Cord Cutting |OT| Now With 50% More Cable

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Bgamer90 said:
Yep. I have both. The Hauppauge Antenna adapter hooks into the Xbox One's USB port. My Apple TV is in the Xbox One's HDMI port. Both go through the Xbox TV app.
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God, I wish Sling would integrate with the TV app (One Guide). I would love to see the trending shows on the dashboard, not to mention an actual live TV guide, instead of the dumpster fire that is Sling's UX.
 
Got my email confirming beta access to Sling's DVR service. Anxious to try it out, but they said it would be a couple days before it's out officially to try.
 
Askani said:
Huh. I don't see any options on my Roku. I even did a manual update search and a restart. I'll give it another and try later.
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For me it didn't require an app update. I just went into Sling and every channel except for FX had a Record button on future shows.
 
Lomax said:
Really curious how the Sling dvr turns out, I could see switching from PSVue if it is decent.
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This is still beta, and they're already working on changing a few things. The two things I've noted where I'm not sure if they'll be changed:

  1. You still cannot pause/rewind most channels when viewing live TV (this did not change)
  2. FX, FS1, FS2, ESPN, ABC Family, Disney, Freeform do not allow DVR currently
 
I might be interested in doing an antenna to pick up local channels, now that I'm dropping the free cable that came with my internet service. I've tried an antenna behind my TV, and it only picked up a couple channels in the opposite direction as Atlanta.

I'm looking at the Antenna Web site, and the channels I want are in the red and blue category, pretty much all in the same direction and similar distances, about 22 miles. I have tall trees and there are some small hills between me and the broadcast sites.

Accessing my roof comfortably where the lines come in would be difficult, so I'd rather do something inside but I'm not sure the indoor antennas are powerful enough. I have a DTV dish and pole in my yard that is still hooked up, but not in service. What are my realistic options here that don't cost a ton?
 
On my second day of my Vue trial.

The Vue interface is fucking awful on the Roku. There's no guide, just a bunch of random tiles that aren't really organized. I've had to mess with it on my PS4 which is actually not bad at all. As a cable user this felt the most intuitive and the guide is really nice. Everything is well designed and makes sense for the most part.

One thing I haven't totally grasped though is how the DVR function works. Apparently you add an individual show to your 'My Shows' and it automatically DVRs all new episodes? Ok but what if I just want to DVR a one off episode of that show that has already aired? I have to just hope it's available in the on demand part even though I can see it's airing in 10 minutes? I guess I don't understand why I can't just select a show on the guide and set it to record? So I still haven't tried to watch anything that has been DVR'd yet but I'll get a chance over the next few days.

Picture quality is fine. I've had some issues with buffering when using the Roku Stick (which was expected) but on PS4 it seems to work well. There were a couple of hiccups when switching channels but nothing major.

The 5 device limit seems incredibly stupid in 2017 and very limiting. This needs to be at the very least doubled.

Their recent loss of Viacom shows sucks because, between my wife and I, we watch several shows across Comedy Central, MTV, and Spike. This isn't a huge deal breaker but it means I'll likely have to leech off my parent's Comcast account and use the individual apps on whatever device I use (currently looking at the Nvidia Shield). So it's feeling less and less like I'm cutting ties with cable.

All in all in my situation I'd be saving $50 a month but it definitely seems like my experience will suffer for it and I've yet to decide if it's actually worth it. I'm still going to price out downgrading my cable service instead of cutting it completely. The Vue trial has been just ok overall. It's fine for the price but I'm not blown away. I'm just hesitant to drop cable, buy a Shield for $200, get an antenna for $10-20, and then try to find workarounds for the channels I'll be missing whether it's a one month sub to Hulu every year to catch up on those shows from the missing channels or just trying to bum a Comcast login off my folks.

With the recent increase in my cable bill (again) I'm at an all time high with my hate for Comcast so I thought this was going to be an easy decision but it just seems like regardless of the direction I go I'm looking at restrictions. I'm not convinced this is a better alternative to cable, it just seems like I'm getting less for a lower price...which makes sense. Just not exactly what I expected.
 
HawksWinStanley said:
On my second day of my Vue trial.

The Vue interface is fucking awful on the Roku. There's no guide, just a bunch of random tiles that aren't really organized. I've had to mess with it on my PS4 which is actually not bad at all. As a cable user this felt the most intuitive and the guide is really nice. Everything is well designed and makes sense for the most part.

One thing I haven't totally grasped though is how the DVR function works. Apparently you add an individual show to your 'My Shows' and it automatically DVRs all new episodes? Ok but what if I just want to DVR a one off episode of that show that has already aired? I have to just hope it's available in the on demand part even though I can see it's airing in 10 minutes? I guess I don't understand why I can't just select a show on the guide and set it to record? So I still haven't tried to watch anything that has been DVR'd yet but I'll get a chance over the next few days.

Picture quality is fine. I've had some issues with buffering when using the Roku Stick (which was expected) but on PS4 it seems to work well. There were a couple of hiccups when switching channels but nothing major.

The 5 device limit seems incredibly stupid in 2017 and very limiting. This needs to be at the very least doubled.

Their recent loss of Viacom shows sucks because, between my wife and I, we watch several shows across Comedy Central, MTV, and Spike. This isn't a huge deal breaker but it means I'll likely have to leech off my parent's Comcast account and use the individual apps on whatever device I use (currently looking at the Nvidia Shield). So it's feeling less and less like I'm cutting ties with cable.

All in all in my situation I'd be saving $50 a month but it definitely seems like my experience will suffer for it and I've yet to decide if it's actually worth it. I'm still going to price out downgrading my cable service instead of cutting it completely. The Vue trial has been just ok overall. It's fine for the price but I'm not blown away. I'm just hesitant to drop cable, buy a Shield for $200, get an antenna for $10-20, and then try to find workarounds for the channels I'll be missing whether it's a one month sub to Hulu every year to catch up on those shows from the missing channels or just trying to bum a Comcast login off my folks.

With the recent increase in my cable bill (again) I'm at an all time high with my hate for Comcast so I thought this was going to be an easy decision but it just seems like regardless of the direction I go I'm looking at restrictions. I'm not convinced this is a better alternative to cable, it just seems like I'm getting less for a lower price...which makes sense. Just not exactly what I expected.
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Roku on Vue does not have a guide, as you ahve found out. Amazon Firestick and Amazon TV have guides. If you need a guide, then you are going to have to get one of those or use your PS4. As for Viacom channels, if those are something you need, then Vue is not for you. If you are going to cut the cord, there are going to be some things you are going to have to get used to. Cable is extremely convenient and has had years to develop. Using a streaming service at times is clunky, but you do get used to it. I think the 5 stream limit is reasonable. It isn't 5 devices, it is 5 streams at the same time.

In your case, you are saying $50/month, that may increase with cable price increases. I am saving over $100/month by using a streaming service instead of DirecTV. It's worth fumbling around with the input button and/or some buffering here and there for that kind of savings. But everyone has to make the decision that works for them. In your case, it may not work for you.
 
I sort of just joined this club. For the longest time I was using my PS4 as sort of a media gateway with hulu/netflix and then I jumped on the view bandwagon. After some tense negotiations with Comcast I was able to get my bill down to about 80$ a month (I Have "blast" internet or w/e the fastest was with basic cable and HBO tacked on) and I was using VUE to supplement the other channels. Playstation VUE was a great service but I didn't like how they lost the Viacom networks and offered 0 compensation to subscribers in the form of price reduction so I dropped it. I don't think I qualify for "cable cutter" in the truest sense because yes I still have that very basic cable package but as anyone who has these knows they make it a nightmare to drop that and keep internet at a reasonable price.

Fast forward to about January 1st and I saw the DirectTV Now GO BIG apple tv deal pop up, I jumped on that with the quickness! I ended up with a 4th gen apple TV and 3 months of 110 channels for a grand total of 105USD. Just a few weeks ago after suffering horrible issues with the service I was able to get a rep to add a 35$ credit to my account dropping that down to 70$. The DirectTV NOW service has been absolutely CRAP compared to Playstation VUE, their features don't work and allot of the programming suffers HORRIBLE freezing and stutter issues so I don't think it's something I am going to keep using beyond these 4 months. I think for the price of 70$ however the 4th gen Apple TV was totally worth it. In the end I might just end up sucking it up and returning to PSVUE even if I think it's crap they lost Viacom. I also wish there was some way to get the xfinity app onto my apple TV.. it would make returning the cable box and dropping that rental fee really easy.
 
Bumping this to say I just got rid of my cable for the $45 PS Vue application on my 300Mb internet connection. Saved about $100 a month that way. I really like this service.

All my view watching has been on PS4 or nVidia Shield TV (which is an amazing device - have a couple of them).
 
Hulu Live TV should be launching in a couple of weeks. Really looking forward to seeing what it is all about. I am hearing about 50 channels, along with a very intriguing UI. Initially reports said there would be a "type" of guide but I have not heard anything about that recently. I have to assume there will be some kind of guide though the learning AI and recommendations seem really cool.

I am still on DirecTV Now. It has come a long way from the disaster of a launch, but features that were promised in the initial press conference are still not working. The $35/month grandfathered rate and free HBO is the only thing keeping me there. Once Hulu launches, I will try it to see exactly what I am going to do. On paper it seems really good. Live TV with the Hulu library included is crazy good.
 
Just got an email from Sony, they are dropping beIN Sports, my most watched channel.

Looks like I'll be switching to Sling+Fubo. Losing DVR is going to suck. Fucking Sony.
 
I dumped DirectV Now for Hulu. I really did like it, but no NBATV during the playoffs was a bit much and my roommate didn't like it much. So I am back to Vue. She loves Vue. I think it is the Bravo on-demand library that she loves. I also think that it takes fewer clicks to get the Live TV on Vue.

Personally I thought Hulu was fine for the way I watch TV (outside of NBA TV and MLB Network) but it didn't work for her at all. I think the mix of live and on-demand confused her more than anything.
 
Frank the Great said:
But I thought only for certain channels?
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It works on all channels except ABC (ESPN, Freeform, Disney) and Fox (FX, FS1, National Geographic).

dskillzhtown said:
I dumped DirectV Now for Hulu. I really did like it, but no NBATV during the playoffs was a bit much and my roommate didn't like it much. So I am back to Vue. She loves Vue. I think it is the Bravo on-demand library that she loves. I also think that it takes fewer clicks to get the Live TV on Vue.

Personally I thought Hulu was fine for the way I watch TV (outside of NBA TV and MLB Network) but it didn't work for her at all. I think the mix of live and on-demand confused her more than anything.
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Hulu has the same Bravo shows on demand, but I can see how someone used to the cable model would be put off by Hulu. I'm going to test it out today out of curiosity. Can't imagine I would ever dump Sling for it, though. Sling is too cheap/functional and Hulu doesn't have AMC.
 
Decided to drop my cable service, picked up Vue and now I'm saving net $85/mo (whopping -125 off my cable bill, +40 for Vue).

Recently picked up a Nvidia Shield TV to stream PC games to my TV and I did not expect what I would actually get out of the package. This device seamlessly integrates all the services I use (plex, vue, netflix, spotify, etc) making it extremely easy to start playing anything almost instantly, whether it's music or video or tv. I never liked relying on speech recognition but it works pretty well on the shield's remote.

The little remote itself is another huge upgrade to my entertainment system. It uses IR and has support for controlling your TV/receiver/soundbar. I set it up to control my TV and 10+ year old receiver and now I can not only control my volume with it, but I can turn the shield + tv + receiver on/off with a single button. All this and I haven't even tried streaming games yet.

Best of all, and probably the one and only reason I've held off of cord-cutting for a while, is the ease of use. I didn't want my wife or my parents or whoever to fumble with using a PS4 controller to change the channel, let alone start up a gaming console to watch TV.
 
Quick question.

I got Sling. If I changed my one of my extras, would I be charged immediately or would I be charged on the date I'm charged monthly?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Delicious Waffles said:
Quick question.

I got Sling. If I changed my one of my extras, would I be charged immediately or would I be charged on the date I'm charged monthly?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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When I added Showtime onto my service, they immediately charged me for a partial month of the channel. But that was adding an extra pay channel. In the past, when I've changed channel packages, they only charged me the new rate when it was time for the monthly bill.
 
My girlfriend and I finally cut our cable. The only real reason we still had it for so long was sports stuff, but neither of us really care about that anymore (plus Sling has NFL, which was the only sport we used to watch anyways).

We were really disappointed with Sling's quality on the Xbox One's app, we actually canceled Starz through Sling because the quality was so much better on the standalone Starz app.

But just the other day the app was updated and it seems to be performing a lot better (no more constant quality drops and freezes for buffering). Plus they added the DVR functionality to the XB1 app too so we can do everything from there.

We have the commercial free Hulu subscription which is where we watch most of our shows (all the ones that come to Hulu, anyways), and then we just subscribe to HBO Now, Showtime, Starz, and CBS Now when there are shows on those channels we want to watch, and drop them when there's not.

With all the subscriptions going at once, it comes to about $80 vs. the over 200 we were paying for cable, and most of the time we won't have all the subscriptions so it'll be more like $50-60.
 
Rodney McKay said:
My girlfriend and I finally cut our cable. The only real reason we still had it for so long was sports stuff, but neither of us really care about that anymore (plus Sling has NFL, which was the only sport we used to watch anyways).

We were really disappointed with Sling's quality on the Xbox One's app, we actually canceled Starz through Sling because the quality was so much better on the standalone Starz app.

But just the other day the app was updated and it seems to be performing a lot better (no more constant quality drops and freezes for buffering). Plus they added the DVR functionality to the XB1 app too so we can do everything from there.

We have the commercial free Hulu subscription which is where we watch most of our shows (all the ones that come to Hulu, anyways), and then we just subscribe to HBO Now, Showtime, Starz, and CBS Now when there are shows on those channels we want to watch, and drop them when there's not.

With all the subscriptions going at once, it comes to about $80 vs. the over 200 we were paying for cable, and most of the time we won't have all the subscriptions so it'll be more like $50-60.
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This is how to do it. Put together the subscriptions that work for you. Surprised you stuck with Sling so long though. It was horrid on X1 when I had it. Have you thought about using the Hulu Live TV? Glad it is working out for you.
 
dskillzhtown said:
This is how to do it. Put together the subscriptions that work for you. Surprised you stuck with Sling so long though. It was horrid on X1 when I had it. Have you thought about using the Hulu Live TV? Glad it is working out for you.
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Oh, no, we literally just switched to Sling like a month or less ago. The 2 week free trial we had just ended pretty recently. Most of the TV we watch is on Hulu, so there was only like one or two episodes we had to deal with the crappy quality before it got fixed.
If the XB1 app hadn't been updated, I would have just used the Sling app built into my TV (Android TV).

And I did look at Hulu, but Comedy Central is a a must for my girlfriend and Sling is one of the few services that has it. The Direct TV one had it, but they don't have a lot of device support yet.
 
I cancelled my cable and went with YouTube TV. It's really good for the most part. I've just noticed I get random stutters when watching DVR content. This does not happen with live or on demand. If they add the app to the firestick I'll be thrilled.
 
FuboTV now has Food network, HGTV, and Travel Channel. Therefore it has all the soccer channels I watch, and all the shit she watches. For $35.

I just switched over from Sling. Fubo is very bare bones in terms of features but it has DVR and is cheap as shit. If you're a football/soccer fan check it out.
 
I'm working toward cancelling DTV, my only issue is live loocal stations. Vue doesn't pdivide them and Plex/Hdhomerun both stutter a lot on my Shield. I need to either hardwire the Shield or just set up a separate antenna on that TV. I'm not real fond of that though since it would require a different input to watch local stuff.
 
Any updates on when DirectvNow is going to add dvr functionality? Also will they increase their concurrent streams to more than 2?

Right now I've been using Sling for the last couple months and while it can be buggy at times it offers most of the features and channels I want.
 
brightsons said:
Any updates on when DirectvNow is going to add dvr functionality? Also will they increase their concurrent streams to more than 2?

Right now I've been using Sling for the last couple months and while it can be buggy at times it offers most of the features and channels I want.
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The DVR is in beta now. People using it are under NDA, so there probably won't be too much insight into it.
 
Schlep said:
The DVR is in beta now. People using it are under NDA, so there probably won't be too much insight into it.
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DANG I just signed up for my 1 month Roku trial, liked it except for the lack of dvr... oh well will have to pay for a month when dvr comes out to test it I guess.
 
how are you guys saving so much on your cable bill? isn't dropping cable bumping up your internet pricing? or did you have multiple cable boxes for separate rooms or something?

cord cutting doesn't really do much for me. unless i want to go internet only...and ota reception sucks in my area. thinking about seeing if i can get the spectrum tv stream only option which has a decent channel lineup minus sports.
 
Primus said:
So it looks like that today, with zero notice, Sony killed off the bottom-end Slim ($30/mo.) plan for all PS Vue customers. The reasoning, according to Random Redditor #395716's conversation with a support rep, is that local channels will be rolling out everywhere in the near future, so they've discontinued the Slim plan and are transitioning everyone over to more expensive plans.
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I'm worried this is gonna be a trend over the next few years. The low end entry bundles are gonna go by the way side.

Eventually you won't be able to get in sub $40.
 
henhowc said:
how are you guys saving so much on your cable bill? isn't dropping cable bumping up your internet pricing? or did you have multiple cable boxes for separate rooms or something?

cord cutting doesn't really do much for me. unless i want to go internet only...and ota reception sucks in my area. thinking about seeing if i can get the spectrum tv stream only option which has a decent channel lineup minus sports.
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Yeah I was wondering that too, someone said they were paying $200/month for cable alone earlier in this thread... my cable/internet bill bundled together is nearly half that.

For me it was $70/month for internet alone or $90/month for internet/cable, add in HBO for GoT, and it's a little over $105. I previously had Vue and now it would be $60/month alone for sports channels and HBO plus $70/month internet.

Even with the second year cable price, it is still cheaper than Vue.
 
jfkgoblue said:
Yeah I was wondering that too, someone said they were paying $200/month for cable alone earlier in this thread... my cable/internet bill bundled together is nearly half that.

For me it was $70/month for internet alone or $90/month for internet/cable, add in HBO for GoT, and it's a little over $105. I previously had Vue and now it would be $60/month alone for sports channels and HBO plus $70/month internet.

Even with the second year cable price, it is still cheaper than Vue.
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same here. vue+internet (unless you're able to successfully do the song and dance where you get a nice rep to give you new customer pricing) would be more expensive for me than just getting a tv+internet bundle. for the first couple of years anyways until promo pricing for bundles start to expire.
 
henhowc said:
how are you guys saving so much on your cable bill? isn't dropping cable bumping up your internet pricing? or did you have multiple cable boxes for separate rooms or something?

cord cutting doesn't really do much for me. unless i want to go internet only...and ota reception sucks in my area. thinking about seeing if i can get the spectrum tv stream only option which has a decent channel lineup minus sports.
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Spectrum in my area has a internet only, 60mbs plan for $60. my plan actually went down bc before i had to have a tv service with it for $140 when i never used or received a box. Even with the new price hike, i'm still coming in cheaper than their cheapest offering with internet+vue.
 
henhowc said:
how are you guys saving so much on your cable bill? isn't dropping cable bumping up your internet pricing? or did you have multiple cable boxes for separate rooms or something?
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Right now I pay $85 for internet, and $22 for Sling - total of $107. With DirecTV/AT&T, I'd be paying about $155 during the promo period; About $215 after it expires. Pretty easy choice.
 
With Cox I was paying $180 a month for just regular cable for 4 rooms. No premium channels and DVR only for main television Now I pay. That includes a single phone line and high speed internet.

Now I pay Vue $34.99 a month and $75 for internet and Cox lets me have all local channels in HD using Contour. Saves me around $75 a month. No regrets.
 
Redd said:
With Cox I was paying $180 a month for just regular cable for 4 rooms. No premium channels and DVR only for main television Now I pay. That includes a single phone line and high speed internet.

Now I pay Vue $34.99 a month and $75 for internet and Cox lets me have all local channels in HD using Contour. Saves me around $75 a month. No regrets.
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i guess cable charging for multiple rooms is the money saver.
 
Would it be appropriate to ask how to download a video from Yahoo TV? Since it's a dead service, I'm afraid a favorite show is going to disappear (and it's not available for purchase anywhere or streaming.)
 
henhowc said:
i guess cable charging for multiple rooms is the money saver.
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Cool thing Vue lets me have multiple devices for viewing for free. Got the some roku-3 boxes in the 3 bedrooms and a ps4 for the main room. I only miss cable on the rare occasion Internet goes down.
 
I did the math and keeping my current cable TV/internet plan is only $9/mo to cut the cord and I would have a more fragmented set up with regard to dvr etc.

So ill probably hold until this matures a couple more years
 
Redd said:
With Cox I was paying $180 a month for just regular cable for 4 rooms. No premium channels and DVR only for main television Now I pay. That includes a single phone line and high speed internet.

Now I pay Vue $34.99 a month and $75 for internet and Cox lets me have all local channels in HD using Contour. Saves me around $75 a month. No regrets.
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I was using Vue before, but the $10 increase while losing channels + a good cable promo got me back on cable. It definitely isn't quite as good as cable, and being beholden to the internet kinda sucks at times, but it worked well enough. But my cable company offering a deal that is cheaper than Vue/Internet got me to sign the contract. I'll reevaluate in 2 years.
 
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