Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) 2017 - 2020

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Sojourner said:
...So do you think this means that no Fox and FX shows—regardless of whether recorded via DVR or watched on-demand—can be fast forwarded?...
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That's certainly what it would seem to indicate. I just tested a FOX show that DW records called "The Resident." For this program, PSV asks if you want to watch On Demand or Cloud DVR. When I select On Demand, I cannot FFW. But on the Cloud DVR version, it does allow FFW even though this is a FOX program, which seems to be contrary to what's written in the PSV FAQ.

Unlike Midpack, I have never been able to FFW through any On Demand program on PSV. But... just put any show that you might want to watch in My Shows and you should be able to FFW through the commercials. Like Midcap, I've never had a problem with Cloud DVR. But the show I just tested is the only FOX program on either DW's or my profile. So certainly not a complete test.
 
bUU said:
BGR: The future of cord-cutting looks grim right now. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwi56HwTo
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I guess it's all in your perspective. The future looks pretty bright to me.

Cable is on the way out. Big deal, I haven't had it for years. People will have to pay big bucks for top-line movie and sports channels. Big deal, they do that now. And I don't watch those anyway.

There will be a competitive marketplace where people get to decide what it's worth to them to watch any particular service. That's good.

My own cable company finally stopped sending me 1-2 flyers a week trying to get me to buy into a bundle. Last week I got their promotion for a new service offering a menu of streaming options - no cable box needed.

Seems they're starting down the path toward the future.

Most people happily pay huge sums for entertainment. That won't change. Large profits will still be made. But maybe there will be more options for those who don't enjoy spending that much on it. That would be a good thing.
 
bUU said:
BGR: The future of cord-cutting looks grim right now. http://google.com/newsstand/s/CBIwi56HwTo
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May be. I figure I might was well strike while the iron is hot, and save $500-$600/yr vs cable/satellite now. Waiting might result in getting the worst (value) of both worlds...

We’re not missing anything with our current all streaming setup. If networks decide to take all their content in house available only thru their streaming app, we’ll have to decide what we really want. I doubt we’ll opt for all of them, and we may rely on OTA for more. But many people may subscribe to all the apps, just as they’re fine paying $200+/mo for cable satellite now.

Though it would be a PITA to deal with 6 apps vs a consolidated “guide” - that might be an opportunity for the hardware folks like Roku, Apple TV, etc.

Cable/satellite thought they’d always have us all over a barrel, that model appears is clearly eroding. And if the above linked scenadio comes to pass, likely it won’t last forever either.
 
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They really need a second broadband pipe into the home nationwide.

That would weaken the grip that cable has and boost streaming services.

5G is suppose to be this competition for home broadband.

We should know by 2020 if it's a contender or pretender.
 
I'm sure the cable companies will figure out new and fun ways to charge people more.

2 years on Playstation Vue. Great DVR and On Demand functionality from day 1.

Some facts:

1. 10mb internet might work, but it will not be the best. 25mb and up is recommended
2. Your router matters. Think about an upgrade and ways to improve signal strength
3. The Box version will always perform better than the Stick version. Expect a Stick to work but be slower. Amazon Fire TV boxes are zippy fast. The Stick works fine, but there is more lag and buffer time.
4. Expect internet to keep going up. If you have 2 or more competitors, expect to bounce around trying to capture new customer discounts.
5. See how many simultaneous streams you need. Playstation Vue is 5. Others are 1-4. Don't be surprised if you can't stream on 3 or 4 TVs with some of the solutions.
6. All are "no contract" which is part of the cord cutting. Be able to fire your provider at any time for any reason.
7. The hardware (Roku, FireTV, Apple TV, etc) will continue to get better and faster, but that means upgrading every 2 years or so to capture the increases. This isn't free, but is nowhere near cable box fees.
 
Between the telco and cableco they both have special pricing for 1 year. To get the best deal bounce between the two and always be on the "special" rate. Yesterday I went to the telco and will go back to the cableco in a year.
 
bloom2708 said:
I'm sure the cable companies will figure out new and fun ways to charge people more.

2 years on Playstation Vue. Great DVR and On Demand functionality from day 1.

Some facts:

1. 10mb internet might work, but it will not be the best. 25mb and up is recommended
2. Your router matters. Think about an upgrade and ways to improve signal strength
3. The Box version will always perform better than the Stick version. Expect a Stick to work but be slower. Amazon Fire TV boxes are zippy fast. The Stick works fine, but there is more lag and buffer time.
4. Expect internet to keep going up. If you have 2 or more competitors, expect to bounce around trying to capture new customer discounts.
5. See how many simultaneous streams you need. Playstation Vue is 5. Others are 1-4. Don't be surprised if you can't stream on 3 or 4 TVs with some of the solutions.
6. All are "no contract" which is part of the cord cutting. Be able to fire your provider at any time for any reason.
7. The hardware (Roku, FireTV, Apple TV, etc) will continue to get better and faster, but that means upgrading every 2 years or so to capture the increases. This isn't free, but is nowhere near cable box fees.
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All good points, though PS Vue recommends 10mb or more. Not 25mb or more. Firestick recommends 5mb for HD streaming. It's a real bait and switch to have 10mb, then you try it and be told, Oh, you really need at least 25mb. This is one of the problems I have with these cord cutting ideas, everyone tells you how easy it is, then you find out it's not quite so easy.

It looks like I could bump my internet speed from 10mb to 25mb, but it's another $30. Pay for a better streaming box. Get a newer router. Right now cutting the cord looks more expensive than keeping it. I'm in a rural mountain area (same county as where The Waltons TV show was set), so most people are probably better off than me for internet speed, price, and options.
 
Our library now has a free, streaming service called Kanopy. It doesn't seem to offer the latest or most popular movies, but there are lots of documentaries, indie films, and older classics available.
 
Just a couple adds.
bloom2708 said:
I'm sure the cable companies will figure out new and fun ways to charge people more.

2 years on Playstation Vue. Great DVR and On Demand functionality from day 1.

Some facts:

1. 10mb internet might work, but it will not be the best. 25mb and up is recommended. 10 mbps for one stream in HD, plus 5 mbps for each additional stream - but I'd agree at least 25 mpbs is best for more than one stream. 4K/UHD will require a lot more. And make sure you check your data cap too, not just speed. DW and I using 500-600GB per month, but our cap is 1TB. We'll use less in Spring, Summer and Fall (Winter sucks).
 2. Your router matters. Think about an upgrade and ways to improve signal strength
3. The Box version will always perform better than the Stick version. Expect a Stick to work but be slower. Amazon Fire TV boxes are zippy fast. The Stick works fine, but there is more lag and buffer time.
4. Expect internet to keep going up. If you have 2 or more competitors, expect to bounce around trying to capture new customer discounts.
5. See how many simultaneous streams you need. Playstation Vue is 5 (yes but unless there's been a recent change (could be), only 3 simultaneous TV's at a time with PS Vue, plus mobile devices for the other 2). Others are 1-4. Don't be surprised if you can't stream on 3 or 4 TVs with some of the solutions.
6. All are "no contract" which is part of the cord cutting. Be able to fire your provider at any time for any reason. :D
7. The hardware (Roku, FireTV, Apple TV, etc) will continue to get better and faster, but that means upgrading every 2 years or so to capture the increases. This isn't free, but is nowhere near cable box fees. Agreed, I know the difference between the early 2017 and early 2018 Roku model lineups was very significant - much better performance and remotes.
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roku

JOHNNIE36 said:
This thread really interests me. I've always wanted to "cut the cord" and will be doing something along those lines in the near future when we move. No sense messing with it now. I have to admit, I don't know much about the alternatives. My wife is a TV fanatic. One of our big costs is the number of TV's we are running (5) which requires additional set top boxes and digital adapters. We're at $194/mo for TV, internet and phone. Plus we have Netflix and Amazon which puts the monthly bill at about $212. Will probably eliminate phone when we establish new residency. Wish I knew more about Roku, etc. Keep talking folks--I'm listening.
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Roku is the greatest thing since slice bread. I cut the cable cord 6 yrs ago because of the customer service and cost of cable tv. I have more stuff to watch on roku than I will ever watch. Love watching the BBC channel
 
It wouldn't be enough for me, or especially DW - but as others have mentioned earlier you could get a lot of TV for free

  • using OTA for local major channel networks and
  • it's surprising how much is on Pluto TV as well.
For now PS Vue + PBS Passport is the least we can accept. We're happy saving $500-$600/yr, but we could save another $600/yr with the two sources above...
 
Midpack said:
It wouldn't be enough for me, or especially DW - but as others have mentioned earlier you could get a lot of TV for free

  • using OTA for local major channel networks and
  • it's surprising how much is on Pluto TV as well.
For now PS Vue + PBS Passport is the least we can accept. We're happy saving $500-$600/yr, but we could save another $600/yr with the two sources above...
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Out of college football/basketball season, I could live with OTA alone. But I'd want to be able to record it easily, including multiple shows at once. I actually have 3 going on in one slot tonight at 10pm, which my old Dish receiver handles. Stores them forever, or at least until I run out of room or the box dies, and I can forward through commercials.

Maybe I can find another product that does this, but for at least football season, and preferably basketball season, I want sports channels too, and Dish handles that well for me. I don't think it's worth switching recording systems for these next few months, and I'm not sure whether Dish would let me hibernate for a few months. So I just downgrade to a lower package and live with it.
 
Quick update - dropped TV from Comcast bundle - they dropped the cost from $75 to $60 for 12 months - no contract - this is for 60mb service - YouTube TV working fine.
Overall only saving $7 a month - but a few more channels.
I was thinking of trying Consolidated Communications - for Internet.
Having no contracts and unbundling gives you so much flexibility.
 
RunningBum said:
Out of college football/basketball season, I could live with OTA alone. But I'd want to be able to record it easily, including multiple shows at once. I actually have 3 going on in one slot tonight at 10pm, which my old Dish receiver handles. Stores them forever, or at least until I run out of room or the box dies, and I can forward through commercials.

Maybe I can find another product that does this, but for at least football season, and preferably basketball season, I want sports channels too, and Dish handles that well for me. I don't think it's worth switching recording systems for these next few months, and I'm not sure whether Dish would let me hibernate for a few months. So I just downgrade to a lower package and live with it.
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If you're talking Dish satellite, when I cancelled them in Jan, they offered to let me go dormant for up to 9 months in case I wanted to come back - it was either $5 or $9/mo IIRC. I didn't take them up on their offer, but FWIW.
 
Midpack said:
If you're talking Dish satellite, when I cancelled them in Jan, they offered to let me go dormant for up to 9 months in case I wanted to come back - it was either $5 or $9/mo IIRC. I didn't take them up on their offer, but FWIW.
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Yeah, I think I've seen that, now that you mention it. Not worth it to me to figure out a different system for 5 months. I'd save about $45-50 per month. That's something, but not a big enough fish for me to do something about. I do watch non-OTA channels once in awhile, so it's not just money going down the drain for nothing.
 
RunningBum said:
Out of college football/basketball season, I could live with OTA alone. But I'd want to be able to record it easily, including multiple shows at once. I actually have 3 going on in one slot tonight at 10pm, which my old Dish receiver handles. Stores them forever, or at least until I run out of room or the box dies, and I can forward through commercials.
Click to expand...

For OTA get a Tivo. They have a variety of DVR's from the low-cost Roamio OTA which is often sold with lifetime guide service to the more expensive Bolt models that will handle 4K and newer TV features.

The OTA machine has four tuners so tonight you can record 3 while you are watching a fourth. Not bad.
 
Chuckanut said:
For OTA get a Tivo. They have a variety of DVR's from the low-cost Roamio OTA which is often sold with lifetime guide service to the more expensive Bolt models that will handle 4K and newer TV features.

The OTA machine has four tuners so tonight you can record 3 while you are watching a fourth. Not bad.
Click to expand...

Or a Tablo with the same functionality as above for OTA recording. Comes in 2 or 4-tuner models. Hook it up to your antennae and is accessible to all TV's over the Roku.
 
I don't mean to keep moving the bar but another factor is that I have a 3 room setup on 3 different floors that I can run off of one receiver, so I can watch what I've recorded from any room without moving anything. It took some extra HDMI cabling and splitting, but it works great. I just need 3 IR/UHF remote controls (I forget which goes thru walls). This isn't even with the Dish Hopper, which I could do but I don't want to pay the extra hopper fees.

I'm not looking to change. I mean, I'm open to it, but I've got a good working system and I don't want to compromise to save a few bucks. I just revived this thread to post what I found trying an experimental run with a Firestick and internet bandwidth that meets the requirements that some might try using to cut the cord. As was pointed out, you should probably expect to pay more for equipment and bandwidth than the minimum requirements. So, my finding is that most of these solutions won't save me as much money as I was thinking. YMMV, especially if you already have faster internet.

I do appreciate the suggestions, lest anyone think I'm just trying to shoot everything down. Information is good. I just want to make more clear where I'm at.
 
RunningBum said:
I don't mean to keep moving the bar but another factor is that I have a 3 room setup on 3 different floors that I can run off of one receiver, so I can watch what I've recorded from any room without moving anything. It took some extra HDMI cabling and splitting, but it works great. I just need 3 IR/UHF remote controls (I forget which goes thru walls). This isn't even with the Dish Hopper, which I could do but I don't want to pay the extra hopper fees.

I'm not looking to change. I mean, I'm open to it, but I've got a good working system and I don't want to compromise to save a few bucks. I just revived this thread to post what I found trying an experimental run with a Firestick and internet bandwidth that meets the requirements that some might try using to cut the cord. As was pointed out, you should probably expect to pay more for equipment and bandwidth than the minimum requirements. So, my finding is that most of these solutions won't save me as much money as I was thinking. YMMV, especially if you already have faster internet.

I do appreciate the suggestions, lest anyone think I'm just trying to shoot everything down. Information is good. I just want to make more clear where I'm at.
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We have one antennae, one Tablo and 5 TVs. TVs are either Roku TVs or have a Roku stick. We do not move anything from room to room. Roku sticks can frequently be found for $25. The Rokus have a Tablo app that allows us to watch OTA TV or whatever we have recorded on the Tablo. It is beamed over WiFi.
 
MissMolly said:
We have one antennae, one Tablo and 5 TVs. TVs are either Roku TVs or have a Roku stick. We do not move anything from room to room. Roku sticks can frequently be found for $25. The Rokus have a Tablo app that allows us to watch OTA TV or whatever we have recorded on the Tablo. It is beamed over WiFi.
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Sounds like that would work for me for the offseason. If it weren't for sports, I'd have cut the cord long ago. But I have the issues I mentioned before with the choppiness at my bandwidth level, wanting multiple streams (I have 3 TVs in my lower level TV room -- I don't like calling it a man cave though that's what it is -- that I watch football and March Madness on), and not being able to quickly change channels that are not easily overcome. So I don't want to redo the TV hookups and buy extra equipment for just the offseason. I do like the idea of wifi over cabling though, for sharing recorded content anywhere in the house. I'll file that away. If my bandwidth ever gets a lot better, I will look at the Tablo or similar + PS Vue + a stick on each TV.
 
Chuckanut said:
For OTA get a Tivo. They have a variety of DVR's from the low-cost Roamio OTA which is often sold with lifetime guide service to the more expensive Bolt models that will handle 4K and newer TV features.

The OTA machine has four tuners so tonight you can record 3 while you are watching a fourth. Not bad.
Click to expand...

For the last 2 years, the Roamio OTA w/ lifetime service has been $199 delivered directly from Tivo.com during their end of November sale.
 
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