The Swamp

I know a few of you have cut the cord in regards to cable.

Anyone use Sling? Just wondering if it works as well as it seems to. Also, hows the sports coverage?

I've cut the cord 2x, and gone back 2x. I don't like not having local sports (Lightning and Rays).

Supposedly....supposedly you get sports live via a number of ESPN outlets via the SlingBox.

I typically listen to Sox games on the radio (nostalgia I guess) and have to find Pats games via a stream or hope that they get a national game of sorts (only had to watch online twice last year.)

Don't know about slingbox, although Oiler was using it over the weekend. I do know that Boston sports are likely easier for you to get in Colorado than getting Tampa sports here in Tampa. I know the MLB package wouldn't work for Rays games when I shared with Bronto a few years ago. I'm not sure about NHL games.

Couldn't you use a VPN to get games from your local area?

I've heard Hola from Chrome is useful (I use an actual VPN service) to say you're someplace else and then get around the local blackout restrictions..though I read somewhere that MLB (I think) is getting rid of the blackouts..it may have been NFL, can't remember.

Rush2112 wrote:Couldn't you use a VPN to get games from your local area?

I've heard Hola from Chrome is useful (I use an actual VPN service) to say you're someplace else and then get around the local blackout restrictions..though I read somewhere that MLB (I think) is getting rid of the blackouts..it may have been NFL, can't remember.

I think the NFL is getting rid of the blackouts. Also, getting a VPN is more work than I can handle. Last, the internet service in my house isn't as good as it should be. Relying on that alone would likely lead to outages for me.

govmentchedda wrote:

Rush2112 wrote:Couldn't you use a VPN to get games from your local area?

I've heard Hola from Chrome is useful (I use an actual VPN service) to say you're someplace else and then get around the local blackout restrictions..though I read somewhere that MLB (I think) is getting rid of the blackouts..it may have been NFL, can't remember.

I think the NFL is getting rid of the blackouts. Also, getting a VPN is more work than I can handle. Last, the internet service in my house isn't as good as it should be. Relying on that alone would likely lead to outages for me.

I don't know that this is your issue, but I had a shitload of problems streaming and the internet seemingly being out, but it turns out it was just that my wireless router was shitty. I got a new one and now it's boss.

AB_skin_test wrote:

govmentchedda wrote:

Rush2112 wrote:Couldn't you use a VPN to get games from your local area?

I've heard Hola from Chrome is useful (I use an actual VPN service) to say you're someplace else and then get around the local blackout restrictions..though I read somewhere that MLB (I think) is getting rid of the blackouts..it may have been NFL, can't remember.

I think the NFL is getting rid of the blackouts. Also, getting a VPN is more work than I can handle. Last, the internet service in my house isn't as good as it should be. Relying on that alone would likely lead to outages for me.

I don't know that this is your issue, but I had a shitload of problems streaming and the internet seemingly being out, but it turns out it was just that my wireless router was shitty. I got a new one and now it's boss.

I should probably look into that. I've got FIOS, and it was great at an earlier home, but the coverage within the house is problematic.

We've been cable free for 7 months. Started with just Netflix (via the Wii), then we had some friends from out of town stay with us at christmas and they ended up buying us an Apple TV box, which, along with Netflix, has more than enough to keep us entertained.
The only concern for me was live sports, but when we still had cable, I found myself rarely watching sports on TV anyway. My wife got full TV control and I was streaming sports on the laptop anyway (also helped that out-of-town friend gave me his NHL gamecenter login info).

Some things to think about:

We're a childless, 1 TV household. Not sure what we would do if we had multiple TV's to service, or if we (shudder) had kids.

We are pretty much strictly scripted tv and movie consumers, so we had no need at all for basic cable channels (food, HGTV, discovery, etc). Some people love those though.

I (illegitimately) download and stream a lot of shows and sports, so it's not so much that I've cut the cord but am just letting you subsidize the cost of my cord. :)

I'm not picky about watching non-HD sports on a laptop, but for some people that is a deal breaker. That said, Apple TV has the League Pass equivalents for the 4 major sports if you subsribe to those, so I can watch NHL Gamecenter on my TV in HD if I want (though it uses enough bandwidth that I can't do certain other internet things while streaming a game, or would have to upgrade my internet service).

When I was cordless a while back I plugged the laptop into the TV via HDMI for streaming purposes. Sound limited to computer (I actually used a Bose speaker with an Aux input) but it's doable.

AB_skin_test wrote:When I was cordless a while back I plugged the laptop into the TV via HDMI for streaming purposes. Sound limited to computer (I actually used a Bose speaker with an Aux input) but it's doable.

I did that as well for streaming from websites, though HDMI carries audio and video, so it all came through the TV.

For TV shows, I download ones in MP4 format, which i then put in my itunes, which can be accessed on the TV with AppleTV.

AB_skin_test wrote:… but I had a shitload of problems streaming and the internet seemingly being out, but it turns out it was just that my wireless router was shitty.

Me too.

howard wrote:

AB_skin_test wrote:… but I had a shitload of problems streaming and the internet seemingly being out, but it turns out it was just that my wireless router was shitty.

Me too.

Yup, had that problem when I was using the Comcast wifi (I have too we're a COmcast only community) but have had no problems streaming to the Chromecast (Plex generally, but also Netflix) since I hooked up my old WiFi router.

(Howard, looks like we adhere to the same naming conventions, my Chromecast was named ThisChromecastSuckShit)

(not actually mine, lifted from this website)

travzilla wrote:

AB_skin_test wrote:When I was cordless a while back I plugged the laptop into the TV via HDMI for streaming purposes. Sound limited to computer (I actually used a Bose speaker with an Aux input) but it's doable.

I did that as well for streaming from websites, though HDMI carries audio and video, so it all came through the TV.

For TV shows, I download ones in MP4 format, which i then put in my itunes, which can be accessed on the TV with AppleTV.

Yeah I figured that out with my new computer but not when I was cord free.

i'd wanted to cut the cord for years but it's hard to just go from something to nothing without cause... moving to Vancouver made that easy. Went from $200+/month on Verizon tripleplay or whatever it was called to $39/mo for internet. no home phone bullshit. also the cells went from ~$79 to $48/month. that money adds up fast.

for 6 months we tried no tv at all which actually was fine until the Olympics rolled around last February then shit got real. :) got a tv (my first HDTV for realz) from craigslist - we've since moved apartments where they had a larger HD mounted and is part of the rental so we have a cheap (~$45) antenna for the upstairs tv and Rokus for both sets. I'm pretty sure a better antenna might get us Seattle channels but ... YMMV on this but honestly going without (US??) tv for so long i can never go back. Even being in a hotel with the horrible news channels etc is stressful. we get the local CBC (hockey, yo), CTV, Global, CBC-French, and 2 others i can't think of or care about.

stream Netflix and a few great friends' ;) PLEX servers through Roku, plus i buy the NHL and MLB packages. that's it.

household of 4, including 2 kids. nobody's ever complained about missing the channels we used to have. i think giving it up is easier than you think.


(i'll be watching the Villa FA Cup final on some bogus stream this weekend and don't really mind a bit...)

When we moved, and because we could finally get ESPN through Sling, we cut the cord.

Our setup:
Hardware:
Roku 3 (x3, one for each TV)
Mohu Leaf 50 antenna (" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)
Tablo (DVR for the antenna, requires 1-2 TB USB hard drive - " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

Services:
Sling
Hulu Plus
Netflix

TL;DR - We won't be going back.

We did buy a lot of hardware, but we are saving $70/month (with no contracts!) and will recoup all of that expense within a year.

Sling has worked out really well. Some channels make certain shows available for a couple of weeks. When we were in the middle of the move, we were able to catch up on the last 3 episodes of Walking Dead after they aired, for example. Same with Better Call Saul. ESPN, ESPN2, and TNT are all in the base package. The other ESPN channels can be added for $5/month. We'll do that when football season comes around.

The Antenna/DVR combo has worked really well. The Tablo Roku app doesn't have all the features that DirecTV's DVR had (You can't manually set it to record a show longer than scheduled, though it does always add some time (5-30 minutes) on its own). It does have a cool feature when you're fast forwarding - it shows the upcoming frames. So it makes it very easy to stop at the right time. We bought a 2TB hard drive, though doing it again I would probably only buy a 1TB hard drive. We manage to keep it pretty clear since we have so much other stuff on demand.

Hulu Plus is awesome. All the networks except CBS participate. Since so many shows have ended for the season, we are watching a couple of new-to-us series that are available in full.

We honestly haven't used Netflix much yet, but we have a long queue set up to watch.

It's great to have so much stuff on demand through the various services, especially the kids programming. We don't have to waste DVR space for all of that.

There is only one channel that I miss having- NBCSN. But other than that, it's been a great change.

EDIT: I should mention that with the Tablo, we only need the one antenna to make the programming available on all 3 TVs via the Roku.

Surely you mean TB hard drives. 1 GB wouldn't hold very much.

AB_skin_test wrote:Surely you mean TB hard drives. 1 GB wouldn't hold very much.

Dammit... yes. Fixed.

While I'm sure you save money in the long run and all that, what phxgators described seems like an unreal headache to induce over this stuff. What happens when that hardware gets outdated? There's a lot of upfront here to save money down the road.

Granted I'm still in a promo rate with ATT so I guess it's not so bad, but if you took my internet without the combo discount it would be 57/mo + 12 for netflix +10 for hulu + whatever sling is = saves me 25-30$ a month at the maximum. Just doesn't make much sense here.

1 week away for me. Or less.

Oh, a different kind of cord cutting...

Yeah, putting that much into everything up front may not be for everyone. But I'm not too concerned about hardware upgrades. Getting new hardware (either for an upgrade or failure) from DirecTV always came with strings (new contract, higher prices/fees), so I really don't see this as being any different.

What are you watching on NBCSN that you can't get via NHL?

Rush2112 wrote:What are you watching on NBCSN that you can't get via NHL?

The Indy Car races that aren't on ABC.

Though... I don't pay for the NHL subscription, so I do miss out on the NBCSN hockey too.

OK, I've wanted to do this for a while. Won't miss the bloated cable package; at this point my TV is a device for watching Game of Thrones, an occasional sporting event, and that's it. Sling sounds like a more than adequate alternative, especially with the HBO package.

My main trepidation is having to go through the ordeal of cancelling Comcast. Any advice there? Is it still as bad as the nightmare stories that made the news, or has the PR backlash forced them to make it easier?

Finally pulled the trigger and cancelled my cable TV. The call to Comcast was surprisingly painless. Would have liked to cut ties to to them altogether, but there isn't really a viable alternative in my area other than Verizon, which is more or less the same thing. Should save me about $100-150 a month.

A digital antenna for basic broadcast channels should be arriving tomorrow. I signed up for a trial of Sling TV, but not sure if I'll stay with it as the base package is basically $20 a month for Big Bang Theory reruns. I signed up to HBO Now separately so I won't be tied to any other service.

Any recommendations in regards to HD antennas?

For those cutting the cord, a VPN and Sonaar are the shite.

Rush2112 wrote:Any recommendations in regards to HD antennas?

So when I cut the cord a couple months ago as mentioned above, I got a really cheap one antenna for like $15. Hooked it up and got...a few generic antenna-specific channels, QVC, and nothing else. Got a more expensive one and got the same thing. Should have checked into it first, but you really have to live close to a major city to get anything substantial from the basic indoor antennas. Beyond that, you'll need a more powerful outdoor one.

The local debacle with CBS nearly blocked out for the Super Bowl (that's been fixed you'll all be relieved to hear) caused me to look at my cable bill and decide I can probably live without it. Cox internet would still be pumping in at a high rate due to four kids. My questions are:

1) We have Apple TV and several apps (i.e. CNNgo) have required 'activation' which is basically verifying if I have a cable bill. Will I lose the live Tv streams once I discontinue cable or will I be ok since I verified while it was active?

2) Does March Madness stream through the station's various apps or will that be a computer endeavor?

3) Soccer will be a big miss. I'll have to subscribe to FOX soccer go. What to do about the Leagues I'd miss with Bein? Is there any AppleTV app to cover that?

Note: I realize for all these I could use my laptop and airplay to my TV/AppleTV. I would rather use a plug/play solution such as AppleTV/Kindle Fire rather than tie up my laptop.

Thanks in advance for all assistance.

I'd have to think that your apps that have been authorized will stop working at some point. Maybe not all at once, but at some point it is going to try to re-authenticate.

When Comcast fucked up our move I lost access to what I usually got through verification (HBOGo, ESPN App, etc.). I even kept Comcast as my cable provider and still have a valid comcast email address, but it is associated with the old account. Don't get me started on the whole cluster fuck, but it still isn't fixed after 7 months. I just don't have the time to fuck around with them on this. Gotta really talk with the wife about killing cable all together.

So pretty much thinking this is a done deal for me. Gonna shut off directv and go cord free for a bit. Looking at Playstation Vue. I have two playstations and another TV with a Roku which is now supported. And it's 29.99/month instead of $120. Anyone here use Vue?

This is the base plan: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/netwo ... tent=Vue#5

I mean, that has 90% of the channels my family watches now anyway. And I just looked, and with HBO, I paid 180 for diretv last month. Even if I add HBO go when GOT comes back, i'd still be saving over $100. This is stupid. I hate myself.

I think I'm going Google Fiber when the year is up. It'll save me $60 a month at least.

A_B wrote:So pretty much thinking this is a done deal for me. Gonna shut off directv and go cord free for a bit. Looking at Playstation Vue. I have two playstations and another TV with a Roku which is now supported. And it's 29.99/month instead of $120. Anyone here use Vue?

How did this work out for you?

I am paying $115 per month on DirecTV and I don't even have premium pay channels. They nickel and dime you so much above and beyond the official cost of your package. I'd love to reduce my cost, if I could do it in a way that didn't cause much pain. We have Netflix, so I'm used to streaming.

I am really a babe in the woods about Roku, Vue, etc. I want to get live sports and some tv, but that includes a couple channels that aren't widely available (NHL Network for one). Thoughts and recommendations?

I'll have more tomorrow but almost all positive.

Our electronics:

No TV, no Netflix, no anything like this. No big screen or bluray player.

Fast internet with good wifi. One laptop and printer.

Landline phone with cordless handset (emergencies), and $5 Tracfones for cellular. Daughter has iPod5.

Two good stereo systems. Some clock radios.

If I had more time, I'd reduce the electronics some more. My guiding light: WWTD?

What would Thoreau do? I do enjoy using a mechanical pencil. He wouldn't have been down with that.

I've mentioned it before, but I'll lay it out here for ya:

Everyone needs Kodi.

It's available on every platform. However, if you want it on your iPhone, you need to jailbreak your iPhone. I have it on my laptop, my cell phone, and via a Raspberry Pi (learn more about it here) on my television. My sister has it on her Macbook. I've installed it a few times on Amazon Fire Sticks. It's easy, you just need to spend a few minutes downloading software.

Sooooo....

Buy an Amazon Fire Stick. It's an Amazon branded Roku. It has all of the things in one area already, so Kodi takes it over the top.

Install Kodi on said Fire Stick:



Once you've done that, jazz it up with a custom build like Spinz TV Hard Nox:



Also, if you need an HD antenna, I have this one. It works well. I get local HD channels and that's good enough for live sports when I don't want to use Kodi.

Oh, and for good measure, get a VPN. Private Internet Access is one of the best at $40 a year. But a couple times a year they'll have it for 20% off. So you'll get it for $32. And the best part? It'll auto renew at the $32 rate.

It is seriously this easy. I pay $42 for Century Link a month. Then either $40 for the Fire Stick (or possibly cheaper during a Black Friday deal) or $75 for the Raspberry Pi kit once, $22 for the antenna (Amazon deal, reg price $30) and PIA for $32 a year. Cord cut. And fuck you, commercials.

Note: I don't watch news channels like CNN or MSNBC. I have internet to watch and read and be informed. So my way trims the fast and hones in on my entertainment wants. Do you want live programming? They do have Kodi add ons that I haven't explored, but I'm ambivalent. I only care about live sports.

Also, I may have to wait until the following day to watch a program. Things aren't available instantaneously on Kodi. It's quick but not that quick. So GoT or TWD (for some of you) for example maybe be a minor wait. But with tv shows with huge ratings, they might be up quicker than usual.

So yea, do yourself a favor and install it.