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Folks who have cut the cable cord, advice needed

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My setup:

Roku in the living room.
SmartTV in the bedroom.
Mohu Leaf connected to both TVs.
Netflix + Hulu+ + Amazon Streaming w/ Prime + using a buddy's HBOGO account.

I couldn't ask for more options.
 
NoCreativity said:
If you do netflix streaming there is a shortage of newer content on it. We have to supplement with mailed discs to get a lot of newer stuff. I haven't looked into Amazon or Hulu so that may make up for newer television shows and movies.
Click to expand...

it doesn't


<amazon prime + (former) hulu plus member
 
I haven't had cable for years. Netflix, Amazon Prime, and iTunes for me. I don't watch sports that often, so that doesn't affect me much.
 
If you have Aereo in your area, you can stream (and remote-DVR) local broadcast stations and you won't need an antenna.
 
SAWYER said:
You should look into something like a jailbroke apple tv 2 ...
Click to expand...

If you already have an iPad or iPod touch, just get a regular Apple TV (3rd generation) with 1080p support. Almost every streaming application is available for iOS and has AirPlay support.
 
Ichinisan said:
If you already have an iPad or iPod touch, just get a regular Apple TV (3rd generation) with 1080p support. Almost every streaming application is available for iOS and has AirPlay support.
Click to expand...

does that include things like nbc/abc player?
 
I've been toying with this idea for months. It's the sports holding me back. I'm at $102 right now for my dish package per month. I already have a HTPC setup with XBMC and have a ton of movies/shows on there. I would ditch dish, grab a Roku and Amazon+Netflix and maybe Hulu and come out $70 ahead every month...but no sports. Small town so no good OTA coverage...West Coast so no Aereo. As soon as a viable option for streaming the NFL and Redzone pops up, goodbye dish. Until then...
 
-slash- said:
I've been toying with this idea for months. It's the sports holding me back. I'm at $102 right now for my dish package per month. I already have a HTPC setup with XBMC and have a ton of movies/shows on there. I would ditch dish, grab a Roku and Amazon+Netflix and maybe Hulu and come out $70 ahead every month...but no sports. Small town so no good OTA coverage...West Coast so no Aereo. As soon as a viable option for streaming the NFL and Redzone pops up, goodbye dish. Until then...
Click to expand...

you have one option for NFL Network. since football is the only sport I care about it's a lot easier than having to worry about multiple sports.

my folks have optimum. optimum is one of about 7 carriers that if you subscribe to the nfl network, you can go to the nfl website and put in your cable carrier username and password and voila, you can now stream both NFL Network and Redzone. i've been doing it all season. so that's what i will do to solve that problem.

so basically, if you know anyone getting tv from the providers that it works with, have them sign up for the nfl network channel (for optimum it is $5 a month) and then give you a login.

obviously this has to be someone relatively close to you friendship or family wise because it entails giving you the login info to their cable company account.
 
Joe1987 said:
... the OTA stuff will likely go away if Aero and similar services are successful in court. ...
Click to expand...
Why do you say that? Despite the opposition from the local broadcast stations, Aereo helps those broadcasters reach more people. When they reach more people, their ad revenue also goes up.

If they're already broadcasting it over-the-air for free, there's absolutely no negative impact to having another entity help distribute the signal to reach more people.
 
PixelSquish said:
you have one option for NFL Network. since football is the only sport I care about it's a lot easier than having to worry about multiple sports.

my folks have optimum. optimum is one of about 7 carriers that if you subscribe to the nfl network, you can go to the nfl website and put in your cable carrier username and password and voila, you can now stream both NFL Network and Redzone. i've been doing it all season. so that's what i will do to solve that problem.

so basically, if you know anyone getting tv from the providers that it works with, have them sign up for the nfl network channel (for optimum it is $5 a month) and then give you a login.

obviously this has to be someone relatively close to you friendship or family wise because it entails giving you the login info to their cable company account.
Click to expand...

My parents use Dish and already get NFL network, just have to pay em for Redzone. Dont know if my dad will go for it, but its a start. I just tested it here at work and it looks good. Worked perfectly with my current dish login. Not sure how I'll get local game coverage though...
 
PixelSquish said:
you have one option for NFL Network. since football is the only sport I care about it's a lot easier than having to worry about multiple sports.

my folks have optimum. optimum is one of about 7 carriers that if you subscribe to the nfl network, you can go to the nfl website and put in your cable carrier username and password and voila, you can now stream both NFL Network and Redzone. i've been doing it all season. so that's what i will do to solve that problem.

so basically, if you know anyone getting tv from the providers that it works with, have them sign up for the nfl network channel (for optimum it is $5 a month) and then give you a login.

obviously this has to be someone relatively close to you friendship or family wise because it entails giving you the login info to their cable company account.
Click to expand...

I believe NFL Network also has the season pass for streaming available for countries outside of the US and Canada. So, if you knew someone in Sweden that could sign up for the service for you, you might be able to just stream the NFL stuff. I am not sure if you have to use a proxy or not though. I also know the DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket has an option for streaming a few of my friends paid others they knew were getting it the extra cost for the user / pass to watch it online.

There are ways, but most are probably less than legal. I know there are a few streaming services that offer all the NFL content, but they are behind a pay wall.

If you are okay with pirating the majority of content, cutting the cord for cable is doable. But, if you'd rather not download your stuff, there is really no way around seeing content anywhere near when it comes out. Example: the last half of Season 5 of Breaking Bad is not on Netflix yet, so you can't watch it without piracy or buying the DVDs AFAIK.
 
There's a series coming up this summer on Starz, can't wait. But since I don't have cable/satellite, I'm not sure how I'm going to see it.

My aunt has Dish, I may ask her to add Starz and pay her for it.
 
notposting said:
Yeah, there really isn't that much better selection when you do have 800 channels available, 😛



But at least with the streaming options you know what you are paying. Most of these cable/telco companies then add outlet fees, outlet HD fees, HD tier fees, mythical local franchise fees, box rentals, HD box rentals, HD DVR box rentals, DVR fees, PMITA fees, random price increases, change channel lineups left and right, etc etc.
Click to expand...

Ugh those fees. Quite true. I think some fall into the same trap though, all those 8.99 streaming options start to add up again, just like the TV packages. All in all I was just surprised at how much I really didn't care once it all went away.
 
sportage said:
... I really like just having a good HD antenna (if you can get local reception), and a few tivo's as the best option.
Only bad is that tivo charges way too much for their services. ...
Click to expand...

Get a dual-tuner Silicondust HDHomeRun and connect it to your network. Build an HTPC (or more than one) with Windows 7 or Windows 8 + Media Center add-on.
 
-slash- said:
My parents use Dish and already get NFL network, just have to pay em for Redzone. Dont know if my dad will go for it, but its a start. I just tested it here at work and it looks good. Worked perfectly with my current dish login. Not sure how I'll get local game coverage though...
Click to expand...

oh good to hear. if it's that close of a family member(s) you should be good to go.

yes the image quality is great. i've never noticed buffering or low quality video from the NFL online. as long as you have the speed from your provider you are good to go.

like 5 years ago i had a job where i traveled 18 times a year for 3-4 days at a time. and i ran a weekend event so i was always there on Sundays. my old boss had the whole nfl package from direcTV - he gave me his login info and i could watch any game plus the redzone channel. that was a hook up.
 
GTaudiophile said:
Why doesn't someone build a competitor to the TiVo box without all the service fee BS? Like a Roku with Antenna and LAN inputs, HDMI output, and maybe a SSD inside for some DVR functionality?
Click to expand...

You can roll your own with an HTPC. Once you get past the configuration, Windows Media Center is an excellent DVR interface.
 
PixelSquish said:
oh good to hear. if it's that close of a family member(s) you should be good to go.

yes the image quality is great. i've never noticed buffering or low quality video from the NFL online. as long as you have the speed from your provider you are good to go.

like 5 years ago i had a job where i traveled 18 times a year for 3-4 days at a time. and i ran a weekend event so i was always there on Sundays. my old boss had the whole nfl package from direcTV - he gave me his login info and i could watch any game plus the redzone channel. that was a hook up.
Click to expand...

Running fiber 30/mb+ up/down all the time so no issues there. I think I'm going to pick up a Roku before cancelling the dish and see what all I can get on it. If I can manage to get everything I want I'll cut the cord to dish. If not, well I still have a Roku for the free stuff.:whiste:
 
notposting said:
We ran an HTPC setup since around 2007. First with VMC, then 7MC, eventually ended up with a WHS + MyMovies, HDHR, 7MC setup. Somewhere around 700 discs ripped to our server, plus clear-QAM tuning through Comcast (Limited Basic, but beauty HD with no extra charge). Comcast has since encrypted them though requiring boxes or Cablecards, so to hell with that.

However, right now we are using a Roku 2XS and have Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Aereo as the primary channels we are using (we also have things like Crackle, PBS, Lifetime, etc on there). Aereo gets us a pile of channels (Detroit area) and the DVR has worked well thus far.

Of course, we are on a $30 internet only promo, eventually after 18 months I think it goes to ~$60. Comcast does have a $50 6/1 tier regular price tier though, would probably downgrade to that if it came down to it.

Probably helps if you just don't give a crap about watching things and aren't picky about what's available when you do bother to watch things. Heck, I've basically given up watching sports or even caring for the most part at this point.
Click to expand...
HDHomeRun Prime works with encrypted channels. Lease the cableCARD for $2 from Comcast and you're golden.
 
with the stupid Net Neutrality situation in the States, I think there is going to be some serious problem for the likes of hulu and netflix if that decision doesn't get overturned.
 
Ns1 said:
does that include things like nbc/abc player?
Click to expand...

I have those apps. I'll try it when I get home.

[edit]
NBC app: A user review seems to imply that AirPlay doesn't work anymore, but used to work. I'll try it when I go home...

WATCH ABC app: Lots of pissed-off user reviews. Apparently, the app updated recently to remove most recent episodes unless you verify a subscription with one of just a couple TV service providers. Not sure if it does AirPlay.
 
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