Dropped Cable TV Today

[hnzw_rui]

Nope, it's the 15mb/s... Maybe you got an "introductory" rate, or maybe they're punishing me for having the audacity...

I actually got fed up with having to call every year to get the "introductory" rate which is why I cancelled cable TV 8 years back. I haven't regretted it for a moment.

 

[ziggy29]

... and I have found a way to get a computer number (I forget the correct term) established in Europe and then you can buy the NFL package through Europe at a cheaper price.

I believe you are probably talking about VPN software which gives your computer a "visible" IP address based out of Europe? That's how we've been getting the Beeb.

 

[marytaz]

I cut my cable years ago. Only have internet now. Saved myself $140/mo. Don't regret it a bit.

 

[target2019]

Funny story. Local paving operation planned, and over a period of 1-2 months we noticed all the utilities (save one) coming out and marking off their lines. Everything is underground. There were actually two times I saw this, as the paving was delayed at one point, and the utilities needed to come again. Lots of colorful flags.

There was curb work, as well as corner access ramps, and of course the underground fiber was severed one day. I did not notice, as I was out at a job. That evening we saw orange cable laying on the ground as a temporary patch. This went around two corners of the block, so very long. Sometimes in the street. Other times on grass. Went on for a few weeks, with helpful neighbor at one point hanging the orange cable over a no-doggy-doodoo sign. What a smart maneuver.

Today an independent contractor came out and made all the necessary connections. Of course there was no warning, and some number of homes (maybe 50?) lost TV, Internet and phone. Of course I was home, and had time to go and converse with the contractor. He confirmed that Comcast did not mark off the underground fiber, and it is not the first time they did not respond to such a request.

 

[Mulligan]

I believe you are probably talking about VPN software which gives your computer a "visible" IP address based out of Europe? That's how we've been getting the Beeb.

Yes, that is it Ziggy. I was also reading the other day a lot of US sports bettors are doing this too so they can gamble online and get the money flowing both ways.


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[kneehigh]

Cableless for years

My ISP is charging around $60 for speed of up to 60 Mbps here in L.A. I use to pay half of that a couple of years ago. Fortunately, I haven't had cable for years. I have OTA and pretty much everything I want to watch via Kodi. My hardware components includes a laptop using mini display cable, wireless keyboard and an LCD TV screen. I also have Roku, Chromecast and MS wireless display adapter and a PS3. For subscription, I have Netflix, Hulu and Espn (the latter two I get from my kids). I get more streaming that I could ever want for around $70. To be honest with you, I'd rather be moving around outdoors hiking or biking, going places and visiting the grandkids in Hawaii. But it is nice to know that I can be a couch potato occasionally and have all these access to entertainment.

 

[Dog]

I would love to get rid of cable and DTV. We have Comcast at main house and DTV at island (will be main house next June). I could be just fine with OTA and occasional movies on Netflix, but DH doesn't want to give up channel surfing at either location. And HAS to have sports. UGH!



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[steelyman]

I've decided to stay with Sling for the next several months at least. I think that the pro/con list earlier in this thread is a fair assessment but I seem to have less connection-related problems (big exception: a few dropouts during the NLDS broadcasts from TBS).

My trial is over and I find enough offerings to make it worth it to me. I learned that the freebies they offer are valid for existing subscribers, not just newcomers. What they want is for you to prepay 3 months to claim the offer. I'm curious about the Roku streaming stick, so that's what I'm going to get. I already own Roku 2 and 3 units to handle the TVs, only one of which supports HDMI.

Between that and Hulu/Amazon Prime (also OTA), I feel that my viewing options are way better than when I was shackled to Comcast TV. It's not free of course, but I think in terms of overall value-for-the-buck.

Getting lots of sports is another issue, but less important for me, but if it were I'd have a different perspective.

 

[2035]

I'm dropping everything, inc internet effective November 7. I'll get one of those antenna attachments.


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[O2Bfree]

We haven't had cable for 18 years. Back then, we had it only because the house I bought had it, and the cable guy must have forgotten to unhook it when the previous owners moved. (I swear we did not hook it up ourselves.)

An antenna works pretty well in my area. We get a couple movie channels (albeit, old movies), PBS, some other channels we don't care about and my current favorite, Antenna TV! We're also on the 1-disc-at-a-time program with Netflix.

We also check out DVDs from the library. They have a pretty good collection of fairly recent movies.

 

[Dawg52]

I've decided to stay with Sling for the next several months at least. I think that the pro/con list earlier in this thread is a fair assessment but I seem to have less connection-related problems (big exception: a few dropouts during the NLDS broadcasts from TBS).

My trial is over and I find enough offerings to make it worth it to me. I learned that the freebies they offer are valid for existing subscribers, not just newcomers. What they want is for you to prepay 3 months to claim the offer. I'm curious about the Roku streaming stick, so that's what I'm going to get. I already own Roku 2 and 3 units to handle the TVs, only one of which supports HDMI.

Between that and Hulu/Amazon Prime (also OTA), I feel that my viewing options are way better than when I was shackled to Comcast TV. It's not free of course, but I think in terms of overall value-for-the-buck.

Getting lots of sports is another issue, but less important for me, but if it were I'd have a different perspective.

I got the streaming stick for my condo and it works very well. Actually like the on scream features better than what I get with my older Roku box that I use in my home.

I'm very pleased with Sling. Not perfect, but not bad for $20. I also have the sports package right now during football season for an additional $5 but will probably drop that and add the movie channels during the winter.

 

[papadad111]

Ok. I'm the cheap Charlie here I guess. I have 3mb down. 1 mb up.

Basically cheapest package from one of the big boys in cable tv. Signed up with 10 dollars off per month for a year so I Pay 15 per month and will jump to 25 per month once the year deal is over. At that time, I'll call to cancel and they will give me 5 off for another 6-12 months.

I signed up for lowest speed because I was new to the area and heard horror stories from the others in the area. Turns out I was right - lots of line problems and Internet goes up and down a lot. Hate to pay for high speed internet that I can't use.

I'm in the country side. Called several times and had cableco technicians out to check things here. Didn't help. After 4 or 5 tries and replacing all inside house lines, modem etc. They Finally dispatched an "outside lines" tech and we struck up a chat when he arrived. Explained all the details to him and for next 8 hours I helped him trouble shoot all the outside lines - I was bored and learned something. He was a smart troubleshooter and appreciated the troubleshooting help.

We traced the line drop for my house which comes from about a mile away ! We Replaced 650 feet of underground coax in my yard that feeds to my house. We Replaced 2 older styled line drops and replaced one amplifier. He has been out twice since to just check on things. What a good dude.

All for a feed that ONLY services my house. So. Internet now works as it should !!!

So I now will maybe upgrade to 30/5!service. However in the interim I have been using a streaming TV set top box that gives me about 200 channels out of different countries, Asia . Russia. USA. Europe. A Wide variety of non typical sports. A few USA sports too. I'm not big on sports anyway, I watch mostly CNBC, discovery, bbc, cnn and those sort of channels.

Best of all: No monthly fee or subscription required. Only Internet. Been working great for past 6 months. And works fine with the 3/1 "slow" Internet.

Set top boxes do require occasional reboot ( not quite as stable as cable tv) but the channel content is entertaining in itself. They are always adding different channels too

Hooks to my tv with a hdmi cable. Can also use older Tv's with this box as long as it has the red-white-yellow audio and video inputs.

Costs 200 dollars for a 1 time hardware cost. Ping me offline if interested - was actually considering to sell these boxes as a side hustle given number of people wanting to cut the cord for good.

 

[travelover]

.........Actually like the on scream features ........

Just in time for Halloween

 

[Dawg52]

Just in time for Halloween

Make that........ screen. I don't do Halloween.

 

[steelyman]

A Sling update from one of the guinea pigs out there (me).

In general, it's worked OK but the app (I'm mostly connecting through a Roku 2) is noticeably more sluggish than others. There are occasional dropouts, but I expected that.

Last night I ran across something new to me. I'd been using it without problem earlier in the day but yesterday evening wanted to check on the Panther/Colt game through Sling/ESPN. When I navigated to the Sling app, I only received the message "You are not subscribed to any channels" (call so-and-so to subscribe). I knew that wasn't true, so I called the technical support line listed at their website. Not my choice of things to do at 9 or 10pm on a Monday night, of course. There was about a ten minute wait until someone (English-speaking) came on the line. They were able to fix it while I was on the phone with them, so in the end all was OK. But it really is a system that seems to be going through growing pains.

The guy did say they knew about Roku-specific issues that had been hitting people last night and reminded me nicely I could still connect through a mobile device (I figured that but that isn't how I want to watch TV).

I did receive my free Roku streaming stick last week but haven't had any experience yet, only enough to learn I couldn't use it through a Chromebook's HDMI port (a little bit of a disappointment, but I'm still glad to have the free stick for other use).

 

[easysurfer]

A Sling update from one of the guinea pigs out there (me).

In general, it's worked OK but the app (I'm mostly connecting through a Roku 2) is noticeably more sluggish than others. There are occasional dropouts, but I expected that.

Last night I ran across something new to me. I'd been using it without problem earlier in the day but yesterday evening wanted to check on the Panther/Colt game through Sling/ESPN. When I navigated to the Sling app, I only received the message "You are not subscribed to any channels" (call so-and-so to subscribe). I knew that wasn't true, so I called the technical support line listed at their website. Not my choice of things to do at 9 or 10pm on a Monday night, of course. There was about a ten minute wait until someone (English-speaking) came on the line. They were able to fix it while I was on the phone with them, so in the end all was OK. But it really is a system that seems to be going through growing pains.

The guy did say they knew about Roku-specific issues that had been hitting people last night and reminded me nicely I could still connect through a mobile device (I figured that but that isn't how I want to watch TV).

I did receive my free Roku streaming stick last week but haven't had any experience yet, only enough to learn I couldn't use it through a Chromebook's HDMI port (a little bit of a disappointment, but I'm still glad to have the free stick for other use).

I had a similar situation getting a not subscribed message when I cancelled my one month Sling membership. (Membership effective til Nov 14). I'm using Amazon TV as my streaming box. I wanted to watch a program (National Geographic... live brain surgery ). I was too lazy to call tech support since I decided to not keep Sling since the only real reason I subscribed was for baseball playoffs.

 

[Chuckanut]

My OTA Tivo Roamio is working great! Thankfully, I go the life time subscription to their guide, but even at $15 a month for the guide, it is still so much cheaper than cable. And the quality of the HD TV is better!

I can't imagine going to cable. I already have more stuff to watch than I am willing to make time for between the OTA shows recorded on my Tivo and Netflix.

 

[Dawg52]

A Sling update from one of the guinea pigs out there (me).

In general, it's worked OK but the app (I'm mostly connecting through a Roku 2) is noticeably more sluggish than others. There are occasional dropouts, but I expected that.

Last night I ran across something new to me. I'd been using it without problem earlier in the day but yesterday evening wanted to check on the Panther/Colt game through Sling/ESPN. When I navigated to the Sling app, I only received the message "You are not subscribed to any channels" (call so-and-so to subscribe). I knew that wasn't true, so I called the technical support line listed at their website. Not my choice of things to do at 9 or 10pm on a Monday night, of course. There was about a ten minute wait until someone (English-speaking) came on the line. They were able to fix it while I was on the phone with them, so in the end all was OK. But it really is a system that seems to be going through growing pains.

The guy did say they knew about Roku-specific issues that had been hitting people last night and reminded me nicely I could still connect through a mobile device (I figured that but that isn't how I want to watch TV).

I did receive my free Roku streaming stick last week but haven't had any experience yet, only enough to learn I couldn't use it through a Chromebook's HDMI port (a little bit of a disappointment, but I'm still glad to have the free stick for other use).

I'm sure you are familiar with the Watch ESPN app through roku. If not, you can watch all the ESPN channels in that app since you have a Sling subscription. The first attempt to do so will ask for your provider and Sling is on the list. I have found watching ESPN that way is a little more stable than through the Sling app.

 

[Dawg52]

My OTA Tivo Roamio is working great! Thankfully, I go the life time subscription to their guide, but even at $15 a month for the guide, it is still so much cheaper than cable. And the quality of the HD TV is better!

I can't imagine going to cable. I all ready have more stuff to watch than I am willing to make time for between the OTA shows recorded on my Tivo and Netflix.

That looks interesting but I think I read it doesn't support services like Sling. Is that correct?

 

[Chuckanut]

That looks interesting but I think I read it doesn't support services like Sling. Is that correct?

Sorry, I don't know about Sling. They offer their own box (a bit expensive, IMHO) that allows streaming to portable devices, but I don't think it is the equal of Sling.

 

[steelyman]

I'm sure you are familiar with the Watch ESPN app through roku. If not, you can watch all the ESPN channels in that app since you have a Sling subscription. The first attempt to do so will ask for your provider and Sling is on the list. I have found watching ESPN that way is a little more stable than through the Sling app.

There's only one problem with what you wrote here. You must think I am more intelligent/aware than I actually am. Ha!

I have seen the Watch ESPN channel on the Roku menu (listed separately from Sling) all along, but never put two and two together. I have this mindset that anytime the word "app" is used, it refers to something I have to grab an iPhone or Android, etc to take advantage of.

But I just tried what you suggest and you're exactly right - thanks (again!).

You have to love clearly-titled threads like this that have good participation and interest, because they contain lots of little gems like this.

 

[HFWR]

Since cutting cable, I've been alternating between OTA, Amazon's Firestick, and Apple TV. I think I can make this work, especially saving around $140/mo.

 

[steelyman]

I saw an article today in Bloomberg's email newsletter about a streaming service called Pluto (never heard of it before) that wants to resemble the traditional model of watching TV that we all know so well. But, if I understand the basics of the idea, it has no appeal to me at all. I'm still thrilled with what I've gotten now!

At a time when most Internet video services describe themselves in opposition to cable television, Pluto is trying to build a service that feels like traditional TV. Its app looks like a standard cable television guide. When users open it, whatever channel they watched last begins playing immediately. They can change channels, but they don't have the option—or, as Ryan would put it, the burden—of selecting exactly what show they want to watch, at any time they choose.

This Streaming Service Wants You to Veg Out and Channel Surf - Bloomberg Business

 

[48Fire]

I just went to Roku, Sling, and Free Air TV with antenna. This was driven primarily by our cable company that was unwilling to provide a "vacation" package while we toggled to our second home. Our other residence in Florida provides a one-time $28 to basically hibernate our entire cable/internet service for no monthly charge.

So in September, I turned in our cable box, and kept a basic internet service. When we got back for holiday visit this month, my wife was actually first to miss TV, mainly for background noise.

The free channels were easy with a $35 antenna. Eight channels total, and the reception is great.

The Roku Sling combination is still an experiment. I have a 7 day trial, and it seems workable. I will probably still cancel at the end of this, since we will be heading south until May.

I will probably also return my Roku to Best Buy. I bought what I thought was an "open box" Roku 3. It was $65 vs. $99 on the others. Turns out that it was a used Roku 2!! I am guessing that some genius, bought a Roku 3, then returned their old Roku 2. I can get a Roku 3 at $50 when I commit to Sling for three months in May.

All said, it is a nice alternative to cable, and I think it will allow me to suspend my account when we go to our second home.

 

[ziggy29]

I'm still intrigued by Sling but it doesn't have DVR-like ability with live TV to pause, rewind, et cetera, or to start watching 15 minutes "late" and catch up by fast-forwarding through commercials. If it had that we'd probably have it. As it is, we did spring for Tivo service on the OTA antenna, Netflix and Hulu Plus, and we'd have Amazon Prime anyway, so basically we're coming in for about $32 per month compared to about $110 for the satellite dish. We miss a few stations, but for the most part even with a significant loss of live sporting events I wouldn't go back to paying over $100 for the traditional pay-TV model.

I'll probably "try" Sling for 7 days when it's about time for the major college bowl games to be on ESPN around the new year...