Further adventures in cord-cutting

[Botch]

I joined this forum about ten years ago, right when I updated my 30-year-old Yamaha/Advent stereo to a Yamaha/Monitor Audio/LG 5.1 system. At that time I dropped cable, put an OTA antenna on the roof, only got CBS/ABC/NBC/PBS, and was perfectly happy. Over the next two years, I gradually lost those OTA channels; two different local antenna companies couldn't figure it out (I think it was because a 190' tall Radar Return Test Facility, lined with RAM (radar-absorbing material), was built almost line-of-site between the OTA antennas over on the Oachre Mountains, and my antenna on the roof (theory, I'll never know for sure). So, I had to go back to Dish Network, $39 to $107 a month... just to watch the four networks...

I do have a Roku in my setup, lots of things to watch, but of course I can't get live feeds of the three networks (I CAN get PBS). I got an Amazon Firestick, but the four HTML (HDMI?) inputs on my receiver are all taken, and trying to plug it into the back of my TV, along with its power supply, well, there just isn't room.

Then I discovered this guy:

He talks about "jailbreaking" Amazoid FireTV sticks, and also Android boxes (which I understand are not, maybe, quite legal). Not so much on Rokus, but he does post good apps for it too on occasion. I bought the Android box he discusses in the above video, and have played with it the last two days.

I was able to get it to link to my wifi, spot-checked a couple movies (A-OK), could get "national" ABC and CBS, but not my local stations, the first day. Linked to my Amazoid Prime account. Then, a message box appeared at the top of the screen; I clicked OK and the message went away, but not the box. I powered the box down, back up, but the box was still there. I tried a few other things, then the remote didn't seem to change anything; I tried an alternate remote (Wechip) that I had also purchased (and worked fine at first) but it wouldn't change anything. I unplugged the box last night.

Today, I plugged it back in. Same locked condition, couldn't make it do anything. I unplugged this box, put my Roku back into the system, and boxed it back up. I got it for just under $50, money down the drain. Tomorrow I may look again at trying to get the Firestick connected, somehow. I paid a lot of money ten years ago to keep ALL my cables behind the walls, I don't want to have to run a stupid extension cord up to my TV at this point. But, I don't want to have to keep paying $107/month, just to receive the OTA channels, and watch all those damn commercials to boot.

Crap.

 

[Towen7]

I joined this forum about ten years ago, right when I updated my 30-year-old Yamaha/Advent stereo to a Yamaha/Monitor Audio/LG 5.1 system. At that time I dropped cable, put an OTA antenna on the roof, only got CBS/ABC/NBC/PBS, and was perfectly happy. Over the next two years, I gradually lost those OTA channels; two different local antenna companies couldn't figure it out (I think it was because a 190' tall Radar Return Test Facility, lined with RAM (radar-absorbing material), was built almost line-of-site between the OTA antennas over on the Oachre Mountains, and my antenna on the roof (theory, I'll never know for sure). So, I had to go back to Dish Network, $39 to $107 a month... just to watch the four networks...

I do have a Roku in my setup, lots of things to watch, but of course I can't get live feeds of the three networks (I CAN get PBS). I got an Amazon Firestick, but the four HTML (HDMI?) inputs on my receiver are all taken, and trying to plug it into the back of my TV, along with its power supply, well, there just isn't room.

Then I discovered this guy:

He talks about "jailbreaking" Amazoid FireTV sticks, and also Android boxes (which I understand are not, maybe, quite legal). Not so much on Rokus, but he does post good apps for it too on occasion. I bought the Android box he discusses in the above video, and have played with it the last two days.

I was able to get it to link to my wifi, spot-checked a couple movies (A-OK), could get "national" ABC and CBS, but not my local stations, the first day. Linked to my Amazoid Prime account. Then, a message box appeared at the top of the screen; I clicked OK and the message went away, but not the box. I powered the box down, back up, but the box was still there. I tried a few other things, then the remote didn't seem to change anything; I tried an alternate remote (Wechip) that I had also purchased (and worked fine at first) but it wouldn't change anything. I unplugged the box last night.

Today, I plugged it back in. Same locked condition, couldn't make it do anything. I unplugged this box, put my Roku back into the system, and boxed it back up. I got it for just under $50, money down the drain. Tomorrow I may look again at trying to get the Firestick connected, somehow. I paid a lot of money ten years ago to keep ALL my cables behind the walls, I don't want to have to run a stupid extension cord up to my TV at this point. But, I don't want to have to keep paying $107/month, just to receive the OTA channels, and watch all those damn commercials to boot.

Crap.

I think everyone knows I work for AT&T so take my comments with a grain of salt, but I really do think it’s the best value going.
AT&T TV works on Firestick, Roku, a stand alone ATT set top box, and mobile devices (data free if youre an ATT mobile subscribe) and comes with HBO Max for a year.

AT&T Official Site - Unlimited Data Plans, Internet Service, & TV

www.att.com

 

[CMonster]

I use Hulu + Live TV. If I were smarter I would've paused my subscription a couple months ago but now sports so it is what it is (which is $55 a month).

 

[heeman]

We recently dropped DirecTV and added Spectrum. We had Spectrum since we moved to WI back in 2016 for our internet.

I am still struggling with Spectrum on fixing intermittent reception issues and their box is clunky. We have a Roku 3 upstairs and I decided to not go with a Spectrum Box in the HT. I just added a Roku Express + that I found in Wally World for $40. I downloaded the spectrum app and all the other HGTV GO type of apps. I am impressed with this solution for the HT.

I am now saving about $80/month. The price will go up after a year, I will make my decisions then on what to do next. Maybe cut the cord.

During this spectrum process they indicated that I needed a new modem. My modem was an old Charter Modem. My new speed is 200Mbps. This introduced another issue, I needed a new router, my current router was limited to 100Mbps.

Flint recommended a eero. That's what I picked up, start up was easy and I am all set......

They Spectrum Tech will be here this afternoon, the last tech said all the wiring in the house is fine and that Spectrum will not solve outside issues unless there are a certain amount of complaints. Let's see what happens today.

Good luck Botch, it sounds like there are less expensive options out there for you!

 

[Haywood]

You can use either Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV or Sling TV. All of them are approaching the cost of cable (~$65/mo) for the same reason, which is that the content providers are forcing them into bundling. Streaming services provide a much better value and some of them offer live programming. CBS All Access has a live feed of CBS. Peacock offers some live content from NBC. PBS provides a live feed of a local PBS channel. Some live events are carried on YouTube. ESPN is also available as a streaming service.

Why am I pushing streaming instead of linear TV? You can get far more programming with streaming services for the same money. Peacock is $5/mo with limited ads (you can get no ads for $99/yr). You can get Hulu (w/ads), ESPN and Disney+ for $12.99/mo. CBS All Access is $99/yr with no ads and less with ads. HBO Max is $15/mo and includes a ton of extra content vs what HBO used to have. There are a lot of really great options and you pay for many based on whether or not you want to deal with ads.

 

[mzpro5]

You can use either Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV or Sling TV. All of them are approaching the cost of cable (~$65/mo) for the same reason, which is that the content providers are forcing them into bundling. Streaming services provide a much better value and some of them offer live programming. CBS All Access has a live feed of CBS. Peacock offers some live content from NBC. PBS provides a live feed of a local PBS channel. Some live events are carried on YouTube. ESPN is also available as a streaming service.

Why am I pushing streaming instead of linear TV? You can get far more programming with streaming services for the same money. Peacock is $5/mo with limited ads (you can get no ads for $99/yr). You can get Hulu (w/ads), ESPN and Disney+ for $12.99/mo. CBS All Access is $99/yr with no ads and less with ads. HBO Max is $15/mo and includes a ton of extra content vs what HBO used to have. There are a lot of really great options and you pay for many based on whether or not you want to deal with ads.

Unfortunately at this time neither Peacoock or HBO Max are available on Amazon or Roku streaming devices.

 

[Towen7]

Unfortunately at this time neither Peacoock or HBO Max are available on Amazon or Roku streaming devices.

That reminds me that I neglected to mention that AT&T TV is not currently available on Roku.

 

[Botch]

Peacock is $5/mo with limited ads (you can get no ads for $99/yr).

Haywood, does Peacock give me local CBS/NBC/ABC? And, as Jeff mentioned, if its not available on Amazon OR Roku, what does one use to stream it? $99/year with no ads would be fantastic!

 

[Haywood]

Peacock and HBO Max work on Android TV and a number of Smart TV systems. I think they also work on some of the gaming systems. I personally use two NVidia Shield TV devices (Android TV) in my home, so I have no issues. CBS All Access provides a live stream of CBS. I think it is from your local affiliate, but it has been awhile since I've used the feature. Peacock has a Channels feature that looks a lot like a typical cable TV guide and contains linear content from NBC and a bunch of cable channels they own. It looks like there is live news, talk and sports content on there.

Some of the streaming services offer deals if you pay annually in advance. Starz, CBS All Access and Peacock are among them. I think Starz is $79/yr and the other two are $99. I always take this option if it is available, because it typically knocks about 20% off the price. Sometimes you can grab promotional deals as well. I scored three years of Disney+ for what worked out to $4/mo during a promo prior to launch. I got HBO Max for $12/mo for one year (regularly $15) with a pre-launch promo. Qello Concerts offered the option to gift an annual subscription for $50, so I gifted one to my other email address and cancelled my month-to-month account. I save a ton of money by taking advantage of things like this.

 

[The DirtMerchant]

That reminds me that I neglected to mention that AT&T TV is not currently available on Roku.

Eh? AT&T TV Now, the streaming service, is available on Roku.
I have it.
Apparently I don't have HBO Max or Peacock though...yet.

 

[Batman]

HBO Max is free to ATT TV Now subscribers. There’s a few hoops to jump through to activate it though as I had to use my wireless account credentials which are different than my ATT Now credentials which I found odd to say the least.

 

[heeman]

We recently dropped DirecTV and added Spectrum. We had Spectrum since we moved to WI back in 2016 for our internet.

I am still struggling with Spectrum on fixing intermittent reception issues and their box is clunky. We have a Roku 3 upstairs and I decided to not go with a Spectrum Box in the HT. I just added a Roku Express + that I found in Wally World for $40. I downloaded the spectrum app and all the other HGTV GO type of apps. I am impressed with this solution for the HT.

I am now saving about $80/month. The price will go up after a year, I will make my decisions then on what to do next. Maybe cut the cord.

During this spectrum process they indicated that I needed a new modem. My modem was an old Charter Modem. My new speed is 200Mbps. This introduced another issue, I needed a new router, my current router was limited to 100Mbps.

Flint recommended a eero. That's what I picked up, start up was easy and I am all set......

They Spectrum Tech will be here this afternoon, the last tech said all the wiring in the house is fine and that Spectrum will not solve outside issues unless there are a certain amount of complaints. Let's see what happens today.

Good luck Botch, it sounds like there are less expensive options out there for you!

The tech was here today and was great! Had to take a bunch of data and admitted that this is a county wide issue and it should be resolved within 10 days...............let's see.

 

[Towen7]

Eh? AT&T TV Now, the streaming service, is available on Roku.
I have it.
Apparently I don't have HBO Max or Peacock though...yet.

I meant HBO Max

AT&T TV (the rebranded AT&T TV Now) is available on all platforms including Roku. I love how well it works with the ATT set top box, which runs android and works with other streaming apps like Disney +, Netflix, etc ...

HBO Max doesn’t currently work on Roku.

 

[jomari]

damn i have to read through this again.

my kids been interrupting, but definitely looking into cutting the cord.

thanks for all the helpful info guys. im in the same boat, wanting one or two local channels to get my news fix, other than that its all fair game.

but my wife also loves her hallmark channel.

when i say my wife, i really mean my wife.

seriously. i dont watch it.

not at all.

 

[Haywood]

There are so many other ways to get local news. There are also all kinds of free news aggregators you can get via streaming, Haystack being one.

 

[Towen7]

I was experiencing issues with my AT&T TV set-top-box and chose to do a factory reset to try and fix it. It worked but as expected all my installed apps were deleted. The problem is that Disney+ is now apparently blocked from being able to be reinstalled on AT&T’s box.

That’s a bummer.

 

[danzeb]

Going on month 5 of no more Directv and using Hulu Live with zero regrets. Bill cut by more than half. Quality is great. And for whatever reason I finally get Philly sports (NBCSPhilly). I live in central New Jersey....a waste region that could be NY or Philly. We get local NYC feed but Hulu includes NBC Sports Philly so now I get all the Sixers, Flyers and Phillies games. I have an HD antenna that gets me the Eagles games.

I was not able to get the NBA, NHL or MLB package for those sports due to blackout rules for my address. I was able to get the NFL Sunday ticket but canceling that with Directv was icing on the cake.

I’m happy.

 

[Botch]

I was not able to get the NBA, NHL or MLB package for those sports due to blackout rules for my address. I was able to get the NFL Sunday ticket but canceling that with Directv was icing on the cake.

I’m happy.

Is there some kind of logical business reason to do that? It's beyond me.

 

[Towen7]

Is there some kind of logical business reason to do that? It's beyond me.

Since the rights to games are held by local teams or sports networks, the venues and teams have an interest in selling tickets and promoting the viewership of channels with which they have the most profitable deal. The Astros would rather I buy tickets to home games and if not that I watch on the local affiliate who paid them a ton of money for the exclusive broadcast rights. By selling streaming access to home games they’d be undercutting their primary customer which are the local broadcasters and potentially incentivizing people to not buy tickets. In order to broadcast locally the venue has to sell a certain number of tickets. It didn’t used to be uncommon for local games to be blacked out because not enough tickets were sold. In those cases the broadcaster or advertisers would sometimes purchase the balance of tickets.

 

[Botch]

That makes sense; thanks Tom.

I'm glad I have no rabid fandom to any team, and that I like books...