Streaming Television vs. DirecTV

[Murf'n'surf]

Base speed plan on Comcast (on wifi to boot):

 

[Speedling]

Yeah, I thought fiber was gonna be like super duper fast.

My comcast connection for my 75 Mbps connection.

 

[Zarrella]

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

Dan, I hate to say it but your "fiber" speeds are abysmal My cell gets higher up/down speeds than your fiber connection.
I'd be pissed if my ISP installed fiber to the home and I wasn't getting at least >100+Mbps.

View attachment 45740

I live 15 miles outside of town out in the country, the community we live in is lucky to have the fiber infrastructure we have, sure beats the hell out of Copper DSL if you are far away from the DSLAM and can only get 1.5 Mbps Down/768Kbps Up. The highest speed this small Phone Company/Isp sells is 30 Mbps, not that they do not have the ability to sell higher speeds. I chose the 10 Mbps package back when it was the highest speed they offered, they recently offered two more plans at 20 Mbps & 30 Mbps.

I sell a lot of bandwidth for a living with my consulting company, I have clients with Gig Internet Connections and large Metro Ethernet Networks - you and I speak the same language my friend!!

 

[AZDANSX230HO]

Dan, you should expect each HD stream to consume 10 Mbps. Netflix is closer to 5 but most sources are around 10. So you need to allot 10 Mbps for each streaming device.

@Bruce, we finally installed the Roku boxes today, have 3 TV's running at the same time on our existing 10 Mbps Internet Connection, all are running flawlessly with our bandwidth. We subscribed to SlingTV, Hulu, CBS All Access, and have Amazon Prime, wish we would have done this sooner.

 

[Joe Hellaby]

I just recently switch from Sling to Directv Now (AT&Ts new streaming service). Way better in my opinion. At least the guide is 100x better than the guide on sling.
They're supposed to be coming out with a cloud based dvr (like playstation vue service) sometime this year, but then again, so is Sling

 

[Ramblin Wreck]

I've given thought to cutting the cord in the past and we do have an old Roku we use to stream netflix, watchespn, etc. However, I like the convenience of flipping through channels that I have with traditional cable TV. Granted I have not explored GBox or any of that so I personally can't speak to it. Right now, I pay $130 for Internet & TV. TV services also include HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax.

For those that have cut the cord, how much are you paying for your internet and additional services like Hulu, Amazon, Netflix, Sling, etc.?

 

[Strassenfest]

Love my Smithville Fiber!! They wired the whole house in cat5/6. My 8 TV's, Phone and 4 computers run on 1 GigaCenter. Don't like the $225 mo. bill though.

 

[Speedling]

Love my Smithville Fiber!! They wired the whole house in cat5/6. My 8 TV's, Phone and 4 computers run on 1 GigaCenter. Don't like the $225 mo. bill though.

View attachment 49668

Wow! Never seen an upload speed faster than download! That would be great for some serious "lan" parties as we call it. All the new games hook to the internet so put 20 pc's in a room and suck up that internet!

 

[BigN8]

I don't think I could cut the cord. I just really like the convenience and user interface of my Directv! Now that they have Genie mini's the portability of the TV's are endless.

 

[GiddYupJoe]

Been with DTV for 4 years now. Canceled tonight. @BigN8 concern is why I haven't done it sooner. I love the convienance of it but I just could no longer justify the price as we just don't watch near as much tv anymore. Kids are on prime or flix if they are watching something.

I signed up for the new directvnow service. 100 streaming channels for $35 (3 month promo/ w a free 4gen Apple TV). HD antenna for the locals. (Ends 9 Jan)

We will see how this goes for a few months...if we don't then I'm not out anything and back to a "new" promo dtv customer!

 

[KXCam22]

807 is wicked. I am at 168Mbps up and down. Telus fiber. Cam.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

I think we have touched on these DTV credits before but just in case..... Call DTV annually and complain about the pricing and toss out switching to Comcast...... they come up with all sorts of 'credits' to keep that bill lower for you. It helps if you are a premium channel or NFL package subscriber.

 

[veedubtek]

@Ramblin Wreck - I'm paying $70/month for 300mb internet, like $11 or whatever for netflix on 3 screens, and I've got Amazon Prime, but don't really use it for watching anything (except Man in the High Castle, anyway). One time charge for my gboxes and HD antennas, and that's it. I get about 30 channels at the house with the antenna and 26 at the camper. Covers everything I ever really watch.

 

[GiddYupJoe]

I think we have touched on these DTV credits before but just in case..... Call DTV annually and complain about the pricing and toss out switching to Comcast...... they come up with all sorts of 'credits' to keep that bill lower for you. It helps if you are a premium channel or NFL package subscriber.

This is what I typically do. But without the intention/motivation to actually follow through with my cancelation threat. I end up with some sort of deal. Tonight I was extremely surprised when they never made a counter. Tossed out one offer and after I said, blah blah blah... they went straight to sending the boxes back!

 

[OperationROL]

I have been considering Sling for a few months now, but just cannot get past the NO DVR. We DVR everything. I don't know how we would make it without the ability to tape shows and watch later.

 

[Joe Hellaby]

Playstation Vue has cloud DVR. Both Sling and Directv Now say they're coming out with cloud DVR sometime in 2017

 

[OperationROL]

you can goto a service like playon it has a record feature from your computer there is most likely others and better. I just started looking at this as we just cancelled dtv when 4 mini genies went out in a week at year on our contract. dtv just wants to send more boxes out and not question the problem. One box read 150 degrees when it stopped. Cox will be out Friday but I may cancel if I can find another solution. I purchased the playon and put it on our rokus. It's OK but no local channels live. I might have to go Ota antennae

Also on the DVR. I havent seen a show yet that wasn't on demand for playon. abc CBS NBC fox all were there.
.

Good info. My family watches a lot of sports and not many are available on demand. I will look into the Playon solution.

 

[RightStuff]

I just purchased the new AirTV from Echostar (aka Dish Network) to see what it is like. I'll report back after I use it for a bit.

What sold me on it was being able to do streaming services like Sling.TV and OTA channels together in one box, and for a fraction of what I currently have with Dish Network. So after I get that setup and if the family likes it we'll cut Dish off.

 

[RightStuff]

So you have to hook up a ota antennae?

Yes, it's an additional adapter (looks just like a USB to Coax device) so you can get it with or without it.

I already have the OTA antenna wired into the house where I need it because Dish Network has a OTA input (Hopper/Joey receiver setup) that puts the OTA channels right into the same guide with the Dish channels, it's pretty slick. Sounds like that is the case with this box and Sling.TV, guess we'll see! Either way, it should be an easy connection for the AirTV box with my setup.