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Ditching cable

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g8rh8rMD said:
So, with our move to Jacksonville, we bought an older, 1950's home. Long story short, the seller was supposed to upgrade the wiring, but didn't and offered us a cash credit at the last minute instead. We could either back out or take the credit and go forward, we decided to go forward. I say that to say that Uverse wouldn't install cable because we don't have a grounding system at this point, will get around to it...

So, we were basically forced into trying out the cord cutting thing. We are trying out a 3 month trial of DirecTV Now for $35/month, which came with a free Apple TV (look it up, the deal I think is still available and is well worth it for a new cord cutter who doesn't yet have a smart TV). Apple TV is great if you don't already have a really good smart TV, I recommend it. We rarely actually use the DirecTV Now and won't continue it once the free trial is over. Aside from sports, we rarely watch live TV (we purposefully shun the "news"). We also have my parent's Uverse login which we can use with the network apps and with Watch ESPN, so basically, we can get all the programming we enjoyed before. We have a $10/m Hulu subscription, which is nice to have because commercial free, but we could live without it.

The big difference with cord cutting is the viewing experience.

Here are the drawbacks:
  1. I really really miss my DVR. Just for normal, everyday viewing, it's nice to just click your available recordings and pull up whatever you want to watch. It's also really nice to pause your TV, go do something for a minute, come back and not miss a thing and fast forward through commercials.
  2. You have to know what you're looking for. When you have your DVR set up with season passes on the shows you want to watch, it's way quicker and easier to sit down and veg out for 30 minutes or an hour and not have to spend 10 minutes trying to find something to watch.
  3. I really just don't see how I'm going to get through football season without a real cable subscription, again, because of the DVR thing. I have to be able to pause and replay whenever I want. When watching a game, how often do they glaze right over a controversial call while talking about the ******* third string center or something? Also, the commercial breaks are ridiculous. I want to be able to get up, go fix a drink or take my wings out of the oven and come back and not miss any of the action, then just speed through the commercials. The last part is, I've found the sound, image quality, etc to simply be subpar on Watch ESPN.
  4. I also like to keep recordings of Canes games and be able to replay critical calls or big moments days later. Sure, you can usually find the videos online, but not always, and why have to search for something when you can just record it on your own box?
I think we have 50mbps Uverse fiber connection. Our home is all plaster walls, and the main TV has the fireplace between it and the wifi router, so I need to figure out a way to get a signal booster or repeater, but aside from that, the signal appears to be plenty robust.

Any other cord cutters out there that like to time-shift their watching and have tips on that or anything else? Aside from watching the Canes, I'm willing to deal with the other drawbacks of cutting the cord and saving $200/m+ (not joking, our DirecTV bill for three fricking TV's was in that range). I'm just not willing to compromise when it comes to watching the Canes. I do plan on attending most if not all the home games this year, my first with season tickets in many years now that I'm back in FLA, but still, gotta have that seemless game day experience that I'm used to for the road games.
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I’m also guessing game flipping is a pain?
 
mjackson6 said:
Buy a stream smart box. Get loca channels for anywhere in America and get all of the games for any team ESPN, local channels, fox sports, ABC.
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I have fire TV and Apple TV, how do you get the locals without an antenna? I have Direct TV Now and get all the sports channels and locals but their DVR sucks balls. Looking into HD Run box to record and also heard Fire TV is coming out with the ability to record. If I can get locals without an antenna, I can save a lot.
 
MiamiChris said:
How do you watch everything you want? I think that is the question he’s asking? I still have Directv for this vary reason. I need ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC, fox sports, sunsports, CBSSports and local. I have AppleTv and get the ESPN App but you’re u need cable or Sat login how do you get around this without having those services?
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Most of the streaming services have all those channels. I tried YouTube TV and loved it but my wife only wants 4 channels and most don't carry them. Bravo, VH1, Lifetime and MTV, the only streaming service that has them all is Direct TV Now. Of course, they're the most expensive and have by far the worst DVR. But for sure, they both have all the channels you just listed
 
duke4heisman said:
I have fire TV and Apple TV, how do you get the locals without an antenna? I have Direct TV Now and get all the sports channels and locals but their DVR sucks balls. Looking into HD Run box to record and also heard Fire TV is coming out with the ability to record. If I can get locals without an antenna, I can save a lot.
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StreamSmart TV Box No Monthly Fee
Decent up front cost but I haven’t had cable in 2 years now. Watch local channels across the entire country. MLB, NFL, CFB.

Make sure you buy it from that website. They have started deactivating devices bought off secondary markets. Definitely worth it. Only need WiFi
 
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mjackson6 said:
StreamSmart TV Box No Monthly Fee
Decent up front cost but I haven’t had cable in 2 years now. Watch local channels across the entire country. MLB, NFL, CFB.

Make sure you buy it from that website. They have started deactivating devices bought off secondary markets. Definitely worth it. Only need WiFi
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You can do a lot better. Go to gearbest and look for the Beelink GT1 box. Better box than what they sell there for less than 1/3 the cost.
 
mjackson6 said:
StreamSmart TV Box No Monthly Fee
Decent up front cost but I haven’t had cable in 2 years now. Watch local channels across the entire country. MLB, NFL, CFB.

Make sure you buy it from that website. They have started deactivating devices bought off secondary markets. Definitely worth it. Only need WiFi
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What are their prices? I'm not gonna sift through that site.
 
Thanks, I'll check them out. It looks like the first link, they use Kodi. I have Kodi on my devices now, is there a specific app that displays local channels? I have Mobdro but no locals
 
duke4heisman said:
Thanks, I'll check them out. It looks like the first link, they use Kodi. I have Kodi on my devices now, is there a specific app that displays local channels? I have Mobdro but no locals
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Love Kodi. Just interested if there are more options out there and what their costs are.
 
Kodi solutions. $8 a month for 3 devices and over 2k channels. You can download it to any android device or firestick. No DVR though
 
MiamiChris said:
How do you watch everything you want? I think that is the question he’s asking? I still have Directv for this vary reason. I need ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC, fox sports, sunsports, CBSSports and local. I have AppleTv and get the ESPN App but you’re u need cable or Sat login how do you get around this without having those services?
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Do you know anyone that has cable already?

It’s super easy
 
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MiamiChris said:
I’m also guessing game flipping is a pain?
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Yes, BIG time. Just getting something to load up and start playing is a pain when you're used to hitting the power button and having your signal pop on right away. Streaming is fine just for finding something to watch when you want to kill some time, watch some golf during the summer, that sort of thing. Didn't miss the TV package during the summer when we don't watch much TV anyway. But for football season, no, it sucks.

As an update, ended up (after quite a lot that I won't go in to) with ATT U-Verse bundle with phone (don't want the phone, but our package is cheaper with it), 50MBPS internet, and U200, no contract term or termination fees, for a little under $110/m. Two TV's, with HD and multi-room DVR. I was already paying $40/m for the internet alone, plus another $10/m for basic Hulu. Very happy with it so far, although there hasn't been much to watch aside from pre-season games. Will likely put the service on vacation (or just downgrade to the most basic service) after the bowl games, or maybe wait another month until after NFL season is over.

The trick, as always, will be keeping the rate at that reasonable level...
 
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