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

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slippery

slippery

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I'm to the point where I almost have my family willing to completely cut the cord (we have gigabit internet with no bandwidth caps, so it's a lot more viable). Anyone have any experience with OTA DVR's? Something for less tech savy people to be able to use if I set it up for them. Any other things I should consider while I'm at it? I'm going to be saving like $120 a month (I already have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, so those are non issues) so I don't mind spending a little bit of money on stuff initially since I'll be saving a ton in the long run

Hit me with the knowledges to do it right, esepecially with people who suck at learning and suck at technology.
 
Ao-

Ao-

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slippery said:
I'm to the point where I almost have my family willing to completely cut the cord (we have gigabit internet with no bandwidth caps, so it's a lot more viable). Anyone have any experience with OTA DVR's? Something for less tech savy people to be able to use if I set it up for them. Any other things I should consider while I'm at it? I'm going to be saving like $120 a month (I already have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, so those are non issues) so I don't mind spending a little bit of money on stuff initially since I'll be saving a ton in the long run

Hit me with the knowledges to do it right, esepecially with people who suck at learning and suck at technology.
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Could you do something with like Roku or Plex with it?
 
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taebin

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slippery said:
I'm to the point where I almost have my family willing to completely cut the cord (we have gigabit internet with no bandwidth caps, so it's a lot more viable). Anyone have any experience with OTA DVR's? Something for less tech savy people to be able to use if I set it up for them. Any other things I should consider while I'm at it? I'm going to be saving like $120 a month (I already have Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, so those are non issues) so I don't mind spending a little bit of money on stuff initially since I'll be saving a ton in the long run.
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Do you know someone with an active cable subscription that wouldn't mind sharing their login info? That is typically the easiest way to maintain relatively the same lifestyle you are used to with DVR. It takes a little getting used to, but instead of DVR it's just on demand streams of content, a day after they air. Same as Hulu, but a wider variety of channels/shows through Roku. Also helps if you can torrent and stream through Plex on your PC or NAS.
 
slippery

slippery

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Ao- Ao- taebin taebin Just going to answer you both at once. Any TV's they use will have a Fire stick, with access to whatever. I've had them use Plex in the past (Game of Thrones, Billions) but it is generally annoying on my end because they are always bugging me. I guess if I was going to go to that much effort I'd have to learn how to automate the process.

Any experience with Sling TV? How good is it? Ease of use?

My current thoughts are HD Antenna, set up an OTA DVR (Probably Tablo 4 tuner?), and maybe Sling TV (Probably Blue, that gets her HGTV, news stations, FX, AMC, BBC, pretty much her main stations outside of the OTA networks). Then she'll have Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu to fall back on. That will save me like $90 a month
 
Arative

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Silicon dust has a DVR that I've been using for almost 4 years that works with their tuners. The tuners can get a bit pricey. I think the connect quatro is around $200. DVR is light weight and can run on just about anything. That costs $35 a year.

They also offer a streaming service for $35 a month but you need one of their tuners. You can record the streams with their DVR.
 
Kais

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So i'm pretty much over Netflix as there is so little on there i wish to watch anymore. How is Hulu these days?
 
Crone

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Kais said:
So i'm pretty much over Netflix as there is so little on there i wish to watch anymore. How is Hulu these days?
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Wife and I use Hulu a lot because of our schedules and not caring about having to wait a day for new episodes to populate. Tons of good stuff on their. I'd say it's worth it.
 
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slippery

slippery

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Okay so I finally got the Tablo setup. This is actually pretty awesome and easy to use. The guide is pretty solid, I think I'm just going to buy the lifetime license so family has it easier. Plus it'll pay for itself in like 2 months since I can cancel the cable tv. You can even just view a list of shows and movies, regardless of channel, which makes it super easy to look through the list of movies airing in the next 2 weeks and be like okay I want to record that.

I think the DVR functions are even better than DirecTV ones. Being able to record a show, choose a channel or all channels, new episodes or all episodes, start early end late, how many to keep, etc. Pretty great really.
 
Arative

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Does anyone use Philo TV? Considering a mix of Philo, YouTube TV and Usenet to cut the cord. Wife is morally opposed to downloading, so figured I could cord shave by getting YouTube TV but it doesn't have Discovery, HGTV or food Network, which Philo does have for $16 a month. But I've never heard of it before I started looking.
 
slippery

slippery

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Arative said:
Does anyone use Philo TV? Considering a mix of Philo, YouTube TV and Usenet to cut the cord. Wife is morally opposed to downloading, so figured I could cord shave by getting YouTube TV but it doesn't have Discovery, HGTV or food Network, which Philo does have for $16 a month. But I've never heard of it before I started looking.
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Sling TV (at least the blue package, which imo is the better one) has all 3 of those channels, it's also got a 40% off deal for 3 months going on right now so it's just $15 a month for the first 3 (then $25 after that). With a $5 a month addition it has a cloud DVR that holds 50 hours. I'm pretty happy with it.
 
SeanDoe1z1

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I have not been disappointed with Vue. Their multiscreen / restart is pretty legit. Sony is either eating costs on subscriber costs from programmers or they're giving everyone a handy in the backroom because the 45 $ for basic OTT with their lineup should put them in the red. Definitely when it was 30$.
 
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slippery

slippery

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I could not be happier with my Tablo. It took a little fooling around with my OTA antenna to find a good spot that gets consistent signal, but that I have it's amazing. The guide features are great. Being able to watch on my PC or other devices is great.
 
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P

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YouTube TV is raising their price to $50/mo. I have the original grandfathered plan of $35/mo and starting in May they are switching us to the new rate. Pretty annoyed with a 42% increase so abruptly. Any alternatives that are more cost effective?
 
slippery

slippery

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What does YouTube TV give you?

I'm using an HD OTA antenna for the regular channels (ABC NBC Fox CBS CW) with a DVR for them, and then sling tv for the cable channels. It's $25 a month and covers a pretty good selection, you can watch on 4 devices at once (with the blue package, which is imo the better channels anyways, orange package is only 2 devices at once) and for an extra $5 a month you can get 50 hours of DVR storage for it. They are running a promo right now for 40% off the first 3 months (so $15 a month for the first 3).

www.sling.com

Live TV Streaming | Sling TV

Sling streaming TV service. Customize your channels and watch TV online. No hidden fees. No long-term contracts. Drop cable TV and save $10 off your 1st month.
www.sling.com
 
Noodleface

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Pescador said:
YouTube TV is raising their price to $50/mo. I have the original grandfathered plan of $35/mo and starting in May they are switching us to the new rate. Pretty annoyed with a 42% increase so abruptly. Any alternatives that are more cost effective?
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This is what PsVue kept.doing to us. We started at 29.99 and soon enough it was 45+. It seems like these companies try to gain your loyalty early then bone you
 
Mr. K

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Pescador said:
YouTube TV is raising their price to $50/mo. I have the original grandfathered plan of $35/mo and starting in May they are switching us to the new rate. Pretty annoyed with a 42% increase so abruptly. Any alternatives that are more cost effective?
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Same exact problem. I can't do a basic HD Antenna, I'd have to do a more powerful one outside which I don't really want to do.

I am technically splitting the service with my mom, so it's $25/house hold, but we just don't use it much. I think if she's ok with it I'm going to cut it.

Then it's just something for football season.

But fuck, going from $35 to $50 makes me think why not just do cable again? Really the only thing holding me back is the damn cable boxes.
 
Arative

Arative

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Mr. K said:
Same exact problem. I can't do a basic HD Antenna, I'd have to do a more powerful one outside which I don't really want to do.

I am technically splitting the service with my mom, so it's $25/house hold, but we just don't use it much. I think if she's ok with it I'm going to cut it.

Then it's just something for football season.

But fuck, going from $35 to $50 makes me think why not just do cable again? Really the only thing holding me back is the damn cable boxes.
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You could do cable card tuners and get your own set top boxes. I use silicon dust tuners and nivida shields as the set top boxes. Silicon dust also has developed their own DVR. Only issue is that it can't do DRM content yet.
 
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