Anyone cut the cable completely?

[dmm5157]

Great points. I work for a cable provider and there are several areas that the industry will try to mitigate the number of "cord cutters". The primary way that I believe they will battle these numbers is the data caps as someone mentioned previously. Secondly, buy the content....as the cable corporations seem to be snatching up all the smaller providers at a feverish rate, they are setting themselves up to either purchase the content "not allowing these other services to stream it", and/or they are buying shares into the cord cutting tech itself. Hulu for example is co-owned by Disney and Comcast. According to Leichtman data, cable providers lost 100,000 subscribers in 2013, 15,000 in 2014 and 385,000 in "15. With cable companies providing services to 94 million in the U.S. cable companies lost 0.7% of their customers (CNBC, 2016). Granted, some companies are already offering greatly reduced packages, and as many people get caught up with the "fees", those can also be reduced/relabeled so that it is not a sticking point. Bottom line, unless something more significant happens, I don't see the market changing that much. The poster that said that cable companies would be ruined in the next few years doesn't understand that with this amount of money involved and coupled with the leverage these mega-companies have, it makes them agile...they will re-posture when it becomes a significant issue. You can bet on the fact that they are well aware of it and are talking among themselves as how to safeguard the industry.

Some of that is a gray area since a lot of people like myself technically have cable in our Internet plan bundled because it's cheaper to get Internet that way than stand-alone Internet (bundle deals). In my case I don't actually use the cable or have the box for it, but I'm sure I still count as having cable.

 

[Nole Lou]

I just finished the Vue trial. Nice product. Not sure I'm ready to quit Sling and replace it with Vue for an extra $10.

I like the fact that you have some sort of DVR service, although as it turns out I'm not sure how much I'd actually use it. Same thing for the additional channels.

The biggest revelation in testing it out is that ultimately, I couldn't really find anything I wanted to watch. We don't watch all that much TV, and since being an early DVR adopter 10+ years ago, and replacing it with streaming on demand...turning on the TV to see what's on to watch really hasn't been part of my life in many, many years. It's probably $10 better than Sling...I just really don't know that I need it in my life. Just so much cable is reality-ish programming, and I don't watch any of it.

 

[MIKE_G]

I just finished the Vue trial. Nice product. Not sure I'm ready to quit Sling and replace it with Vue for an extra $10.

I like the fact that you have some sort of DVR service, although as it turns out I'm not sure how much I'd actually use it. Same thing for the additional channels.

The biggest revelation in testing it out is that ultimately, I couldn't really find anything I wanted to watch. We don't watch all that much TV, and since being an early DVR adopter 10+ years ago, and replacing it with streaming on demand...turning on the TV to see what's on to watch really hasn't been part of my life in many, many years. It's probably $10 better than Sling...I just really don't know that I need it in my life. Just so much cable is reality-ish programming, and I don't watch any of it.

It's all about the DVR and the ability to use it on five devices with one account, plus unlike Sling, the sports channels are all in one package. And it is more stable than Sling as far as performance and reliability. But I'm basing that last part on my experience from over a year ago now.

 

[Nole Lou]

It's all about the DVR and the ability to use it on five devices with one account, plus unlike Sling, the sports channels are all in one package. And it is more stable than Sling as far as performance and reliability. But I'm basing that last part on my experience from over a year ago now.

Yeah, my son having access to it in the other room is a definite plus, but nobody else in my house watches TV really.

I agree that Sling stability is lacking, and I hate the interface. I just hardly watch it enough to care that much.

I do like the idea of having the $30 package for Vue, and being able to upgrade during basketball season and get the Fox Sports South. Our basketball games on the Fox Sports regional cause me endless headaches.

 

[MIKE_G]

Yeah, my son having access to it in the other room is a definite plus, but nobody else in my house watches TV really.

I agree that Sling stability is lacking, and I hate the interface. I just hardly watch it enough to care that much.

I do like the idea of having the $30 package for Vue, and being able to upgrade during basketball season and get the Fox Sports South. Our basketball games on the Fox Sports regional cause me endless headaches.

I was putting directv on hold between April and September and going ota and Netflix only before Sling. There's not much I care to watch other than sports. I'll probably do the same after march madness. My wife claims not to care at all, but she is sure enjoying her Bravo...

 

[bigloum]

Started my Vue trial on Sunday. I've got some pros and cons that I'll share later today.

 

[bigloum]

What I like about Vue so far, and I've only been using it since Sunday.
- Start a program over
- Scroll back and watch a show that came on earlier
- The channels I need are available in my package and I have ABC live

What I don't like so far:
- If I start a program over, I can't fast forward past the commercials, even if the program is an hour into the show
- I cannot pause and then fast forward on live TV

I think I'm going to like it though.

 

[dmm5157]

What I like about Vue so far, and I've only been using it since Sunday.
- Start a program over
- Scroll back and watch a show that came on earlier
- The channels I need are available in my package and I have ABC live

What I don't like so far:
- If I start a program over, I can't fast forward past the commercials, even if the program is an hour into the show
- I cannot pause and then fast forward on live TV

I think I'm going to like it though.

Hmmm, on those cons I don't think that's true in all cases. Depends on the channel. There's also some odd behavior when adding shows to "my shows". I've noticed that sometimes I have to add a program to "my shows" and then leave the show and re-enter it that way to fast forward through commercials again. I noticed that happened to me last week.

 

[MIKE_G]

I think the ability to fast forward or pause live shows depends on the show or channel. I work in tv, and there are different rules in place for what goes out over the broadcast airwaves vs. what you can put online.

 

[bigloum]

Ok, so I just finished my PS Vue trial. We enjoyed it. Found it worked well on my Amazon Fire TV. I will need to get a second one to make it work for our house.

Like now, we found ourselves watching very little live television and usually on the day after. So this brings me to my next question. Am I better off paying for a service like Hulu? Watching shows the next day as opposed to love is not that big of a deal for us. Here's a list of some of the shows my family watches:

The Walking Dead
The Blacklist
The Bachelor
Quantico
Pretty Little Liars
Mom
New Girl
Brooklyn 9-9
This is Us

I'm thinking most if not all of these shows would be available on Hulu next day. Am I right?

 

[MIKE_G]

Ok, so I just finished my PS Vue trial. We enjoyed it. Found it worked well on my Amazon Fire TV. I will need to get a second one to make it work for our house.

Like now, we found ourselves watching very little live television and usually on the day after. So this brings me to my next question. Am I better off paying for a service like Hulu? Watching shows the next day as opposed to love is not that big of a deal for us. Here's a list of some of the shows my family watches:

The Walking Dead
The Blacklist
The Bachelor
Quantico
Pretty Little Liars
Mom
New Girl
Brooklyn 9-9
This is Us

I'm thinking most if not all of these shows would be available on Hulu next day. Am I right?

If that's your primary viewing, you're probably better off with Hulu. I need Vue for live sports. I don't watch anything on network tv, but if I want to I can watch it live with an antenna or dvr the two locals I get through Vue or on demand on the two others I don't get live.

 

[bigloum]

If that's your primary viewing, you're probably better off with Hulu. I need Vue for live sports. I don't watch anything on network tv, but if I want to I can watch it live with an antenna or dvr the two locals I get through Vue or on demand on the two others I don't get live.

I'm thinking I could do Vue during the college football season. It's the only real sport that I ha e to abolauteky watch. I'm curios if anyone with Hulu knows if those shows I mentioned are available. Specifically the shows on AMC and Freeform.

 

[Nole Lou]

I'm thinking I could do Vue during the college football season. It's the only real sport that I ha e to abolauteky watch. I'm curios if anyone with Hulu knows if those shows I mentioned are available. Specifically the shows on AMC and Freeform.

I've got Hulu, but I can't really check because I'm at work and different things are available on computer than on devices. But I think you're right that you're not going to get the AMC, and probably not the Freeform.

I think you can get those through Sling. You could get Sling + Hulu for about the same price as Vue. Sling for $20 plus Hulu commercial free $12 (or $8 with commercials...not worth it to me).

Live and on demand through Sling:
ESPN, AMC, CNN, HGTV, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, HISTORY, Disney Channel, ESPN2, ESPN3, TNT, Food Network, TBS, BBC America, Freeform (formerly ABC Family), Adult Swim, IFC, A&E, El Rey, Viceland (formerly H2), Lifetime, Travel Channel, AXS TV, Bloomberg TV

And Hulu would cover most of your network programs I think next day. Plus you'd get additional Hulu content, if that interests you. I do like some of the stuff on there.

You'd lose the DVR function, although that's supposedly coming to Sling this year.

Basically, that's what I've got, plus antenna for live locals.

I liked Vue and it's better than Sling in a lot of ways...just not so much in ways that I care about. It just was hard to figure out what it was bringing additional to the table for me that was worth $120 extra a year. Definitely a better interface than Sling, but I still didn't LOVE the Vue interface and the way the DVR worked. I probably had to really fall in love with the Vue interface and usability to make the switch. If it would have been so fast and intuitive that I couldn't imagine going back to Sling, I would probably have stuck with it.

 

[NoleGrad83]

Ok, so I just finished my PS Vue trial. We enjoyed it. Found it worked well on my Amazon Fire TV. I will need to get a second one to make it work for our house.

Like now, we found ourselves watching very little live television and usually on the day after. So this brings me to my next question. Am I better off paying for a service like Hulu? Watching shows the next day as opposed to love is not that big of a deal for us. Here's a list of some of the shows my family watches:

The Walking Dead
The Blacklist
The Bachelor
Quantico
Pretty Little Liars
Mom
New Girl
Brooklyn 9-9
This is Us

I'm thinking most if not all of these shows would be available on Hulu next day. Am I right?

The Blacklist is not available on Hulu but is available on the NBC on Demand on the Vue. Otherwise, I think you may be good. For the shows that are on CW you will definitely need Hulu. Also, with my Vue I get the CBS affiliate and can watch those shows in real time or 'favorite' them and watch them later.

 

[BelemNole]

We just cut the cord last week. Called Dish about our bill and they offered us some token discount.
We're now on Vue and antenna.
Still working out the placement for my antenna. Right now I just have it attached where the old Dish was and am using the existing cabling. But with all the junctions/splices some parts of the house get a weak signal. Might move it to the attic and run a line directly to the rooms that have tvs.
Remotes! We have have two Fire Sticks and a PS4. So two remotes for the fire stick rooms and I tried to consolidate the PS4 to their universal remote, but that thing blows.
Great benefit of Vue - access to WatchESPN. I've been able to watch nole basketball while out and about here in CA.

 

[dmm5157]

We just cut the cord last week. Called Dish about our bill and they offered us some token discount.
We're now on Vue and antenna.
Still working out the placement for my antenna. Right now I just have it attached where the old Dish was and am using the existing cabling. But with all the junctions/splices some parts of the house get a weak signal. Might move it to the attic and run a line directly to the rooms that have tvs.
Remotes! We have have two Fire Sticks and a PS4. So two remotes for the fire stick rooms and I tried to consolidate the PS4 to their universal remote, but that thing blows.
Great benefit of Vue - access to WatchESPN. I've been able to watch nole basketball while out and about here in CA.

I will warn about the PS4 Universal remote being poor build quality since it's not made by Sony and your personal experience may vary by model. Apparently there's been at least 1 update to it. First one I got was a dude, couldn't get volume punch through to work. They sent me a newer replacement unit and it works great. Controls PS4, TV and sound bar flawlessly, no issues.

I had low expectations, as reviews on Amazon were not good for it, but at $15, it was worth the risk and it paid off for me. I've heard others were not as lucky.

 

[MIKE_G]

We just cut the cord last week. Called Dish about our bill and they offered us some token discount.
We're now on Vue and antenna.
Still working out the placement for my antenna. Right now I just have it attached where the old Dish was and am using the existing cabling. But with all the junctions/splices some parts of the house get a weak signal. Might move it to the attic and run a line directly to the rooms that have tvs.
Remotes! We have have two Fire Sticks and a PS4. So two remotes for the fire stick rooms and I tried to consolidate the PS4 to their universal remote, but that thing blows.
Great benefit of Vue - access to WatchESPN. I've been able to watch nole basketball while out and about here in CA.

Check antennaweb.org to see where your broadcast towers are located. The Dish was mounted for clear line of sight to their satellite, but might not be optimal for aiming towards the OTA towers. I also re-used my satellite cabling and just ran it to my antenna. I thought moving it out to my back deck outside would be sufficient, but I was actually getting better reception using one of those flimsy flat antennas against the side of my house. They are not meant for outdoors, but they're just plastic and I had it under the eaves, so it didn't really get rained on or anything. Didn't look pretty, but actually worked surprisingly well. Might have to go back to that if I can't figure out better placement for my outdoor antenna.

 

[BelemNole]

Yeah, I checked that first. It turned out that the Dish placement was good for the Antenna too. Except that my neighbor's house blocks the signals a bit. But most the issue is the signal loss along the splitting lines. The signal in my bedroom is great as it's close to the box and must be a nearly straight shot. The one in the living room must go thru a half dozen junctions and twice as much cable.
I have both a $10 flat antenna and a more expensive one. I got the other one because the flat one was only a 35 mile antenna and some of the stations were just on the edge of that limit. But in truth it's not much better other than I don't have to fiddle with it's direction as much.

 

[Nole Lou]

Yeah, I checked that first. It turned out that the Dish placement was good for the Antenna too. Except that my neighbor's house blocks the signals a bit. But most the issue is the signal loss along the splitting lines. The signal in my bedroom is great as it's close to the box and must be a nearly straight shot. The one in the living room must go thru a half dozen junctions and twice as much cable.
I have both a $10 flat antenna and a more expensive one. I got the other one because the flat one was only a 35 mile antenna and some of the stations were just on the edge of that limit. But in truth it's not much better other than I don't have to fiddle with it's direction as much.

I was having a lot of trouble pulling in all my stations with any kind of "set top" antenna, up to $60. Kept buying and returning them.

Finally found and built this in desperation...costs next to nothing and I think it took me less than an hour to put together:


Threw it up in the attic, and I'm pulling down every possible station like a champ. I was serving two tuners on an HDHomerun device to an HTPC, and decided to try to split the line again to run straight into the TV (and leave the HDHomerun for occasional DVRing only). Splitting it, I could get all but one channel. Went up in the attic to see if I could re-position it, and it turns out it has fallen flat on the floor of the attic. I was pulling all stations split to two tuners with this thing flat on the ground. I stood it up and was crystal clear even split three ways.

I can't recommend this DIY antenna enough.

 

[SoddyNole]

He should just get an Android Box or hacked Firestick instead of mooching off of his friends LMAO.

I have a hacked firestick and it is awful. You have to sift through 5000 downloads of foreign low definition copies of various movies to find one in English in low def quality mind you. I watched two movies on it and I sat there thinking what a freakin waste of money this was.

 

[MIKE_G]

I wish I could put the antenna in my attic, but that would require some serious wiring. I have an old house with a crawl space, so everything is run under the house.

 

[West Duval Nole]

I have a hacked firestick and it is awful. You have to sift through 5000 downloads of foreign low definition copies of various movies to find one in English in low def quality mind you. I watched two movies on it and I sat there thinking what a freakin waste of money this was.

The feeds you get are based on your internet speed. But yes it can be a big pain to find a good copy especially on stuff that is in Theaters now. But movies that have been out a while and are even out on Blu Ray or DVD you should have no problems finding a HD feed if your internet speed to your device is great. Also TV shows are usually available with a good feed the day after they air. At least that has been my experience with my fire TV and it is even better if I run an ethernet cable to it so it is hardwired. But the Fire TV is probably better than the stick too as it has a faster processor as well.

 

[West Duval Nole]

I wish I could put the antenna in my attic, but that would require some serious wiring. I have an old house with a crawl space, so everything is run under the house.

sounds like you live in my neighborhood. LOL.

 

[MIKE_G]

sounds like you live in my neighborhood. LOL.

Not if you're really in west Duval. I'm in Decatur, GA. My house was built in 1920.

 

[West Duval Nole]

Not if you're really in west Duval. I'm in Decatur, GA. My house was built in 1920.

I am. But my house was built in 1963, so there is a crawl space under the house and the attic is very tiny, so I know what you are talking about.

 

[BelemNole]

I have a hacked firestick and it is awful. You have to sift through 5000 downloads of foreign low definition copies of various movies to find one in English in low def quality mind you. I watched two movies on it and I sat there thinking what a freakin waste of money this was.

What service? Exodus thru Kodi usually has hi-def copies for everything except new releases.

 

[West Duval Nole]

What service? Exodus thru Kodi usually has hi-def copies for everything except new releases.

yep. all about having the right plugin/video add-on within kodi.

 

[Nole Lou]

I wish I could put the antenna in my attic, but that would require some serious wiring. I have an old house with a crawl space, so everything is run under the house.

I feel you. I have mine kind of hillbilly wired, because I'm fortunate that the door to the garage is offset just behind the home theater, and the portal to the attic above the garage is pretty close to the door. I can run the cable discretely under the corner of the door, and then much less discreetly up the wall of the garage into the attic, but I don't give a crap about how it looks in the garage.

That homemade antenna works brilliantly, but yeah, I wouldn't exactly want something that looked like that sitting behind my TV.

 

[bigloum]

I've started my transition to cutting the chord this week.

I will have Time Warner Cable installed on Saturday. I'm doing their 50 MBPS plan at a cost of $34.99 a month.

Once I get the cable installed, I'll decide on going with Hulu or doing PS Vue. I think the best bet, for now, will be to go with Hulu.

I recall someone mentioning the Fire Stick not being a good fit for PS Vue. Does anyone have experience with the Stick and Hulu? Also, can someone elaborate on the issues with PS Vue and the Fire Stick? Right now I have the Fire TV box and am debating on whether to get a second box or the Stick.

 

[MIKE_G]

I've started my transition to cutting the chord this week.

I will have Time Warner Cable installed on Saturday. I'm doing their 50 MBPS plan at a cost of $34.99 a month.

Once I get the cable installed, I'll decide on going with Hulu or doing PS Vue. I think the best bet, for now, will be to go with Hulu.

I recall someone mentioning the Fire Stick not being a good fit for PS Vue. Does anyone have experience with the Stick and Hulu? Also, can someone elaborate on the issues with PS Vue and the Fire Stick? Right now I have the Fire TV box and am debating on whether to get a second box or the Stick.

I don't have firsthand knowledge, but my understanding is the ps Vue app is a bit taxing for the Fire stick processor, so it lags switching channels vs the experience on the box. None of that should impact other apps like Hulu or Amazon or Netflix, so you're fine with the stick if you keep to those apps. Also, the video playback experience is fine with Vue on the stick, so if you can put up with lag on the navigation part you can certainly get by with the stick.

 

[bigloum]

I don't have firsthand knowledge, but my understanding is the ps Vue app is a bit taxing for the Fire stick processor, so it lags switching channels vs the experience on the box. None of that should impact other apps like Hulu or Amazon or Netflix, so you're fine with the stick if you keep to those apps. Also, the video playback experience is fine with Vue on the stick, so if you can put up with lag on the navigation part you can certainly get by with the stick.

There seems to be a new Fire Stick 2 with faster processor, do you know if the issues were isolated to the old Stick or if it also impacts the newer one?

 

[dmm5157]

There seems to be a new Fire Stick 2 with faster processor, do you know if the issues were isolated to the old Stick or if it also impacts the newer one?

The old fire stick process was slow as dirt. I have a 1st Gen Fire Stick and it's barely usable. I also have an original Fire TV box and it's decently fast. There's a lot of lag when using the search when compared to PS4 PSVue app, but it's much better than Fire Stick (1st gen).

Looking at the tech details for the 1st Gen Fire Stick, it was a 1.2 ghz dual core 2xARM A9 processor, which is really old tech (like circa 2014).

The new Fire TV Stick has the exact same MediaTek Quad-core ARM 1.3 GHz processor as the full Fire TV box. Big difference between the two is the Fire TV Box has a much better GPU (Power VR GX6250) and twice as much RAM (1GB for stick vs 2GB for TV Box). Both of those mainly affect playing games on device, which shouldn't be an issue for you at all.

The Fire TV Box is also expandable via MicroSD card slot. My original one has a USB memory slot so I can load it up with movies for the kids and plug directly into the Fire TV, which is handy. Especially handy considering 8GB internal memory is not very much.

This is overkill, but if you are really into comparing performance of all of Amazon's Fire TV offerings:

http://www.aftvnews.com/benchmark-comparison-of-fire-tv-stick-2-to-all-other-fire-tv-models/

 

[bigloum]

The old fire stick process was slow as dirt. I have a 1st Gen Fire Stick and it's barely usable. I also have an original Fire TV box and it's decently fast. There's a lot of lag when using the search when compared to PS4 PSVue app, but it's much better than Fire Stick (1st gen).

Looking at the tech details for the 1st Gen Fire Stick, it was a 1.2 ghz dual core 2xARM A9 processor, which is really old tech (like circa 2014).

The new Fire TV Stick has the exact same MediaTek Quad-core ARM 1.3 GHz processor as the full Fire TV box. Big difference between the two is the Fire TV Box has a much better GPU (Power VR GX6250) and twice as much RAM (1GB for stick vs 2GB for TV Box). Both of those mainly affect playing games on device, which shouldn't be an issue for you at all.

The Fire TV Box is also expandable via MicroSD card slot. My original one has a USB memory slot so I can load it up with movies for the kids and plug directly into the Fire TV, which is handy. Especially handy considering 8GB internal memory is not very much.

This is overkill, but if you are really into comparing performance of all of Amazon's Fire TV offerings:

http://www.aftvnews.com/benchmark-comparison-of-fire-tv-stick-2-to-all-other-fire-tv-models/

Good information. Based on this - I assume it would be safe to have the stick for strictly streaming with either Hulu or Vue.

 

[BelemNole]

We use Vue on fire sticks and a ps4. Our old fire stick can be laggy changing channels, the new one is fine

 

[dmm5157]

Just ran into a negative of PS Vue this week. Up until now, I didn't realize that you couldn't DVR shows on HBO and Showtime. I had added Twin Peaks to watch later, and when I'd try to watch the show, it would just tell me the program was "upcoming" and I couldn't watch it. This is the first time I had every run into this.

This was also the first time I noticed a disclaimer when I added HBO or Showtime shows that said "shows on this channel cannot be added to my shows".

Basically, you can only save shows/movies that are on-demand via HBO/Showtime.

Tonight I missed the start of Homeland. I tried to start it up to watch it, but since it's not available on-demand yet, I couldn't watch it. I'm not sure how long shows take to get added (maybe a few hours) but that's an annoying trait.

I'm not sure what the deal is there, but I suppose it's part of the arrangement HBO and Showtime have with PS Vue.

Good thing is you can get around most of this by opening HBO or Showtime app and watching your program that way. I just prefer not to go that route, not as convenient.

 

[dmm5157]

PS Vue giveth and taketh away.

On one hand they rolled out Multiview just in time for March Madness. Feature allows for users to watch 3 programs on screen at once.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.engadget.com/amp/2017/03/06/ps-vue-multiview-mode/

On the downside, the update broken several buttons, most notably the guide button, on the official PS4 Multimedia remote.

 

[bigloum]

I'll have to update my app on my Fire TVs and check out the change.

I've been using PS Vue for about a month now based on the recommendations in this thread and so far we are loving it.

 

[MIKE_G]

I'll have to update my app on my Fire TVs and check out the change.

I've been using PS Vue for about a month now based on the recommendations in this thread and so far we are loving it.

I think it was just for PS4. Would be cool if they roll that out for other devices as well--assuming they fix whatever they broke.

 

[dmm5157]

I think it was just for PS4. Would be cool if they roll that out for other devices as well--assuming they fix whatever they broke.

Yeah, the breaks are bigger than I realized.

The select button my remote doesn't work, have to use the Playstation buttons (circle, square, triangle, x) which is not really intuitive based on where they are located on the remote.

Figures this would happen on the day that my mom and dad are visiting and they had just figured out how to use the remote to watch TV.

 

[bigloum]

Has anyone using PS Vue on a Fire TV noticed an issue with the DVR randomly pausing on its own after fast forwarding during a recorded show?

We have the newest Fire TV in the bedroom and my wife has pointed out to me that after fast forwarding a show on DVR it randomly pauses for a few seconds and then resumes on its own.