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Cutting the cord

levander

Has anyone put much looking into this?

I haven't checked rigorously, but I'm thinking the technology may already be in the market to do it painlessly and save a bunch of money.

I was looking for a while at those online services that let you subscribe to channels, like Sling TV, DirectTV Now, etc.. PlayStation Vue was the first one I came across that seemed,to have all the features I'd want.

The feature set of these online TV channel services seem to fall into 2 categories. DVR capability and channel selection. Channel selection is why this post is germane to this audience. Sports is the main thing the cable companies are glomming onto to keep us on the expesnsive full 300 channel packages, 293 channels of which no one ever watches.

I,don't remember exactly now. But PlayStation Vue had all the channels I wanted. In sports that's all the ESPN channels, including SEC network. But they don't have locals like ABC, CBS, which games do come,on sometimes..

What the thing to do for those is to buy a DVR that has an over-the-air antenna on it, Then you can plug that DVR into your home computer network. They seem to have those for like only $200 bucks. But that's less than what I'm paying in two months for my U-Verse cable subscription now.

PlayStation Vue, the only DVR limitation that would bother me is your shows only stay recorded 28 days. That's a minor annoyance for me. I wouldn't really care.

You would have to buy STB's, like an Amazon Fire or an Apple TV to plug into your TV. But an Amazon Fire TV stick is only $40. I wouldn't buy a 3rd gen Apple TV, those things are slow. A 4th gen Apple TV, I can't remember, I think $150. But there are the usual Apple rumors that Apple is,doing something with the Apple TV at their event this month. Probably come out with a 5th gen that will have features most,people don't need, Like they'll meet the 4K HD spec. And when they do that, they'll probably keep,selling the 4th gen. But the price,will come down.

Anyway, anyone who's looked,into this and knows whether or not it's a good deal, love to hear it.

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Comments

moos

I don't have cable. Just got PSVue. It has all the games available. Some are via packages you have to get (Pac 10 network) so it depends on how much football you want to watch. It had options to DVR to the cloud for 30 days for your favorite shows. Meaning, you can flag 'NCAA football' and 'College football' and it will DVR all the games across SEC network, ESPN, fox, etc.

It doesn't have voice search and the navigation is very different from cable. Once you get used to it, it has some positives but it's still different.

I've been using the phone app more than I thought as well. You don't have to have a PlayStation, but if you do, you can get a remote for it for around $25 that works like a TV remote so any spouses/kids can use it without using the controller. I've heard the Roku app is good as well, but I haven't used mine yet.

moos

It also does this cool thing on your favorite shows...

I watched most of the Washington game live, but got tired and went to bed. It DVRd the show and it remembers where I turned it off. So I can hit play and finish the game.

VaBeachDawg

In theVabeachdawg house we use SlingTV with the sports and kids packages. It's $30 a month and I get all the ESPNs, SECnetwork, and SECnetwork+. Plus like a million random pac12 channels and the ACC channel. The draw back is like you said, no network channels so I have to run a UHF digital antenna to get ABC/CBS/FOX/NBC. One thing I've looked at is HuluLive. It has all the major networks plus the sports channels. It's still in beta now so I didn't trust it enough to make the switch right before the season starts.

RetiredRedcoat

PSVue...never looked back. I second @VaBeachDawg with the antenna. It works beautifully for networks if you're in range. I've tried Sling as well...quality of service suffers if your connection struggles at all...PSVue has never had those issues.

PSVue on an Amazon Fire TV Stick is our television service in this house.

JoelSidneyKelly

I cut the cable 18 months ago and got Roku/Sling. I was nervous about missing a game but I haven't missed a single one. I might go with PSVue if I was starting now, but Roku/Sling suits me fine.

Hank

@JoelSidneyKelly said:
I cut the cable 18 months ago and got Roku/Sling. I was nervous about missing a game but I haven't missed a single one. I might go with PSVue if I was starting now, but Roku/Sling suits me fine.

Same here....No problems .

Reeldawg

@levander said:
Has anyone put much looking into this?

I haven't checked rigorously, but I'm thinking the technology may already be in the market to do it painlessly and save a bunch of money.

I was looking for a while at those online services that let you subscribe to channels, like Sling TV, DirectTV Now, etc.. PlayStation Vue was the first one I came across that seemed,to have all the features I'd want.

The feature set of these online TV channel services seem to fall into 2 categories. DVR capability and channel selection. Channel selection is why this post is germane to this audience. Sports is the main thing the cable companies are glomming onto to keep us on the expesnsive full 300 channel packages, 293 channels of which no one ever watches.

I,don't remember exactly now. But PlayStation Vue had all the channels I wanted. In sports that's all the ESPN channels, including SEC network. But they don't have locals like ABC, CBS, which games do come,on sometimes..

What the thing to do for those is to buy a DVR that has an over-the-air antenna on it, Then you can plug that DVR into your home computer network. They seem to have those for like only $200 bucks. But that's less than what I'm paying in two months for my U-Verse cable subscription now.

PlayStation Vue, the only DVR limitation that would bother me is your shows only stay recorded 28 days. That's a minor annoyance for me. I wouldn't really care.

You would have to buy STB's, like an Amazon Fire or an Apple TV to plug into your TV. But an Amazon Fire TV stick is only $40. I wouldn't buy a 3rd gen Apple TV, those things are slow. A 4th gen Apple TV, I can't remember, I think $150. But there are the usual Apple rumors that Apple is,doing something with the Apple TV at their event this month. Probably come out with a 5th gen that will have features most,people don't need, Like they'll meet the 4K HD spec. And when they do that, they'll probably keep,selling the 4th gen. But the price,will come down.

Anyway, anyone who's looked,into this and knows whether or not it's a good deal, love to hear it.

I am on u-verse as well.

If possible, will you post your experience on cutting the cord and how much you saved?

levander

@Reeldawg said:

@levander said:
Has anyone put much looking into this?

I haven't checked rigorously, but I'm thinking the technology may already be in the market to do it painlessly and save a bunch of money.

I was looking for a while at those online services that let you subscribe to channels, like Sling TV, DirectTV Now, etc.. PlayStation Vue was the first one I came across that seemed,to have all the features I'd want.

The feature set of these online TV channel services seem to fall into 2 categories. DVR capability and channel selection. Channel selection is why this post is germane to this audience. Sports is the main thing the cable companies are glomming onto to keep us on the expesnsive full 300 channel packages, 293 channels of which no one ever watches.

I,don't remember exactly now. But PlayStation Vue had all the channels I wanted. In sports that's all the ESPN channels, including SEC network. But they don't have locals like ABC, CBS, which games do come,on sometimes..

What the thing to do for those is to buy a DVR that has an over-the-air antenna on it, Then you can plug that DVR into your home computer network. They seem to have those for like only $200 bucks. But that's less than what I'm paying in two months for my U-Verse cable subscription now.

PlayStation Vue, the only DVR limitation that would bother me is your shows only stay recorded 28 days. That's a minor annoyance for me. I wouldn't really care.

You would have to buy STB's, like an Amazon Fire or an Apple TV to plug into your TV. But an Amazon Fire TV stick is only $40. I wouldn't buy a 3rd gen Apple TV, those things are slow. A 4th gen Apple TV, I can't remember, I think $150. But there are the usual Apple rumors that Apple is,doing something with the Apple TV at their event this month. Probably come out with a 5th gen that will have features most,people don't need, Like they'll meet the 4K HD spec. And when they do that, they'll probably keep,selling the 4th gen. But the price,will come down.

Anyway, anyone who's looked,into this and knows whether or not it's a good deal, love to hear it.

I am on u-verse as well.

If possible, will you post your experience on cutting the cord and how much you saved?

I was looking into this a month or two ago. And from all I could tell I'd get everything I wanted, plus more mobile accessibility to my .DVR and I'd save $60/month. But I would need to buy so,e $400 in hardware.

I've got other things going on. I don't know that I'm gonna get to this project in the next month or two.

levander

@VaBeachDawg @RetiredRedcoat

Have you guys looked at products like this one for local channels?

https://www.tablotv.com

levander

@JoelSidneyKelly said:
I cut the cable 18 months ago and got Roku/Sling. I was nervous about missing a game but I haven't missed a single one. I might go with PSVue if I was starting now, but Roku/Sling suits me fine.

To me, that's the whole thing about these online services. They are so much easier to cancel and switch to other services than traditional services we've used. Or even just cancel and don't use any service at all. Because re-signing up is so easy if you need it for something.

Like if you switch to something, then like a week later figure out you messed up, it just takes like 20 minutes online to switch back.

But you do wanna pay attention to stuff like cancellation terms. I recently did a Barron's trial subscription. And when it came time to cancel, yo can't cancel online, you have to call. Then there call center is only open certain hours... So I tried sending an email that took them a week to respond to...

In the end I had to call my credit card company and dispute a charge they put on my credit card. But still it was less hassle than doing something like cancelling a traditional cable service. Having to meet a guy at your house. Having to return all the equipment, etc..

And most of those companies do have very good online cancellation options.

Reeldawg

My problem is the DVR situation. I rarely watch live television.

Oddly, I do enjoy listening to games on the radio.

If you play DFS, Fanduel has been hosting some tablotv freerolls. Just by playing, I received a 30 day trial.

levander

@Reeldawg said:
My problem is the DVR situation. I rarely watch live television.

Oddly, I do enjoy listening to games on the radio.

If you play DFS, Fanduel has been hosting some tablotv freerolls. Just by playing, I received a 30 day trial.

Other online services I looked at, I wasn't happy with their DVR functionality. But PlayStation Vue seemed to have everything I wanted, like being able to fast forward through commercials. The only limitation was your shows only stay recorded for like 28 or 30 days. But that really wouldn't bother me that much. Shows I keep recorded that long are usually movies. And the money I save, I could just spend some,of it on iTunes and rent the couple of movies I would have otherwise saved on my DVR.

jarred_buck

Has anyone checked out the new YouTube TV? It has a lot of sports channels including SEC network and it also has local channels. It will allow you to keep DVR recordings for I think nine months. Don't quote me on that. I read that it wasn't available everywhere, but I live outside of Atlanta (about an hour) and it is available here.

So cool that this topic has come up. I've been thinking about doing the same.

jarred_buck

There also running a promotion where after your first payment they give you a free google chrome cast. I think it's like $30

moos

@levander said:
@VaBeachDawg @RetiredRedcoat

Have you guys looked at products like this one for local channels?

https://www.tablotv.com

I have the four tuner version. Works great on one TV while recording other shows, I've never stress tested it to 4 devices at once. Roku app works good too.