Shut 'er down today. Cancelled DirecTV.

[Doghart]

Cancelled a subscription I have had with them since 1999.

Busy lifestyle lately means less time for television.
I had 4 or 5 series in the DVR with 3 or 4 episodes each to catch up on and no time to do that. Wife and I discussed that there are probably better ways to spend that $130 a month, so we finally have done it.

Going to be experimenting with streaming options and HD OTA antennas.
Would appreciate any advice on either one. We already have Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming, what else is there?

Just not sure how I'm going to do going without my Walking Dead, or Game of Thrones fix....

We shall see.

D

 

[Flint]

I "cut the cord" about 6 months ago and aside from a few cable only channels which are not offered later, I am loving it.

I have had a HTPC for years and still us it. It has four tuner cards and I put an antenna in my attic. I use MS Media Center as the app to watch TV and I get all 5 major networks (ABC, CBS, CW, Fox, NBC, and PBS) plus a handful of local channels, mostly Spanish speaking. I record all my shows, but I watch things like the Super-bowl, SNL, or the Late Late Show live. That setup is for my Home Theater where I watch most of my TV.

For non-broadcast television I purchased a Roku for my living room and my HT. I subscribed to Netflix and HULU and I have an Amazon Prime account. That means I pay about $17 a month for TV content which is a huge saving from the $100+ bill I got from TWC for TV service.

With the savings from TWC I upgraded my Road Runner internet service to the top tier offering. So, I pay about $70 a month for Internet and $17 a month for content - a total of about $90 a month (rounding up). I was paying over $160 a month before, so I am saving at least $70.

I am also about to cancel my Ooma (IP Telephone) account which costs about $80 a year in subscription and taxes.

So, my cash flow is vastly improved and I still get most of the entertainment I want. I do miss watching BBC America and certain news channels, but I'll live.

 

[Haywood]

Cancelled a subscription I have had with them since 1999.

Busy lifestyle lately means less time for television.
I had 4 or 5 series in the DVR with 3 or 4 episodes each to catch up on and no time to do that. Wife and I discussed that there are probably better ways to spend that $130 a month, so we finally have done it.

Going to be experimenting with streaming options and HD OTA antennas.
Would appreciate any advice on either one. We already have Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming, what else is there?

Just not sure how I'm going to do going without my Walking Dead, or Game of Thrones fix....

We shall see.

D

I would check out the antennas made by Mohu. I would also look at two really slick headless networked OTA DVR boxes: SimpleTV 2.0 and Tablo. These things are really slick and very inexpensive, considering.

I am going OTA myself very soon and the setup that I plan to have is:

1 Mohu antenna (which one will depend on location)
1 Quad-Tuner Tablo DVR with 2TB external HDD
1 Gently used Mac Mini running Plex Media Server and Logitech Media Server
4 Roku boxes

All local content will get to the Roku boxes via Plex. That includes my entire music library, audio books, music videos my wife downloads, discs I ripped, family photos/videos and anything I get off the torrents.

The Tablo is designed to be fully used and controlled via Roku, AppleTV, iOS or Android, so Roku will also be my STB for all live and recorded television.

Roku also has the best selection of streaming services. We currently subscribe to Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime and Drama Fever. There are also a ton of free channels including PBS, PBS Kids, Disney, A&E, History, Lifetime, CNN, Fox News and a bunch of others. You already know I have a huge library of movies on Vudu.

This provides a single source component with access to a vast array of local, broadcast and streamed content with a dead simple interface that absolutely anyone can use without difficulty.

 

[Haywood]

The reason I am dumping Windows Media Center in favor of Tablo is the ability to access the content on Tablo from anywhere in the house via Roku boxes and from anywhere with internet access on my tablets. It is also an appliance and therefore less prone to issues that my wife cannot fix.

 

[Barney]

So ya'll are cutting the cable ? As ya'll know....I did it over 5 yrs ago. We're moving to the other side of town & will be looking for something so my son can stream his anime account (have to have web access).
Flint, I've just have roadrunner turbo (up to 20 mbps) forever, but be prepared for increase of costs (when it jumps to regular pricing) after a year or two. Mine went from $39 to $78 a month. I was told coming around Sept 2014 (might be due to Comcast buying Time Warner) they will have 100 mbps. I called & got transfered to retention and got my bill reduced to $68 a month.

 

[Botch]

Long time no see, Barney!

If anyone else is thinking about cutting and going with OTA, I have a virtually-new MOHU Sky antenna for half price, $75, send me a PM. I'm just in a bad location, neither it nor a $150 Terk antenna will pick anything up.

 

[Flint]

TWC has announced they are going to offer 1Gbps internet in Austin this Summer.

 

[Botch]

And if you lived in utard, you could (possibly) look forward to getting your water cut off if you try to opt out of the $300M fiber-optic project:

http://www.standard.net/Government/2014/05/23/Delinquencies-enforced-with-water-shutoff.html

:angry-tappingfoot:

 

[Haywood]

I just got 75 Mbps Verizon FiOS for $50/mo in my new place. I pre-ordered a quad-tuner Tablo DVR that should arrive in mid-June. I will have to experiment with antennas when it gets here. My family is still in Michigan, so I'm just using my laptop and my Nexus 7. My ultimate solution is going to include my Asus N900 router, several 500 Mbps Power Line Network (PLN) modules with integrated 4-port switches and probably at least one PLN module with an integrated N300 WiFi extender. I am planning to use an indoor antenna, as the farthest station I need to get is only 16 miles from here. If I cannot get good reception in the room where my router is, I can put the Tablo pretty much anywhere and connect it via PLN.

 

[Barney]

TWC has announced they are going to offer 1Gbps internet in Austin this Summer.

Flint, where did you hear that ? All I can find that TWC will increase speeds up to 300 mbps ? I was outside when a TWC tech stopped by & he replaced a filter in their box and told me they are doing this everywhere in the area for some upgrades that are to happen sometime this summer. Also, when I called retention about my bill, he told me that sometime this year my speed should increase to 100 mbps (I have turbo---20 mbps) with no increase in charges.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/content/ ... rease.html

 

[Flint]

Sorry... they are doing the same thing AT&T is doing - marketing 1Gbps Internet but starting with 300Mbps. By the Fall they will have 1Gbps operational for all the user who can get 300Mbps today.

 

[Barney]

Sorry... they are doing the same thing AT&T is doing - marketing 1Gbps Internet but starting with 300Mbps. By the Fall they will have 1Gbps operational for all the user who can get 300Mbps today.

From what little I know about the subject, but how do they plan on doing 1Gbps in every home ? Again, I'm no engineer, but I think they would have to replace cooper with fiber optic and "hubs" that can feed a bunch of neighborhoods..then more optic to "hubs" to groups of homes etc. Can they really carry all that bandwidth over cooper ?

 

[Flint]

It is difficult, but they can get 1Gbps to the house over copper. They will run Fiber to your neighborhood box (in my neighborhood every 6th house has a cable and telephone box in the front yard). They can then get 40Gbps on one fiber pair from the box to the CO. Then from the CO they can get 100Gbps over a fiber pair and run multiple bundles of fiber to offer way more bandwidth than needed.

If you pay attention you'll notice cable, telephone, and "contractor" trucks in the neighborhoods working on the lines. I used to think they were hooking up new houses and subscribers, more often they are installing new lines and electronics.