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

Sanrith Descartes · Aug 28, 2023

Intrinsic said:
We've been tossing it around for so long, with the new baby here and everything else happening I think we just said screw it go ahead. It'll be nice having the little bit of money back. Next step will be just trimming down the streaming services.

Looking at the current bill it should be about $160 a month savings. Can't drop Internet service at the moment, but just the cable portion:

$70 - TV Package
$10 - DVR
$35 - Extra TV Box
$37.60 - Broadcast Fee and Regional Sports Fee
$7.40 - Franchise Fee and Regulatory Cost Recovery

Honestly, my 65 year old mom just today showed me how on my Samsung TV, that I've had for 7 years, has Samsung Plus or whatever and streams how many ever random 100s of channels. They have a damn Top Gear channel.

If you have young kids and aren't in the "fuck Disney" camp (many of us are), then D+ covers the little ones for like 5-6$ a month. Also, check the internet for sales on streaming services. We got Peacock on sale for $3.99/month for a year, Max for like $4/month for a year and D+ begged us to come back for $2/month (since we have Hulu). Throw in Prime and the various free ones (like IMDB) and there is a ton to watch for under $30 /month. Also, I dont care about commercials. I check my phone during them.

Falstaff · Aug 29, 2023

My kids loved PBS Kids until they were like 6 and Disney plus came out. And it’s free.

Intrinsic · Aug 29, 2023

I think the only D+ show that our 5 year old cares about is Spidey and Friends and Lionguard, and we basically refuse to watch Lionguard because it is so annoying, even as background filler. Is Bluey D+? Can’t remember, wife watches that more than kiddo. Anyways, we’ll be fine because that subscription was some package deal that is ongoing and will be reevaluated on renewal. We also got Peacock for a similar $2.99/m offer so are locked in with it. Somehow l have two Shudder subscriptions hah.

Kajiimagi · Aug 29, 2023

Intrinsic said:
We've been tossing it around for so long, with the new baby here and everything else happening I think we just said screw it go ahead. It'll be nice having the little bit of money back. Next step will be just trimming down the streaming services.

Looking at the current bill it should be about $160 a month savings. Can't drop Internet service at the moment, but just the cable portion:

$70 - TV Package
$10 - DVR
$35 - Extra TV Box
$37.60 - Broadcast Fee and Regional Sports Fee
$7.40 - Franchise Fee and Regulatory Cost Recovery

Honestly, my 65 year old mom just today showed me how on my Samsung TV, that I've had for 7 years, has Samsung Plus or whatever and streams how many ever random 100s of channels. They have a damn Top Gear channel.

I have youtubeTV , it's $74 a month now I think , it's basically cable tv with built in DVR (all on cloud side) and if you 'record' the show as opposed to VOD , you can fast forward through the commercials. Last time I was looking at this, YTV was the only one that let us FF thru commercials. My wife and mother in law watch this and I can get most NFL games through it so I just grumble and pay the damn thing. Still cheaper that Cable/Satellite and if you want to, you can get NFL sunday ticket/ 4k / whatever as well.

BrutulTM · Aug 29, 2023

I just pay $10/month for NFL+ Premium which lets you stream the games in HD as soon as the game is over. I know not watching sports live is a deal breaker for some but I tend to be doing stuff on Sunday afternoon and DVR the games anyway so watching the game in the evening works fine for me. Sometimes they have commercials, sometimes they don't.

They also have an option for a "compressed" playback where they cut out all the downtime and you can watch every play in 90 minutes.

Lanx · Aug 29, 2023

Intrinsic said:
Honestly, my 65 year old mom just today showed me how on my Samsung TV, that I've had for 7 years, has Samsung Plus or whatever and streams how many ever random 100s of channels. They have a damn Top Gear channel.

when the olds are out-teching you

Kharzette · Aug 31, 2023

Youtube on kodi is a nightmare. 2 hours of unfettered assgoblinry.

I have it working now but there's no audio. Getting it to work is very very complicated.

The guy that made the addon made a youtube video that shows how to do all the arcane api key stuff, and google deleted his video

Probably was a fortunate thing because others wrote how-tos in various git bugs that I was able to read. I don't do howto videos.

Intrinsic · Aug 31, 2023

Calling Comcast to cancel Xfinity and their support line has fucking fake background keyboard keypress sounds while the computer is "reviewing my account."

Intrinsic · Sep 1, 2023

Update from yesterday:

The Comcast rep was pretty helpful and walked me through a few different scenarios and I ended up dropping down to the Xfinity Now service (NOW TV – Stream Live TV and On Demand Channels) just to retain a few channels that wife watches and that I do sometimes put on in the background. Guess it is similar to YouTube TV or such. $20/m and only $1 or something added in taxes since there are no regional fees or sports fees. We'll see if we use it or just cancel it. It at least works with the Xfinity Stream app on the Roku (although that is messed up at the moment and not showing anything but Purchases and no Live TV).

Bill dropped to like $120/m total so feels good.

Falstaff · Sep 1, 2023

I need to cancel my Comcast cable and retain my internet and I am dreading having to talk to those fucks.

Void · Sep 1, 2023

Falstaff said:
I need to cancel my Comcast cable and retain my internet and I am dreading having to talk to those fucks.

You can do it online if you aren't going to try to pressure them for a good deal or something.

Well, perhaps reducing services requires a call, but I could swear that I didn't have to when I did it years ago. I know you can change services easily online, as I've done it with work and home both recently. I say easily, with the caveat that a company that provides internet service literally has one of the worst, buggiest, slowest, error-giving-est piece of shit websites ever. But you can do it if you are patient.

Falstaff · Sep 1, 2023

Void said:
You can do it online if you aren't going to try to pressure them for a good deal or something.

Well, perhaps reducing services requires a call, but I could swear that I didn't have to when I did it years ago. I know you can change services easily online, as I've done it with work and home both recently. I say easily, with the caveat that a company that provides internet service literally has one of the worst, buggiest, slowest, error-giving-est piece of shit websites ever. But you can do it if you are patient.

I'll look again before I call but a few weeks ago I checked and it didn't let me do that... but I'll google it and try to figure it out before I do anything.

meStevo · Sep 1, 2023

This could get really interesting.

According to executives at the cable company, which has just shy of 15 million video customers, the two sides had been talking about a “transformative” deal for months, one that, in their mind, could help reinvigorate the pay TV bundle and provide a “glide path” away from the rapid erosion enveloping the industry.

But if Disney and Charter can’t cut a deal, the cable company says it is prepared to abandon its video business altogether.

Charter Wants to Blow Up the Pay TV Bundle in Disney Fight: “This Is Not a Typical Carriage Dispute”

The cable giant, with nearly 15 million TV subs, told analysts Friday that it is prepared to "move on" from its video business: "We've reached the point of indifference."

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Palum · Sep 1, 2023

meStevo said:
This could get really interesting.

According to executives at the cable company, which has just shy of 15 million video customers, the two sides had been talking about a “transformative” deal for months, one that, in their mind, could help reinvigorate the pay TV bundle and provide a “glide path” away from the rapid erosion enveloping the industry.

But if Disney and Charter can’t cut a deal, the cable company says it is prepared to abandon its video business altogether.

Charter Wants to Blow Up the Pay TV Bundle in Disney Fight: “This Is Not a Typical Carriage Dispute”

The cable giant, with nearly 15 million TV subs, told analysts Friday that it is prepared to "move on" from its video business: "We've reached the point of indifference."

www.hollywoodreporter.com

I mean the core problem is just that cable services want to bundle and people don't want to pay for dumb shit. The traditional subsidizing of unpopular channels only works when you have monopoly power.

Intrinsic · Sep 1, 2023

Palum said:
I mean the core problem is just that cable services want to bundle and people don't want to pay for dumb shit. The traditional subsidizing of unpopular channels only works when you have monopoly power.

It really only took me about 15 minutes yesterday when I called. $20/m isn't $0 but if it gets my wife HGTV, Food Network, Magnolia, and whatever else that is fine. If we find a free alternative we'll take it. But yeah, it really wasn't that bad at all and I was dreading it also. Drop stuff off at UPS and walk out the door an extra couple hundred in your pocket.

Palum · Sep 1, 2023

Intrinsic said:
It really only took me about 15 minutes yesterday when I called. $20/m isn't $0 but if it gets my wife HGTV, Food Network, Magnolia, and whatever else that is fine. If we find a free alternative we'll take it. But yeah, it really wasn't that bad at all and I was dreading it also. Drop stuff off at UPS and walk out the door an extra couple hundred in your pocket.

Yea but collectively every customer is still paying for BET and the Ru Paul channel.

Haus · Sep 10, 2023

So I was pretty happy with the HD Homerun box. Here in Dallas, getting around 75 channels. But I was getting artifacts and issues on a couple. Upgraded to this antenna over the weekend, now 93 channels....
Amazon product ASIN B08VYLH74H
Only drawback was the app not working with my phone.... Now watching SNF and getting this :

It looks great and I have had no signal issues/pixelation/artifacting. Should I be concerned with 89% signal quality? Almost every channel I check it 100/100 on Strength and symbol quality, but signal quality seems to fluctuate. On the old non-powered interior antenna (tacked to a beam in the attic) all three would be in the 80s a lot of the time with signal dipping into the 70s and 60s. New antenna, mounted on roof at the apex of the roof and things seem golden.

Kharzette · Sep 11, 2023

I'm getting 77-85 signal strength for my cheap crappy antenna, and 90 to 98 on quality.

Symbol quality one channel has 0 the other 100 (looking at tuner0, tuner1). Not sure what that is, they both work.

I wish I could see the channels that don't work. There are alot of channels that are detected but just hang when I try to switch to them.

Kharzette · Sep 12, 2023

We are finally cooling off from our hellish summer so now all the channels the hdhomerun detects are playable. The above mentioned bug with the kodi addon was really causing me alot of tech support time. Now she can just channel up/down through it all.

Sanrith Descartes · Sep 18, 2023

Just cancelled my HBO subscription. I had been on a 1-year subscription for $5 a month and the new renewal almost doubles it. Noped out. I got the final season of Succession and The Last of Us out of it.

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

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