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After 8 years, time to say goodbye to Dish

hbo streaming 15 bucks a month http://news.filehippo.com/2014/10/hbo-streaming-service-cost-15-per-month‏/
 
To the OP, well said. I'm right behind you. I'm almost setup and ready to go as well. Dish has been great to me, and if I wanted to continue to pay for TV service they would be my choice.
 

I ordered a Roku 3 yesterday. I'm aware of the lack of Prime on the Premier, but really want the instant video. I want to be able to buy new Doctor Who and Mad Men and be able to download them. Aside from a media center PC with tuner cards and mythTV, it seemed to me the Premier was the only choice for this.

I'm pretty handy. From what I gather, the only thing that often goes wrong is the hard drive. I can pick up a 1TB WD AV-GP for around $50, and with some custom linux software and some other tools, plus a PC, you can replace the hard drive. I plan to do so in 6 months or so proactively. I'll just have to find someone who will let me use their PC; probably my parents.

Oh, and I should add that reception is not much of a problem. I live within a few miles of the transmitters for Cleveland locals. Most peg my 622 OTA tuner at 90-100, and that is including a lot of goofy wiring to diplex the sat and OTA signal, plus feed an NTSC signal to my second TV. I could not go with the Series 3 or Roamio because both lack the Amazon instant downloading feature.
 
I just got a used Tivo Premiere with lifetime on Ebay, and will be getting my programming almost exclusively from OTA, DVDs/Blu-Ray's from the library and my own collection, and Amazon Instant video.
Amazon Instant Video at 900bps needs to be experienced on the daily driver television before it is settled upon.

A lot of avenues seem like just the ticket until you put them to the test.
 
Amazon Instant Video at 900bps needs to be experienced on the daily driver television before it is settled upon.

A lot of avenues seem like just the ticket until you put them to the test.

Why I got the premiere. It downloads Amazon Instant titles rather than streams. So it can take 6 or 7 hours overnight to download the HD.
 

I think it has more to do with the luck of what I choose to watch from Netflix. I have to say that I have noticed more content in better quality from Netflix of late, but still not as consistently high resolution as Amazon and, especially, Hulu Plus, and let's not forget Netflix's dopey "not available from your ISP" decison to provide high resolution at lower bit rates. Yes, Amazon and Hulu Plus do have to stream larger packets, but ANYONE who has the bandwidth can enjoy high resolution content this very moment if it is offered.
 
Amazon Instant Video at 900bps needs to be experienced on the daily driver television before it is settled upon.

A lot of avenues seem like just the ticket until you put them to the test.
Yes, and I was really so excited when I began my streaming experience, and the somewhat bitterly disappointed. I'm not anti-cord cutting, it's just that it was not ready for prime-time, at least for me. The US version of House of Cards or shows like The New Black is Orange that are getting all the buzz is NOT enough for me to dump traditional pay-TV, and the really ugly irony is that the people I know who are eating up Netflix are doing so watching OLD TV SHOWS that aired YEARS ago, and I mean stuff like Monarch of the Glen and all sorts of old shows that they could have recorded on their Dish DVR's but didn't at the time. Yours truly has to supply them with new stuff they miss out on and want because they are binging on old TV shows on Netflix, and I have already seen those shows when they aired via Dish channels YEARS ago.
 
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Netflix WAS abominable when Comcast and AT&T throttled them down until they payed the piper(s). That s why the whole net neutrality issue is so important, but most of the population seems to be asleep about.

And what's really sad is the by Netflix paying, they set a bad precedent although I totally understand why Netflix caved in and paid: they can't have their product diminished more than it is already compared to the competition, but still a terrible example has been set.
 
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Amazon Instant Video at 900bps needs to be experienced on the daily driver television before it is settled upon.

A lot of avenues seem like just the ticket until you put them to the test.

And I forgot to add that DVD's and Blu-ray are HUGELY expensive and a far WORSE value than the streaming services. I really don't get the idea of saving money or cutting down the cost of watching TV and movies at home if one buys or even RENTS hard copy discs. See, another leak for costs to rise. I think one is better off at keeping costs down by just sticking with the streaming services and waiting until it is available at no extra cost there. It is almost as if people are just shifting the money around instead of really realizing significant savings.
 
Why I got the premiere. It downloads Amazon Instant titles rather than streams. So it can take 6 or 7 hours overnight to download the HD.

Yeah, but that is PAID, and often expensive content. That totally blows the point of really getting the most money savings. AFAIK, the plan for the S4 and S5 TiVo's (Premiere and Roamio) is to REMOVE the current Instant service (Roamio has no Amazon at all for the moment) that allow download to HDD and replace it with the Prime service, and again, the Prime will be STREAMING ONLY. That is set to happen pretty soon, and not soon enough for most TiVo owners. However, the older TiVo's such as the S3 and older will continue to have Amazon in the form you currently have and prefer, so you may want to get an S3 model, and good fortune that those TiVo's are going for virtually peanuts these days at ebay, so it won't cost you a lot of money to get one.

The good news is the the Prime membership is a far better value than what you currently have on the TiVo because you can limit yourself to the FREE content included in your Prime membership, so that is what will save you a lot of money. I think it stinks they won't allow us to download Prime to HDD, but that is what the content owners want. Please get a Roku and check out all those free "channels" that have FREE content because if you do some hunting you really can find some movies--older or good quality independent films--and some esoteric old TV Shows, and fill your TV watching with that content at NO ADDITIONAL COST. Your current cord-cutting model is a bit expensive by comparison, and I think you may like some of that free stuff on the "odd" Roku "channels."
 
Does the Roamio have PiP buffers?

All the tuners are always buffering, but there is no PIP feature. Instead it you can switch among all the channels, or you can select the buffering channels from the Info banner. It works more like the Dish Multi channel Recall. All the tuners continue to buffer even you put the TiVo in Standby.
 
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Roamio had Amazon Instant and just added Prime
 

Yes, it's expensive, but still way cheaper when you only care about two shows. Buying seasons of Doctor Who will be ~$40. I was paying ~$245 for that privilege before (3 months of Dish). The last 7 episodes of Mad Men will be $2.99 each. Plus, I at least know my money will go to my shows, not see most of it go to pay for overpriced sports contracts on channels I don't watch.

Of course, those shows are not even an option with Prime, so it is not saving money to do prime streaming. That's like saying I could save money by going to McDonalds instead of getting the steak I was craving. Sure, you're right, but I was hungry for steak. Prime won't give me the shows I want, and being streaming only, won't give me the quality I want, either.

I will be extraordinarily pissed at Tivo if they yank the download functionality. I don't care if they don't have prime; that's why I got the Roku. I just want the few shows I actually watch, even if I have to pay a lot of money. I went with the Premier because it was the newest Tivo that had that functionality. It already is not supported on Roamio.

Listen, I know many of you have great ISPs around the country with great speeds available at low cost. Not so in Cleveland. Again, it is not worth saving money on cable/satellite if it means I need to quadruple my internet bill.
 
^^ I have seen Doctor Who listed as included for Prime streaming although don't know which seasons though (as I haven't started watching it) I am just rewatching Stargate & Everybody loves Raymond these days (and all seasons are included of these 2 shows though). Check Doctor who before buying the season
 

Not the current season. Only past seasons.

I will see the finale on Dish this weekend. Then, if all goes well with the Tivo, Dish will be cancelled next week. The first Amazon Instant title I plan to buy is the Doctor Who Christmas Special. I'm not going to wait a year for it to show up on Prime when I can buy it for $6.
 
The Premier should get the Amazon Prime app in 2015. Dr. Who (and other BBC America titles) are available on Prime about 1 year after airing.

I am in the middle of trying out a Roamio OTA and Mini setup right now. If things continue to go well, I will likely cancel Dish in 1 month's time.