Andy Dufresne]

Picked up a Tablo today for use with my protector (through a Fire TV stick).

Color me impressed.

Edited March 10, 2019 by Andy Dufresne

[schlesinj]

On 3/6/2019 at 2:28 PM, ChiefD said:

So you guys doing HULU - I'm guessing I can stream this through the XBOX one? Yes?

Yes

[schlesinj]

On 3/7/2019 at 8:07 AM, culdeus said:

Use the service and when the show you want finishes then cancel.   I mean got is 6 episodes.  Worst case 30 bucks. 

I opened Prime yesterday and saw some type of $10 deal for HBO.  Not sure what it was, but may want to check it out.

[Craig_MiamiFL]

20 minutes ago, dorno said:

New lineup and it doesn't look good. Pay more and get less in return. Gonna have to take a look at Hulu live tv and YouTube tv now.

Easy cancel for me. Imagine it's gonna hurt them bigtime ridding of Viacom (Nick/MTV/Comedy Central). Lots of demos impacted. 

The whole 'grandfathered in + $10' is misleading. You're not "keeping the same package"....you're losing channels.

 

Edited March 10, 2019 by Craig_MiamiFL

[shadyridr]

Hulu (5.99 package) now free with Spotify Premium subscription.

[stbugs]

8 minutes ago, dorno said:

After the confirmation about directvnow going up in price I think I figured out what I'm gonna go to. Looking at philo and possibly the spectrum streaming bundle for locals and the on demand library. Total cost should be less than what I was paying to at&t.

Why pay for locals? Plenty of options/antennas. I’m going to get that Fire Recast box once it drops again. $50-$70 off is likely on prime day. Plus, no real internet use if you have lots of streaming (I have 3 boys, 11 and up).

[stbugs]

9 minutes ago, shadyridr said:

Hulu (5.99 package) now free with Spotify Premium subscription.

Hmm, I need to coordinate that. I haven’t quite cut the cord but will soon. I was thinking about DirecTV Now, but not likely anymore. 

[eoMMan]

7 minutes ago, stbugs said:

Why pay for locals? Plenty of options/antennas. I’m going to get that Fire Recast box once it drops again. $50-$70 off is likely on prime day. Plus, no real internet use if you have lots of streaming (I have 3 boys, 11 and up).

Lot of antenna options suck.  Even some of the best ones are very irritating.  The fact that DirecTV Now has local channels was a huge plus for me and why I ditched Sling for them.

[Al Czervik]

On 3/10/2019 at 12:20 PM, Craig_MiamiFL said:

Easy cancel for me. Imagine it's gonna hurt them bigtime ridding of Viacom (Nick/MTV/Comedy Central). Lots of demos impacted. 

The whole 'grandfathered in + $10' is misleading. You're not "keeping the same package"....you're losing channels.

 

Yep.  Was just going to sign up, but losing the Nicks as well as HGTV and Food Network kill the deal.  And their new packaging is horrible.  Back to the drawing board.  Might be PS VUE now instead.

[The Flying Turtle]

On 3/6/2019 at 1:44 PM, Gustavo Fring said:

Just cut the cord and went with the following: 

• Sling TV (orange and blue subscription)
  • The Sports Extras package also has NFL Redzone, which is a must for me, so I'll add that closer to NFL season. 
  • Offers Showtime/Starz but not HBO. 
• Amazon Prime - will be subscribing to HBO through this when GoT starts back up. 
• Netflix

Did the 7 day free trial with SlingTv and we loved it, so sticking with that for now.   I like being able to still watch live television when I want to catch a sporting event, but they also provide a good amount of OnDemand content.  

I know I posted this before, but I think it is worth repeating since new people are looking at options.

With Sling TV Orange you can only watch on one device at a time.  I think it is misleading to say getting Orange and Blue allows you to view on 4 devices.  You can still only view Orange on one device and Blue on the other three.

[stbugs]

2 hours ago, eoMMan said:

Lot of antenna options suck.  Even some of the best ones are very irritating.  The fact that DirecTV Now has local channels was a huge plus for me and why I ditched Sling for them.

I agree and I like the locals but I like the idea of being able to watch and record locals not using any of the streams available and Internet bandwidth m. 5 people in the family so it’s key to me to make sure we don’t have an issue. We likely won’t but it’s nicer if I don’t have to pay more per month for extra feeds. I’ve used antennas before, heck I was one of those people who had an antenna for HDTV when Dish didn’t provide them yet and the HD box had an antenna input.

The pure HD feed from the antenna (back then) was way better with no compression at all. Not sure if that is still the case since I have used an antenna in a while. 

[SofaKings]

Hulu is free with Sprint apparently.

[matttyl]

2 hours ago, dorno said:

After the confirmation about directvnow going up in price I think I figured out what I'm gonna go to. Looking at philo and possibly the spectrum streaming bundle for locals and the on demand library. Total cost should be less than what I was paying to at&t.

They did raise prices, but they are adding in HBO, right?

[bcat01]

2 hours ago, Al Czervik said:

Yep.  Was just going to sign up, but losing the Nicks as well as HGTV and Food Network kill the deal.  And their new packaging is horrible.  Back to the drawing board.  Might be PS VUE now instead.

I was considering it, but with no HGTV and Food it's a no.

[JoeSteeler]

3 hours ago, dorno said:

After the confirmation about directvnow going up in price I think I figured out what I'm gonna go to. Looking at philo and possibly the spectrum streaming bundle for locals and the on demand library. Total cost should be less than what I was paying to at&t.

does philo have locals?

 

[rustycolts]

Hulu plus has locals but if they go up again I will be dropping them and just going with my antenna for locals.  To many options out there for streaming services to let companies hold us hostage like the cable companies use to.

[Craig_MiamiFL]

1 hour ago, matttyl said:

They did raise prices, but they are adding in HBO, right?

I believe you're correct. They're removing a whole lot of channels and adding HBO.

[Socrates11]

4 hours ago, eoMMan said:

Lot of antenna options suck.  Even some of the best ones are very irritating.  The fact that DirecTV Now has local channels was a huge plus for me and why I ditched Sling for them.

Guess it depends where you are in relation to your local broadcast towers. I live about 30-40ish miles away from my local towers, picked up a decent RCA metal antenna for $50, and get 30+ local channels crystal clear. That frees me from having to depend on a streaming package for them.

[eoMMan]

13 minutes ago, Socrates11 said:

Guess it depends where you are in relation to your local broadcast towers. I live about 30-40ish miles away from my local towers, picked up a decent RCA metal antenna for $50, and get 30+ local channels crystal clear. That frees me from having to depend on a streaming package for them.

I had my antenna look for channels the other day and it found 40+.  I usually get the main ones (CBS, ABC, and NBC) but they are never consistent.  I could have NBC on and it works great for 5 minutes but then it starts flaking out.  It's just a PIA for me personally.

But I agree.  It's definitely a YMMV situation with it depending on where you are located.

[ChiefD]

Just wanted to come back and say thanks to you all for this thread.

Signed up for Hulu Live on Saturday and tested it on all my TV's. Had to go with Hulu Live so I could get the Royals. 

Main TV: runs through the Xbox

Garage TV, Bedroom TV, and Patio TV: runs through Google Chromecast using my ipad as my remote

Kept my internet service for now, but will have Google Fiber installed in about a month which will triple my speed. 

Total saved per month = $90

Gonna drop off the cable boxes today. I have to admit it was such a pleasure to call the cable company and tell them to buzz off. 

[matttyl]

Hulu doesn't have Nickelodeon, neither does DirecTV or Playstation Vue.  My kid would flip out without Paw Patrol (he calls it "Puppies").  Any other cord cutting option that has it?

ETA - Looks like Sling has Nick Jr. 

Edited March 13, 2019 by matttyl

[Craig_MiamiFL]

1 hour ago, matttyl said:

Hulu doesn't have Nickelodeon, neither does DirecTV or Playstation Vue.  My kid would flip out without Paw Patrol (he calls it "Puppies").  Any other cord cutting option that has it?

ETA - Looks like Sling has Nick Jr. 

Viacom recently purchased PlutoTV. Probably where you'll find going forward.

Right now, they've got some decent free content on it. Not sure if they'll be moving to a pay subscription service in future. 

Edited March 13, 2019 by Craig_MiamiFL

[Cowboysfan8]

6 hours ago, ChiefD said:

Just wanted to come back and say thanks to you all for this thread.

Signed up for Hulu Live on Saturday and tested it on all my TV's. Had to go with Hulu Live so I could get the Royals. 

Main TV: runs through the Xbox

Garage TV, Bedroom TV, and Patio TV: runs through Google Chromecast using my ipad as my remote

Kept my internet service for now, but will have Google Fiber installed in about a month which will triple my speed. 

Total saved per month = $90

Gonna drop off the cable boxes today. I have to admit it was such a pleasure to call the cable company and tell them to buzz off. 

Which cable company, and did they offer you anything to stay?

[schlesinj]

9 hours ago, Cowboysfan8 said:

Which cable company, and did they offer you anything to stay?

Fios just offered to sort of keep my plan about the same as the discounted package I initially signed up for (it was about $10 more per month).

[Al Czervik]

17 hours ago, matttyl said:

Hulu doesn't have Nickelodeon, neither does DirecTV or Playstation Vue.  My kid would flip out without Paw Patrol (he calls it "Puppies").  Any other cord cutting option that has it?

ETA - Looks like Sling has Nick Jr. 

Philo seems to have all the Nick channels.

[matttyl]

6 minutes ago, Al Czervik said:

Philo seems to have all the Nick channels.

But no locals.  Thus far Sling looks to be our best bet (if we cut).

We'd get locals, Nick, ESPN, tnt/tbs, history, ID channel (wife loves that), travel, HGTV, and ability to add redzone during NFL season.  Will give the free trial a shot and go from there.  The drawback seems to be that you can't stream content through many channel's "apps". 

Edited March 14, 2019 by matttyl

[Al Czervik]

1 minute ago, matttyl said:

But no locals.  Thus far Sling looks to be our best bet (if we cut). 

Yes, I'm looking to pair Philo with something else.  Philo is pretty cheap and I'll use it to cover the Nicks and some other channels.  And then use the other service to get locals and other channels I want (really want MLB Network).  Think I can do both and still net out okay vs what we pay for cable.

[ChiefD]

12 hours ago, Cowboysfan8 said:

Which cable company, and did they offer you anything to stay?

Consolidated Communications. They used to be Everest, then SureWest, and now Consolidated. Got worse with every new owner.

They didn't even put up a fight. Just said: "Ok. Turn in your equipment at the office."

Which was pretty much their normal response to anything. They are the worst. 

[schlesinj]

For any baseball fans MLB.tv does not support LG smart TVs this year.  Alternative is buy some type of Firestick for that TV.

[sho nuff]

On 3/13/2019 at 11:59 AM, rustycolts said:

Hulu plus has locals but if they go up again I will be dropping them and just going with my antenna for locals.  To many options out there for streaming services to let companies hold us hostage like the cable companies use to.

Yeah...the price raising and changing options thing seems to get to the point where cutting the cable becomes just as costly and as much of a hassle as having Direct is having to call each year to get my price back down.

Ive held on to Direct and was close to switching...but they keep getting me down to where its negligible that Id be saving any money to cut the cord and I have more channels and an interface Im comfortable with.

[themeanmachine]

49 minutes ago, sho nuff said:

Yeah...the price raising and changing options thing seems to get to the point where cutting the cable becomes just as costly and as much of a hassle as having Direct is having to call each year to get my price back down.

Ive held on to Direct and was close to switching...but they keep getting me down to where its negligible that Id be saving any money to cut the cord and I have more channels and an interface Im comfortable with.

If you want the channels that a traditional cable/satellite service provides, I think this is the right approach. The biggest cost to the provider is programming, so there was no way the internet-based alternatives were going to be able to provide similar services for a significantly lower cost in the long run. They accepted lower margins when first launching to try to gain market share, but it’s inevitable that the prices will be similar to traditional services in the long run since the provider’s costs are similar.

[Gianni Verscotchie]

4 hours ago, schlesinj said:

For any baseball fans MLB.tv does not support LG smart TVs this year.  Alternative is buy some type of Firestick for that TV.

This is a bummer because now I need to use another remote. The bright side is that AppleTV 4k upconverts the picture to HDR and looks excellent.

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Really liking Philo so far after bailing on DTV Now. Has everything I need with the reality TV trash.

Very good affordable option if don't need sports. 

[stbugs]

18 hours ago, Craig_MiamiFL said:

Really liking Philo so far after bailing on DTV Now. Has everything I need with the reality TV trash.

Very good affordable option if don't need sports. 

I checked their channels and they wouldn’t work for me. Wife loves Bravo, so I can’t even think about switching without that.

[JoeSteeler]

Here is something I didn't know about until yesterday.

at&it watch streaming 35 channels for $15 https://www.attwatchtv.com/

no locals so would need an ota  and not yet available for Roku. May work for some people looking for a budget option

A&E
AMC
ANIMAL PLANET
AUDIENCE
BBC AMERICA
BBC WORLD NEWS
BET
BOOMERANG
CARTOON NETWORK
CNN
COMEDY CENTRAL
DISCOVERY
Food Network
FYI
HALLMARK
HALLMARK M&M
HGTV
HELLO LABS
HISTORY
HLN
IFC
INVES DISCOVERY
LIFETIME
LIFETIME MOVIES
MTV2
NICKTOONS
OWN
SUNDANCE
TBS
TCM
TEENNICK
TLC
TNT
TRUTV
VELOCITY
VH1
VICELAND
WeTV

[DropKick]

Cutting the cable on Thursday.  Wife could never give up all the stations.

Currently have Netflx via an Xbox.  Any recommendations for a device upgrade (roku, firestick).  Thinking I'll need at least one device for an upstairs TV and another (at least as a backup for the older xbox)

[formerfourdigit]

13 hours ago, DropKick said:

Cutting the cable on Thursday.  Wife could never give up all the stations.

Currently have Netflx via an Xbox.  Any recommendations for a device upgrade (roku, firestick).  Thinking I'll need at least one device for an upstairs TV and another (at least as a backup for the older xbox)

I have a Fire TV Cube coming today, upgrading from an OG Roku Stick.  Basically my 2.4Ghz wireless network is unusable now for some reason, thinking it's just saturated now in the suburbs but also I learned that Roku uses Wifi-Direct which causes some interference...   I did some testing and saw definite performance hit when Roku was on, though it wasn't remotely good either way. So looking forward to having a hardwire connection and as well as 4K/HDR ready.  It is also basically Alexa and can work like a universal remote apparently, though I have an old Harmony setup still in play.

[stbugs]

2 hours ago, formerfourdigit said:

I have a Fire TV Cube coming today, upgrading from an OG Roku Stick.  Basically my 2.4Ghz wireless network is unusable now for some reason, thinking it's just saturated now in the suburbs but also I learned that Roku uses Wifi-Direct which causes some interference...   I did some testing and saw definite performance hit when Roku was on, though it wasn't remotely good either way. So looking forward to having a hardwire connection and as well as 4K/HDR ready.  It is also basically Alexa and can work like a universal remote apparently, though I have an old Harmony setup still in play.

I love my cube. You can use Alexa to turn on the TV and to switch between HDMI ports. I still have Dish, haven’t had a chance to figure out which service so it’s nice. It’s even cool that if you are on Dish and want to go to the Fire TV you just hit the home button and it switches the input automatically.