What are you using to entertain yourselves now that you've cut the cord, and approximately what is that costing you.

Right now we have Xfinity and we have just about every channel so, yes, we pay a ton.

We are seriously considering cutting the cord but the overwhelming amount of options kind of has me frozen.

We'd still have to get our internet from Comcast, and even there I'm wondering what kind of speed I need vs. what kind of speed I'm getting right now from my bundled internet/tv/phone (which we don't even use just makes the bundle cheaper).

I already have Netflix and Amazon Prime so there's some good viewing options there. I was considering YouTube TV because it almost all the important cable channels that we use plus everyone in the house can have their own login and their own cloud-based DVR.

Would love to hear what has worked or hasn't worked for all of you.

PS4 with:

Hulu (I cancel this based on whether shows are airing day after throughout the year)
Netflix
HBO Go via mom
Amazon Video via ex-GF

Reddit NBA/MLB streams for live sports, works on PS4 browser or computer/phone

~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

I have the whole Xfinity X1 package including home security, so I'm paying a grip. But, the upside is, it's one bill. Many of the cord cutters I talk to have like a basket full of little bills (Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, NFL, Youtube TV...etc.). Is it worth the headache of keeping with all those little bills?

I don't watch a ton of TV but when I do, I want to see what I want to see, when I want to see it. And, I have a wife and kid, so I potentially see having to subscribe to 7+ different subscription services to keep everyone happy. I'm going to need, Netflix, Hulu, and maybe Amazon for everyone; ESPN, UFC Fightpass and the NFL for myself; NBA and Britbox, for the wife; and probably something for the kid.

Probably still cheaper than Xfinity all told, but is it worth the effort?

Spectrum internet 200GB
2 Fire Sticks
1 Roku
1 Roku TV
PSVue for TV
Hulu - commercial free
Netflix
Red Zone during football season, League Pass during basketball season
$143/month

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

entertainment bill...I have Prime because I order a lot of shit...the little tv content is a throw in.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

usually stuff on it is already on netflix or im not interested in at all.

the tick show was pretty good.

.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

Or one time purchases?

I have a neighbor who works out at my gym, that has a side hustle selling some off brand firestick that he claims will give me EVERYTHING. Sounds somewhat shady and too good to be true.

and in the case of the one Roku Tv...it's just made into the tv. You hook em up and stream. That's where the PSVue, Netflix and Hulu come in.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

Xfinity X1 bundle which includes cable (2 boxes), DVR, internet, phone (only because it comes with bundle) and alarm monitoring.

just internet and the cable level that would get me the little sports package.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

u gotta call em up

I was paying @ $230-250 b4 I called em

=======================================
Coolin...

aside from the monthly revenue...the most important thing to subscription service companies is the user retention rate. if their subscriber base drops it affects shares/shareholders and they cant have that. so a lot of times they will give you a deal just to keep you on the service.

back when vonage was hot...you could basically keep calling in and get anywhere from free to 1/2 off for a few months because they were so hell bent on keeping the user retention rate up. it got so bad that they had to constantly delete posts/replies on their forums telling people to call in and threaten to quit to get the price reduced.

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7btT1T9qpQZWhNlK/giphy.gif

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

about the only channels we don't have are some foreign language channels and espn deportes.

it's 9.99 and comes with some other shit I don't care about. I add it in Sept., drop it in January.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

Got two fi' sticks, and the usual addons, but my neighbor came thru with the fi'stick loaded with Sunday Ticket, two (?) different Redzone channels, NBA League Pass, and the Soul Train channel.


Never leaving the house again. Ever.





*************************************

Fuck aliens

-Warriorpoet415

https://astackofwax.com/

#2dopebrothersandastackofwax

https://www.instagram.com/thirtythree.three/

The Greatest Story (N)ever Told (finished)

http://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=s

and then one exclusive to Directv that is hosted by Andrew Siciliano.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

I’ve never had cable in my adult life. If we can’t cast it, we probably don’t bother

Netflix
YouTube
Hulu (free with Sprint)
Spotify

Then a rotating subscription of either VRV, Filmstruck, Apple Music, or whatever we need it to be for a month

And we rent stuff from Google Play when the need arises.

tho she's not really feeling the Apple TV much these days.

95% of what i watch is on YouTube.

only way I can stream espn for games
not dropping that

______________________________________

Navem nu, cuando sol
Tutu nu, vondo nos nu
Vita em, no continous non
Nos nu ekta nos sepe ta, amen

When the sun shades the ship
We sweat and life is not safe
To swim or to touch not
When we unite we hedge amen

far superior to directv now imo. stream quality/consistency is top notch among all streaming services. easily the best cloud dvr too.

channel lineup might be an issue based on what you watch. but i only really watch live tv for sports and youtube tv is fine for that.

______________________________________

Navem nu, cuando sol
Tutu nu, vondo nos nu
Vita em, no continous non
Nos nu ekta nos sepe ta, amen

When the sun shades the ship
We sweat and life is not safe
To swim or to touch not
When we unite we hedge amen

I'm in a slightly different situation than most because over the past few months, I'v watched very little tv (work really got me stressed out :-( ) so there are no must watch shows or sporting events for me. I live by myself so there are no other viewing habits to consider.

So I previously had

150 Mbps internet speed
digital preferred cable
hbo
one dvr
one regular cable box

for $171.79 a month (including tax),

to having

60 Mbps internet speed
fire stick
amazon prime video
Netflix (using my best friend's login)

for $69.99 a month (first bill hasn't generated yet so I don't know how much tax will be) (prolly like a million bucks cause comcast is an absolute piece of shit but I digress)

I gotta say I fucks with this Fire stick heavily cause with Amazon Prime they have a wide variety of nature and sleep music that I use as white noise to fall asleep. I have a Roku 2 that is ok, but I'm going to get another fire stick to use on my other tv. The only thing that I'll be getting is HBO Go when Game of Thrones comes back on, but that won't be for months. Overall I honestly don't miss the cable, but if my bill was even $40 less with the cable I would have kept it. I don't mind paying for convenience, but I couldn't justify paying $170 a month for something I wasn't using.

__________________________________________

I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

Apple TV(newest)/Chromecast on the main TV. Also have a fireTV stick for the projector I hook up occasionally.

As far as services I have Youtube TV year-round. I'm grandfathered into the $35/mth plan (it's $40 now), and I share it with a buddy who in turn shares his Google Play music sub with me, which is nice since I used to pay for Spotify. Was looking at ESPN+ since it's only $5 but tbh there's already way more sports than I can watch on YTTV.

Also we get HBO Now periodically for a few months, we just dropped it since Insecure is done and don't really care about any of the new shows they have. Will probably pick it up when Game of Thrones comes back on.

Oh and I subscribe to a French TV service called MyCanal, $28/mth and I pay through my itunes account for which I buy discounted gift cards (typically 15% discount).

------------------------------
For the record, my teams:
MLB: Mets / Soccer: PSG
NCAA BB: Arizona / NCAA FB: Michigan
NBA: Spurs / NFL: Jets

https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/01/caavo-control-center-review-one-universal-remote-to-rule-them-all/

I would love to do all this fancy cord cutting but I need to make it easy for my wife and kids to use.

I would love if Roku made a box like this and roku could manage my cable box, chromecast, firestick, wii etc.

But this looks like the best solution in the meantime.

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

first house i moved into by myself after college had that free hook up for a few months. then a couple of years later i got the hook up on basic cable with internet. that last a few months.

i found myself not watching much tv, or not many programs. mostly just turning it on and spacing out.

as far as tv shows and movies i dont miss cable at all. the only thing ive at times missed is live sports.

current set up:
shield tv - $149
spectrum internet - $40/mo
netflix - $9/mo
amazon prime - $120/yr

i used to be heavy into kodi, had a couple months where i lost interest in tv. would mostly watch netflix. when i tried to get back to kodi a lot of the plug ins were dead. ive added some but im finding they mostly dont have good links anymore. before you could find most anything the same day or the next day after it aired.

i mostly wait for shows to be on netflix to watch them now, usually a few seasons deep if its not a netflix original. most of the time im watching youtube though. the content really is good on there.

youtube was something i didnt understand about two years ago. then i found one channel i liked, then a second then a third and yeah. its great that many shows have clips of episodes the next day.

im sure if i really wanted to be up on current shows on cable i could find a kodi plugin. live sports streams have remained at the same level of availability from what ive seen. it also helps living in the border as i get ppv matches for free in spanish and a spanish version of redzone on sundays. i actually like the spanish redzone better. its not dubbed and they seem to handle showing all the action better.

i will probably try to get another free trial of hbo when GOT comes out or pay for the subscription for a couple of months.

if i really wanted to have live tv i would probably go with sling.

Haven’t missed out on anything I’ve wanted to watch, and it works great, great DVR storage, etc.

I previously had slingtv....was reasonably happy, but didn’t get NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox and it would have issues working from time to time. Some buffering in the middle of shows, etc. YouTubeTV is like a better version of slingtv.

the app was wonky and when I started researching, PSVue blew it out of the water as far as channel selection.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

there might be better values in terms of amount of channels. but nothing else compares to the quality. the cloud dvr is about as effortless as you can get too.

I've used both Sling & YouTube TV and YouTube TV wins kinda convincingly. Sling is cool but the picture quality for YouTube TV is superior. Plus, you get all the network TV channels.

The only thing that Sling has over YouTube TV is Comedy Central.

but I don’t need it right now.

If I ever lose my logins I may give it a try.

Cloud DVR sounds dope.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

without a lot of buffering or downgrading the bitrate for large stretches of time. most of the broadcasts i stream are 60fps too.

you can add 5 or 6 separate accts to your service too.

guess ill do some research

was that the guide will show you previews of every channel so you know if it's at commercial or not. super small, but if TV is gonna make its move to streaming it seems like a no brainer.


~~~~~~~~~
"This is the streets, and I am the trap." � Jay Bilas
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/archive/contributor/517
Hip Hop Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/ll4kzz

Direct TV Now and Fubo TV are the only two options for getting the MSG Network that I am aware of. Hopefully that will change soon because the actual interface for Direct TV Now on Roku is so awkward. I miss the simple menus from Sling TV, but I have to watch my terrible Knicks games as I am a stubborn fan of this miserable team.

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.

for final regular season Thunder game, last season. It was against the Grizz and Russ was trying to clinch the triple-double. The Grizzlies and Pacers are my two blackout teams on League Pass. It was clutch as fuck. It's a nice little setup...kinda pricey.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

And you are correct, it's pretty pricey, especially when you factor in the no ESPN factor. I trash on ESPN like most folks these days, but I can't go without it since they do air their fair share of regular season games.

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.

My cousin and I have decent internet and subscribe to a few apps:

Netflix
Hulu
Spotify
MLB At-Bat (free with T-Mobile)

and we use Youtube and the free selection of Vudu, which is surprisingly deep (you just have to deal with ads that honestly aren't that intrusive for me... I finally saw the Tribe Called Quest documentary via Vudu, lol)

We also connected an HD antenna for local channels and that works well most of the time... We live near an airport, so when planes fly over, the signal will break for a moment, but otherwise, it's fine.

We couldn't justify the expense of cable when we barely watched cable channels and it's filled with ads anyway. Paying for a couple of apps and the internet works for us. Honestly, since moving to this setup, I watch far less tv, enjoy what I do watch much more, and have reduced my exposure to commercials.

<-------------------
Represent the city that I'm from- Dum diddy dum

>We also connected an HD antenna for local channels and that
>works well most of the time... We live near an airport, so
>when planes fly over, the signal will break for a moment, but
>otherwise, it's fine.

do you have an amplified antenna? I used to use a regular non-amplified antenna and would randomly have issues with my local ABC channel. Bought an amplified antenna from Amazon roughly a year ago and haven't had any issues since. The only I bought was under $20 at the time, so I would imagine you could get an even better one compared to what I currently have for a similar price.

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.

and finally found a place where it won’t cut out.

What’s frustrating is I have my sisters log in for Sunday Ticket but for some reasons Steeler games are coming on locally while the Panthers are playing (I’m in Charlotte). Sometimes that shot cuts off during a play but for the lost part it’s good. The HD is actually better than cable over the air too.

****************
TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

i got it for free or for like $10 bucks with the shield tv as a bundle. no problems at all.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/mohu-leaf-50-amplified-indoor-hdtv-antenna-black-white/3488006.p?skuId=3488006

used to have a stand up antenna that was square shape, i think rca model. it worked well but you had to figure out the best spot to place it and sometimes rotate it. you could hide it behind the tv but it would affect the signal.

i placed the leaf antenna on the wall and havent touched it since. i think you could paint it too if you dont have a white wall.

like black rectangular...a smooth flat front...then rabbit ears in the back? I had to rock it for a minute when my tv subscription didn't have NBC and that was the only way to see SNF. It did the job for 18.99, but it was a lil iffy at times.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

mine only had metal feet to hold it up

https://img.purch.com/r/520x520/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudG9wdGVucmV2aWV3cy5jb20vaS9yZXYvcHJvZC9sYXJnZS81Mjk4Ny1yY2EtYW50NzUxLWJveC5qcGc=

https://www.toptenreviews.com/electronics/tv/best-hdtv-antennas/rca-review/

this site says its not amplified but the model i had came with a small device that plugged into power, it was optional but really required for max channels. it also added length to the coax cable.

https://www.rcaantennas.net/indoor-hd-antenna/?sku=ANT550E

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

I'll look into this... A friend of mine gave me an antenna that he wasn't using and it's been fine so far. We really just have trouble with the local Fox station but everything else has been ok.

>do you have an amplified antenna? I used to use a regular
>non-amplified antenna and would randomly have issues with my
>local ABC channel. Bought an amplified antenna from Amazon
>roughly a year ago and haven't had any issues since. The only
>I bought was under $20 at the time, so I would imagine you
>could get an even better one compared to what I currently have
>for a similar price.

<-------------------
Represent the city that I'm from- Dum diddy dum

You probably will pretty quickly anyway. I've noticed a lot of people want to get one of the live TV subscriptions when they cut the cord because they're still attached to the TV thing but usually cancel it soon after. I don't miss having channels playing stuff 24/7 at all anymore. I do less mindless TV watching now.

Anyway I have an Apple TV for each of my TV's and pretty much all the streaming subs. I will admit that I cheat and use my Dad's cable login every once in a while, usually for sports stuff thats only available via cable.

-------------------------------------------------
http://www.soundcloud.com/sectachrome

most of the stuff i watch i watching later off the DVR, and i've even noticed myself keeping off social media and watching certain sporting events later on the DVR