Cutting the (Cable) Cord - stories and tips?

In My Humble Opinion
21

It plus into an HDMI slot on your TV and connect it to your wireless network. You need to do a one time setup on your computer, then just open any apps like Hulu on a device on your network. (It works with iOS also.) There will be an icon on the app home screen, hit it and choose the screen you want to watch on.

You can also cast tabs from the Chrome browser from any computer on the network.

Pretty much every video app and most audio apps are compatible with Chromecast. The only one I know of that isn’t is Amazon Prime. They refuse to add the ability to their app, then they complain that Google is shutting them out. :rolleyes: Of course, they do have their dial Firestick, which is almost the same thing but it has Prime.

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When I looked at Chromecast’s site, it claimed to stream from one’s phone.

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I’m not wild about ROKU search either. If I find something through search, I have found that I have fewer issues if I then back out of the search, go into the app and start my program from there (as opposed to kicking off the program directly from the ROKU search).

Agreed. Plus for me add Amazon Prime and I already have the old cable feeling back of “Man, I watch too much tv!”

I am an Amazon Prime customer; and I currently have ROKU. Other that the CW that you mentioned, how would you sell me on Fire TV over ROKU?

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Something the OP might want to do is to provide a list of the streaming services. Probably most people have heard of Netflix or Amazon, but there are quite a few others (HBO, Showtime, Sling TV, CBS, Acorn TV, Yahoo! (is that still around?), Hulu, YouTube Red, etc.). You could include a couple of examples of programs and channels exclusive to each. For example, that Sling TV offers access to ESPN content, or Acorn TV is good if you want British programs, particularly detective dramas.

There’s probably a website out there that lists every single one, but I’m not aware of it.

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Again - you can pretty much assume I have all the basics covered. I’ve been cable-free for three years, I’ve been an AV/electronics person for 30 and I like to tinker with all the options. It doesn’t hurt anything to throw in basic suggestions, but I’m looking for things further out from the center than, say, Roku+Netflix+Hulu, and for interesting stories about experiences with cable cutting.

Continuing thanks for the good input.

26

It streams from any Android or Chrome device, although it does like newer ones better. I just played around with some streaming casters on my Note II and it works well through the Roku, so if you have a Roku (or some newer Smart TVs, or pretty much any device that’s on your local network like my Denon AV receiver), you don’t need a Chromecast too.

I was bummed to find out that The CW (app) does not cast, using one of the general casters and Roku, or using the Chromecast system. So it’s not much use to me, since everything else is native to the Roku and (YouTube for example) is much faster that way.

The pairing of a smartphone and Roku is pretty useful, though.

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I have to admit I am of two minds about SlingTV. The promise of streaming was that it could be completely a la carte, whether free or paid… and having Sling come along and port the cable-package model to streaming is at best a step sideways. I’d like to see Sling or a competitor allow you to build your own pay channel lineup, rather than bundle third-tier channels with the stuff most people would actually want. (You really want Lifetime? Sure. $2/month. No problem.)

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If you have a houseguest who wants to watch their favorite cable network (HGTV, FX, etc), add the channel and they can log in with their cable id. Many network channels allow streaming as a bonus to a cable subscription. Some will show the live stream (CNN, FX, HGTV), while some will only have on demand content. Thankfully, Fox News doesn’t have a live stream :slight_smile:

Roku: When you want to watch a specific movie, first search for the movie in the Roku interface. It will search your movie channels (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Google, Roku, Vudo, etc) and show you which channels have the movie and how much it costs. There may be a $1-2 difference between rental costs for the same movie on different channels, or it may be free if it’s on something like Netflix.

Renting movies: The price changes over time. When it first comes out, buying the movie may be the only option. After a short while, rental is enabled and the fee may be high. After a short while, the fee may go down. So a movie may first be available for purchase at $20, then rental for $6, then rental for $4. You may save money if you can wait a week or two to watch new releases.

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We cut the cord early in the summer - here is how it’s been for the 4 of us…

  1. Got rid of Uverse (cable TV, land line, and 3 smart phones on one plan), and replaced with Xfinity for internet access only. The 3 smart phones got unbundled, and we added a 4th (mine) by dumping our land line (it was an even trade, cost-wise).

  2. Purchased a large, flat screen HD smart TV. Wow, what a difference from our 16 year-old CRT. Welcome to the 2010s.

  3. We have Netflix and Hulu as our primary locations for watching TV or movies. There are other options thru Amazon, but I have not ventured there. I don’t watch a lot of TV anyway.

  4. Surfing - as opposed to having 300 channels at your beck-and-call, most of which you never visit, you don’t go and watch “TV” any more, you go watch a “show”. You can just search for what you want and see where it is available. Sometimes via something we don’t have access to. Now I get how people can binge-watch shows - start with one and the next episode just queue’s up behind it.

  5. Sports - this has been a compromise. No MNF, no Premier League (for my daughter), and somewhat compromised Olympics (F NBC sports), and almost no Tour de France. Fortunately, we are not a big sports family. It is possible to stream from a smart phone, but the quality is not great.

  6. Over the air broadcasts - we got a HD antenna for the big TV downstairs, and I connected it to the house’s existing coax network from a strategic location in the front of the house in the garage. Reception has been very good, except when one of the garage doors opens for a few seconds. Upstairs we got a cheap window antenna and it can be quickly adjusted if a channel has trouble getting thru. All-in-all, not bad, but sometimes there can be disruption here.

  7. We can connect to all the same internet locations on the upstairs (not smart) TV via my son’s gaming system.

Bottom line - there are some compromises, but if you are willing to spend more $$, you can close any gaps created by switching. Overall, I am pleased.

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  1. Customer support. Amazon really does live up to the hype in this regard. Returns are easy, easy phone support, etc. Amazon also upgrades/fixes it OSes on a regular basis with a greater assurance for the future.

  2. User base. Amazon sells a lot of Fire TV devices. A lot. So app developers are keen on building and keeping current on these.

  3. The Fire TVs run a slight variation of Android. You can run a lot of standard Android apps on it. You can get them from Amazon’s app store (which is becoming quite a competitor to Google’s), install from anywhere else you get Android apps, and if you know what you’re doing you can install the Google services on them and do that directly.

  4. Google views Amazon as it’s only real competitor in apps/video. Roku is noise to them. That’s how successful they are.

  5. The subsidy. Amazon sells their devices below cost planning on making it up on content you obtain from them.

For comparison of sources available, there’s a chart on Wikipedia, but be forewarned, it really doesn’t tell the truth. E.g., the Google Play for Amazon is unofficial so not listed. There might be similar deals with others.

31

I got a Roku and ditched DirecTV.

I can only get PBS OTA, but that’s fine with me.

On my Roku, I watch mainly Amazon, AcornTV (costs about $4/mo–British & Australian shows), Hulu (costs about $4/mo- hundreds and hundreds of movies/TV), Netflix (I think it’s $9/mo or something). There are other “channels” on the Roku that I occasionally glance at: the PBS Roku channel is the pits, TED TV, Smithsonian, Pandora is on there for music. I tried out SlingTV but it wasn’t worth it for me–I don’t watch any sports.

My internet and cell phone are with AT&T. They keep sending me letters wanting me to sign up for their cable content, but I throw them away.

BTW, one time years ago when I wanted to drop my cable/cell/ISP company, back when they really tried to hard-sell you to stay on, offering reduced rates, etc., I left the CSR speechless when she asked me why I was cancelling the service, and I told her I was entering a cloistered religious order of nuns the next day. I said I would be completely cut off from the world and wouldn’t need TV, cell service, or internet any more. I offered to pray for her. I got no argument and no sales pitch. Yes, it was a lie. I am a liar. Lock me up. But we skipped all the persuasion. And I gave her a great story to tell in the break room. :wink:

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I’m gonna get all meany-ass on you here. :slight_smile:

How much CS does a plug-and-play device need? And how many returns might you have in a lifetime? Doesn’t seem like a factor either way.

According to a May 2016 article, Roku had 30% (down from 34%), Google and Amazon each had 22% (Amazon up from 16%, Google down a percent), and Apple had around 20%, up from 13%). So “a lot” is pretty relative, and I’d expect Roku to retake a bigger lead with the release of the all-new line that includes $25 to $125 models.

A-ha? Are you writing all this for the streaming TV viewer market, or fellow Android hackers? :slight_smile: (Sorry, over the years I read a lot of gushing reviews of products… that happened to run Linux. Now it’s Android. What squees hacker/hobbyists is not necessarily what couch potatoes will find best.)

Yeah, the market originator and long time number one isn’t worth considering.

All comparable Roku models (6, right now) are cheaper than their Fire TV equivalents. And absolutely brand new, this month.

I get it, you’re an Amazon/Android fan. I prefer Roku because they’ve steadily delivered market-defining products (see: Apple No No Do It OUR WAY!) at very reasonable prices, with frequent firmware updates… and are independent of associated products and market. Amazon has gamed things to favor their in-house sales and streaming; Apple has iTunes woven into the mix and has shunned all kinds of things they don’t believe are up to their standard. Roku… is just Roku. And good at it. Their biggest stumble, IMHO, was the long delay getting YouTube on board, but that’s fixed.

IMHO, Google isn’t in the same game as the other three. Their approach is so different and it’s so Googleverse-bound I think it has to be evaluated separately.

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Missed edit: That’s why Google is targeting Amazon: neither one is selling a bit of hardware as much as a buy-in to a proprietary universe. Roku doesn’t care about that battle (and neither should consumers… except to avoid the trap). I appreciate their market focus and independence more than I worry about what OS the box is running. :slight_smile:

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May have to throw out a new thread on this, but: Apple TV. What if anything does it have that the others don’t? And why is it any better than the $35-50 competitors, much less the $100-150 ones?

Integral access to iTunes seems to be about it, although it does have a ton of native storage that the others either lack or don’t consider a feature. So… what?

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That’s pretty much it (I don’t have a 4th gen with on-board storage so I cannot comment on that feature).

If you have a lot of Apple i-stuff, buy a lot of TV shows and/or movies from iTunes, and/or have a bunch of movies/video on your Mac, Apple TV will let you watch all that stuff through your TV without having to Airplay it from your i-Device.

Apple TV has everything Roku or Fire has, minus amazon Prime of course (but there’s a workaround).

Personally I greatly prefer the Apple TV interface to Roku, but YMMV.

36

plutotv is my favorite free tv app

This is their channel listing and what devices certain channels are limited to

37

You might want to bring up Kodi, or hacked Fire Sticks. Kodiitself is actually a really powerful bit of freeware that you can put on to your Fire Stick (and maybe others?) or run on your computer that gives you access to more than just the apps available on your device.

However, some clever folks have figured out how to use Kodi to deliver oodles of illegal streaming content to devices. You can install Kodi and whatever unscrupulous plugin required and have a big long “tv guide” of every not-yet-on-DVD movie, sports program, current HBO show etc etc at your fingertips. There are many companies and tons of local regular guys that your wife knows from the office that will add this capability to your Fire Stick for a small fee.

All the sites that advertise these services say it’s legal. Cuz it’s legal to put Kodi on your stick and it’s legal to list content available on the Internet on your stick. But they leave out the fact that the streams you’re watching are illegal. So everyone thinks it’s hunky-dory because the legalities have been hand-waved away.

The Kodi thing is getting quite popular out here in the suburbs (the Kodi people are pissed that their software is synonymous with this practice btw), as everyone wants something for nothing. But I’ve already had friends advised by their lawyer friends to not use their hacked sticks anymore. They won’t listen to their tech friends (me) but at least they’ll listen to the lawyer friends.

Anyway, there’s more to that story than what I am telling so you’ll want to do some of your own research. But I highly suggest knowing about it for when the question comes up.

Also - I have been cable-free since I moved out on my own in 2005. I actually have built 2 media computers in that time and just plug the machine into my TV via HDMI and use computer surround speakers. It’s nice because I never have to upgrade anything, I just use my browser. I also have a DVD player and before I got my Echo, I used it as my main music player as my music was all on the machine. I use a USB RF remote control and a wireless keyboard & mouse. Haven’t run into anything yet that I can’t do via my computer that you could do on some other device.

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A resource for people that want to keep an eye on tech and other aspects of cutting the cord is Cordkillers. They have video or podcasts available weekly.

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I started looking at (cable) cord cutting a while ago; here’s what we wanted/needed, and how I ended up saving some money without dropping cable.

We had a three-part package from Cox: high-speed (150 Mbps) Internet, cable TV, and landline phone (for my business, primarily). Cable included HD service, a DVR, and a premium movie package with HBO, Showtime, TMC, and Starz. As of the beginning of 2016, when some introductory offers expired, we were paying $300 a month for all of this, the majority of it ($170) being the cable package.

I also have a Roku 3, through which I can stream Netflix, Amazon Prime, CBS All Access, and various other channels.

We routinely watch Comedy Central (The Daily Show), CBS (The Late Show), PBS (many shows), HBO and SHO. All of these are available via streaming without a cable subscription.

The real sticking point for me was that I follow Formula 1 and IndyCar racing, both of which are on NBCSN (for now), which AFAICT is not available through any streaming service. Similarly, Turner Classic Movies, which I like to watch occasionally, can apparently only be streamed via Amazon Fire TV or Fire Stick.

So that meant that in giving up cable I would have to give up my racing series and TCM. I didn’t want to do that. Also, we’ve really gotten used to using the DVR to record shows, and as some above have pointed out, the fast-forward and rewind capabilities of streaming services are much clunkier and hard to work with in general than DVRs. And the unavoidable ads on many streaming services are annoying.

I was paying $48 for the movie package. Since we really only needed two of the four movie channels, I could have dropped that and gotten HBO and SHO streaming for $24 a month. When I called to make that change, Cox offered a promotion that gives me all four for two years at $25/month. I accepted.

The big change was dropping the Cox DVR for Tivo. I was paying $21.50 a month to rent Cox’s DVR. I paid $450 to buy a Tivo Roamio Pro (the equivalent of 21 months of rental), and now pay $12.50 a month for Tivo’s service and $2 for a cablecard from Cox. So a whopping $7 a month saving, discounting the initial capital cost. Plus the $23 saved on the movie package.

But Tivo is vastly better than any cable company’s DVR: it includes streaming from Netflix, Amazon, and other services, and merges all of those services in the listings and searches. It has a 3 TB hard disk, with much more capacity than the Cox DVR, and it can save recorded programs to an external hard disk or my HTPC.

Tivo also allows me to distribute content throughout my house using the Tivo Mini device. These $150 units let me view live TV, stream content, and view recorded programs on the DVR in the guest bedroom, the living room, the family room, etc. (I haven’t yet installed Minis in all those locations.) Our 20-year-old house has coax wired throughout, but not Ethernet, so Tivo’s ability to use MoCA (multimedia over coax) was a perfect solution.

So although these changes haven’t resulted in a huge savings in my monthly bill, Tivo has dramatically improved the viewing experience and expanded A/V service throughout my house.

If I find a way to stream my races, I might drop cable, which would save $100 a month. That would be nice.

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So for hardware we have an outdoor antenna, a smart TV, and a Chromecast (plus a few tablets/smartphones). For paid streaming services we have Amazon Prime and Netflix. We also have a few free streaming accounts (mlb.com for the free Game Of The Day and Crunchyroll for anime). That pretty much gets us everything we like to watch.

We use the Chromecast quite a bit. The streaming from Chrome feature is supposedly in beta, but we’ve had success streaming video from Chrome when Chromecast is not directly supported by a video app. So pretty much we can put anything streaming online on the TV. Mostly these days we Chromecast directly from apps on the tablet like Netflix, Crunchyroll or YouTube. I think the answer is “yes”, Chromecast is a basically dumb device. There is no interface other than are you casting or not casting. If you are not casting there are placeholder pictures on the TV. If you are casting then you are watching the show. All of the control is through the device from which you are casting.

With streaming I’ve found that there are a lot of options available, but you have to go out and find them. Like with Crunchyroll - the kids started watching Fairy Tail on Netflix but they only had the first 48 episodes. We searched the web and found Crunchyroll.com, which has an app and all the episdoes for free with ads. Of course to watch them on TV you then need Chromecast or the like.

I think the key to cutting the cord is to know what you want to be able to watch and then figure out the best/easiest/cheapest way to duplicate that without using cable/satellite.