PSA - Cord cutters

[Seinfeld]

For any of you thinking about ditching satellite or cable, just an FYI that DTV Now added the NFL network a week ago, and they seem to have resolved most of their issues with local networks during the last 48 hrs as well.

I live 20 minutes outside of Little Rock, and I can now get all the locals, all ESPNs, SEC Network, and Fox sports channels for $55. Plus, if you’re a new subscriber, you can call ATT to let them know that you’re thinking about it, and they’ll give you 3 months free.

If I had to knock a couple things, it would be the 20 hr limit for DVR, and the user interface is still not quite as fluid as Direct TV. However, just thought I’d let y’all know since one of the previous big knocks against it was gaps with locals and various sports channels

 

[Dawgzilla]

I'm on the DTV Now free week trial right now. It is the most expensive live TV streaming service, but it is probably also the best now. It is the only service I'm aware of that streams in Dolby Digital (when available). The video quality is top notch, and actually a little brighter than most -- I had to switch to the dark room "movie" video settings on my TV, in the middle of the day. They offer more channels than most of the other services, but this is not a "plus" to me. I would rather pay less and get fewer channels.

The 20 hr DVR is unworkable for me during football season. You can pay an extra $10 per month and get 100 Hrs. of DVR, and you can keep your programs for 90 days. But $65 per month is sounding more like a cable bill. Also, you can only have 2 streams running at the same time. A third stream is available for another $5 per month. 2 streams is fine for me, but if you have kids it might be an issue. You can sign up now and save $30 per month for the first 3 months if anyone wants to give it a whirl during football season.

I had some connectivity issues the first two days that seem to have cleared up now. The DVR was frustrating, because I would try to skip the commercials, but then the connectivity issues caused the video to take as much time loading as the commercials would have been.

I will probably stick with Playstation Vue for now due to the cost.

 

[HumpDawgy]

YoutubeTV is only $35 a month and has all of that and unlimited recording that saves for 9 months I believe. It has all the ESPNs as well as most other sports channels. The only exception is NFL network for now. I have had this for about a year and it has been great.

 

[Hugh's Burner Phone]

What kind of internet service is needed to do this? I live just far enough out of town to not get the good internet options like c spire fiber and such. Right now all I have is my phone which if it's in a really good mood will get me two bars of LTE. I assume I'd need an unlimited plan (happy to be wrong about that), but what speeds do I need?

 

[jb1020]

Do you get cbs live with youtube?

And its BS its not compatible with Fire stick.

I committed to Hulu a year or so ago, but you don't get CBS live and guide gets tiresome.

 

[coach66]

SEC Network?

nm

 

[Seinfeld]

Yeah, their business model seems pretty obvious to me. Get folks signed up for a very “reasonable” monthly cost, but then nickel and dime them to death. For me, it still made sense because my DTV bill was about to go up to $130/mo, and I don’t have a ton of options where I live. However, it seems like there are Pros and Cons with just about all the streaming services.

I looked through all of them, and it seemed like with each one, you’d get something and have to give up something. All the ESPNs but not all locals, all the locals but no ESPNU or SEC Network, locals and ESPNs but no Fox Sports... I’m also one of those that really doesn’t need more the 10-15 channels, but those 10-15 are critical, and I think these streaming execs knew exactly what they were doing when they formulated the lineups.

For some reason, I was thinking that PS Vue was actually one of the more expensive services out there due to a large channel lineup, but is that not the case?

 

[HueFreeze]

I would say the minimum for streaming is around 6M ...if you have a wife then I would suggest 12M

Streaming off a hotspot is not ideal because "unlimited"" really only means about 10GB of hotspotting or 22GB monthly ...22GB is good enough for maybe 72-140 hours of tv with 4tv's, maybe totally guessing. We use about 250GB a month of ATT Uverse to stream 4tv's

 

[Seinfeld]

Will definitely need unlimited, but I don’t think any of the top of the line fiber optic services should be needed unless you have a family that is streaming 6 things at once.

Most sites claim that you only need around 5MB/s to stream HD without interruption, and to put that in perspective, your phone’s 4G LTE speed is probably 10-15 MB/s, so as long as you have access to some kind of hi speed service, you’ll probably be ok. Of course, there are trial offers for pretty much all of them, so you can test before you sign up also

 

[HumpDawgy]

Do you get cbs live with youtube?

And its BS its not compatible with Fire stick.

I committed to Hulu a year or so ago, but you don't get CBS live and guide gets tiresome.

It is not available on Amazon Fire due to the Amazon-Google feud. You can buy a google chromecast for $35 and cast from your phone to your TV since you have a fire box/stick like I do. I believe the youtubeTV app is available on Roku and Apple devices.


Below are the stations that come with youtubeTV right now (changes every so often and this does not include premium add-ons)

Your local channels
TBS
TNT
ESPN
ESPN2
ESPNU
ESPN News
SECN
FS1
FS2
Fox Sports (regional)
NBC Sports network
NBA TV
MLB network
Big 10 network
CBS Sports network
NBC Golf
Tennis Channel
Disney
Disney Jr
Disney XD
Universal HD
Cartoon Network
AMC
BBC America
Freeform
FX
FXX
FXM
IFC
Pop
Sundance
TCM
TruTV
USA
National Geographic
Nat Geo Wild
Smithsonian
SyFy
Bravo
E!
Oxygen
Tastemade
We
BBC World News
Cheddar
Cheddar Big News
CNN
Fox News
HLN
MSNBC
Newsy
CNBC
Fox Business
The Young Turks
Telemundo
Universo
Decades
Comet

 

[Dawgzilla]

Youtube TV is $40 a month, and it doesn't have Dolby Digital for live TV, and the user interface kind of sucks. Also is not available on Amazon Fire devices. Sure, you can buy a Chromecast for $35 and use your phone, but then my Amazon Echo voice commands don't work and I don't like the way channel flipping works when you are using Chromecast (I flip channels A LOT in the Fall). When I was checking out Youtube TV earlier, it didn't have all the channels I wanted, but I think they have fixed that now.

If you already use Roku, Chromecast, or Apple TV, then Youtube TV is a solid choice.

 

[Dawgzilla]

Yes. I've tried out every live streaming service, and I don't even looking at them if I can't get three ESPN's and SEC Network. Only reason I even want live streaming is for sports....the other stuff I like to watch will eventually be available on other apps.

 

[Dawgzilla]

PS Vue is currently the second most expensive. It recently went up to $50/month for the "core" package, which provides all the ESPN channels and SECN. That's why I started shopping around, and signed up for free trials with Hulu Live, Direct TV Now, and Sling. I was tempted to make Youtube TV work for me, but it's easier to stick with what I know works.

Hule Live is a complete cluster17 to use.


PS Vue has really improved their user interfaces, and it has a ton of On Demand content included. And you get 5 streams, plus unlimited streaming on Playstation consoles (I think). The cloud DVR has no size limit, but only saves shows for 28 days. One recording feature that is both annoying and cool is that it records by series title, not by episode. So if you add "Better Caul Saul" to "My Shows", then it will save a recording of every single episode that airs on any channel at any time, and it will let you know those episodes are there. This is cool, because if you set it to record "NCAA Football", then it saves a recording of every single game for 28 days. It can be a little cumbersome to sort through the files sometimes, but you have a copy of every single game. It is annoying, though, because you don't always want every episode. I don't want every single NCAA basketball game, and I don't want every episode of Sportscenter that airs in a single day.

 

[Dawgzilla]

Two replies to your post, but, can you not get good antenna reception where you are? I'm in Atlanta, inside the perimeter, and we can get over 100 OTA channels by attaching any type of antenna to the TV. Most of the streaming services offer our local channels anyway, but they are much more preferable OTA (better picture quality and Dolby Digital sound).

 

[Rayburn8]

YoutubeTV is only $35 a month and has all of that and unlimited recording that saves for 9 months I believe. It has all the ESPNs as well as most other sports channels. The only exception is NFL network for now. I have had this for about a year and it has been great.

My roommates and I want this but they do not have it in Starkville. Have it in Oxford, have it in Jackson but not Starkville and it is annoying.

We need a good streaming service that has local channels for NFL games and then MLB Network because one of my roommates insists on it if anyone has suggestions.

 

[JoMo MoJo]

Can you get all of those channels even during bad weather?

 

[Dawgzilla]

I'm assuming that question was directed at my antenna comment? First of all, out of the 100+ OTA channels we can get, I probably only watch a dozen or so on a regular basis. I did have some issues with an indoor antenna, and the weather didn't even have to be bad. Heavy winds and cloud cover could cause some heavy digitization. But now I have an outdoor antenna on my roof, and once I got it dialed in I never saw anymore issues. Obviously, there could be some interruptions that I'm not aware of because I am not watching the right channel at the right time, but I haven't seen any problems at all. The SD channels are easy to pick up, so I think they are fine regardless...it's just the HD signals that can be finicky.

 

[HumpDawgy]

My roommates and I want this but they do not have it in Starkville. Have it in Oxford, have it in Jackson but not Starkville and it is annoying.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I would think you could get it in Starkville with the local jackson affiliates. I have it in St. Augustine, FL and get the Jacksonville, FL affiliates.

 

[JoMo MoJo]

It was directed at Dish in general. My dad has the service because he is rural and that is his only option. If the skies are cloudy his service disappears. Period. Nothing.

If we have bad weather I always have to watch for tornados in his area because he will have no signal.
I’m not dissing Dish so much as I wonder if he can do anything to improve his reception.

 

[The Peeper]

You can get the local channels for NFL with an antenna in Starkville no problem, I've got 2 at my house in Starkville and we get all of the main networks ABC, CBS, PBS, FOX, NBC. There's also The CW, myTV, ion (crime shows), METV, "This" network, PBS Create, PBS Kids, and a couple of Birmingham ones too on a good day. There's also a few screaming preachers and BIZ Network.

 

[state2013]

I essentially share a cable subscription with my sister. I pay her for her log in and password for direct tv and I have access to everything she subscribes to via the channels' apps on roku. I've been able to watch all my live mlb games through foxsports and the espn app has all their live channels as well including sec network. It's been flawless so far as long as you have an Internet connection.

 

[Beretta.sixpack]

My roommates and I want this but they do not have it in Starkville. Have it in Oxford, have it in Jackson but not Starkville and it is annoying.

We need a good streaming service that has local channels for NFL games and then MLB Network because one of my roommates insists on it if anyone has suggestions.

It is available in Oxford because Oxford is considered Memphis market....i would think you could get it in Starkville if its available in Jackson.....I havent tried any of the cord cutting just bc of my wife and kids....that and I have a bundled DTV/Att internet/home phone....pay $180 a month....so many things i worry about....id have to get rid of ATT internet for one...its slow as hell....id think the DTV GO/NOW would be the way to go, but by the time i add extra DVR for the wife, and being able to stream 3 tvs at once, and the higher cost of internet via local here, id be about the same as I am now.....

 

[Moe Cabelle]

I had assumed that DTV was direct TV - is this correct?

I had finally cut the cord from direct TV 6 months ago and have loved it. Now it's football time and I've explored my options for sports through Sling, Hula etc via my firestick. I have loved the Firestick with Amazon prime and netflix.

However, my primary tv get's caught up in delay far too much to enjoy a live tv. I've had issues streaming live Hulu. Yes, I could increase my internet service, but I think they are undercharging me at $9/month so I don't want to disrupt that

Now direct TV is tossing me $300 to come back and it looks like a two year offer that will cost on par with Hulu. I hate to say it, but I think I'm going back to Direct TV for the next two years. Any reason not to?

 

[fishwater99]

Can you get all of those channels even during bad weather?

Yes, it is an internet based service, not satellite.

 

[SirBarksalot]

Another Vote for YouTube TV.
Haven’t looked back. Yes it has sec network. A ton of others.

As for for Internet I don’t know officially what my speed is supposed to be, 200 I think. And that’s what it is always in the vicinity of. Can stream on 3 TVs with no issues. I’ve had YTTV go out once.

I did did buy the eero mesh WiFi which was expensive but works fantastic.

 

[Seinfeld]

People can say what they want, but there isn’t anything better than Direct TV as long as you can get it for a decent price. If they’re waving $300 in front of you along with a discounted monthly bill for the next two years, I’d go for it.

This seems ridiculous, but I swear that it seems like their business model has turned into one where they actually want you to end your service and come back later. It’s been twice now that I’ve called after my 2-year promotion ended, and they basically wouldn’t lift a finger to keep me. 3 months later, though, I get an offer with brand new equipment, a Visa card, Sunday ticket, and a discounted bill to come back. It’s weird

 

[archdog]

Of note to add to the discussion, when Verizon goes live with their 5G system, they will include apple TV and YouTubeTV included with the service. Too bad it isn't already launched in the US. It's close though.

 

[notoriousD_O_G]

I essentially share a cable subscription with my sister. I pay her for her log in and password for direct tv and I have access to everything she subscribes to via the channels' apps on roku. I've been able to watch all my live mlb games through foxsports and the espn app has all their live channels as well including sec network. It's been flawless so far as long as you have an Internet connection.

This is what I do with my parents. What I do for local channels is use the Comcast app on Roku and since my internet package includes the local channels I can watch all the local channels live.

 

[RocketDawg]

It was directed at Dish in general. My dad has the service because he is rural and that is his only option. If the skies are cloudy his service disappears. Period. Nothing.

If we have bad weather I always have to watch for tornados in his area because he will have no signal.
I’m not dissing Dish so much as I wonder if he can do anything to improve his reception.

It's not just Dish, it's also DirecTV. It's caused by the frequency required by the small satellite antenna we use. The big 15-footers that used to be in front of every house trailer, and are still used at television stations, don't suffer weather fade, or at least as dramatically. I have Dish and it is affected by moderate rain, or even when there's rain or thunderstorms nearby. But it doesn't happen often or last very long. Can be a pain when it does though.

To improve your Dad's reception, you could get their tech (or contractor) to come out and make sure the antenna is pointed properly, or it could be that one of the LNBs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-noise_block_downconverter) is bad or weakened.

 

[The Peeper]

In Starksville** we get the Columbus CBS feed and NBC, ABC and Fox come from Tupelo. All of these come in on my attic mounted antenna or one on the roof pointed slightly differently

 

[HumpDawgy]

People can say what they want, but there isn’t anything better than Direct TV as long as you can get it for a decent price.

I've had dish and directTV and did not like it. The times I want to watch TV is when the weather is bad outside. That is when you get no signal to your dish. In Florida on the Atlantic coastline, we got storms ALL THE TIME. Funny thing, AT&T spends a ton of money running fiber out to all the neighborhoods for Uverse, then they buy DTV and push that on people. Of course you need satellite service for rural addresses without fiber or cable options as well as RVers and such, but for homeowners within their fiber/cable framework, they should be pushing that since it is far and away better. Right now I have comcast for just internet, youtubeTV, netflix, free hulu with my phone plan, and amazon prime. That is more than enough viewing options for me and so far has been light years better than comcast cable, dish, or directTV.

 

[Dawg1979]

buy a firestick. jail break it. load the Sports Devil add-on. free everything. i can watch go kart racing in Amsterdam or Cricket in India. free Wrestlemania and free SEC Network. Free ESPN, free NFL. watch every game from Samford State vs Grambling Tech to Bama vs MSU. free everything. you get free cable. you get free cable. you get free cable.

 

[ScoobaDawg]

I just cut the cord myself. Roku ultra in the bedroom, Nvidia Shield in the living room. Using Playstation Vue (with HBO, Showtime and Eplics Hits...for now. will cycle on and off) and Philo to fill in the blanks.(Have to side-load it on the Shield as it's not supported yet)

The best thing ANYONE can do that is thinking about cutting the cord is figure out what channels you HAVE to HAVE. what do you watch and record now.. figure that out and then go to https://www.suppose.tv/
You can plug in your zip code and the channels you HAVE TO HAVE and it will tell you the packages you can get and the cost. I weighed back and forth between PSVUE and YoutubeTV, but I married a Longhorn and have to have ESPN Longhorn Network.... which Youtube doesn't have.
All in all, going from Uverse with 2 receivers to my current setup will save me around $50 a month, which will pay for the two devices in about 6 months.

PS Vue has really improved their user interfaces, and it has a ton of On Demand content included. And you get 5 streams, plus unlimited streaming on Playstation consoles (I think). The cloud DVR has no size limit, but only saves shows for 28 days. One recording feature that is both annoying and cool is that it records by series title, not by episode. So if you add "Better Caul Saul" to "My Shows", then it will save a recording of every single episode that airs on any channel at any time, and it will let you know those episodes are there. This is cool, because if you set it to record "NCAA Football", then it saves a recording of every single game for 28 days. It can be a little cumbersome to sort through the files sometimes, but you have a copy of every single game. It is annoying, though, because you don't always want every episode. I don't want every single NCAA basketball game, and I don't want every episode of Sportscenter that airs in a single day.

I love and hate that feature. It took me a couple days to Remember.. Oh you can't delete once you finish watching. It just marks it as watched and not NEW anymore.
Since I just changed, I haven't played with recording sports.. I really hope I can tag just MSU sports and not have to wade through every football game recorded.

buy a firestick. jail break it. load the Sports Devil add-on. free everything. i can watch go kart racing in Amsterdam or Cricket in India. free Wrestlemania and free SEC Network. Free ESPN, free NFL. watch every game from Samford State vs Grambling Tech to Bama vs MSU. free everything. you get free cable. you get free cable. you get free cable.

If you wan't to play that game.. go for it. Sites are getting shut down every day and coders are moving to different projects. Plus you better be using a good VPN provider..

 

[J-Dawg]

I cut the cord about a month ago. Took advantage of the DTVNow deal. Pre-paid for 3 months and got a free Apple TV. Got the AppleTV in the living room, FireTV (free from a previous trial) in the bedroom, and Prime Day deal FireStick on the back patio.

My Uverse TV (with HBO) was running approximately $150 - $170/month. I'd constantly call and talk them down, but got tired of threatening to leave every 6 months. DTVNow (with HBO and Stars) will run me like $70/month now. At worst I'm saving about $80 a month. I bought a $50 RCA HD-OTA antenna and installed in my attic, and pick up all local channels plus some extras crystal clear. Got a cheap leaf style HD antenna to attach to the patio TV. They will pay for themselves after a month or 2 of savings. We don't watch just a ton of TV, and luckily alot of the shows we watch are on the locals. The only issue there is DVRing local channels, and we get around that by catching any missed shows on the apps.

I'm enjoying it so far, and I can't tell a bit of difference in the quality on DTVNow or the OTA channels.

 

[ScoobaDawg]

I cut the cord about a month ago. Took advantage of the DTVNow deal. Pre-paid for 3 months and got a free Apple TV. Got the AppleTV in the living room, FireTV (free from a previous trial) in the bedroom, and Prime Day deal FireStick on the back patio.

My Uverse TV (with HBO) was running approximately $150 - $170/month. I'd constantly call and talk them down, but got tired of threatening to leave every 6 months. DTVNow (with HBO and Stars) will run me like $70/month now. At worst I'm saving about $80 a month. I bought a $50 RCA HD-OTA antenna and installed in my attic, and pick up all local channels plus some extras crystal clear. Got a cheap leaf style HD antenna to attach to the patio TV. They will pay for themselves after a month or 2 of savings. We don't watch just a ton of TV, and luckily alot of the shows we watch are on the locals. The only issue there is DVRing local channels, and we get around that by catching any missed shows on the apps.

I'm enjoying it so far, and I can't tell a bit of difference in the quality on DTVNow or the OTA channels.

Pick up a Channel Master Stream+ with the 1tb Hard drive bundle for $178. It's gotten great reviews.
https://www.channelmaster.com/Stream_OTA_DVR_Bundle_p/cm-7600bdl1tb.htm

 

[HumpDawgy]

buy a firestick. jail break it. load the Sports Devil add-on. free everything. i can watch go kart racing in Amsterdam or Cricket in India. free Wrestlemania and free SEC Network. Free ESPN, free NFL. watch every game from Samford State vs Grambling Tech to Bama vs MSU. free everything. you get free cable. you get free cable. you get free cable.

Not a big fan of cricket, curling, feds showing up at my door, and paying hefty fines and legal fees and having a permanent record.

 

[WrapItDog]

WCBI OVER THE AIR ANTENNA VIEWERS ONLY


Attention WCBI Over the air Antenna Viewers only:
The FCC has mandated that WCBI move to a new channel to make more airwaves available for wireless internet services. WCBI will start this transition on Sept 14th and this will cause some interruption in the signal. We should be completed by Sept 28th. We will continue to keep you updated on this page on wcbi.com and on the air as we narrow down the date of the transition. After we have completed the work and switched to our new frequency you will need to rescan your box to able to receive WCBI, My MS and CW4. You will not need to purchase new equipment or services. After you rescan your set, you’ll find WCBI, My MS and CW4 on the same channel numbers. If you subscribe to cable or satellite TV (Dish Network or DIRECTV) you do not need to rescan. Your service provider will do it for you. Again, this only affects viewers who receive WCBI with an antenna over the air. IF YOU ARE A CABLE, DISH NETWORK OR DIRECTV CUSTOMER YOU WILL NOT BE AFFECTED AND DO NOT NEED TO TAKE ANY ACTION.

https://www.wcbi.com/wcbi-air-antenna-viewers/

 

[fishwater99]

Not a big fan of cricket, curling, feds showing up at my door, and paying hefty fines and legal fees and having a permanent record.

Use a VPN and you are good.
I haven't seen anyone prosecuted as an individual. This isn't Napster, you are not actually downloading the content just streaming off of someone' else's server.