Cord-Cutting, Or How to Stream your Way to Success

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Selix

Selix

Lord Nagafen Raider
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Hachima_sl said:
My SlingTV subscription ends in 10 days and I'm not renewing. I went back to getting satellite. I'm keeping Hulu and Netflix subs though.

SlingTV doesn't to add the ability to stream on more than one device at a time, so if you aren't single thats a big drawback. Some shows have playback, otherwise no DVR option and you can't even pause so you better take that bathroom break during a commercial. The quality wasn't that great(compared to Netflix HD streaming). The client is a bit buggy and I get audio desync issues now and then that require me to restart the client. They have the potential to make searching for shows much better on PC/Mac. They are behind in content suggestion searching (compared to something like Genie with DirectTV)
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I can confirm this is all true. I should add that I almost never watch TV except for the occasional Live news bug I get I really couldn't care less about TV. I could realistically cancel Hulu and Sling only keeping Netflix and Amazon Instant Video (free with prime) and probably not notice a difference. Maybe even have a savings.
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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So I'm probably going to cut the cord here in the next few months. I'm just waiting for this round of summer seasons to end then I'll cancel my TWC plan.

However I'm at a crossroads about what to do after that. I can get TWC's faster internet plan which is up to 50 down. Or I can go with AT&T which is 45 down. One being cable and the other DSL (I assume?) I know my parents had DSL and I was quite pleased with it when I was younger. I didn't have to worry about primetime slowdowns and I enjoyed the consistency even if the cable sometimes managed to beat the downspeed if I kept a torrent running overnight. Is there a board opinion on AT&T vs TWC for ISP?
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

<Prior Amod>
15,782
9,192
Cable: Higher spike speeds and some slow downs during peak hours. I'm not sure how things are with TWC, but Comcast will also make it so you cant stream HD on Netflix during peak hours.

DSL: When subscribed to comparable cable speeds, you will usually get higher consistent speeds, however there is a caveat with this. It depends on how close you are to the node. CenturyLink 40mb DSL to this day is the best Internet I've ever had, once I cut off from Comcast totally I'll be going back to them.
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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It has also been a while so excuse the probably stupid question but does DSL come in via your phone jack or coax?
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

<Prior Amod>
15,782
9,192
Comes though the phone jack. You'll want to make sure you have fiber in your area or else DSL isn't worth your time.
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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ATT is fiber to the node. Though it looks like U-Verse has a 250 GB cap. That may not be good enough for me.
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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607
It looks like the fastest TWC is $65/mo. That is 50 (variable, obv) down. So adding on Sling, Netflix, Hulu I'd be looking at still around $100/mo just for all this stuff. Cheaper but only by about $50. I would upgrade my internet connection from 15 down to 50, though. I'm having issues where if my wife is streaming netflix it lags my games I play online so I need to upgrade my connection soon it is getting irritating. I've tried making my computer the highest priority on the router but it still isn't working.
 
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a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
29,948
29,763
What is your bandwidth now? How much of an increase are you getting?

What are you needing Sling and Hulu for?

Do you know how to torrent? Set up Sonarr or similar? Have a lot of hard drive space?

I have 'cut the cord' since 2000 pretty much but it's because I download everything and don't subscribe to streaming sites. I do have a Netflix sub just to support them and sometimes I want to just browse for something I haven't thought of watching.
 
Izo

Izo

Tranny Chaser
<Trapped in Randomonia>
19,428
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SpyUplink_04.jpg

Needs suinCo satellite uplink.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

Molten Core Raider
8,157
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Tenks_sl said:
It looks like the fastest TWC is $65/mo. That is 50 (variable, obv) down. So adding on Sling, Netflix, Hulu I'd be looking at still around $100/mo just for all this stuff. Cheaper but only by about $50. I would upgrade my internet connection from 15 down to 50, though. I'm having issues where if my wife is streaming netflix it lags my games I play online so I need to upgrade my connection soon it is getting irritating. I've tried making my computer the highest priority on the router but it still isn't working.
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Make sure you have a good router if you want to game while your wife watches Netflix. You could have a 1000mb connection and if your router is shit it won't handle the traffic well between multiple users. ASUS or Mikrotik for your router, IMHO.

Honestly, your old 15 down connection(assuming you were getting the full 15) should have been plenty for Netflix + gaming, gaming takes very little bandwidth. I'd look into a new router(or trying out the QoS settings in your current router, if it has any).
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

<Prior Amod>
15,782
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Yaeh I'm not going to bother with Sling, I'll keep my Netflix going just for random browsing but that's the only subscription service I'll end up having. If I want to watch a TV show or almost any other movie there are countless streaming sites for that or I'll just download them.
 
Ichu

Ichu

Molten Core Raider
850
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Just disconnected my TV. We're going with Netflix and Shomi (Canadian netflix) for $18 a month. When hockey starts up again we can just stream or go to the pub with our new found savings.
 
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McShrimp

Molten Core Raider
617
411
Tenks_sl said:
ATT is fiber to the node. Though it looks like U-Verse has a 250 GB cap. That may not be good enough for me.
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Anecdotal, but I've had U-verse for a couple years now, and I've never had this be an issue. One month I knew I was over, and I called about it to check what I was at / how much it'd be, and iirc the lady said they really only enforce it if you're like double the cap for months in a row. The gist I got was that it was to stop people doing hardcore file sharing, not that you hit 251GB and they nail you for an extra $50 or w/e. Also, I've never gotten a C&D letter from anyone to stop torrenting shit like I always did from Charter, so that's been nice.

My only complaint is when you have to call for something, their phone system is absolute garbage,"Please briefly describe what you are calling about, so I can dump you into AT&T Mobile or something else thats wrong"
 
Soygen

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
<Nazi Janitors>
28,430
44,754
Tenks_sl said:
ATT is fiber to the node. Though it looks like U-Verse has a 250 GB cap. That may not be good enough for me.
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They don't enforce the cap at all currently. I'm blowing it out of the water every month.
 
Ichu

Ichu

Molten Core Raider
850
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I'm not sure yet. Shomi has some exclusive content so maybe. I just signed up for the free month so far. Maybe someone here who has it can say. From what I hear it has more old movies that my wife would like so we will see.
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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607
joeboo_sl said:
Make sure you have a good router if you want to game while your wife watches Netflix. You could have a 1000mb connection and if your router is shit it won't handle the traffic well between multiple users. ASUS or Mikrotik for your router, IMHO.

Honestly, your old 15 down connection(assuming you were getting the full 15) should have been plenty for Netflix + gaming, gaming takes very little bandwidth. I'd look into a new router(or trying out the QoS settings in your current router, if it has any).
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I have an Asus RT-AC87 so it isn't the router. I checked the band when she turns on netflix and it was consuming about 2400 KB/s. Downloading via Steam on off times I can get about 3 megs a second. Peak times around 2.8. So it looks like Netflix is just hogging the connection.

-edit

Derp I noticed I never enabled Adaptive QoS on the router. I'll see if that helps me out near term.
 
A

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
29,948
29,763
Tenks_sl said:
I have an Asus RT-AC87 so it isn't the router. I checked the band when she turns on netflix and it was consuming about 2400 KB/s. Downloading via Steam on off times I can get about 3 megs a second. Peak times around 2.8. So it looks like Netflix is just hogging the connection.
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Try the following link and see if you can get the QOS better.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/...tflix-qos.html

Unfortunately most google searches are how to improve the bandwidth for Netflix
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