Cutting the Cord

[CK_32]

Nothing really.

I've used or have family/friends with all and each has their drawbacks and short comings and are all about the same.

I killed my tv subscription about a year ago and hardly miss it. I bought a nice laptop, HDMI cable and now stream movies of my choice, Netflix for shows and some movies and youtube and cal guns for other entertainment and am happier than I ever was paying for cable TV. Kids like yours either play video games or watch Netflix 24/7.

Especially with the garbage TV shows they force feed people. It's almost as bad if not worse than radio stations now.

That said I use TWC for Internet, that's it. Friends and family have AT&T with much to be desired. Parents have TWC and hate it. Friends have satellite and for sports loves it but other than that hates it and pays a premium for it.


Just gatta pick your poison.

[ebencikiv]

Is mashup still down?

No there is a work around but it's all about genisus now Breh!

[ebencikiv]

On ebay you can buy hacked Amazon Fire TV Sticks for around $60 to $70 bucks.

this way you can have Amazon Service and Kodi

Why pay that much? Do it for free http://www.jocala.com

All the boxes you posted are nice but why pay so much when the software on the boxes is free?? Imo that is a waste of money unless you don't have an extra hour to do it your self. Yymmv

[antiseen]

I mostly use Plex and stream to chromecast from my pc. That pretty much covers everything.

A couple years ago I bought a nyrius wireless transmitter to beam my pc to my TV. Works flawlessly. Transmits 1080p with zero lag. I play all my steam games that way and no problems.

Plex is easier to use(mostly just lazier friendly) but when I want to play a game or get un encoded 1080p quality I'll use the nyrius. The nyrius setup is pricey but worth it.

[ebencikiv]

That sounds awesome ^ going to check that out!

[LBDamned]

I recently cut the cord - and am satisfied with the decision...

I've had Dish, U-Verse, various cable (most recently TWC)... screw 'em all!

I thought I couldn't live without DVR... but with OTA antenna (better HD picture than any of the previous sources) + Hulu and Amazon Instant Video (with Prime) - I'm perfectly satisfied.

Of course still need to give TWC their fee ($35 for 50Mbps < I don't see that speed on computers, but do on all android devices)... stream from main TV built-in apps and in bedroom from Amazon Firestick... gave TWC their crappy modem/router back and replaced with my own separate modem and router...

It took a couple weeks prior to making this change to convince myself that its worth doing... and I couldn't be more satisfied.

Fios, U-Verse, Dish, DirectTV and all the cable companies have screwed themselves with their over-inflated pricing (of all that I've used, U-Verse was actually a good product/service - but over time they over-valued their product and I said F U)... they all have opened the door for streaming video to be the new norm... people will continue to make the switch and I suspect cable type TV viewing will be a thing of the past within 5-10 years.

I'm not saying anything most people don't know... just felt compelled to post my .02

OP, your on the right track... it will take a little getting used to and minor sacrifices... but with that you'll have plenty of variety and in some cases, additional choices not available through cable & dish... and of course ammo funds in your pocket, instead of in the pockets of overly priced cable companies.

Good luck - happy viewing

[steadyrock]

Any info on sports streaming would be very much appreciated. I cut the cord over a year ago and football season was awful, it's the only content I really care about. I've used frontrowsports but it was terribly slow and infected my machine with 70+ viruses just to watch one game. Doesn't seem like a viable option.

[LBDamned]

Any info on sports streaming would be very much appreciated. I cut the cord over a year ago and football season was awful, it's the only content I really care about. I've used frontrowsports but it was terribly slow and infected my machine with 70+ viruses just to watch one game. Doesn't seem like a viable option.

aside from OTA local network, I think you don't have much at this time (I could be wrong)... if it's NFL you are referring to, that's one area that Direct TV shines (albeit at a hefty price) - I don't know about college... so maybe during the season you use a dish...

I know there's a MLB app - but I've never watched it, so not sure what the content is... maybe at some point their will be football too...

I believe eventually there will be live streaming of all sorts (not based on specific knowledge, I just feel thats the future).

[steadyrock]

I thought I heard ESPN was launching a streaming service this year, but that is everything I know about it.

[Porter707]

Plex, SabNZDB, CouchPotato, Sickbeard.

[ebencikiv]

Sports devil look up super repo and sports devil

[TROJAN]

Easiest installation of KODI(formerly XBMC) latest version HELIX 14.2 is through tvaddons dot ag. Use their guides to install KODI stable version HELIX 14.2 and then use Fusion installer and Config Wizard to get started. Then just youtube/google for tutorials on how to add different addons...

[the86d]

So I was ready to drop DirecTV, had a miniPC all set up to stream ABC for the lady, and it worked. She tried it with me there for about 30 minutes, and it was east-coast ABC, and SHE WANTS ABC 7 specifically.
Fu-ther-muck! Can't drop... YET.

[North Bay Guy]

We got rid of cable too. We saved over $200 a month by cutting cable and the land line phone. We kept the cable based high speed internet and alarm system. Now we use Netflix for our kids to watch cartoons and movies. My older son said, how great it was not to have commercial during his shows. Between Netflix and YouTube we've been able to get our TV fix. I just streamed the whole mayweather pacquiao fight last night through YouTube. It makes searching YouTube easier if you have the YouTube app on your phone then you can click the box in the app that is located in the upper corner to connect/send whatever you're watch to be viewed on your smart TV.

[JoshuaS]

Update:

We already had Amazon. We added Hulu, an antenna and SlingTV. My sister got MLB.tv (she is out of the blackout area for the Dodgers) and I set up unlocator, so we have the dodgers.

Cost + a faster connection $61/month. Some of that (the mlb.tv) is paid for by my sister. $20 is just for slingtv. Personally, while I will watch the Foodnetwork shows sometimes, not worth it for basically just AMC (for me), but my mom watches a lot of TNT and A&E and it gets you ESPN (A&E also has a free app, that makes certain episodes/shows available, which works well there)

We don't get channel 11 in HD (11.1), but we do get 11.2 which is Fox is standard definition. A better antenna would perhaps fix it. Issue is actually that we are close to the broadcast towers, but a little too close being in the hills. So an attic antenna would almost certainly fix it.