Question for people who have dropped Cable or Satellite

[TexSkills]

After flipping through channels on DirecTV last night, my wife and I were discussing cutting the cord and going with streaming service. Trouble is we don't know which one we would get. Our neighborhood only has two traditional internet providers available, AT&T and Litestream, but some of my neighbors are starting to get a high-speed microwave internet that has some ridiculous speeds with no caps. We want to watch local channels and be able to watch AMC, HGTV, History Channel, ESPN, etc.

For those who have cut the cord, what service do you use? Sling, Amazon, Roku, Hulu, Netflix, etc.?

Did you have to increase your internet bandwidth to use streaming services?

This post was edited on 4/13 12:50 PM by TexSkills

 

[KevNole]

Once you start streaming =, especially if it is a lot, a non capped data amount would be awesome. Especially if fast. I still do a combo of stream and direct tv. I can take my portable automatic satellite dish with us camping and tailgating which is super sweet. And easy!

 

[jtnole10]

You should be able to pick up locals over the air. I just recently dropped DirecTV and am using SlingTV. $20 a month and I get all of the channels that I would watch on DirecTV. ESPN, ESPN 2, HGTV, History, History 2, A&E, AMC, CNN, ABC Family, Disney, TNT, TBS, IFC, Food Network, Travel Channel, Cartoon Network, Disney, Lifetime and a couple more. My connection is 25 gbs and streams in HD. I have streamed at my mother in laws house with a 3 mbs connection and it streams fine but is not in HD.

I am very happy with SlingTV. I have saving about $75 a month and am able to watch just about everything I was watching when I had DirecTV.

 

[goldmom]

I would LOVE to dump my $100 Direct TV bill.

I'll let my son figure out his situation and then have him show me how to make that happen.

 

[TexSkills]

Originally posted by jtnole10:
You should be able to pick up locals over the air. I just recently dropped DirecTV and am using SlingTV. $20 a month and I get all of the channels that I would watch on DirecTV. ESPN, ESPN 2, HGTV, History, History 2, A&E, AMC, CNN, ABC Family, Disney, TNT, TBS, IFC, Food Network, Travel Channel, Cartoon Network, Disney, Lifetime and a couple more. My connection is 25 gbs and streams in HD. I have streamed at my mother in laws house with a 3 mbs connection and it streams fine but is not in HD.

I am very happy with SlingTV. I have saving about $75 a month and am able to watch just about everything I was watching when I had DirecTV.

Do you use a special antenna to pick up the local channels in HD? The new high speed internet my neighbors are getting is supposed to be ridiculous in terms of speed so I don't think I'll have an issue there. It's 50 bucks a month for unlimited. Right now I pay 35 a month for 20 gbs.

I'll look into Sling. Is it something you stream through Roku or is it a standalone product?

 

[TexSkills]

Originally posted by goldmom:

I would LOVE to dump my $100 Direct TV bill.

I'll let my son figure out his situation and then have him show me how to make that happen.

You would have to get rid of that AT&T internet connection and get something with more speed and reliability.

 

[Noles229]

Originally posted by goldmom:

I would LOVE to dump my $100 Direct TV bill.



I'll let my son figure out his situation and then have him show me how to make that happen.

I would love to have a $100 cable bill
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Democratic Nole]

Originally posted by jtnole10:
You should be able to pick up locals over the air. I just recently dropped DirecTV and am using SlingTV. $20 a month and I get all of the channels that I would watch on DirecTV. ESPN, ESPN 2, HGTV, History, History 2, A&E, AMC, CNN, ABC Family, Disney, TNT, TBS, IFC, Food Network, Travel Channel, Cartoon Network, Disney, Lifetime and a couple more. My connection is 25 gbs and streams in HD. I have streamed at my mother in laws house with a 3 mbs connection and it streams fine but is not in HD.

I am very happy with SlingTV. I have saving about $75 a month and am able to watch just about everything I was watching when I had DirecTV.

I had never heard about this. In doing a quick look at it, the one thing that would be a problem for us is that only one device can be streaming at a time.

 

[kc78]

With Comcast being the only good solution in Tallahassee for internet, its cheaper to keep at least the base service of comcast bundled with the internet than trying to remove them all together generally. With that said, the only reason I haven't outside of the lack of decent internet competition in Tallahassee is that live sports don't have options outside of cable at this time. If ESPN and Fox Sports sold an internet stream option for all of their channels directly then I would probably drop cable, get an HD antenna, purchase both ESPN and Fox Sports and then use Netflix/Hulu. I imagine that ESPN would be similar to the pricing for the HBO Now program at 15 dollars, Fox Sports would probably be 9.99, Netflix and Hulu are both 8. So you're still at 41 dollars before taxes. If you add HBO in, then its 56, plus internet still keeps you at or around 100.

 

[ericram]

SlingTV is your best option using Roku. Get locals via over the air and everything else via SlingTV. I wish there was something else other than Comcast. I would drop them in a heartbeat if there was another suitable choice.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Noleguy06]

I assume if you have surround sound in your living room, an indoor HDTV antenna to pick up the local channels wouldn't be able to output in surround sound as it's only going through the tv correct?

That's my issue. I'd get sling and an antenna but I have a 5 speaker, 2 subwoofer setup through my audio receiver.

 

[ericram]

You would connect your antenna to your reciever then run the hdmi out to TV.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[CobNole]

Originally posted by ericram:
You would connect your antenna to your reciever then run the hdmi out to TV.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[ericram]

I was actually thinking a 3 Stooges picture would be more appropriate here.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[anolesfan77]

When I moved from Maine to Vegas, I put up an antenna got OTA broadcasts. OTA HD is better than cable or satellite because they aren't compressed to save bandwidth. They are quite often broadcast in surround also.

I have 50mbs Internet with Cox and subscribe to Sling TV, which I stream through a Roku Stick, Hulu Plus and Netflix through my 4K tv. I'm not unhappy at all.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Manch.]

Originally posted by Noles229:

Originally posted by goldmom:

I would LOVE to dump my $100 Direct TV bill.



I'll let my son figure out his situation and then have him show me how to make that happen.

I would love to have a $100 cable bill
Posted from Rivals Mobile

Our bill with Comcast was about $220, and that included HBO, Showtime, the sports package and of course it was part of the bundle (we did not have the digital package and lived in the stone age).

A few months ago, I wanted to drop the phone service, and they told me I would lose the bundle pricing and the cost would actually go up.

Last week, I again called so that I could manage to drop the bill about $50. I asked that HBO and Showtime be dropped, and after being put on hold, they lowered my bill by $48, we were able to keep HBO and Showtime, and they added Cinemax and upgraded us to the digital package and sent us a new modem so that the internet speed would be faster. They wanted a 2 year contract and I said no, so now they will keep these prices for a year.

Not only did I want to lower the overall cable bill, but I wanted to drop the movie channels because we picked up Netfilx, streaming only for $11.99 a month (we can watch on up to 4 screens). I originally signed up for the free month on Netflix so that I could watch House of Cards, season 3. I then had to upgrade to two screens because my daughter started watching Vampire Diaries and I couldn't watch my show. When we both wanted our shows at the same time, my wife was staying with her parents all day because they were both cancer stricken and she wanted to watch a different series on her tablet so we ended up adding the additional 2 screens for a total of 4 and the $11.99 a month for Netflix more than pays for itself on a monthly basis.
This post was edited on 4/14 3:32 AM by Manch.

 

[squiffynole]

My buddy dropped Comcast and went with a HD antenna, he gets about 15 channels it comes in great, sports is the deficiency but he gets that on line.