Who has cut the Cable TV cord...what are you using now?

[kgower]

We are in the process of cutting the cord. We picked up the Verizon Internet Gateway 5G $25/mo. with Auto pay and paperless billing. Comcast/Xfinity $89/mo.
We are starting with Hulu + Live which includes the Disney Package for ESPN and ESPN+.
We when moved last fall we bought 2 new Sony Bravia TVs. (2021 models?) Does anyone know why premium add on's won't work. By looking at the Hulu FAQ it mostly applies to models through 2018.

 

[Julian]

We are in the process of cutting the cord. We picked up the Verizon Internet Gateway 5G $25/mo. with Auto pay and paperless billing. Comcast/Xfinity $89/mo.
We are starting with Hulu + Live which includes the Disney Package for ESPN and ESPN+.
We when moved last fall we bought 2 new Sony Bravia TVs. (2021 models?) Does anyone know why premium add on's won't work. By looking at the Hulu FAQ it mostly applies to models through 2018.

I have an older Sony "Smart" TV and it sucks as a smart TV, had to add a Chromecast to it!

 

[BigN8]

Leaning on this forum of smart minds, I think I've finally hit the point of cutting ties with Directv. To say I'm anxious is an understatement. I love the user interface and ease of just flipping through the 500 chanels I don't watch. So that being said, what services do most people replace the cord with? I have an Apple TV already hooked up, and through that I can watch Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime.

I've heard a lot of people mention YouTube TV. So that seems to be the go to now? What about the local channels like Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS.

 

[zpaul]

Leaning on this forum of smart minds, I think I've finally hit the point of cutting ties with Directv. To say I'm anxious is an understatement. I love the user interface and ease of just flipping through the 500 chanels I don't watch. So that being said, what services do most people replace the cord with? I have an Apple TV already hooked up, and through that I can watch Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime.

I've heard a lot of people mention YouTube TV. So that seems to be the go to now? What about the local channels like Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS.

I ditched Dish Network for Hulu in 2020.
At that time Dish was charging me $113 a month for 2 tv boxes and very limited channel package.
Hulu offered way more at $62 a month, no TV box fees and you could watch it on as many TVs as you want. And they had better selection for me than Youtube.
Now, here we are 4 years later and Hulu raised their price again to almost $97 a month.
Considering 2 options:
- talking to Spectrum to see what they offer.
- just dropping Hulu and all these stupid TV services since Samsung smart TV offers a ton of free channels including local and just getting ESPN subscription. The only issue is missing big name News channels that are now "propaganda news" anyway. But those have their own $10 a month subscription, whichever you are addicted too.

Here is the link to Samsung TV US Channel Line up

https://www.samsungtvplus.com/assets/STVP_Channel-List.pdf

Already have "free" Netflix, Apple TV through TMobile and Prime TV through paying for prime $140 a year membership.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

FWIW,
I got rid of century link and have gone to Star Link for my internet needs. You buy the equipment, $350, and where I’m at its $90 a month for the service. I do not watch regular tv programming, no network TV at all. I do have prime for any movies I want to watch which isn’t too often anymore, or any series I’d want to watch, but haven’t watched any of those either.

You know those challenges that were around for a while? Well, here is my challenge…try disconnecting fro at least a month, read a book, listen to a book, play board games with your family, go for a walk, go for a hike, go to the gym, go fishing, go target shooting, go play in the snow, work on your boat, make vacation plans with your family and friends, get everything ready to go for boating season 2025, set an aggressive number of boating days goal-way more than boating season 2024. There’s some members here who boat almost every weekend..bravo.

Stay away from FB, instagram, Snapchat etc.. no social media, no tv news etc.. this site excepted of course! If you need weather info its right there on the national weather service site or weather radio. Need traffic info? Loot at your states DOT site.

The “news” deserves special mention here, 99.1% of the content on the news has no direct bearing on your life, AND, you have no control over it, and it is upsetting to say the least, the remaining .9% which includes the weather may or may not have direct bearing on your life, and you have no control over it. So in the words of Joshua, the WOPPR computer in the 1983 movie War Games, “the only way to win is not to play”.

Basically, disconnect from the cyber world and re connect with your humanity and the humanity of others… you will find you have way less stress, and lead a much happier life. Make a plan for the new year to be the best you that is possible, eat better, get plenty of sleep, eschew the things that don’t matter. But for sure spend more days boating.

 

[CastawayRK]

I had delux expensive Xfinity everything before I moved last month ($325/month) Now I got 1 gig fiber internet from Spectrum for $70/month. Fubo is $114/month and does really well with sporting events and gives us local TV. Watch it anywhere on ipad. Use Rokus on dumb TV's. That and Prime which I would pay for anyway cover it for me. 90% of what I watch is sports.

 

[BigN8]

FWIW,
I got rid of century link and have gone to Star Link for my internet needs. You buy the equipment, $350, and where I’m at its $90 a month for the service. I do not watch regular tv programming, no network TV at all. I do have prime for any movies I want to watch which isn’t too often anymore, or any series I’d want to watch, but haven’t watched any of those either.

You know those challenges that were around for a while? Well, here is my challenge…try disconnecting fro at least a month, read a book, listen to a book, play board games with your family, go for a walk, go for a hike, go to the gym, go fishing, go target shooting, go play in the snow, work on your boat, make vacation plans with your family and friends, get everything ready to go for boating season 2025, set an aggressive number of boating days goal-way more than boating season 2024. There’s some members here who boat almost every weekend..bravo.

Stay away from FB, instagram, Snapchat etc.. no social media, no tv news etc.. this site excepted of course! If you need weather info its right there on the national weather service site or weather radio. Need traffic info? Loot at your states DOT site.

The “news” deserves special mention here, 99.1% of the content on the news has no direct bearing on your life, AND, you have no control over it, and it is upsetting to say the least, the remaining .9% which includes the weather may or may not have direct bearing on your life, and you have no control over it. So in the words of Joshua, the WOPPR computer in the 1983 movie War Games, “the only way to win is not to play”.

Basically, disconnect from the cyber world and re connect with your humanity and the humanity of others… you will find you have way less stress, and lead a much happier life. Make a plan for the new year to be the best you that is possible, eat better, get plenty of sleep, eschew the things that don’t matter. But for sure spend more days boating.

Yep...A lot of good advice and basically the same thing rattling around in the back of my gray matter. Seems like the TV is basically a mindless check out for me after a day of work. It boils down to dropping the hammer at the end of the day and picking up the glass of wine or beer and just numbing out on the sofa. Maybe a hard reset is what is needed. I think I really should just inventory what I actually watch on TV. What content is actually new and relevant, and what is just crap I have watched before and just watch again and again. I think as long as I can see college and NFL football everything else is dispensable. My wife and I have a guilty pleasure of watching Below Deck. So I may have to find what streaming source offers that. I couldn't even tell you what channel it's on.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Right on…. As I like to say, everyone has their dope. I get it, I have mine, had mine.

I think it is easy to become complacent with TV programming, I do believe that people get lost in it because it massages that part of the brain. The main thing I’m saying is, check out for a while do a re set like you mention, re discover that which matters most and do stuff with loved ones.

“I miss the peace of fishing” Captain Ramius.

I went to a wedding down in Louisiana one time, and at that wedding the preacher said something that rang true to me, he told the bride and groom to make sure and take one night a week together and to talk about nothing else except each other, in a way that has brought you here to be married. He went on to say that your relationship with each other is more important than your relationship with God, your children or the rest of your family and friends, because if your relationship with each other suffers your relationship with everyone else will suffer. I have heard no truer words in regards to a healthy relationship.

 

[zpaul]

Feels like Spectrum is better than Hulu. Hulu has crapy movie selection anyway.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Leaning on this forum of smart minds, I think I've finally hit the point of cutting ties with Directv. To say I'm anxious is an understatement. I love the user interface and ease of just flipping through the 500 chanels I don't watch. So that being said, what services do most people replace the cord with? I have an Apple TV already hooked up, and through that I can watch Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime.

I've heard a lot of people mention YouTube TV. So that seems to be the go to now? What about the local channels like Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS.

Check with your internet provider and see if they have a low tier TV package first. If so, compare the cost of that to YouTubeTV ($75). I love YouTube TV as it will give you all of your local channels and national networks and GOLF! If you want more sports you can subscribe to ESPN+ for $20 a month. I run these apps on the Nvidea Shield which works great for me. Super simple layout and remote. Good luck on your research!

 

[mpecoraro]

I've been a YouTube TV subscriber since 2018. Verizon FIOS for my internet. Saved a bundle by dropping the Verizon TV, DVRs, etc. No technical issues with the YouTube TV service over that period. That said, I have not been happy with the price recently. This week they announced another price increase, $82.99/month starting January 13, 2025. When I signed up in 2018 the price was $35/month. They have added a number of channels over the years and the content for each has increased as well. The price for competitors has increased over the same period, so this is not specific to YouTube TV.

I also subscribe to the Disney+ bundle. We do watch some content on Hulu and Disney. Mainly using ESPN+ in the bundle. That and a VPN (Nord) allows me to watch Buffalo Sabres games (local market). However, that has been painful, so often watching other NHL games instead. YouTube TV and ESPN+ gives us access to most soccer games that we are interested in as well.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

I've been a YouTube TV subscriber since 2018. Verizon FIOS for my internet. Saved a bundle by dropping the Verizon TV, DVRs, etc. No technical issues with the YouTube TV service over that period. That said, I have not been happy with the price recently. This week they announced another price increase, $82.99/month starting January 13, 2025. When I signed up in 2018 the price was $35/month. They have added a number of channels over the years and the content for each has increased as well. The price for competitors has increased over the same period, so this is not specific to YouTube TV.

I also subscribe to the Disney+ bundle. We do watch some content on Hulu and Disney. Mainly using ESPN+ in the bundle. That and a VPN (Nord) allows me to watch Buffalo Sabres games (local market). However, that has been painful, so often watching other NHL games instead. YouTube TV and ESPN+ gives us access to most soccer games that we are interested in as well.

Tell me more about the VPN working. I thought it was based on your billing zip code. I had Nord for a long time for other things.....It works for ESPN+?

 

[WiskyDan]

FWIW,
I got rid of century link and have gone to Star Link for my internet needs. You buy the equipment, $350, and where I’m at its $90 a month for the service. I do not watch regular tv programming, no network TV at all. I do have prime for any movies I want to watch which isn’t too often anymore, or any series I’d want to watch, but haven’t watched any of those either.

You know those challenges that were around for a while? Well, here is my challenge…try disconnecting fro at least a month, read a book, listen to a book, play board games with your family, go for a walk, go for a hike, go to the gym, go fishing, go target shooting, go play in the snow, work on your boat, make vacation plans with your family and friends, get everything ready to go for boating season 2025, set an aggressive number of boating days goal-way more than boating season 2024. There’s some members here who boat almost every weekend..bravo.

Stay away from FB, instagram, Snapchat etc.. no social media, no tv news etc.. this site excepted of course! If you need weather info its right there on the national weather service site or weather radio. Need traffic info? Loot at your states DOT site.

The “news” deserves special mention here, 99.1% of the content on the news has no direct bearing on your life, AND, you have no control over it, and it is upsetting to say the least, the remaining .9% which includes the weather may or may not have direct bearing on your life, and you have no control over it. So in the words of Joshua, the WOPPR computer in the 1983 movie War Games, “the only way to win is not to play”.

Basically, disconnect from the cyber world and re connect with your humanity and the humanity of others… you will find you have way less stress, and lead a much happier life. Make a plan for the new year to be the best you that is possible, eat better, get plenty of sleep, eschew the things that don’t matter. But for sure spend more days boating.

Blasphemy, pure blasphemy!!

 

[mpecoraro]

Tell me more about the VPN working. I thought it was based on your billing zip code. I had Nord for a long time for other things.....It works for ESPN+?

Billing zip code of ESPN+ (or Disney)? I don't believe so because it is working for me. I'm in the Buffalo area with a local zip code. I have been watching local NHL games via ESPN+ (and VPN) since 2023 when ESPN received the rights for the NHL games. I stream on my televisions using Chromecast with Google TV. I run the Nord VPN on that device, but any Android TV device should work. I have a Tivo streamer based on Android TV that works as well. I connect to Nord VPN servers in Chicago. The closest servers outside my blackout area. The ESPN app picks up the location via IP address on initial start, so kill the ESPN app before you connect to the VPN. Note, I have the YouTube TV app configured as a "Trusted app" (split tunneling) in the Nord VPN app configuration. You don't want YouTube TV going out the VPN tunnel, you want it going out your router's assigned IP address. YouTube TV does not play well with VPNs period. Google has too many checks (VPN IP blacklist) in place.

I'm also able to run the Nord VPN on my computers and watch local NHL games via the ESPN website. Works the same.

You have the option to run the VPN directly on your router if your device supports it. I don't bother right now because the Nord VPN app is working well for me.

Let me know if you want more info.

 

[CastawayRK]

@FSH 210 Sport what sort of real world performance do you get from Starlink? Latency & up/down speeds?

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

@FSH 210 Sport what sort of real world performance do you get from Starlink? Latency & up/down speeds?

Those are speed tests run from the Star Link app. Before Star Link my century link was 25 mbs down and 2 mbs up…so for me at least, this is a quantum leap forward in speed. These are from when I first got the system up and running.





Just ran this one for you a moment ago…occasionally I have slower speeds as I have a lot of trees around my house.

 

[Julian]

Feels like Spectrum is better than Hulu. Hulu has crapy movie selection anyway.
View attachment 229518

Does spectrum have any DVR capabilities? Since yet another YouTube TV price increase I may have to look at this.

 

[zpaul]

Does spectrum have any DVR capabilities? Since yet another YouTube TV price increase I may have to look at this.

They have free trial. I may try it in January. Based on channel layout is more than I need.
I think it works through app and they also provide one box for free. Not sure what this box can do.

 

[jcb1977]

Those are speed tests run from the Star Link app. Before Star Link my century link was 25 mbs down and 2 mbs up…so for me at least, this is a quantum leap forward in speed. These are from when I first got the system up and running.





Just ran this one for you a moment ago…occasionally I have slower speeds as I have a lot of trees around my house.

Starlink was a game changer for me as well....I see similar performance on mine. my only other option is Frontier internet and that was about 20MPBS down so huge difference for me as well.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Starlink was a game changer for me as well....I see similar performance on mine. my only other option is Frontier internet and that was about 20MPBS down so huge difference for me as well.

Keep in mind with my test runs, I’m using a 2016 model ipad and a gen 3 SE. The IPad is old, and my 2022 iPhone SE is the cheapest of the iPhones with the lowest speed chip and lowest quality camera. I’m sure that has some affect on the speeds etc… a new ipad will probably be in my future as this one is getting long in the tooth.