Dropped Cable TV Today

[W2R]

I have been enjoying OTA television this year, especially The Voice, recently. Although I could easily afford Netflix or Roku or other services or devices, I just don't want any of them yet.

It sounds awful to say this but so far, I have not missed any cable TV shows at all. Not even one. Overall I have not been watching TV nearly as much (which is not a bad thing).

 

[48Fire]

I have been enjoying OTA television this year, especially The Voice, recently. Although I could easily afford Netflix or Roku or other services or devices, I just don't want any of them yet.

It sounds awful to say this but so far, I have not missed any cable TV shows at all. Not even one. Overall I have not been watching TV nearly as much (which is not a bad thing).

The Voice was the tipping point for my wife She will be happy again Monday.

 

[48Fire]

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...

Yeah, I will miss the DVR for sure. I am pretty obsessive about that whether it is recording a game or two, backing up to see plays, or skipping commercials.

 

[easysurfer]

Yeah, I will miss the DVR for sure. I am pretty obsessive about that whether it is recording a game or two, backing up to see plays, or skipping commercials.

I definitely use a DVR for sports. Tonight as I watch the football game, my plan is to put of some housework (dishes) until the game starts so I can do them as the game is recording. The dishes time should help me skip some commercials when I do decide to watch.

 

[48Fire]

I definitely use a DVR for sports. Tonight as I watch the football game, my plan is to put of some housework (dishes) until the game starts so I can do them as the game is recording. The dishes time should help me skip some commercials when I do decide to watch.

I would do that, too. I warned my wife we may have to stay up late to watch the basketball game.

 

[Chuckanut]

Since I got my OTA Tivo, any thoughts of cable or satellite TV have run off to the outer darkness and not returned.

 

[easysurfer]

I would do that, too. I warned my wife we may have to stay up late to watch the basketball game.

. Just make sure to stay away from any sports updates to ruin the suspense before watching.

 

[jjquantz]

We signed up for 3 months of Sling so that DW could watch the Cubs in the playoffs and SIL could see the bowl games when he visits at new year's. Also got the reduced price Roku 3. I can see unsubscribing and resubscribing for about 3 months out of the year when some of DW's sports addiction needs to be fed.

The biggest complaint she has had with dropping cable has been the loss of MASN and the local coverage of the Nationals. She can get the Cubs through her MLB subscription but the stupid blackout rules keep her [-]complaining[/-] concerned about missing the Nats. It's not worth $700+/year for her, but it is worth enough to her that she [-]won't let it go[/-] reminds me of it every now and again.

 

[Lisa99]

We'll be dropping cable, internet and phone at the end of the month. Savings will be $265/month!

Instead we've bought a mifi device that includes a data plan that is plenty for our needs. The cost is about $45/month. We'll be using it for our RV travels but will be using it here at home as well. We've already tested it and it works well.

Looking forward to saving $200/month!

 

[48Fire]

. Just make sure to stay away from any sports updates to ruin the suspense before watching.

Easier now in ER, since I have less people around. Nearly impossible when I worked.

 

[folivier]

Just dropped Tivo Roamio after fulfilling the 1 year requirement. It will be a bit cheaper to buy seasons on Amazon Prime. And we're a bit too far to get a good consistent signal on OTA. Do miss the DVR functions though.
OTOH is anyone else having problems with Amazon Prime video pausing/buffering? It started a couple weeks ago and will pause for less than a second every few minutes. I also have Netflix and Hulu and no problems there, I consistently get over 70Mbps on internet. Reading some forums seems like this is pretty widespread recent problem on Amazon.

 

[ziggy29]

OTOH is anyone else having problems with Amazon Prime video pausing/buffering? It started a couple weeks ago and will pause for less than a second every few minutes. I also have Netflix and Hulu and no problems there, I consistently get over 70Mbps on internet. Reading some forums seems like this is pretty widespread recent problem on Amazon.

I'm wondering if your ISP may be throttling some streaming content, especially if it's a cable company. I know Netflix cut a deal with (I think) Verizon a while back to make sure Netflix content remains at a more consistently high speed (to the alarm of some net neutrality advocates), and maybe if Amazon hasn't, some ISPs may see it in their best interests to slow down other streaming content that would otherwise convince people to cut the cable.

 

[rodi]

Our cable company keeps jerking us around. It used to be that if you had a digital cable ready tv you could just plug the coax into the tv... Now they've encrypted everything and you have to get these little boxes. They're free for almost a year - but then will charge a rental fee for each one. I opted to get a cable card and digital tuning adapter for my tivo premiere in the living room (primary tv.) Unfortunately, our kitchen/kids tv had an older series 2 tivo hooked up to it - no cable card compatibility... so I got their stupid little box for that tv and for the tv in the room with the elliptical trainer.

When I called to turn off service for the old tivo - they told me about the black friday/cyber monday sales coming up. So I purchased a Roamio and a mini. I got the lowest featured one (vs plus/pro) because it can do OTA or cable.... I keep getting closer and closer to cutting the cord... but haven't yet.

This morning I'm returning the stupid little decoder boxes and picking up another cable card/tuning adapter.

I really despise TWC, but love tv, dvr, etc...

 

[Which Roger]

Just dropped Tivo Roamio after fulfilling the 1 year requirement. It will be a bit cheaper to buy seasons on Amazon Prime. And we're a bit too far to get a good consistent signal on OTA. Do miss the DVR functions though.
OTOH is anyone else having problems with Amazon Prime video pausing/buffering? It started a couple weeks ago and will pause for less than a second every few minutes. I also have Netflix and Hulu and no problems there, I consistently get over 70Mbps on internet. Reading some forums seems like this is pretty widespread recent problem on Amazon.

I've never had any problem streaming Amazon. My ISP is Comcast. The throttling that Ziggy refers to is one theory. If that's not the case, and you're using wifi to your TV, you may want to try a wired Ethernet connection. I never had the bandwidth issue you describe, but I did have cases where my smart TV was getting disconnected from the wifi. Haven't had any issue since I hardwired it.

 

[Which Roger]

I finally replaced our 1996-vintage TV with a UHD smart TV. We are looking at cutting the cable, so I've done several things to take us in that direction:
- Install a TV antenna. We now get a ton of local channels, many in HD
- Subscribe to Amazon prime. Tons of (free with subscription) programming, and no commercials.
- Investigated Sling TV to get the cable channels we care about most. But, smart TVs (at least LG which I own) do not yet have a Sling TV app. Supposedly one is in the works. I suppose I could spend a few bucks on Roku instead of waiting for the app.
- Another thing I tried is getting cable programs over the internet, using the TV's built-in web browser. Comcast provides on-line access to many of their cable programs if you have a Comcast internet ID. This didn't work because the TV's web browser does not support Flash Player, and there are no plans to do so. A workaround that I haven't tried yet is to play the content on a laptop and use the TV as a giant monitor.

 

[ziggy29]

A workaround that I haven't tried yet is to play the content on a laptop and use the TV as a giant monitor.

We do this for some content. A plus to this approach is that a computer can run VPN software to make you look like you live somewhere else, whether across the country or around the world, which may be necessary to allow you to access the content you're trying to get.

 

[folivier]

No problem streaming with either Hulu or Netflix on Cox, only with Amazon videos. Might hook up a cat5 cable and see if that makes any difference.

 

[easysurfer]

Have Comcast's basic internet and Amazon Fire TV. Once in a while, I'd get a pause to buffer but this is seldom. Overall, streaming works fine for me. When watching, I don't run anything else intensive to suck up bandwidth.

 

[W2R]

buffering issue

I don't really watch streaming video myself, even though I have access to F's Netflix on my TV as well as having access to my own Amazon Prime offerings.

F uses an Amazon Fire TV box to watch Netflix at his house, and lately he has been having severe buffering problems to the point that it is almost unwatchable.

My TV doesn't require the box because it is "smarter" than his. So, he came over to my house (next door), and can watch his own Netflix with no buffering over here, but not at his home through the box. We concluded that in our case, the buffering may have something to do with the box.

I offered to let him use my Amazon Fire stick which I don't need any more, but he hasn't taken me up on it. Instead, if my understanding is correct I think he said he is streaming Netflix directly to his laptop with the TV as a giant monitor, as suggested by Which Roger above.

 

[Gotadimple]

There have been reports of intermittent buffering problems with Amazon. You or F may want to Google it for any updates.

- Rita

 

[Chuckanut]

F uses an Amazon Fire TV box to watch Netflix at his house, and lately he has been having severe buffering problems to the point that it is almost unwatchable.

.

If you have cable internet service it is very possible that you might have neighbors hogging most of the capacity of your neighborhood cable. IIRC, and correct me if I am wrong, cable companies have one big pipe feeding a neighborhood. From that big pipe lots of little pipes are used for each house. So, if your neighbors decide to download tons of video while you are watching Netflix, they may be taxing the capacity of the big pipe. Since you're hooked up to that same pipe, your internet may suffer.

If you have Fios, my understanding is you have your own pipe that you do not share with others in your neighborhood. So, if they are all downloading HD video after video it should not affect the capacity of your pipe.

If I am wrong, please correct me. I remember reading this, maybe when they first put Fios into my neighborhood. So maybe it was sales propaganda.

 

[rodi]

If you have cable internet service it is very possible that you might have neighbors hogging most of the capacity of your neighborhood cable. IIRC, and correct me if I am wrong, cable companies have one big pipe feeding a neighborhood. From that big pipe lots of little pipes are used for each house. So, if your neighbors decide to download tons of video while you are watching Netflix, they may be taxing the capacity of the big pipe. Since you're hooked up to that same pipe, your internet may suffer.

If you have Fios, my understanding is you have your own pipe that you do not share with others in your neighborhood. So, if they are all downloading HD video after video it should not affect the capacity of your pipe.

If I am wrong, please correct me. I remember reading this, maybe when they first put Fios into my neighborhood. So maybe it was sales propaganda.

I know what you describe is true for DSL, but cable broadband is/was a bigger pipe than DSL. Friends who had DSL would find time of day a big determinant for speeds... Middle of the night had very fast speeds, evening had worst speeds.

 

[W2R]

We each have internet service from the same cable provider, next door to one another.

He has severe buffering problems, and I don't have any.

He has severe buffering problems only when going through the Amazon box, and has none when using the TV as a big monitor for streaming video from his laptop.

Oh well. I suggested to him that he should just use the latter procedure, and not continue with the former, so if he does that then I guess the problem is solved.

 

[REWahoo]

We each have internet service from the same cable provider, next door to one another. He has severe buffering problems, and I don't have any.

A problem with his cable modem or his router?

 

[W2R]

A problem with his cable modem or his router?

Yes, although his cable modem is new, it could be his router and he already brought that up. He's not crazy about the idea of buying a router right now, for frugality reasons.

However, the fact that he can get the streaming video just fine on his laptop (through his wireless network), and use the TV as a monitor, makes me think that the router may not be the problem.

Honestly, I haven't thought about his problem more than about 30 seconds (other than writing these posts), because I'm pretty sure he'll figure it out.