Cord cutters, what do you miss?
- Thread starter jomari
- Start date
Sorry to disappoint.
That price you are seeing may include your local channels in Houston. Vue only has locals in some areas and its $10 more.Cool. Are you grandfathered to a lower price?
I'm asking because the lowest Vue plan is $40 on their website right now and the 70 channel plan is $45.
I used to have Sling but the ESPN was on one package & FS1 & FS2 were on the other package and no DVR. When Vue became available on Roku, I dropped Sling and got Vue.
I rarely watch TV news, but there are certain events like election night where I want to. The streaming services I subscribe to are poor at this and the streaming channels from CNN and other news stations contain clips rather than live feeds. This means that I am limited to broadcast channels, which is something that I am willing to live with in exchange for not paying for cable.
TKoP
Well-Known Member
How do you get the HBO and showtime streaming services? Is there an app on the TiVo for that or do you need to use something else?
You can subscribe to HBO Now and watch it on almost every streamer out there (Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Android TV). Showtime is available as an add-on via Hulu and I think you can also get it via Amazon.
CMonster
Well-Known Member
I just cut the cord. Our TV rate was going to increase on August 1st to $90/month and we just don't watch that much television. Currently we just have Amazon Prime video service and we don't plan on adding anything near-term; we'll see how it goes. I glanced at DirecTV Now but it looks like I'd need to upgrade two of my AppleTVs to support the app.
CMonster
Well-Known Member
Hmmm, looks like I can get a free AppleTV 4K by prepaying 3 months of DirecTV Now. That'd leave just the rec room, where we listen to music more than watch television, in need of a new device to handle the DTV Now app. I'll probably wait until mid-August to jump on it...
I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm getting cable again. Comcast offered me a package with an STB and it ended up reducing my total monthly bill by $2. I'm not about to say no to free. This changes my plans for an OTA DVR. Instead, I'm going to buy a SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime CableCARD tuner and use the Plex DVR. That saves me from having to deal with an antenna. Free is good. I'll take it.
I never trust free, ever. They'll suck you in and either charge you for something you seem necessary later, or they add a new paid a service you'll deem necessary, or they'll make it so inconvenient to fire them that you take it in the ass for years before things get so bad that one day you flip out and fire them with dust- or grow so jaded that you stop expecting acceptable service for the money.
So, when I see a free offer that appears too good to be true, I run away. The cable companies are willing to take years to duck you into their evil ways. Patience is their main tool.
So, when I see a free offer that appears too good to be true, I run away. The cable companies are willing to take years to duck you into their evil ways. Patience is their main tool.
It costs them a fortune to build the infrastructure and maintain it. It also costs them per subscriber for each channel the include. It also costs them to market to their potential base. And it costs them to bill you and receive payments. Customer service costs money. There are ton of overhead costs they have to cover. Ultimately, they build a network at a huge cost and hope to turn a significant profit off it before they need to spend another fortune to upgrade it.
Well I bet the last two cable companies I was with saved alot of money on that.
Remember that I am already a paying customer. I'm already using the infrastructure. They are already billing and collecting. I suspect they are hoping to sell me higher tiers or premium channels down the road. They will likely be disappointed. The specific situation in play is that the double-play package with an upgrade to gigabit internet was roughly the same price as gigabit internet alone. I'm on a promotional rate for the internet plan, but the TV plan is not a promotional rate. If I cannot get another promotion on internet at the end of the year, my rate will increase by $15, which it would have anyway.
If they ever start gouging me on the TV side, I'll just drop it. The main advantage is that I can use Plex DVR with ad stripping as an alternative to getting everything from Usenet, which will reduce bandwidth utilization. If they ever start implementing caps, that could help a lot. I currently get about 75% of my TV programming via Usenet.
I get that this plan may work for you, but I am confident they have an ulterior motive which you will be forced to contend with in time. For me, personally, I am not a fan of turmoil and having to make concerted efforts to constantly get what I expect and deserve. So, when I finally lost all desire to keep dealing with the local cable company every 6 to 9 months when they'd try to screw me over, I fired them and will never, ever go back. The cable industry has survived on what I consider unethical or very marginally semi-ethical practices, and as such I no longer trust them at all.
Hell, when TWC sold the local service to Charter and rebrand as Spectrum, they just cancelled my plan without any prior notification and they moved me to an equivalent priced plan which was 25% of the speed with data caps. I raised hell and they didn't care. Now they are offering double the speed (still half my prior speeds with TWC) at the same price if I were sign up as a new customer today and they are bragging their plan is cheaper - though it isn't. They refused to honor my prior plan and then attempted to argue that if I would get their cable TV service in addition, it would cost the same, thus saving me money. I call BS on that. I don't want to support the industry any longer as they are losing and getting desperate and not helping customers at all. To me, your "free" plan in part of a larger scheme to screw you over.
Hell, when TWC sold the local service to Charter and rebrand as Spectrum, they just cancelled my plan without any prior notification and they moved me to an equivalent priced plan which was 25% of the speed with data caps. I raised hell and they didn't care. Now they are offering double the speed (still half my prior speeds with TWC) at the same price if I were sign up as a new customer today and they are bragging their plan is cheaper - though it isn't. They refused to honor my prior plan and then attempted to argue that if I would get their cable TV service in addition, it would cost the same, thus saving me money. I call BS on that. I don't want to support the industry any longer as they are losing and getting desperate and not helping customers at all. To me, your "free" plan in part of a larger scheme to screw you over.