Cutting the (Cable) Cord?

[Ksyrup]

The one thing I hate about streaming is that everyone seemingly has adopted the Netflix interface and I effing HATE it. The auto-start when you hover over something, the random "watch this" default show when you first login, etc. It sounds like the DVR is kinda the same way - it just shows your progress from episode to episode rather than removing what you've watched.

[Ksyrup]

This is going to be a lot harder than I hoped.

Tonight I decided to start watching Poker Face on Peacock. My wife has never used a single streaming app, not even Netflix. So she watched me navigate to find the show and she was already not impressed - "We're going to have to do all of this just to watch one show?" And then... Peacock didn't work. Every show I started froze after 3-5 seconds. Still not working, in fact. Must be an issue with the app on Samsung.

Either way, my wife is not happy with DTV going away. And we haven't even tried the free preview of YTTV yet! This is going to be painful. Might be more cost effective for me to just suck it up and pay $230 a month for DTV.

[Solecismic]

The apps that come built into "smart" televisions are old and not maintained. You need a Roku or Apple TV or Firestick. Personally, I like the Roku, but I wish it didn't sell its front page to advertisers.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

So she watched me navigate to find the show and she was already not impressed - "We're going to have to do all of this just to watch one show?"

Pretty much why I don't expect to watch TV any longer unless the kid is home. There's not anything on television that's worth that much hassle to me.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

The apps that come built into "smart" televisions are old and not maintained. You need a Roku or Apple TV or Firestick. Personally, I like the Roku, but I wish it didn't sell its front page to advertisers.

This is correct. Roku is the simplest, most easy to use option. Even my 81 year old father can navigate it pretty well. I prefer Apple TV because it is more privacy respecting, but Roku is a great little streaming device.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Kodos

This is correct. Roku is the simplest, most easy to use option. Even my 81 year old father can navigate it pretty well. I prefer Apple TV because it is more privacy respecting, but Roku is a great little streaming device.

Yeah maybe I am too long been using Firestick since anytime I have stayed at a AirBN and they had Roku I had a hard time using it.YMMV.

[sterlingice]

I use a PS4 and an XBox One as my streaming devices. Game consoles aren't ideal but they're also one of the last things to go out of "service" because apps don't want to potentially lose millions of potential subscribers

SI

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Yeah maybe I am too long been using Firestick since anytime I have stayed at a AirBN and they had Roku I had a hard time using it.YMMV.

You get to used to what you are used to. Same reason I hate Apple phones after using Andriod for years. My Roku works well. I use Roku when I'm in hotel rooms that don't have streamers. I use my phone at home for streaming most of the time. Just send it to the TV. Much easier than using any streaming device IMO.

[Ghost Econ]

I just wish apps would randomly forget that I'm logged in. Bally sports and Fox sports are pretty much useless because I have to login every other time. ESPN and Disney are pretty good, but most apps seem to log me out every few weeks.

[Ksyrup]

We have 3 main TVs we use, plus a 4th when one of the kids comes home. Are you telling me I would have to buy 3-4 Roku devices?

What's the difference between express and a stick (other than the options on either that can give you HDR, 4K, etc.)? Is just portability?

What about remotes? Is the Roku remote decent?

[INDalltheway]

If the house is mostly iOS, the Apple TVs can really be useful. It definitely gets pricey when you're looking at that many TVs though.

[Ksyrup]

I am anti-Apple. Strongly. My wife and kids have iPhones, but it's really just me and my wife at the house now. I will never own an iPhone.

[Kodos]

I just bought a 4K Roku stick for $40. So they're not too bad. If it was only me, I'd do the Apple 4K streamer all the time, but the other 3 people in the house don't like the Apple remote (even the improved version of it).

The Roku remote is really simple to use. Even my Dad can work it, and he is really bad with electronics. Functionality-wise, I think the Roku sticks are fairly comparable to the bigger Roku units. Maybe a tad slower response time, but still better than anything you'll get on a Smart TV.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

We have 3 main TVs we use, plus a 4th when one of the kids comes home. Are you telling me I would have to buy 3-4 Roku devices?

What's the difference between express and a stick (other than the options on either that can give you HDR, 4K, etc.)? Is just portability?

What about remotes? Is the Roku remote decent?

Yes, you'll need a Roku on every television you use.

You'll buy more for the features than anything else (sound, bandwidth). Other than that, the sticks are more portable and the express can handle an ethernet adapter. I have an Ultra on my main television because it has a built-in ethernet port, and that's an easy run. The sticks must run using wireless.

You can see pictures of the remotes. They're quite basic. One step up gives you the ability to use headphones. There's voice recognition, but I can't handle talking to things - simply a barrier I refuse to cross right now. They have a mute button now - when I first got a Roku, had to get a third-party remote because I need my mute button.

Mostly, though, every streaming company wants to work with Roku, so their apps work OK. And between Tubi and the version of Kanopy I get with my library card (five rentals a month), I'm not even tempted to get Netflix or any pay service. Just the on-air stuff integrated through a Tablo and one Roku for each television.

[Ksyrup]

Ha, yeah, I refuse to talk to anything either. It's basically the new technology version of the clapper. No thanks.

Although every now and then when my wife has music going on Alexa, I will walk by and ask Alexa to play death metal as I walk out of the room, just for the "ALLLLLLVIN!" type of response I get out of her.

[Ksyrup]

So as I look to "cut the cord," YTTV announces an old-school cable issue - dropping a channel due to pricing issues. This time it's MLB Network. Hopefully this is happening early enough that they'll come to an agreement before opening day.

[Ksyrup]

In the "good timing" category, I see that AmEx is offering two YouTube TV offers - $20 off a $54.99 or more subscription, up to 3 times by August (total of $60 savings), and $6 off a YTTV Premium add-on of $11.99 or more, up to 2 times (total of $12 savings). All you have to do is add the benefit to your card and use the card to pay for the subscriptions. Score!

[Ksyrup]

Here's some confirmation from Canada that Netflix's new business model is apparently to screw over families by forcing them to pay extra for college students. When this hits the US, I'm cancelling.

Netflix account-sharing rules punish students for being students | Digital Trends

[GrantDawg]

Pulled the trigger tonight. Cut the Xfinity to internet only, and added YouTube TV. Ssving us about $100. It wish there was another good high-speed option here. I'd drop Xfinity totally in a heartbeat.

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[Ksyrup]

I had every intention of starting the transition this week after returning from our cruise but I need some time before canceling DTV and paying for YTTV, and YTTV only has a 5 day free look period right now and that's just not enough time to get my wife (and myself) comfortable with switching to streaming. I did the online chat with them and asked about a 2 week trial and the person told me to check back at the beginning of the month since that's when they usually do 14 day trials. So I guess I'm waiting.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Pulled the trigger tonight. Cut the Xfinity to internet only, and added YouTube TV. Ssving us about $100. It wish there was another good high-speed option here. I'd drop Xfinity totally in a heartbeat.

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

We've got AT&T Universal data in the northern suburbs of Atlanta. $50 for like 10GB. No big issues that I recall.

[GrantDawg]

We have had AT&T before here. Slow and spotty is the best way to describe it.

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[Edward64]

If it was a while ago, maybe try it again after checking with some neighbors?

It was relatively new 5-6 years (?) ago and so may have improved.

[Ksyrup]

So today I started my YTTV free trial, on the slow slog to disconnecting from DTV. It makes no sense to me, but apparently YTTV does vary the length of their free trials based on the time of month. When I checked around the 20th, it was 5 days. Yesterday, it was 2 days. Today, it's 14 days - I guess because it's the 1st of the month.

Whatever. I signed up for 3 months at $54.99 and 12 months of the 4K package for $9.99, plus my AmEx card gives me $20 off of the base plan for 3 months. So I'll be paying $45 for YTTV + 4K for the next 3 months, plus adding Philo for $25, and dumping $230 DTV.

Now I just have to have some patience with my wife as I slowly bring her along. I feel like she's aged 25 years tonight trying to understand the basics of navigating a streaming app (she's never touched Netflix, Prime, Disney+, none of them before tonight). I'm going to save a good chunk of money, but I'm not sure it's worth a life sentence for 2nd degree murder...

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Now I just have to have some patience with my wife as I slowly bring her along. I feel like she's aged 25 years tonight trying to understand the basics of navigating a streaming app (she's never touched Netflix, Prime, Disney+, none of them before tonight). I'm going to save a good chunk of money, but I'm not sure it's worth a life sentence for 2nd degree murder...

Unless she was watching all those channels you were paying for (we weren't with Cox cable), I think she'll come to see your logic pretty quickly.

I don't have YTTV but we have Prime, Netflix and Paramount (for the ST stuff) as our "base". Everything else we turn on and off as needed.

Which reminds me, wife said new season of Mandalorian has started so may have to turn on Disney+.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

So today I started my YTTV free trial, on the slow slog to disconnecting from DTV. It makes no sense to me, but apparently YTTV does vary the length of their free trials based on the time of month. When I checked around the 20th, it was 5 days. Yesterday, it was 2 days. Today, it's 14 days - I guess because it's the 1st of the month.

Whatever. I signed up for 3 months at $54.99 and 12 months of the 4K package for $9.99, plus my AmEx card gives me $20 off of the base plan for 3 months. So I'll be paying $45 for YTTV + 4K for the next 3 months, plus adding Philo for $25, and dumping $230 DTV.

Now I just have to have some patience with my wife as I slowly bring her along. I feel like she's aged 25 years tonight trying to understand the basics of navigating a streaming app (she's never touched Netflix, Prime, Disney+, none of them before tonight). I'm going to save a good chunk of money, but I'm not sure it's worth a life sentence for 2nd degree murder...

As I am also still considering cutting the cord and moving to YTTV also was the NFL Sunday Ticket moving to YTTV the main reason you picked them over other streaming options like Hula Live TV etc…

[Ksyrup]

No, not really. I've had Sunday Ticket the last 4 years but it was completely free from DTV. Never even asked, I just got an email every August telling me it was free. I'm still up in the air about whether I'm going to pay for it again.

The main reason I switched is that between YTTV and Philo (which I'm going to add next week to synch up the 7 day trial period with the last week of YTTVs trial before I start paying for both), I can get nearly every channel that we care about on DTV (minus the regional sports networks which seems to be in limbo anyway). The only 2 channels we won't get are NHL Network and Tennis Channel. I don't need NHL and I'll probably buy the yearly subscription to TC Plus for $100, or a little less than what I'm saving each month by dropping DTV. And their DVR, number of streams and sharing features will make the transition seamless (I hope).

[Ksyrup]

Just went through the painful process of cancelling DirecTV. I've been with them for 22 years so I am "flagged and tagged as a VIP customer" according to the nice woman who helped me (who sounded suspiciously like Katt Williams, truthfully) which required me to be transferred several times to different people trying to get me to stay with offers that ranged from laughably weak to not much better (started at $15 a month off, up to $50 a month off for the next 12 months which would bring my bill all the way down to about $175 a month, or a little less than twice the cost of YTTV + Philo).

Funny thing is, the $50/month offer was made by the first 2 people and then they transferred me to the "last ditch" lady who was talking about the cost for YTTV + Philo being around $90, and is that the price point you're looking for, so I expected that major concession price. What did she offer? $50/month off plus some free movie packages for 3 months.

I mean, if price is the issue and you know what people are paying for streaming, either make a real offer to try to keep me hanging on for another year or just close up shop, you know?

[GrantDawg]

I tuned in my old cable box today and picked the free "flex" box today. I ended up having to call customer support to get it working, and that was probably the most pleasant experience I have had dealing with Comcast. We got the box up, and she also knocked $50 a month off my internet bill for the next two years. No changes in service. Really starting to kick around their mobile offering. Two unlimited phone lines for $60. Anyone have their service?

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[thesloppy]

It pains me to say it, but I will absolutely recommend Xfinity mobile. I haven't paid more than $14 a month for like 3 years because I pay by the gig and you get access to all their citywide wifi hotspots with service. I also (probably wrongly) feel like as long as I'm already using Xfinity for Internet than using them for mobile actually means that one less corporation has direct access to my data.

[flere-imsaho]

When I cancelled cable for the last time ages ago I just told them I was moving out of the country and avoided all the being transferred from one person to another trying to offer me things to keep me.

[Ksyrup]

It's been two weeks since we started using streaming services and a couple days since DirecTV was cut off, so of course I had a feeling I'd be seeing an article about YTTV prices going up. My apologies to everyone affected. My bad. Rumor is the price is going up to $72.99 at some point in April. Glad I got in when I did - I assume they'll still honor the 3 month intro price.

[Ksyrup]

And I literally just got an email notifying me of the price hike. They are dropping the price of the 4K add-on by $10 a month though, so that softens the blow a bit if you have both.

[Ksyrup]

YTTV is rolling out multiview screens. I had read about it but didn't realize I was going to get it so quick until I just saw I can watch 2 games in one screen. They have the 2 sets of 2 games bundled on two different screens you can choose. You are able to toggle between the games to listen to either games sound and you can click on one to go to a full screen for that game. Pretty cool. My hope is that they use this during college FB season.

The other thing about YTTV that I didn't realize I would enjoy so much is the fact that I can align channels any way I want. It makes up for not having channel numbers to quickly move from one channel to another. I ordered our channels in a way that makes sense, but for March Madness, I group CBS/TBS/TNT/Tru together so it's easier to switch. When this weekend is over, I'll move them back where they were. I like that.

[sovereignstar v2]

Yeah, the custom guide feature of YTTV is pretty cool. I had to add TruTV back yesterday.

[Ksyrup]

I'll stop posting after this (at least today), but tonight YTTV has a 4-in-1 multiview and it kicks ass. I bet they do this for college FB and it solves some issues (although it appears they pick the channels in the view, not us). But it's way better than delayed switching of channels.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

It's been two weeks since we started using streaming services and a couple days since DirecTV was cut off, so of course I had a feeling I'd be seeing an article about YTTV prices going up. My apologies to everyone affected. My bad. Rumor is the price is going up to $72.99 at some point in April. Glad I got in when I did - I assume they'll still honor the 3 month intro price.

It wasn't your fault. I'm the jinx. I will say that I love the 4k. I really didn't expect to make that much of difference, but it really does.

[Ksyrup]

I got the 4K package even though I have only one 4K TV because it also comes with unlimited streams in the house and offline viewing of DVR content. I've also got intro pricing, so I won't see the "regular" cost for 3 months. However, if you have both the basic package and 4K package, you are currently paying $65 + $20 and that's changing to $73 + $10. So your cost goes down slightly. I wonder if they are trying to push more people to sign up for the 4K package.

[sovereignstar v2]

Their 4k content is seriously lacking, but I'm sure I will bite at some point. Maybe when college football is back.

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[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I got the 4K package even though I have only one 4K TV because it also comes with unlimited streams in the house and offline viewing of DVR content. I've also got intro pricing, so I won't see the "regular" cost for 3 months. However, if you have both the basic package and 4K package, you are currently paying $65 + $20 and that's changing to $73 + $10. So your cost goes down slightly. I wonder if they are trying to push more people to sign up for the 4K package.

I already had a deal for it to be $9.99. So this just means it won't go up on me in a year.

[Ksyrup]

Right, me too. It looks like they were moving that direction anyway and made it the regular price to ease the pain of the basic package increase. I've still got the first 3 months at $55 plus an Amex deal for paying with my card for a $20 credit for 3 months. Then it'll jump to about $85 for both packages. Still beats $225 for DTV.

[sovereignstar v2]

Okay, it took me 3 seconds to realize that this YTTV Multiview kicks ass. They obviously picked the perfect time to release this.

[Ksyrup]

Yep. It's a game changer and will be really useful during FB season.

[GoldenEagle]

Been watching the NCAAT on a combination of OTA and Sling TV. Going to cancel Sling next month though, as I only use it for basketball.

That will get me down to Netflix, ESPN+, and Ballys Sports. I get Paramount+ and Amazon Prime for free. I will cancel Balllys during the NBA offseason.

I am pretty happy with that for the price.

[molson]

I re-upped with DISH for $83/month. That 2-year contract ends in May, I'll have to figure out what my upper limit is I'm willing to pay.

Dish + rotating 1-2 paid streaming services, plus whatever I get free through Amex and Verizon has been my comfort zone for a few years.

[miami_fan]

Has Frontier gotten out of the cable TV business nationally?

I got rid of Frontier cable last year since we really did not watch things through the cable box to justify the cost. When I cancelled, they asked me about setting up YouTube TV or DirectTV and told me I did not have to worry about sending back the box. I did not really pay it any mind at the time. I was messing around Frontier's website the other day and under the Video/TV tab are options for getting YouTube TV and DirectTV stream.

[cubboyroy1826]

Looking at dumping Direct TV and just going with streaming services. We currently have Netflix, Prime, Hulu, ESPN+ and Peacock. Now the wife and I don't pay of all of these Peacock one of the kids has for shows they like to watch. We just got Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ through Verizon, not sure how I missed that was free to us. The only regular TV shows we watch are The Voice, Survivor, The Goldbergs and FBI. So those shows are covered by the streaming services.

My issue is what is the best way to be able to watch college football, NHL hockey, MLB and of course the NFL? It looks like ESPN+ will cover the hockey. Will I be able to watch the NFL draft through ESPN+? Then how do I watch MLB, not that I watch a lot but I do like to check out an occasional game. Our only source is what we can get through the Firesticks. I know for the NFL I am likely going to have to pay through the nose for the Sunday Ticket.

[henry296]

I believe that ESPN+ won't work for your local team as blackouts will apply.

[cubboyroy1826]

No worries I am not a Predators fan just a relocated Blackhawks fan.

[Ksyrup]

Seems like the best thing to do is find a cheapish live TV package that includes ESPN.

We're now 1 month into cutting the cord and it's working out pretty well. My wife still has the occasional frustration. I wish most streaming services were not set up like Netflix, basically for bingers. I hate the fact that shows automatically go to the next episode as you are finishing an episode. And as far as DVR, I hate that we can't get rid of stuff we have already watched. New recordings are often buried in seasons and seasons of old episodes, and figuring out which episode is next is not always intuitive because of all the other episodes it's showing me.

I did get several Roku's and it's been a good move (thanks Jim and whoever else suggested it). One downside is the remote control volume buttons, which are way too sensitive. I can't change from like volume 10 to 14 without it skipping all the way to 25.

The only channel I really wanted that I couldn't get with YTTV + Philo was Tennis Channel. I was going to get a TC Plus subscription but it's like ESPN+ - you don't Tennis Channel, just the extra stuff. But Tennis Channel is not as popular as ESPN, so it's not that easy to get with a streaming package. I feel like Tennis Channel is really missing the boat on subscriptions, but I assume they are trying to keep the value of their carriage fees up by not allowing people to one-off subscribe. That said, I would have paid. But since they won't let me and I can't get it with the packages I have... I borrowed my parents DTV login. Problem solved! For now, anyway.