Update on Cord Cutting (Cable TV) 2017 - 2020

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zinger1457 said:
You can get a 2 year price guarantee directly from Dish, 190 channels for $59.99, includes 1 receiver, $5 for each additional receiver. Locking into a price isn't a bad deal IMO, there's only one way prices for all live TV services (including streaming) are going and that's up.
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As long as "New and qualifying former customers only. All offers require credit qualification, 2-year commitment with early termination fee and eAutoPay. Prices include Hopper Duo for qualifying customers. Hopper, Hopper w/Sling or Hopper 3 $5/mo. more. Upfront fees may apply based on credit qualification. Fees apply for additional TVs: Hopper $15/mo., Joey $5/mo., Super Joey $10/mo. After 3 mos., you will be billed $30/mo. for Showtime, STARZ, and DISH Movie Pack unless you call or go online to cancel."

As former Dish customers (cut the cord from Dish Feb 2018) we probably wouldn't qualify anyway, but I can't imagine going back to service calls/technicians and contracts again. YMMV
 
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zinger1457 said:
You can get a 2 year price guarantee directly from Dish, 190 channels for $59.99, includes 1 receiver, $5 for each additional receiver. Locking into a price isn't a bad deal IMO, there's only one way prices for all live TV services (including streaming) are going and that's up.
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That may be true, but after 20 years of living where Dish and AT&T satellite TV were my only choices other than local OTA channels, I'm done with locking myself in with a two year contract no matter how good the deal may appear. Pay close attention to the Dish price guarantee "Terms and Conditions" and look for wording that excludes some items, allows them charge service fees and allow them other ways to get deeper into your wallet over the two years they have you locked in.

One of the highlights of 2019 was saying goodbye to Dish after our electric co-op strung fiber optic cable to our house and we were able to get fast, reliable and reasonably priced internet service. Our annual TV and internet costs dropped by a combined $680 and both DW and I love the ability to change streaming service providers whenever we choose. Plus, I don't have to call anyone up at the end of our contract term and play the "I'm leaving if you don't give me a better deal" head-butting game.
 
Midpack said:
As former Dish customers we probably wouldn't qualify anyway, but I can't imagine going back to service calls/technicians and contracts again. YMMV
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I was a customer late 90s through early 00s. I liked it OK, but you had to buy the equipment and their UI changes would overrun the capability (memory and CPU) of older equipment, forcing you to upgrade or wait 5 seconds between key presses.

Also, two words: "Rain Fade"

Charlie Ergen is an interesting guy. He would have a kind of fireside chat with customers every few weeks, mostly about the technology and general issues with the service. He was very visible and accessible for a CEO. But on the other hand, he is a tough negotiator and no way would I want to deal with him. It is ultimately one reason I left. That hard nosed negotiation trickles down to the customer contracts.
 
I paused YTTV for 2 months, but will probably stop it. I signed up yesterday for a free month of CBS All Access. I like reality based tv shows and other programs, such as 60 Minutes, Face the Nation, Sunday Morning and some of the comedy shows we watch are all on CBS. It is normally $5.99 per month with commercials. If we like it, we will pay for the annual amount, which is $4.99 per month. We will keep Amazon Prime, which we have had for years and Netflix. Plenty of tv for me. It looks like YTTV rate increase, will end up being cheaper for us.
 
DW seems to be interested in Sling Blue plus Total TV package, but local channels will be a challenge. At a minimum, we would need an attic antenna and quite possibly an outdoor antenna (the latter is not happening for us).

Locast would be a good option for the local channels, but they served only the Dallas and Houston areas, not the Austin nor San Antonio areas.
 
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BeachOrCity said:
I have a spectrum account at a vacation rental and the credentials won’t work outside the home in a different geo.

This is for the spectrum app, not for HBO Go etc.

How does it work for you?

This could save me my yttv 65 bucks that I use for my own home.
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Using FitzyTV with Spectrum cable TV credentials.
 
Dreamer said:
I paused YTTV for 2 months, but will probably stop it. I signed up yesterday for a free month of CBS All Access. I like reality based tv shows and other programs, such as 60 Minutes, Face the Nation, Sunday Morning and some of the comedy shows we watch are all on CBS. It is normally $5.99 per month with commercials. If we like it, we will pay for the annual amount, which is $4.99 per month. We will keep Amazon Prime, which we have had for years and Netflix. Plenty of tv for me. It looks like YTTV rate increase, will end up being cheaper for us.
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We paused YTTV too, but for as long as I could. I know I'm a nit to YTTV but I want them to know that I'm unhappy with the price increase.

We like CBS and CBS All Access is an inexpensive way for us to get our favorite local since we can't get OTA... but we'll splurge and get the no commercials for $10/mo. We'll use Fitzy with Mom's Spectrum credentials for some other cable channels or the individual apps with our Xfinity credentials.

This cobbled together approach is only for a couple months until we leave for Florida.
 
Midpack said:
As former Dish customers (cut the cord from Dish Feb 2018) we probably wouldn't qualify anyway,
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In my experience switching between Dish and DirecTV for the last 23 years their only 'real' requirement for a promo offer is that you're not a current customer and you're able and willing to pay. I usually start to get 'come back' mailings from Dish 1 month after cancelling my service.
 
statsman said:
DW seems to be interested in Sling Blue plus Total TV package, but local channels will be a challenge. At a minimum, we would need an attic antenna and quite possibly an outdoor antenna (the latter is not happening for us).

Locast would be a good option for the local channels, but they served only the Dallas and Houston areas, not the Austin nor San Antonio areas.
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We got a number of local channels ota, which was a surprise for us. That said, we don’t use the ota channels much. We found most of our local channels we wanted to watch had a roku app that we could use. We use the locals mainly for news, so ymmv, but it’s worth looking into.
 
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Uh oh. NHL hockey on NBC appears to be 30 fps on Hulu. Too bad, because the game on the Fox RSN was outstanding in quality.

This is basically unwatchable and a show stopper for me.

YTTV is transmitting at 60 fps and is fine. I'm was leaning to Hulu until this... Dang I hate to feed the Alphabet beast, but it looks like I will.
 
JoeWras said:
Uh oh. NHL hockey on NBC appears to be 30 fps on Hulu. Too bad, because the game on the Fox RSN was outstanding in quality.

This is basically unwatchable and a show stopper for me.

YTTV is transmitting at 60 fps and is fine. I'm was leaning to Hulu until this... Dang I hate to feed the Alphabet beast, but it looks like I will.
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Hulu’s upgrade to 60 fps is supposedly complete for every network except CBS affiliates. I found several articles, here’s just one https://thestreamable.com/live-tv-streaming/hulu-live-tv/60-fps-channels

Frame rate limits can be hardware-app specific or bandwidth constrained as you probably know.
Hulu Live TV offers 60 fps support on all channels, except local CBS affiliates. They recently added support for all Fire TV devices, so you can now stream in 60 fps on all streaming devices.
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Midpack said:
Hulu’s upgrade to 60 fps is supposedly complete for every network except CBS affiliates. I found several articles, here’s just one https://thestreamable.com/live-tv-streaming/hulu-live-tv/60-fps-channels

Frame rate limits can be hardware-app specific or bandwidth constrained as you probably know.
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Thanks, Midpack. This was an NBC channel, so that wasn't it. But your answer got me digging deeper.

You'd think a company (hulu) paying for advertisement on every Roku remote (specific shortcut button) would prioritize Roku for various support improvements. Nope. According to this help page, still no 60fps for live channels on Roku.

https://help.hulu.com/s/article/video-quality?language=en_US

hulu appears to be iOS centric in their support priority, for both phone and AppleTV. They slow roll support to other platforms. Obviously there is SOME 60fps support since the Fox RSN quality blew me away and had to be 60fps. They probably work on the sports centric channels first.

So, for now, it will be YTTV for me. But the great thing is with no contracts, I can change later if desired. That's the nice thing about streaming.

The not-so-nice thing is it still requires a little nerdy work. Almost like Linux. Sure it is great, but stuff like this that "should just work" surprise you, and you end up being a nerd trying to figure out what is wrong or get an answer.
 
JoeWras said:
Thanks, Midpack. This was an NBC channel, so that wasn't it. But your answer got me digging deeper.

You'd think a company (hulu) paying for advertisement on every Roku remote (specific shortcut button) would prioritize Roku for various support improvements. Nope. According to this help page, still no 60fps for live channels on Roku.

https://help.hulu.com/s/article/video-quality?language=en_US

hulu appears to be iOS centric in their support priority, for both phone and AppleTV. They slow roll support to other platforms. Obviously there is SOME 60fps support since the Fox RSN quality blew me away and had to be 60fps. They probably work on the sports centric channels first.

So, for now, it will be YTTV for me. But the great thing is with no contracts, I can change later if desired. That's the nice thing about streaming.

The not-so-nice thing is it still requires a little nerdy work. Almost like Linux. Sure it is great, but stuff like this that "should just work" surprise you, and you end up being a nerd trying to figure out what is wrong or get an answer.
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I saw that, and it’s apparent there’s some friction between Hulu and Roku (that I was unaware of), but this says it’s only older Roku models that don’t support the latest Hulu app and features https://help.hulu.com/s/article/supported-roku?language=en_US

I’m not discounting your experience, just not seeing 30 fps at our house (I have the Roku Ultra, SS+ and SS and Hulu + Live ver 9.3.0).
 
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JoeWras said:
Uh oh. NHL hockey on NBC appears to be 30 fps on Hulu. Too bad, because the game on the Fox RSN was outstanding in quality.

This is basically unwatchable and a show stopper for me.

YTTV is transmitting at 60 fps and is fine. I'm was leaning to Hulu until this... Dang I hate to feed the Alphabet beast, but it looks like I will.
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Isn't NBC 1080i @ 30 fps (which I also think is the spec for most non-OTA channels), while Fox is part of a handful that broadcast 720p @ 60fps?

I thought that 720p @ 60 fps was mainly ABC, Fox (broadcast and sports channels), and ESPN.
 
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Midpack said:
I saw that, and it’s apparent there’s some friction between Hulu and Roku (that I was unaware of), but this says it’s only older Roku models that don’t support the latest Hulu app and features https://help.hulu.com/s/article/supported-roku?language=en_US

I’m not discounting your experience, just not seeing 30 fps at our house (I have the Roku Ultra, SS+ and SS and Hulu + Live ver 9.3.0).
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I have Roku Premier. Again, worked fine on the Fox RSN. I'm going to assume some switch for a sporting event on NBC wasn't thrown.

Do you know how to find the stats on Hulu as to frame rate? It is easy to get on YTTV (nerd stats).
 
MissMolly said:
Have you tried accessing the "secret" menus on Roku to look for the information?

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/162197/20160531/access-secret-menus-roku-device.htm
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Thanks I didn’t know about the secret menus. That said I tried a few and didn’t find any very useful, and nothing showing frame rate at all, or anything network/channel/program specific anyway. Nothing like YT stats for nerd in real time.

While I am sure my setup is 4K capable, when I play 4K programming I’m usually unsure if I’m actually seeing 4K, unless it’s on (free) YT with stats for nerds on. I haven’t been able to get any 4K Disney+ programming to work either, but we’re going to cancel D+ now that DW has watched Hamilton 3-4 times...
 
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Well, it was worth a shot. At least now you know they are there :)
 
I get up and stand in front of the TV when hockey is on. Pretend I was there. LOL.

Can't say I've noticed the HuluLive NBCSN frame rate is less, but I hope I forget this and it doesn't bother me...

Go Flyers!
 
target2019 said:
I get up and stand in front of the TV when hockey is on. Pretend I was there. LOL.

Can't say I've noticed the HuluLive NBCSN frame rate is less, but I hope I forget this and it doesn't bother me...

Go Flyers!
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Watching a bit of the game on NBCSN right now.

It is fine! Looks like 60fps. You won't be bothered for most of the playoffs since they are on NBCSN or regionals.

The problem was yesterday's games on NBC. They were clearly at a reduced frame rate.

So hulu definitely can turn up the frame rate on sports channels. They seem to be cheating on local affiliates. Well if that affiliate has a fast moving sport, someone needs to turn it up to 60.
 
The 3pm hockey game was on the local NBC affiliate and again suffered. That's my last post on this. I'm sure hulu will get it right soon. They've clearly made progress on this over the last year, as seen from internet discussion forensics. :)
 
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