Moving from Directv and Cable

[Snake Doctor]

Okay, I am wanting to move away from Directv, but I am not sure how to do that and still see the programs I want. I am a big football fan, so if I cut ties with all providers, how do I watch my games?

I will get Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and whatever else I need............but they do not provide the NFL. Also, I have three TV's one on each floor, do I need a Rocu for each TV?? Or is there a better solution?

Suggestions??

 

[Haywood]

Options are a little limited on the sports side, but you can get ESPN via SlingTV and I know there are some other sport packages out that that you can get directly. An off the air antenna is pretty important for local and network programming, which will also get you some sports.

You have several options on the client side.

FireTV is great with the exception of having no way to watch UltraViolet content. If this is not a problem for you, you might want to consider it. There are a ton of streaming channels you can subscribe to directly through Amazon at discounted rates and they are all integrated into a single guide. It is very slick.

Roku is the Switzerland of streaming and has clients for just about everything. It is the only box that has Google Play Video, Amazon Video and Vudu, for instance.

Android TV is a pretty nice system too. The main drawback is that Amazon will not allow access from any Android TV device other than Sony televisions. It works with pretty much everything else though and the NVidia Shield is arguably the most powerful streamer on the market. The Shield even has the juice to play full 1:1 Blu-Ray rips with lossless audio.

Another is smart TV sets. The three major operating systems are Roku, Android TV and Samsung's Tizen-based operating system. Some of the other manufacturers still make sets running home-brew operating systems (i.e. Vizio), but those days are coming to an end for everyone except Samsung.

The final option is the new Tivo stuff, which integrates streaming services with off the air TV in a single program guide. It is supposed to be very slick and they just drastically cut the cost of a box with a lifetime subscription package. It also has the nice little extender boxes that let you access it from other TV sets.

You do not need to go Tivo to set off the air content across the house. The Tablo networked DVR works with all of the clients I mentioned above, as well as Android, iOS and most web browsers. The only real downside is lack of DD 5.1 (everything is mixed down to two channels, which I hate).

 

[Snake Doctor]

Thanks Haywood. I have been doing a lot of research and have found lots of online streaming sites. CBS, Streamgaroo, Fox, Hulu, Sling, stream2watch with something called DonnaPlay which says it is free and live, but for pcs only from what I can tell.

If you aren't careful you will end up spending more on streaming then you would for cable. Of course they all seem to offer a free trial.

Any suggestions on which ones to try and ones to skip?

 

[Haywood]

I don't watch sports, so my life is a bit simpler. Subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon and Hulu cover my needs. My wife also has a subscription to Drama Fever. HBO Now and other premiums can be had month-to-month for no more than you would pay with cable. I also pay for Amazon mainly for shipping, so that isn't really an add.

Netflix $12
Amazon $9
Hulu $12
Drama Fever $5

Total $38. Total without Amazon $29.

Off the air costs nothing, once you cover the hardware costs.

 

[Barney]

Free OTA for your local news & sports.
Sling - 2 options, either FS1, local FOX Sports or ESPN. Both options also have other programing. Also you can use the Sling credentials to get WatchESPN. Each option is $20 a month & no contract. Right now I get the FS1 because I like NHRA drag racing but during football season I switch to the ESPN package.
Netflix & Amazon Prime Video.
I also love using the Vudu app.
Just remember Amazon & Google are having a fit with each other. The only streaming stb that is neutral is Roku.

 

[lulimet]

Meh, we are far from cutting the cord. We pay $130 a month for phone, TV (one dvr, one regular HD box) and internet and we renew the deal every two years as new customer. If we only got internet and phone, it would be about $90.
Not having to deal with OTA, new equipment, and a lot less programming is worth $40 more a month to us. Wife watches a lot of shows that aren't on OTA plus the kids have theirs that aren't widely available on Netflix or Prime video.

 

[Haywood]

I pay $60/mo for Internet and use a $4/mo VOIP service from Ooma for phone. Add in the $29 for streaming services and I'm at $103/mo. It works well for us, because we never watched live TV anyway. We always used the DVR to record specific shows, watched them later and skipped the ads. Most of the current content we care about is either OTA or on Hulu. The few shows we want that we cannot get that way (i.e. Turn on AMC), we buy through Vudu and get new episodes the day after they air.

 

[PaulyT]

Tangential - but I thought ooma was a buy once thing, rather than a monthly fee?

 

[Snake Doctor]

I pay $60/mo for Internet and use a $4/mo VOIP service from Ooma for phone. Add in the $29 for streaming services and I'm at $103/mo. It works well for us, because we never watched live TV anyway. We always used the DVR to record specific shows, watched them later and skipped the ads. Most of the current content we care about is either OTA or on Hulu. The few shows we want that we cannot get that way (i.e. Turn on AMC), we buy through Vudu and get new episodes the day after they air.

You record to your DVR? I hate to sound stupid but, how do you do that?

 

[Haywood]

Tangential - but I thought ooma was a buy once thing, rather than a monthly fee?

It is, but you still have to pay the taxes on the service.

 

[Haywood]

I pay $60/mo for Internet and use a $4/mo VOIP service from Ooma for phone. Add in the $29 for streaming services and I'm at $103/mo. It works well for us, because we never watched live TV anyway. We always used the DVR to record specific shows, watched them later and skipped the ads. Most of the current content we care about is either OTA or on Hulu. The few shows we want that we cannot get that way (i.e. Turn on AMC), we buy through Vudu and get new episodes the day after they air.

You record to your DVR? I hate to sound stupid but, how do you do that?

I'm not sure I understand the question. I had DVRs with Dish, Direct TV and several cable companies between 2003 and 2014. My current DVR is OTA. By definition, they all record.

 

[Botch]

Tangential - but I thought ooma was a buy once thing, rather than a monthly fee?

It is, but you still have to pay the taxes on the service.

Agreed, but I'm pretty sure that $4 tax is for every three months, that's what I'm paying. :think:

 

[Haywood]

Tangential - but I thought ooma was a buy once thing, rather than a monthly fee?

It is, but you still have to pay the taxes on the service.

Agreed, but I'm pretty sure that $4 tax is for every three months, that's what I'm paying. :think:

It might be, for all I know. I have it on auto-deduct and haven't looked at it since I signed up and declined premium service.

 

[Botch]

Mine's on auto-deduct too, and I completely forget about it until it shows up on my CC bill. Makes me smile that, in spite of my OTA issues, I'm getting phone service for $12/year.

 

[jomari]

on a sidenote, we use obitalk, its based on google voice's services, and its free. but that was way back then. I still have two that is in the Philippines. I don't have one here in the US, so im not certain.

 

[Snake Doctor]

You record to your DVR? I hate to sound stupid but, how do you do that?[/quote]

I'm not sure I understand the question. I had DVRs with Dish, Direct TV and several cable companies between 2003 and 2014. My current DVR is OTA. By definition, they all record.[/quote]


Let me ask it another way. Do you still have the DVRs that Dish, DirecTV gave you when you signed up? If not then you had to purchase a DVR??

 

[Haywood]

You record to your DVR? I hate to sound stupid but, how do you do that?

I'm not sure I understand the question. I had DVRs with Dish, Direct TV and several cable companies between 2003 and 2014. My current DVR is OTA. By definition, they all record.[/quote]


Let me ask it another way. Do you still have the DVRs that Dish, DirecTV gave you when you signed up? If not then you had to purchase a DVR??[/quote]

Now I understand. No, I bought a DVR that is specifically designed to record off-the-air content and make it available over both my local network and over the Internet to devices that have been linked. There are several different off-the-air DVR products on the market. Mine is a quad-tuner Tablo. The Tablo is completely headless. You connect it to your router, an external hard drive and an antenna. There are Tablo apps for Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Samsung Smart TV, Android and iOS. You can also connect from an HTML compliant web browser. If you want to access your Tablo outside of your local network, you have to connect inside your network first. Tablo will automatically install an encryption key and then the device will work from anywhere with internet access. There are a couple downsides with the Tablo approach. First, it transcodes everything to H264 in whatever quality you specify. This comes with a minor quality compromise in that the resulting picture is closer to cable TV quality than uncompressed broadcast quality. Second, it still down-mixes the audio to 2.0. There have always been vague promises of supporting 5.1 at some point, but it has been over two years and there is still not ETA. What you get in return is a DVR that works with damned near every device known to man, giving you a ton of flexibility. It is a trade-off.

 

[Yesfan70]

My Dish bill was $105/mo. After 12 years, I "ditched the dish" and tried SlingTV. Now my bill is $29 with them, plus the $9 with Netflix. Like Haywood, I'm a Amazon Prime customer, so I don't 'count' them.


I have a Roku 3 in the living room and a Roku 2 in the bedroom. Thinking about adding a Roku downstairs in the HT, but don't know if I want to stay with a 3 or go with the 4. The HT doesn't get used as much as upstairs, so most of the time, I'm listening to music or the family is watching a movie here and there. Probably going to give Southern Fibernet a look as well since Barney mentioned they have a channel on Roku.




Off topic.......Is Roku pronounced "RAH-Koo" or "ROW-Koo"? I've heard it said both ways, so was wondering (I usually say Rah-koo).

 

[Haywood]

My Dish bill was $105/mo. After 12 years, I "ditched the dish" and tried SlingTV. Now my bill is $29 with them, plus the $9 with Netflix. Like Haywood, I'm a Amazon Prime customer, so I don't 'count' them.


I have a Roku 3 in the living room and a Roku 2 in the bedroom. Thinking about adding a Roku downstairs in the HT, but don't know if I want to stay with a 3 or go with the 4. The HT doesn't get used as much as upstairs, so most of the time, I'm listening to music or the family is watching a movie here and there. Probably going to give Southern Fibernet a look as well since Barney mentioned they have a channel on Roku.




Off topic.......Is Roku pronounced "RAH-Koo" or "ROW-Koo"? I've heard it said both ways, so was wondering (I usually say Rah-koo).

ROW, as in row the boat.

 

[Barney]

Folks over at Roku are really happy with the streaming packages offered by southernfibernet. They were overwhelmed with customers this past weekend. They said they hope their DVR will be fixed this week.