Cord cutting ramblings...

OK, 10 days into the testing and I’ve decided to stick with cable/tivo for at least the next year. Here’s the deciding factors:
1. Financial - costs are nearly the same though cable is a bit higher. But many more channels in the package.
2. Sports - I’m not a big sports fan, but I do watch some. Mostly golf and boxing. In order to get much of those two would require using at least one additional cable/sat replacement type service and would push the cost comparison in cable’s favor.
3. Convenience - Hands down cable/tivo is much more convenient to use. Better DVR, auto ad-skipping, channel/program guide, and scheduling.

In a year, or if something really changes in either OTT or cable I’ll revisit.


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Any time that I've tried different streaming services I've found basically the same thing. You save a little bit of money but it's hard to beat the convenience of a good dvr and all your content in one location.
 
DirecTV since '97 and been trying to find the right exit plan for a few years. For me, YouTubeTV seems to be the winner. All my locals, OTT's, 9-month Cloud DVR, and integrated Guide for 50 bucks a month. On 3 week free trial and seeing no reason not to stay and divorce DirecTV. Picture Quality seems better too. Only glitch is YTTV does work on FireTV. Will fix that with a few Roku 4k sticks.
 
They've been promising an app for FireTv since early July.
 

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A YouTube TV app on FireTV is expected this fall. The first priority, after the Amazon-Google rift got sorted out, was the regular YouTube app, which was released several weeks ago.
 
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Signed up to PSVUE for the 5 day trial today just for the NFL Network game tonight. With the exception of a few more channels like NFL Network PSVUE has nothing over on YTTV, the live stream has moments of looping (repeats) and PQ just doesn't look as good. Just wish YTTV had the NFL Network.
 
I dropped Dish last month after over 20 years with them. I had been slowly cutting down my expenses to where I had just a Hopper and the Flex pack. Still more than I wanted to pay for the how much we really watched. We had been streaming a bit more so our Dish viewing was down.

Went with Sling, as like the OP, it fit the bill (both literally and figuratively) I liked the price and had all of the channels I cared about. I recently switched to T-Mobile and while it not quite as good as Verizon, it does the job. (I also don't have to worry about monitoring the teenager's data usage anymore). T-Mobile also has a sweet military plan and it includes Netflix (I pay $2 month to get the extra streams). I also went with the Sling related AirTV box for my OTA as it integrates nicely with the Sling app and puts OTA and streaming channels nicely in one guide. You can add a hard drive for DVR functionality for the OTA channels and that integrates into the Sling app as well. Like the OP, I also did the 3 year Disney+ deal and I have Amazon (because we all want free shipping of course!).

So at the end of the day:
Sling Blue = $30
OTA = $0
Netflix = $2
Amazon = $0 (can you really say you pay for the streaming when you know you do it for the free shipping)
Disney+ = $4
Total = $36

I may add Apple TV+ for $5 and CBS All Access for $6 but these may come and go depending on the show and when I'm all caught up. Let's say they are on for half the year, that's about $5 a month. So for $41 per month, I'm pretty well covered. Even if Apple and CBS reached a point where they were on all the time I'm still at $47 per month. I'll take it! Sling is not without it's issues but for me it's mostly about convenience and I can give up a little convenience for the price.
 
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Signed up to PSVUE for the 5 day trial today just for the NFL Network game tonight. With the exception of a few more channels like NFL Network PSVUE has nothing over on YTTV, the live stream has moments of looping (repeats) and PQ just doesn't look as good. Just wish YTTV had the NFL Network.

I've had PSVue for 6 months, dropped Directv when we moved. For me, It has a lot more over YTTV. NBA, & NHL Networks, and the Sports pack has the regional NBC Sports channels. I can watch the pre & post game shows from out of town team that way. That alone make it the better choice since sports is 95% of what I watch. Especially with MLB.tv ending next week.
 
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Hmm... I may be going streaming sooner than I had planned. Tivo is rolling out a new change to the retail Tivos. Pre-roll ads on recorded shows. Reports are they are 15 second ads, skippable but very slow to do so. A few people that have gotten their boxes updated to it indicate that Tivo has said they can kill it if you call. The few that have called report that Tivo says it takes 72 hours to kill it on their box and that time hasn’t yet happened for them.

Of course the downside is that ad-skipping on streaming services is a bit hit or miss, not to mention that their DVR solutions are very much not nearly as good as offered on even the poorest cable/sat DVRs.


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Hmm... I may be going streaming sooner than I had planned. Tivo is rolling out a new change to the retail Tivos. Pre-roll ads on recorded shows. Reports are they are 15 second ads, skippable but very slow to do so. A few people that have gotten their boxes updated to it indicate that Tivo has said they can kill it if you call. The few that have called report that Tivo says it takes 72 hours to kill it on their box and that time hasn’t yet happened for them.

Of course the downside is that ad-skipping on streaming services is a bit hit or miss, not to mention that their DVR solutions are very much not nearly as good as offered on even the poorest cable/sat DVRs.


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Apparently this is only on TE4, right?
 
Apparently this is only on TE4, right?

as of now, that is the hypothesis.
TivoTed just popped into the thread about it on TCF, but he didn't mention, if it was going to be TE4 only or if it was TE4 and Bolt only. I'll leave my Roamio's on TE4 if they're not going to be affected, otherwise I will roll them back. The Bolts I'm sure about, as we really like the autoskip for when we are in Las Vegas and use the slingbox to view the cable Tivo in Oklahoma.

TiVo inserting short advert before playing a recording
 
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Hmm... I may be going streaming sooner than I had planned. Tivo is rolling out a new change to the retail Tivos. Pre-roll ads on recorded shows. Reports are they are 15 second ads, skippable but very slow to do so. A few people that have gotten their boxes updated to it indicate that Tivo has said they can kill it if you call. The few that have called report that Tivo says it takes 72 hours to kill it on their box and that time hasn’t yet happened for them.

Of course the downside is that ad-skipping on streaming services is a bit hit or miss, not to mention that their DVR solutions are very much not nearly as good as offered on even the poorest cable/sat DVRs.

So glad I decided on the Tablo Quad.
 
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So glad I decided on the Tablo Quad.
Me too. I used my 4 tuner Tablo from last year all year long and am ready for this season that starts to night. It always records all my shows on the networks and now it has auto commercial skip too. The service has improved over this last year with surround sound added and now commercial skip too. It is like my own little Prime Time Anytime ota receiver and since I paid life time: NO monthly fees. I found that I really watched the ota networks more than I do the cable channels on the satellite. I only have like 4 to 8 shows total I record from them for me. My wife sucks up every HGTV and DIY show she can ingest in a day. So the Wally has come in handy for her viewing. I could get by with just Sling blue +dvr +news pack. But my wife insists we keep DISH so I downgraded to a Wally for the living room and I will add a 2nd in my master bedroom so she can watch in there too. Saving that $22.00 a month in DISH fees is nice. (12x $22.00=$264.00 a year in fees) That's enough to buy a TABLO quad every year. ;)
 
I found that I really watched the ota networks more than I do the cable channels on the satellite. I only have like 4 to 8 shows total I record from them for me.

We noticed that every cable show we had on the DVR was sooner or later on Netflix and Hulu and since we do not watch them till they are done for the season it is only a short wait till they are on those services.

My wife sucks up every HGTV and DIY show she can ingest in a day.

My wife’s favorite is Food Network, but since Discovery Channel ( owner of Food, HGTV, Animal Planet, etc ) are starting up their own live 17 channel streaming service early 2020 for roughly $5 a month we decided to quit paying for live tv, so now we only pay for Netflix, Hulu, soon Disney+ and Amazon ( but that pays for itself with the shipping).

So costs are roughly $40 a month with still way too much to watch.

Discovery’s New Streaming Service Will Launch in 2020 - Cord Cutters News





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We noticed that every cable show we had on the DVR was sooner or later on Netflix and Hulu and since we do not watch them till they are done for the season it is only a short wait till they are on those services.

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While fiddling around with streaming, one thing I’ve noticed is that during the day I can find something I’ve either never seen, or hadn’t seen in a long time via streaming. Essentially picking my own reruns and for sure having a lot more variety in ones that are available.

So instead of reciting along with yet another rerun of one of the law&order shows, I can watch 5 seasons of Leverage, most of which I don’t remember.

I’m also finding that during the day, when I’m only 1/2 paying attention anyway, I can use the free ad-supported streamers.

I kept Sling Blue going another month as I want to see what shows up in on demand. If all of the new shows and episodes are there and other places, then I don’t need to pay for their DVR service.

Currently in additions to Sling Blue, Netflix, Hulu, CBS and Amazon, I’m also using some ad-supported ones. Like Tubi, XUMO, Pluto, Crackle and IMDB.



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Well, my month long experiment with cord cutting is over. I learned that even doing all streaming a 1TB data cap wasn’t going to be an issue. And I learned that cable can be a decent bargain in some case.
So I called Mediacom today and reduced my internet to 100/10 w/1TB cap and TV to ‘family video’. Bill went from $197 to $145. Standalone the internet would have been $80, so the TV portion is $60. Family Video is only missing one channel I would like to have on occasion, and that is The Golf Channel.
For premiums, I’ll change to occasional subs. For instance, I’ll pick up HBO in December if Watchmen gets good reviews and binge watch it. Similarly for the other premiums.
The 1TB cap will be plenty for streaming I will do in addition to what I watch on cable.


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Well, my month long experiment with cord cutting is over. I learned that even doing all streaming a 1TB data cap wasn’t going to be an issue. And I learned that cable can be a decent bargain in some case.
So I called Mediacom today and reduced my internet to 100/10 w/1TB cap and TV to ‘family video’. Bill went from $197 to $145. Standalone the internet would have been $80, so the TV portion is $60. Family Video is only missing one channel I would like to have on occasion, and that is The Golf Channel.
For premiums, I’ll change to occasional subs. For instance, I’ll pick up HBO in December if Watchmen gets good reviews and binge watch it. Similarly for the other premiums.
The 1TB cap will be plenty for streaming I will do in addition to what I watch on cable.


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Other than a few network shows (decreasing in number all the time) and my local news which we get via OTA, everything we watch is streamed now. The largest amount of data we've ever used is a little over 200GB. I am sure it would be higher if we had children. No surprise there: kids are expensive. ;)
 
Well the new bill from Mediacom came today and I was very pleasantly surprised. Current one is a mix of old and new and the total was about $142.
Going forward the new will be $131. That’s for 100/10 1TB cap internet and Family Video which is a good mix of channels. Missing some RSN’s and the Golf channel but those are little watched by me anyway. And of course, all the Premiums. That makes the TV portion about $51/month.


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