cutting the cord and dumping satellite / cable TV -- who here has done it, and how?

[Stephen]

Take a snapshot of your win10 vm so if/when you bugger it up it'll only take 2 minutes to restore it back to pristine state.

Yup, Hyper-V has that set up as a default. It’s nice.

 

[TRD270]

Does anyone know the minimum speed needed for Directv Now to work fairly well?

Doesn't really matter what your speed is the bottleneck is on the directv end. Service isn't the greatest, its better now than it was. I'd blame my internet but every other service works fine on my end.

 

[Spork]

Bought a Balun and just realized I have 3 metal hangers... plastic hangers have taken over.

 

[TurboMinivan]

Bought a Balun and just realized I have 3 metal hangers... plastic hangers have taken over.

Yeah, I had to swipe one or two from the mechanics laundry service at work.

 

[anderson750]

I don't understand these elaborate set ups you guys are putting together, but i bought a smart TV this past weekend and set up a $40 Hulu account. It has everything I view on a regular basis and will save me about $130 a month over what I was paying Direct TV.

 

[nnnnnate]

I don't understand these elaborate set ups you guys are putting together, but i bought a smart TV this past weekend and set up a $40 Hulu account. It has everything I view on a regular basis and will save me about $130 a month over what I was paying Direct TV.

All that matters is that it works for you.

 

[Cody]

Do you guys know of a good solution that includes some live sports? I can live without most cable, but I do like to watch the Pac 12 network, espn, fox sports, and the Utah Jazz games. I've never been able to find a solution that offers that.

 

[anderson750]

As part of my set up on Hulu it asked about favorite sports teams and I know that they have ESPN & FS1 on it. PAC 12 channel was not a choice so my guess is that I will only be able to see the games that are on other networks.

 

[Stephen]

Do you guys know of a good solution that includes some live sports? I can live without most cable, but I do like to watch the Pac 12 network, espn, fox sports, and the Utah Jazz games. I've never been able to find a solution that offers that.

fubo.tv seems to be a good alternative.

 

[nnnnnate]

We have youtube tv and it has all the major sports networks but doesn't have PAC12 or the AT&T thing that the Jazz non-national games are on. The slick thing about youtube tv is that you can create a group or family and authorize like 6 or 7 email accounts to the group and you only pay once for the service. My dad is the moneybags on our plan and my siblings are all in the group.

Its got the espns, fs-es, nbc sports, big10 and sec regional sports too if I remember right but not the PAC.

 

[Caleb]

Yeah, Youtube is by far the most superior service for sports, it feels like nearly every channel is a sports channel. As mentioned, it's still missing a few (especially when talking local or regional channels). Fubo.tv is a good alternative/supplement to Youtube TV.

 

[TRD270]

So my co-worker just enlightened me on the Fire Recast. He's in the middle of cutting the cord and ordered this discovering a useful feature. I haven't bothered with over the air stuff or a DVR because i've been entertained enough and trying to figure out how to get over the air signals to the various TVs without multiple antenna has been why I haven't purchased.

I didn't know this before but the recast can be put anywhere in your house (with wifi signal) and you just hook the antenna up to it and it sends the over the air channels to your other fire devices or tablets phone whatever. This includes live TV not just stuff recorded.

It is still a little expensive, but they have a bundle right now for the 2 tuner box, a 4k fire stick and an antenna for $250. Conveniently for me the room that has the best view of Farnsworth peak is also where my router is so I can just plug the recast straight into that, and I can just put the antenna up in the window and not have to wire an outside antenna like I was planning on.

The 4 tuner can record 4 channels and has 1 TB of storage but its $30 more and doesn't come with a fire stick or antenna. I have the older generation of fire stick so it will be a nice upgrade. I'll report back how it works.

 

[johngottfredson]

I just 'cut the cord' with hulu and netflix in January. No other cable or TV services. We have amazon prime if we need to watch some movies or tv shows, but are actively striving to just read more or do more together as a family. We only had hulu for the college football season anyway, we might do youtube tv this fall instead for football. All 4 kids under the age of 12, they're surviving just fine. Life is better being more unplugged.

 

[Herzog]

We got rid of netflix early last fall too. Too much weird shit in their new 'originals' and I just found that I didn't care to watch anything that was there anyways.

 

[Stephen]

I just 'cut the cord' with hulu and netflix in January. No other cable or TV services. We have amazon prime if we need to watch some movies or tv shows, but are actively striving to just read more or do more together as a family. We only had hulu for the college football season anyway, we might do youtube tv this fall instead for football. All 4 kids under the age of 12, they're surviving just fine. Life is better being more unplugged.

We got rid of netflix early last fall too. Too much weird shit in their new 'originals' and I just found that I didn't care to watch anything that was there anyways.

If I paid for Netflix, I wouldn't have it. I watch a show on there once in a blue moon. I have Amazon Prime for the shipping, so until they make Video separate, I guess I'll keep it. Other than that, its all about Plex, man! My little constellation of servers I connect to gets me anything and everything I want to watch.

 

[TRD270]

So fire recast arrived today, had just enough time to install it and play a bit before work.

So far works as advertised, scanned the air found 60 channels. Beams them to my other TV's. Crisp and clear so far. Also just discovered I can watch live TV on my phone away from my house. It is just hooked up to an antenna in my office not directly attached to any of my TV's just the home network.

I wish it was more inexpensive but a new 4k fire (which arrived dead btw) an antenna and the box for $249 isn't terrible. Not sure I'll use the DVR at all, so I could go for the same thing with out the DVR and cheaper price tag.

Not including prime. My TV bill is still only $1 a month so I'm okay with that

 

[Stephen]

Alright, so I managed to get my parents to cut the cord. But, theres a hitch; I have to find a way for my dad to be able to watch IndyCar, NASCAR, WRC and WEC reliably. For years I've been finding quality F1 torrents to put on my Plex (SkyF1 is really the only way to watch), but Indy and NASCAR are a bit harder to find. WRC you can get on RedBullTV and WEC, because of Alonso running in it, has started being pretty easy to find torrents for.
Looks like Hulu or fuboTV might get ESPN and NBCSN for a decent price? Anyone have any other ideas or suggestions?

 

[tv_larsen]

I use the PlaystationVue app on my FireTV. Most sports and local channels are on it.

 

[Stephen]

I sprung for SlingTV. I’m going to give it a shot for a month and see how it works. So far Indy and NASCAR have been good. F1 is on ESPN which doesn’t allow recording, which is stupid, but I can watch it live. What else am I going to be doing at 3am? Also, no WRC or WEC.
So, if Sling doesn’t work for F1 reliably, I may just end up buying all the different series TV passes for the year.

 

[lhracing]

I signed up for Directv Now and for the most part I like it, I just wish the menus were like Directv. I am going to give it a try before I cancel my Directv.