Cutting the cord

[neurosis]

This comes up every time I have to renegotiate with the ONLY cable company available to me in this area.  

I'm getting ready to dump Comcast TV and move to streaming.  I'm getting tired of renegotiating my contract every two years.

I've looked at a couple of options for channels.  Most of these streaming networks are getting just as expensive as paying for cable TV.  

I'm thinking about going with Sling or Philo.  Anyone have experience with Philo?  

Over the last several years I've built a pretty good media center using a Synology NAS, Plex and Kodi.  It's like having my own personal Netflix.  One of the things I can't live without is local news.  I thought about getting a HD antenna but my condo is buried in a valley and surrounded by a greenbelt so my reception is piss poor.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the local news thing yet.

I got a Roku and have been pretty happy with it so far.

The tl;dr is - what streaming service do you recommend if any?

[HTM01]

i have youtube tv = $69/month can use on multiple tv's
going to look into fubo though

[JParis]

I dumped cable 2 years ago...Xfinity internet last December...

I have a couple Roku's a MECool Android box and recently started using a Chromecast device....I stopped using the MeCool device as I discovered that it is not Netflix certified...my wife watches a lot of Netflix

I use YTTV for $54.99/mo...I get a $10 discount as a TMobile customer....we also have Amzon Prime...we use it for buying things but it comes with it's streaming service as part of the subscription...pay $5.99/mo....we've had Netflix for years....so I don't really count that as I was paying for it when I still had cable..

I have Philo, $10/mo, again Tmobile discount...frankly, I wil likely drop it, just about everything else is on YTTV except for the History channel and I find their programming has really faded off, so I don't watch it very much anymore.

I use the Tmobile Home Internet, $50/mo unlimited bandwith.....I have plenty of speed for the streaming that we do...I don't have a 4K tv as yet...HD is fine for us..

Locast which was locals availabe in many areas, was sued out of existence this past year, so that's no longer an option...an OTA is free if you can receive the channels in your area..

https://www.antennaweb.org/">https://www.antennaweb.org/

You can put in your zip code and it will show what is available in your area and how easy or hard the signal will be to receive.

https://www.suppose.tv/tv">https://www.suppose.tv/tv

Suppose TV will show you based on what channels you like to watch, where they are available

[Jeff]

I'm getting ready to dump Comcast TV and move to streaming.

What internet provider are you going to use?
Keep in mind that these streaming services a la carte are not as cheap as they used to be, and they add up fast. To the point of you'll be paying almost as much as you initially were with the cable tv.
Hulu
Netflix
YTTV
Roku
etc...

[JParis]

I'm getting ready to dump Comcast TV and move to streaming.

What internet provider are you going to use?
Keep in mind that these streaming services a la carte are not as cheap as they used to be, and they add up fast. To the point of you'll be paying almost as much as you initially were with the cable tv.
Hulu
Netflix
YTTV
Roku
etc...

Jeff, here's the thing....if you're already paying for a service, say Hulu, Netflix, Disney or whatever...and you're paying for cable TV....you shouldn't add those costs in as part of your "new" normal...you were already paying for them..

That said, there are WAY cheaper, and way more flexible streaming services....

I keep looking at the Xfinity offers cab;e & internet....$89.99/yr......then as you start reading the fine print, it's a 2 year contract that is $89.99 year 1 then $109.99 year 2.....then you add of the ALL of the fees that get tacked on and you've added nearly $40 or more....then at the end of year 2 it goes up to whatever their regular price is at that time....Xfinity has taken to generally not offering to keep you in a plan after the 2 years...

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When you add it all up plus the rental fees...it's no where near the $89.99/mo offer

With streaming, you pay for only what you want....there's no "real" a la services out there for cable channels....every cable channel provider wants whatever service to carry all of the lineup....that drives cost but the single biggest cost drivers for services are sports...if you don't want sports, but some live tv Philo $25/mo...Sling $35/mo....Frndly $5.99/mo and there are a few other smaller players as well..

If your point as a streamer is to essentially try to recreate your cable lineup...you're right, the costs will be simillar but if you can determine what you want, the savings are quite real

My cable bill before I pulled the plug was $245/mo....I am NOWHERE near that much now and I still watch what I like

[pmartin]

As for the local news, I have an app on my Roku I think it is Haystack TV. With it I can watch my morning news live. I usually just watch on the air but a couple of times my station's signal strength was too weak to watch so I just went to the app instead.

[beej]

We just dropped dish network and switched to Fubo.  We like it so far.  1000 hours of DVR.   $74 a month for 10 screens at a time (I think) so we have 3 households using the login so we split it the cost.

[champshire]

I have used sling for the last several years and really like it. I have a HD antenna for my local channels so I just have to switch inputs on the tv. It's pretty rare that I watch the news though.

[neurosis]

What internet provider are you going to use?

I'm going to continue to use Xfinity for internet for a while. I only have once other choice for internet up here and the reviews are horrible.  




Thanks for the tip on the T-mobile discount for Philo.  They have a 1 year deal for 10 off per month. I signed up today.  

Thanks for the tip on that haystack too.  That's pretty nice.

[JParis]

Tmobile also has a free yr of Paramount +

They have an Apple + offer too "IF" you're on the Magenta plan

If you go to Xfinity Internet only, you can also get their "Flex" box, you can also get access to Peacok as well

[neurosis]

I have access to Peacock.  

I'm not sure what a flex box is. I'll have to look that up.  

I just took about 1/3 off of my Xfinity bill today.  lol.  It seems like every time I renegotiate my contract with Xfinity, I end up getting less for more money.  I had been paying about $120 a month for years and then out of nowhere my bill went up to about $180 and I lost HBO, Starz, and several other channels.  I called them up and was like what the fuck.  How do you justify that?  They knocked my bill back down to about 150. I told them that the next time it increases I'm out.  I got an email saying that my bill was increasing $10 a month and that was the last straw for me.  

I've spent the last 4 years building my media center. I've been buying used DVD's from half priced books, ebay, etc. I tell my g/f to buy me tv series that I like for b-day and christmas so I have plenty of material even if I didn't have a streaming service.  The only thing I need is news and I think that's covered now.

[CNCAppsJames]

I'm getting closer to cutting the cord myself and dealing with the aftermath.  

We pay like $150/mo and we rarely ever watch it. We pay sofa king much money between Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime AND Cable. My wife... FOCK!!!!!! She refuses to cut the cord because "the internet goes out".  We have 99.9% uptime. That's worse than claiming the weather sucks in Southern California.  :huh:

In 5 years we have had ONE outage longer than 24 hours. It will "glitch" a couple times per month... maybe. More of a nuisance than anything else, and maybe 3-4x per year, it'll drop for a few minutes.

That's it. She's seriously out of her mind.

[neurosis]

I'm guessing she doesn't read the forum?    

I'm lucky where the significant other is concerned. She wouldn't care if I got rid of all of the TV's in the house.

[CNCAppsJames]

She DEFINITELY does not read the forums.

I'm just trying to decide if this is the hill I'm willing to die on.

$1,800/year isn't chump change.

[Jon@NOWHERE]

If you have a qualifying 5G unlimited plan with Verizon you get disney+, Hulu and ESPN for free