Cutting the Cord

[ScoobaDawg]

Whats everyone currently doing in favor of Cable / Satellite / Online streaming options.
I'm still taking it up full and large by paying ATT for the full 450 package. I would almost look into some of the other streaming options if it weren't for the live sports and the DVR functionality.

[TheRef]

I currently have an HD antenna and internet that I use to stream options through NBC Sports, WatchESPN, and firstrowsports.eu

[Bassbucksducks]

I'm just getting into Kodi and the android box set up. I run Kodi on my laptop and it's pretty sweet.

[dickiedawg]

Are you able to do live tv with any consistency on KODI? I can watch streams on Genesis with decent results, but Live streams are largely worthless for me.

I'm running KODI on an Ouya, which obviously isn't the most powerful box. My internet speed isn't spectacular but is plenty to watch a live stream on my Roku.

[Political Hack]

I was "subscription-less" through 1-week of football season and quickly re-upped for regular TV. Live sports is all that I missed. I can live without regular shoes and can get news easily and more quickly online.

I did use Netflix, Amazon Prime, and some other apps on X-box to stream though. Also had an HD antenna but it didn't pick up much and never used it.

[Bassbucksducks]

Are you able to do live tv with any consistency on KODI? I can watch streams on Genesis with decent results, but Live streams are largely worthless for me.

I'm running KODI on an Ouya, which obviously isn't the most powerful box. My internet speed isn't spectacular but is plenty to watch a live stream on my Roku.

Consistency is lacking. I have to sit down a couple minutes early before a game to find a decent stream. This past weekend I couldn't even find one for our game. I had to leave and go somewhere with the game on.

[Bassbucksducks]

I was "subscription-less" through 1-week of football season and quickly re-upped for regular TV. Live sports is all that I missed. I can live without regular shoes and can get news easily and more quickly online.

I did use Netflix, Amazon Prime, and some other apps on X-box to stream though. Also had an HD antenna but it didn't pick up much and never used it.

I'm right there with you. If a good option for live sports comes out, Directv is getting cut out.

[ScoobaDawg]

OLD thread bump.. a lot's changed in 3 years. My biggest hold up was live sports and the DVR system and now Google TV and PlayStation Vue have live sports and a decent DVR systems. I'm calling Uverse and cancelling today.
I picked up a NVIDIA Shield for the living room along with my new Harmony Elite remote and logitech k400 plus ketboard. In the bedroom, I have a roku ultra.
My new streaming platform is Playstation view core with HBO and Showtime, and then Philo 40 channels to fill in the missing Scripp networks and a few other things. Philo isn't avilable on Nvidia yet, so have to sideload it.

Been playing with it for a week and love it for the most part, some different quirks with the guide and dvr functionality..plus having to change between applications is a little annoying, but we are already doing that anyways with netflix and amazon prime video.
All that to save me about $50 a month on channels i didnt need and countless extra fees.

If you are thinking of changing, this website is amazing. Put in your zip code and select what channels you want and it will help you decide on what package you need.
https://www.suppose.tv/

[viverlibre]

One word of caution, streaming services are all over the map when it comes to the available content their ESPN login provides. I tried Sling first, but a lot of MSU women's BBall games were not available on the ESPN App, I'm now on DirectTVNow and the ESPN login that comes with it has not let me down (nothing has been blocked that I wanted to watch). Get the Apple 4K Box and you can watch 4 games on the screen at one time.

The three biggest drawbacks; 1. you can't record a game on the ESPN App (at least you can't do it simply), 2. the ESPN App is 30 seconds or so being the cable broadcast so social media may spoil some upcoming plays for you, 3. no matter how good your ISP (i have a bazillion gigawatts from Cease Fire fiber), the broadcast will sometimes become grainy or freeze (this doesn't happen often, but does happen).

[Matty Dispatch]

I keep entertaining the idea of cutting Directv every summer because I have a subscription to Netflix, Prime & Hulu but then I think about how football season is going to go. Truth is, live sports and the DVR is the only lifeline cable has right now, and it's keeping me on board. For the last two years Directv has given me a $50 off my bill per month in exchange for a 12 month contract. With that discount, I could still save $35 by switching to one of the streaming services to get ESPN and watch football. But the convenience of having all the channels on my remote to flip around easily and the DVR is worth $35 a month to me. It would probably be worth $45 or $55 too.

[BrunswickDawg]

I keep entertaining the idea of cutting Directv every summer because I have a subscription to Netflix, Prime & Hulu but then I think about how football season is going to go. Truth is, live sports and the DVR is the only lifeline cable has right now, and it's keeping me on board. For the last two years Directv has given me a $50 off my bill per month in exchange for a 12 month contract. With that discount, I could still save $35 by switching to one of the streaming services to get ESPN and watch football. But the convenience of having all the channels on my remote to flip around easily and the DVR is worth $35 a month to me. It would probably be worth $45 or $55 too.

How did you get the discount? I have been a loyal DTV customer for 19 years and never asked for a discount.

I really want to make it through the next year on DTV, then when my son goes to college go to all streaming. Local internet is so wonky, we can't get the bandwidth we need with Fortnight or some shit constantly streaming on his computer. We have Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu, and will either upgrade to Hulu Live or go with DirecTv Now.

[Matty Dispatch]

How did you get the discount? I have been a loyal DTV customer for 19 years and never asked for a discount.

I really want to make it through the next year on DTV, then when my son goes to college go to all streaming. Local internet is so wonky, we can't get the bandwidth we need with Fortnight or some shit constantly streaming on his computer. We have Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu, and will either upgrade to Hulu Live or go with DirecTv Now.

You have to bluff. If you have a contract with directv, you'll have to wait until it ends, or at least the week it ends to negotiate. Call them up and say, "this cable is just too expensive compared to ____________ (YouTubeTV, Sling, etc) so I'm going to switch to that". They will look at your account and see that you are a loyal customer and offer you a hefty discount to stay.

Assuming you pay your bill on time each month I'm sure they will give you the discount. I only started with directv in September of 2013. Starting in September of 2016 they have given me a $50 per month discount in exchange for a 12 month contract. So next month my contract will be up yet again and I'll come with the same thing - that I'm going to switch if they want me to pay full price.

[Prediction? Pain.]

Five or six years ago, I opted for seasonal coverage -- no cable from March or April (whenever our craptastic basketball season came to an end) until the start of football season, and then I'd get a contract-free package with our local utility-run TV/internet provider that gave me the works. But after a couple of years of that, I realized that a few of the streaming services gave me the sports coverage that I wanted (and that's all I cared about) for much less than the local utility. So I spent a year or two testing out different streaming services, both alone and in combination with one another.

I've landed on SlingTV's Orange package with the $5 sports add-on. That used to cost $25 total, now it's $30. For that sum -- and again, I only have it during football and basketball seasons -- I get ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3 access, SEC Network, and SEC Network +, which seems to pretty much have it covered. That package also gives you AMC, IFC, Bein, the ACC Network, the PAC 12 Network, and Tribeca Shortlist (a nice movie channel). Occasionally my cheap ass will also splurge another $5 a month for the "Hollywood" add-on, which adds TCM, Sundance TV, HDNet Movies, and Fandor, among others.

To my knowledge, Sling may be one of the few (or maybe even the only) streaming service to offer SEC Network + alongside ESPN3 access. That's a pretty big deal come basketball and baseball season. I don't get the Fox Sports channels with this set-up, but I haven't missed them. And if I wanted to add them, I could opt for Sling's top-of-the-line service for $50 total and have everything I mentioned plus Fox Sports (and a bunch of other useless garbage).

The only time I ran into a snag was when we played La. Tech last year because that game was on CBS Sports Network. The only steaming platforms I found at the time that gave me access to that channel were Hulu Live and maybe Direct TV Now. Whichever one it was, I did a one-week free trial for that game alone, so I didn't have to miss it.

I think they've all got DVR functions of some kind, but check the fine print before you rely on that -- ESPN channels are often (or at least used to often be) excluded from the DVR services. It's not a killer for me because the ESPN3 access from Sling lets me watch replays of games as soon as they're over.

Oh, and I've got a cheap HD antenna for local stuff. It's a $35 RCA model that I picked up from Wal-Mart on a whim, but it works fine, especially considering where I live (a heavily wooded neighborhood on a north-facing hill). All the networks come in fine, as do a few of the random off-the-dial stations in our area. The three available PBS channels (the normal one, "Create," and PBS Kids) are usually perfect too, but they're a tad more prone to weather interference than the main networks, as are a few other oddball stations I don't care about.

[Tbonewannabe]

I moved into a new house and my comcast subscription wasn't available. I never had a problem and was only paying around $150 for internet and cable, all the ESPNs but no movie channels but Starz. Now I have AT&T fiber and I am not sure it is faster than my non fiber comcast connection. So $80 for internet and $35 for DirectvNow streaming. It has DVR functionality but I haven't used it yet. You can get on demand shows like I had with comcast but you have to download the apps sometimes for everything. To get all of the ESPN channels I have to go up to $50 DirectvNow. I went down to the $35 until games actually start.

I haven't had too much trouble out of it so far but like someone already said, it sometimes freezes up or gets fuzzy. I am in a new house so all the wiring is new so it isn't from anything physical.

[ScoobaDawg]

I moved into a new house and my comcast subscription wasn't available. I never had a problem and was only paying around $150 for internet and cable, all the ESPNs but no movie channels but Starz. Now I have AT&T fiber and I am not sure it is faster than my non fiber comcast connection. So $80 for internet and $35 for DirectvNow streaming. It has DVR functionality but I haven't used it yet. You can get on demand shows like I had with comcast but you have to download the apps sometimes for everything. To get all of the ESPN channels I have to go up to $50 DirectvNow. I went down to the $35 until games actually start.

I haven't had too much trouble out of it so far but like someone already said, it sometimes freezes up or gets fuzzy. I am in a new house so all the wiring is new so it isn't from anything physical.

As I mentioned DVR is a big part of what held me up, DirectTVNow DOES have a DVR but it's BUGGY as hell and just a crap interface what what I saw, plus yes the have worst streaming quality of any of the streaming companies.

PS Vue has Espn3 access and I can't think of but a handful of times I've ever seen things on SEC Network + when I've had Uverse so I don't think will be a big deal.

[Matty Dispatch]

I think we are getting pretty close to an ESPN app with a monthly subscription to get all the channels. That would be nice.

The big cable companies have figured out that a lot of people are cutting the cord because they don't want the sports channels so they are offering much cheaper packages, but I wish they would do the opposite for sports fans. You always have to get to the 3rd or 4th tier of their pricing packages to get the sports channels, so you're paying for all the other channels too (granted, those channels cost you about $0.02 per month vs. ESPNs $9-10 per month). The cable is almost exclusively for me. 95% of what my wife and kids watch are on Netflix or Hulu, so they don't care about it. If Directv or Comcast or someone would offer just ESPN and Fox Sports channels for $30-40 per month that would be awesome. Then you could get all the games and not have to fiddle with the internet and easily flip between games.

[ScoobaDawg]

I think we are getting pretty close to an ESPN app with a monthly subscription to get all the channels. That would be nice.

The big cable companies have figured out that a lot of people are cutting the cord because they don't want the sports channels so they are offering much cheaper packages, but I wish they would do the opposite for sports fans. You always have to get to the 3rd or 4th tier of their pricing packages to get the sports channels, so you're paying for all the other channels too (granted, those channels cost you about $0.02 per month vs. ESPNs $9-10 per month). The cable is almost exclusively for me. 95% of what my wife and kids watch are on Netflix or Hulu, so they don't care about it. If Directv or Comcast or someone would offer just ESPN and Fox Sports channels for $30-40 per month that would be awesome. Then you could get all the games and not have to fiddle with the internet and easily flip between games.

That's pretty much every streaming service... Hulu, YoutubeTV (if available) Sling, Playstation Vue, DirectvNow..... of course you get a lot more channels but you can get sports for $40-50. Play with that link i posted for Suppose.tv you might be surprised..

[KOdawg1]

What do you guys who live in rural areas do? We had HughesNet and Dish for years but just recently cut HN, so now we just use the hotspots on our phones for internet. The Dish bill is still too much for me, but I don't want to cut the sports since I don't have the best internet. Just wondering what some of you guys do

[Matty Dispatch]

That's pretty much every streaming service... Hulu, YoutubeTV (if available) Sling, Playstation Vue, DirectvNow..... of course you get a lot more channels but you can get sports for $40-50. Play with that link i posted for Suppose.tv you might be surprised..

Yeah, but I'm talking about it being through cable. So if I want to switch from the SEC game on ESPN to the ACC game on ABC to the Big 12 game on ESPN2 to the Big Ten game on Fox I can do it within 10 seconds and not have to exit the app, find the game, wait for it to load, rinse and repeat. When you watch on streaming you are basically going to sit there and watch the game without flipping to another one because it's such a hassle. That's fine when Mississippi State is on, but when they aren't I want to flip around and catch as much as I can of all the other games that are on at the same time. That is one of cables biggest draws vs. streaming in my opinion.

[ScoobaDawg]

Yeah, but I'm talking about it being through cable. So if I want to switch from the SEC game on ESPN to the ACC game on ABC to the Big 12 game on ESPN2 to the Big Ten game on Fox I can do it within 10 seconds and not have to exit the app, find the game, wait for it to load, rinse and repeat. When you watch on streaming you are basically going to sit there and watch the game without flipping to another one because it's such a hassle. That's fine when Mississippi State is on, but when they aren't I want to flip around and catch as much as I can of all the other games that are on at the same time. That is one of cables biggest draws vs. streaming in my opinion.


I don't know what streaming service you have looked at it but that's not correct. Pick any of those I mentioned, you can switch between ESPN, ESPN2, and Fox* the same as if you are on cable.. You go to the guide and select your program..
Fox is the possible exception, not all locals are carried but every streaming service. If you have to get an Over the air antenna, then yes you would have to switch from the App and likely inputs on your tv.

[ScoobaDawg]

What do you guys who live in rural areas do? We had HughesNet and Dish for years but just recently cut HN, so now we just use the hotspots on our phones for internet. The Dish bill is still too much for me, but I don't want to cut the sports since I don't have the best internet. Just wondering what some of you guys do


Move... Good luck to ya... Sorry that's not very helpful But if you can't get Internet through your local phone carrier or cable (sounds N/A due to using dish) then I'm not sure what to tell ya. Satellite internet has gotten better but it's still got a lot of limitations and is costly and always will be.

[Matty Dispatch]

I don't know what streaming service you have looked at it but that's not correct. Pick any of those I mentioned, you can switch between ESPN, ESPN2, and Fox* the same as if you are on cable.. You go to the guide and select your program..
Fox is the possible exception, not all locals are carried but every streaming service. If you have to get an Over the air antenna, then yes you would have to switch from the App and likely inputs on your tv.

Ok, you don't have to exit the app. What I mean was you have to stop the game you are watching and pick another one. It takes longer than cable. I've done the week trials and been at people's houses who use streaming. It definitely takes longer. There's a certain threshold of our budget when little things like that are just not worth the hassle and it's worth the $30 extra per month not to have to deal with it. If I was 25 I'd deal with it, but not anymore.

[ScoobaDawg]

Ok, you don't have to exit the app. What I mean was you have to stop the game you are watching and pick another one. It takes longer than cable. I've done the week trials and been at people's houses who use streaming. It definitely takes longer. There's a certain threshold of our budget when little things like that are just not worth the hassle and it's worth the $30 extra per month not to have to deal with it. If I was 25 I'd deal with it, but not anymore.

Alright that's interesting.. I can flip from station to station instantly on the two services I use now (PS Vue and Philo) the biggest difference I see concerning that is If I'm watching something, it plays in the background (same as cable) but the guide doesn't give me a preview of what is playing. Wouldn't matter for sports though.

If it's an on demand or dvr'd game that would take a second to load.. but never had issues with "live tv".

Has it been recently you have tried? Just wonder what the different experience you saw was caused by.

I understand what you mean, Streaming isn't perfect yet by any means.. especially in the dvr world. But It improved enough to encourage me to change and save $50 a month (more if I get out showtime as I will sometimes during the year). No paying for multiple cable boxes per month, no paying for a billion fees.

Good luck to you finding a solution that works. If I notice any weird quirks during the football season I'll report it back..
I noticed last night I had 3 Big 10 alt chanels on PS vue. So maybe they will add Sec Network + too.. who knows.

[Tbonewannabe]

DirectvNow with All the ESPNs and SEC Network is $50 per month. My only complaint is sometimes it fuzzes out. I haven't really tried out the DVR feature yet. One thing I liked about my comcast was the On Demand was better. If I want to log in and watch older episodes then I might have to have the channel app (like AMC). I then have several channel apps to binge watch rather than just go through the Directvnow app.