Cord Cutters Thread

[texas08 1,599]

They’re not changing the grandfathered plans (channel bundles)...but they’re def adding $10 to the monthly fee.

They sent out an email yesterday or the day before.

[henrygandorf 29,192]

yeah, that was the one i posted.

we were paying spectrum $215 for 100/s internet, home phone, and cable box/dvr in 2 rooms with no premium cable channels.

even with the $10 raise in costs, now we pay $155 for 400/s internet, home phone, and directvnow with hbo.

the new samsung 58" with 2 rokus and new mount + mounting service in 2 rooms was about $900 so i still feel pretty good about the overall situation.

just need to figure out how to stream mlb thru reddit thru roku.  i tried poprism and it's like trying to get on the internet in 1993.  may just have to suck it up and resubscribe to mlb.tv

[kevwun 15,797]

The mlb.tv app on roku is pretty great from what I have seen so far.  You can re watch the whole game or start at a specific inning if you can't watch from the start.

[Gator Dave 14]

Don't know if they're still offering it, but if you have cell phone service thru AT&T, DirectvNow offered a nice discount on the TV packages. I think I'm paying $20/month for Live a Little plan with free HBO.

Edited March 19, 2019 by Gator Dave

[Js1 85,407]

On 3/19/2019 at 8:01 AM, Gator Dave said:

Don't know if they're still offering it, but if you have cell phone service thru AT&T, DirectvNow offered a nice discount on the TV packages. I think I'm paying $20/month for Live a Little plan with free HBO.

Yeah my plan, with the increase, is going up to I think $25/mo with free HBO still.  I can live with a $10 price difference for now.  Eventually though, I think I may end up switching (at the next price hike) to Hulu TV since I already pay for ad-free Hulu. 

[Murfdogg21 4,413]

I guess I got in too late (May 2018). My Live a Little (+free HBO for ATT cell service) was at $29 and they just bumped it to $39. Still better deal than anything else I can get, I believe. 

[Nonbryan 173]

Is there a good and economic way to get HBO outside of DTVNOW?  They are asking $15/mo.

[Buzzrock 14,922]

Anyone using AT&T fiber? I can get 1Gb for $70 per month. It goes up to $100 after a year but I’m going to try to talk them out of that. My other option is Xfinity at $110.

[shnsajax 3,591]

Anyone using AT&T fiber? I can get 1Gb for $70 per month. It goes up to $100 after a year but I’m going to try to talk them out of that. My other option is Xfinity at $110.

ATT fiber is coming here finally. Currently I pay $80 a month for 300mbps. It sucks balls when I used to have fios in the Dallas area 4 years ago.

[elfenix 34,308]

On 2/28/2019 at 10:13 AM, HouTex said:

Not sure if it's been mentioned before, but if you are using Roku Ultra, and for most other Rokus, when you are finished viewing be sure to hit the home button on the Roku remote before you turn off your TV.  The Roku will continue to stream live TV unless the streaming service itself has an auto off feature.  Some streaming services like Netflix and some others have auto-off features, but, for example, YoutubeTV will continue to stream even when the TV is off.  I need to check if YouTubeTV has an auto-off feature.  I just came close to exceeding the monthly 1T limit on Comcast because of this.  I've read that the Roku 4 has an auto-off feature in Settings, but my Roku Ultras do not have the feature.  I noticed this recently when I turned the TV back on in the morning and a live show on YoutubeTV immediately appeared.  At 1.5GB (1080p) per hour with several TVs connected it can add up.

a friend of mine calls into comcast any month he's about to go over, switches to unlimited, then switches back the next month. 

[elfenix 34,308]

On 3/16/2019 at 2:23 PM, henrygandorf said:

yeah, that was the one i posted.

we were paying spectrum $215 for 100/s internet, home phone, and cable box/dvr in 2 rooms with no premium cable channels.

even with the $10 raise in costs, now we pay $155 for 400/s internet, home phone, and directvnow with hbo.

the new samsung 58" with 2 rokus and new mount + mounting service in 2 rooms was about $900 so i still feel pretty good about the overall situation.

just need to figure out how to stream mlb thru reddit thru roku.  i tried poprism and it's like trying to get on the internet in 1993.  may just have to suck it up and resubscribe to mlb.tv

 

On 3/17/2019 at 10:20 PM, kevwun said:

The mlb.tv app on roku is pretty great from what I have seen so far.  You can re watch the whole game or start at a specific inning if you can't watch from the start.

mlb.tv subs are going to be free through tmobile tuesdays this upcoming tuesday.  there will be more than a handful of people selling the code on slickdeals for a $5 amazon gift card.

[Dahobbs 17,625]

6 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

Anyone using AT&T fiber? I can get 1Gb for $70 per month. It goes up to $100 after a year but I’m going to try to talk them out of that. My other option is Xfinity at $110.

I use it. It is awesome. 

[Buzzrock 14,922]

So first call to AT&T I couldn't get them to waive the $30 per month uplift after 12 months. I thought I read that someone on here had successfully done that, but I can't find the post now. Maybe I'll call back and try another agent.

[Dahobbs 17,625]

1 hour ago, Buzzrock said:

So first call to AT&T I couldn't get them to waive the $30 per month uplift after 12 months. I thought I read that someone on here had successfully done that, but I can't find the post now. Maybe I'll call back and try another agent.

Where you at? Mine is 80 dollars a month in houston. No uplift. 

[YChang 3,453]

Gotta say, single sign on for Spectrum on Apple TV works flawlessly. It’s great to not have to put in your id/password all the time.

 

[Buzzrock 14,922]

Where you at? Mine is 80 dollars a month in houston. No uplift. 

Atlanta. I got another rep to say on the record (chat transcript) that it will only go up to $80 after the 12 mos. It will be $60 until then bundled with the wife’s cell phone. Signed up for YTTV and fiber hookup is next week.

I think Imma splurge for the Velop Tri-band wireless mesh for 6000 mb WiFi in the house.

[Austinvines 318]

I recently got Google Fiber TV with gigabit internet. My now to be forever virgin sons are super happy but I haven’t been able to figure out how best to use it.

It seems that my old WDTV Live can’t handle the audio that most torrents come with so I can dl tons of content but can’t hear anything. I thought I wasn’t a total tech idiot but I cannot figure out how to cast an mkv to my tv (not smart).

Supposedly my tv boxes have Chromecast built in but I cannot get the mkv to play from VLC even when rendering it to the correct fiber box.

Any ideas on an appliance or apps to make this outrageously awesome bandwidth do what I need it to do?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Anton Chigurh 3,319]

I recently got Google Fiber TV with gigabit internet. My now to be forever virgin sons are super happy but I haven’t been able to figure out how best to use it.

 

It seems that my old WDTV Live can’t handle the audio that most torrents come with so I can dl tons of content but can’t hear anything. I thought I wasn’t a total tech idiot but I cannot figure out how to cast an mkv to my tv (not smart).

 

Supposedly my tv boxes have Chromecast built in but I cannot get the mkv to play from VLC even when rendering it to the correct fiber box.

 

Any ideas on an appliance or apps to make this outrageously awesome bandwidth do what I need it to do?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Plex Media Server. Since it’s not a smart tv you’ll need a device to use an app to connect to it, though.

[Buzzrock 14,922]

My LG TV has the Plex app on it, nothing else needed to stream from my Plex server. So that might be an option. 

[Honeysucklerose 990]

Well, saying good bye to DirecTv. They jumped $70 per month on me this year.

I will be reading this thread. My requirements are two things:

LHN and Astros games. Any good options???

[Dahobbs 17,625]

26 minutes ago, Honeysucklerose said:

Well, saying good bye to DirecTv. They jumped $70 per month on me this year.

I will be reading this thread. My requirements are two things:

LHN and Astros games. Any good options???

PSvue has LHN. Astros games I'm not sure about since it'll depend where you are.  MLB tv is always an option. 

Edited April 1, 2019 by Dahobbs

[Honeysucklerose 990]

PSvue has LHN. Astros games I'm not sure about since it'll depend where you are.  MLB tv is always an option. 

Good point. I am in Houston. I have MLBtv through T-Mobile, but Astros are blacked out

[Gator Dave 14]

1 hour ago, Honeysucklerose said:

 

Good point. I am in Houston. I have MLBtv through T-Mobile, but Astros are blacked out

reddit.com/mlbstreams

[Quagmire 2,147]

Selling gigabit bandwidth must be great for telcos , nobody will possibly use that much bandwidth

[Dahobbs 17,625]

7 minutes ago, Quagmire said:

Selling gigabit bandwidth must be great for telcos , nobody will possibly use that much bandwidth

? I've certainly used it. 125 megabytes a second isn't that much in the modern streaming age.  I easily hit 80+ MB/s when Steam or Origin is downloading something.  Add in a couple of 4K streams and you're getting fairly close to the limit. But, I will say the primary benefit for me as been the low latency and high upload bandwidth that comes with fiber (at least with ATT). 

[Buzzrock 14,922]

Selling gigabit bandwidth must be great for telcos , nobody will possibly use that much bandwidth

I remember when my roommate bought a 420MB hard drive and I wondered how he would ever fill it up.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,907]

My first external hard drive was 20MB and I think it cost $2k

[HouTex 1,878]

My first PC was a Compaq portable (I called it luggable--it weighed 30 lbs. and was a medium sized suitcase).  No hard drive, monochrome display, 256k memory, two floppies.  $2,300 in 1984.  But it ran Lotus 1-2-3 and Wordstar just fine.

[Buzzrock 14,922]

Happy with the ATT Fiber and the Velop mesh system so far. The ATT speed test says I’m getting 997 mbps down at the router, but I’m not sure I buy that. I’m getting around 400 mbps on wireless around the house. I haven’t hooked up anything wired yet so I’m not sure what speeds I’ll get there. 

One thing I really like about cord cutting so far is that all you need is a power outlet when considering TV placement. Insert a Roku stick and you’re done. 

[Redneck Mutha 8,003]

We've been talking about cutting for a while now, but I think the wife is now fully on board since our lock-in intro price for Dish just went up over $30.  

For what we watch, and the fact that I have not been able to get good OTA reception, it appears our best option is a combination of Hulu Live ($45) and Philo ($20).  About 100 different channels for $65, which would cut our bill in about half.  Any horror stories or issues with either of these?  We'll start the trials in a few days, but wanted to hear any experiences with those.  Have only come across a couple of reviews for Philo, so in the dark a bit on that one.  

[kevwun 15,797]

4 hours ago, Buzzrock said:

Happy with the ATT Fiber and the Velop mesh system so far. The ATT speed test says I’m getting 997 mbps down at the router, but I’m not sure I buy that. I’m getting around 400 mbps on wireless around the house. I haven’t hooked up anything wired yet so I’m not sure what speeds I’ll get there. 

One thing I really like about cord cutting so far is that all you need is a power outlet when considering TV placement. Insert a Roku stick and you’re done. 

Your devices are the bottleneck with gigabit internet.  Hard drives can't write that fast.

[Deej 76,830]

Prepay for 4 months of DirecTV Now and get an Apple TV 4k box. 

[Dahobbs 17,625]

48 minutes ago, kevwun said:

Your devices are the bottleneck with gigabit internet.  Hard drives can't write that fast.

Well, that's not entirely true. Modern SSDs can go much faster.  Gigabit is fast, but is still only 125 Megabytes a second. SATA drives get to ~500 MB/s in sequential write and the NVMe parts can now exceed 3,500 MB/s at high queue depths. Even some spinning rust drives can approach 125 MB/s. 

Edited April 4, 2019 by Dahobbs

[Buzzrock 14,922]

I don’t own anything with a spinning drive any more. Or at least not the boot drive anyway. 

[jimmyjazz 45,976]

I could read through 16 pages and then wonder what info is obsolete . . . or I could just ask the same question I'm sure has been asked a dozen times . . . I'm going with #2:

We have 4 TVs in our house served by DirecTV, which is set up with one big DVR + 3 wifi "minis" (or whatever they call them).  We have subscriptions to most of the big add-on packages (HBO, Showtime, etc.).

When you get right down to it, we don't watch too many channels, and I'd sure like to cut our costs.  I'm not actually sure we take much advantage of the premium channels.  For all I know we could just RedBox Blu-Ray discs a la carte and save quite a bit of money.

But, we do watch a fair amount of specialty shows.  I like the 2 food channels, Audience, and some sports, my wife likes ID (she's trying to figure out how to most effectively kill me) along with a little Chip & Joanna, my stepdaughter and son watch the typical kid channels.  Our two teenagers seem content to poach friends' Netflix accounts and surf youtube.

Is there any hope for a radical restructure that would somehow let us still see those special channels + locals but pare our costs more than we would by just dumping HBO etc.?

 

 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,907]

I think PSVue would have everything you mentioned except Audience.  I think Audience is owned by Directv so I'm not sure its available anywhere except ATT/Directv

Edited April 9, 2019 by NeverMarryAStripper

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

On 4/4/2019 at 8:31 AM, Deej said:

Prepay for 4 months of DirecTV Now and get an Apple TV 4k box. 

I'm grandfathered in, but the new packages from DTVN really suck - same price, fewer channels.

I'm sure this is elsewhere, but my Go Big is so much better than the new Plus or Max

https://cdn.directv.com/content/dam/dtv/gmott/html/dynamic_channels/compare-packages-account-dynamic-gobig.html?source=&iterable_link_id=564347_Desktop_Body_1_0_a_Link_1

We're grandfathered in but no idea how long it will last.  In fact, they dropped the prices of all the premiums, so it's actually cheaper for me even the the package price increased $10.

I'm not sure I get the DTVN plan now.  If you like the slimmed down lineup, Hulu and YouTube offer better deals for less.  If you want the full blown, nearly-as-much-as-full-cable setup, PS Vue is looking better and better.  Sling charges too much for its addons.

[Dahobbs 17,625]

27 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I could read through 16 pages and then wonder what info is obsolete . . . or I could just ask the same question I'm sure has been asked a dozen times . . . I'm going with #2:

We have 4 TVs in our house served by DirecTV, which is set up with one big DVR + 3 wifi "minis" (or whatever they call them).  We have subscriptions to most of the big add-on packages (HBO, Showtime, etc.).

When you get right down to it, we don't watch too many channels, and I'd sure like to cut our costs.  I'm not actually sure we take much advantage of the premium channels.  For all I know we could just RedBox Blu-Ray discs a la carte and save quite a bit of money.

But, we do watch a fair amount of specialty shows.  I like the 2 food channels, Audience, and some sports, my wife likes ID (she's trying to figure out how to most effectively kill me) along with a little Chip & Joanna, my stepdaughter and son watch the typical kid channels.  Our two teenagers seem content to poach friends' Netflix accounts and surf youtube.

Is there any hope for a radical restructure that would somehow let us still see those special channels + locals but pare our costs more than we would by just dumping HBO etc.?

 

 

Check PSVu, YoutubeTv, and Hulu Tv and see what set of channels works best for you. Either would save you a ton over regular directv. You can get free trial periods for both and it takes like 5 minutes to sign up and get going. I don't recommend DirectvNow at this juncture because it seems pretty clear that ATT is set on killing it and replacing it with streaming Directv, but at the same price as normal Directv.

And some of the stuff you watch may be adequately covered by Amazon Prime/Netflix. 

I personally have Youtube TV, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. Combine that with the free PBS and PBS Kids streaming apps and there isn't much I feel I'm missing (LHN). 

[HouTex 1,878]

Anyone else have trouble streaming YouTubetv during last night's NCAA final? At the end of the game it cut out twice. I have Xfinity high speed internet. I've had it for three months and this was the first time it had an issue.

[Dahobbs 17,625]

5 minutes ago, HouTex said:

Anyone else have trouble streaming YouTubetv during last night's NCAA final? At the end of the game it cut out twice. I have Xfinity high speed internet. I've had it for three months and this was the first time it had an issue.

No issues here (Houston). ATT gigabit. 

[jimmyjazz 45,976]

11 minutes ago, Dahobbs said:

Check PSVu, YoutubeTv, and Hulu Tv and see what set of channels works best for you. Either would save you a ton over regular directv. You can get free trial periods for both and it takes like 5 minutes to sign up and get going. I don't recommend DirectvNow at this juncture because it seems pretty clear that ATT is set on killing it and replacing it with streaming Directv, but at the same price as normal Directv.

And some of the stuff you watch may be adequately covered by Amazon Prime/Netflix. 

I personally have Youtube TV, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. Combine that with the free PBS and PBS Kids streaming apps and there isn't much I feel I'm missing (LHN). 

Thanks.  How much of this depends on the technology within each TV?  Ours are all actually pretty old -- probably 4-5 years minimum.  Connectivity isn't an issue, they're all HDMI, but I don't know how many (if any) can actually connect through wifi to a source.  (The DirecTV minis are all hard-wired to their TV via HDMI.)

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

1 minute ago, HouTex said:

Anyone else have trouble streaming YouTubetv during last night's NCAA final? At the end of the game it cut out twice. I have Xfinity high speed internet. I've had it for three months and this was the first time it had an issue.

When I was testing all of them simultaneously I noticed that YouTube and Hulu had issues with really popular live programs - cutouts, freezes, the dreaded "loading," etc.  Things like the Oscars as well as sports.  It was one of the deal killers for me at the time. 

DTVN used to have them as well but less often - during the 2018 NC game (Bama-UGa), I was running DTVN, YouTube, Hulu and PSVue simultaneously on 2 separate gigabit connections, and PSVue was the only one that didn't have those issues.

DTVN seems to have sorted that out - but it may be due to the huge drop in subscribers. 

Not sure about Sling because I could never find a package that didn't cost $30-$40 more for what I wanted.

[Dahobbs 17,625]

4 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Thanks.  How much of this depends on the technology within each TV?  Ours are all actually pretty old -- probably 4-5 years minimum.  Connectivity isn't an issue, they're all HDMI, but I don't know how many (if any) can actually connect through wifi to a source.  (The DirecTV minis are all hard-wired to their TV via HDMI.)

Rokus. Just get the Roku Streaming Stick+ ($60). You'll need HDMI and either powered USB on the TV or access to a power outlet to plug in Roku. 

Some TVs support some apps, but when that old you'll be pretty limited and likely not able to get the TV streaming services absent a Roku or other streaming device. 

Edited April 9, 2019 by Dahobbs

[Liquor and Poker 3,659]

1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

Thanks.  How much of this depends on the technology within each TV?  Ours are all actually pretty old -- probably 4-5 years minimum.  Connectivity isn't an issue, they're all HDMI, but I don't know how many (if any) can actually connect through wifi to a source.  (The DirecTV minis are all hard-wired to their TV via HDMI.)

As long as it has HDMI, buy a cheap Roku, Fire TV, even Chromecast box and do it through that.  Or shell out $160 for an Apple TV.

I recommend Rokus because they're so easy to learn and have all those weird user-created channels.  I love the "Vape" channel that's basically a closeup of a lava lamp.  

[jimmyjazz 45,976]

Gracias to both of you.

[tbone_ 14,128]

I just picked up the $29 Roku and a trial for You Tube TV to test out as a directv replacement. Been a directv subscriber since 99 but I’m about done with them. Fucking morons. It had gotten bad enough before ATT showed up but now it’s just brutal.

 

So far it seems to be ok. Missing some channels - mostly the ones I’ve notice are A&E, History, etc. local channels are good. Not sure if I can get the longhorn network yet or not. Not digging the IR remote but maybe there is a different Roku with one. Also missing the info button to learn more about a program. Live tv interface isn’t that great.

 

That said, it’s $40 so all of that is probably fine. We’ll see.

 

[Dahobbs 17,625]

59 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

I just picked up the $29 Roku and a trial for You Tube TV to test out as a directv replacement. Been a directv subscriber since 99 but I’m about done with them. Fucking morons. It had gotten bad enough before ATT showed up but now it’s just brutal.

 

So far it seems to be ok. Missing some channels - mostly the ones I’ve notice are A&E, History, etc. local channels are good. Not sure if I can get the longhorn network yet or not. Not digging the IR remote but maybe there is a different Roku with one. Also missing the info button to learn more about a program. Live tv interface isn’t that great.

 

That said, it’s $40 so all of that is probably fine. We’ll see.

 

Youtube tv does have an info button. Has an "i" when you are watching the channel. There is no button on the roku to trigger it directly, so you just have to select it. No lhn unfortunately.  You can get other universal remotes that work with roku if you want. I find it works fine and can control what I need on the tv (power and volume).

[Anton Chigurh 3,319]

YouTube TV going up to $50, adding Discovery networks.

https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/4/10/18304871/youtube-tv-april-2019-price-increase-discovery-hgtv

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,515]

43 minutes ago, Anton Chigurh said:

YouTube TV going up to $50, adding Discovery networks.

https://www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2019/4/10/18304871/youtube-tv-april-2019-price-increase-discovery-hgtv

This sucks but at the end of the day, the distribution and content companies want to get paid. The content owners may have previously sold access to their channels for lower amounts to cord cutting distributors but as time as gone by, content is getting killed by fewer cable subscribers.  Time to hike up the cost to other distributors.

[Okie State 3,821]

Fucking bullshit. I don't fucking want more channels. I want a low rate and the three channels I actually watch. We're going to end up right back where we were paying $100/month for bullshit.