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Author Topic: Cutting the cord options  (Read 3984 times)

Offline Hokerer

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #15 on: May 23, 2018, 07:23:27 pm »
Wow, I can't imagine that kind of bandwidth.  We're lucky to get 6 Mbps down and .6 up.  That's orders of magnitude better than any alternative we have available.

You can still do it.  We've got 3 Mbps down and .5 up and a Roku and it works fine.  Netflix and Amazon Prime (and the occasional PS Vue or Sling TV free trial for away football games).
Joe

Offline majorvices

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #16 on: May 23, 2018, 07:25:45 pm »
FYI I don't really consider Direct TV as "cutting the cord". You are still paying the same for the crap you don't want to watch only getting a different provider.

You "cut the cord" you choose what you want to watch and pay for that (mostly).

Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #17 on: May 23, 2018, 07:45:25 pm »
I have not watched commercials in about 8 months, except for what was in the breakfast room tv at a hotel I stayed at recently. It just seemed bizarre to me. Can't comprehend that I used to pay $100 a month MORE than I do now, to watch commercials.

It's been 18 months since I've watched any "news". Caught a few minutes of it at the hotel and it nearly sucked my soul out the top of my head. Unless walter cronkite is resurrected, I'm done with news for this lifetime
« Last Edit: May 23, 2018, 07:49:14 pm by klickitat jim »

Offline Robert

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #18 on: May 23, 2018, 07:56:15 pm »
I have not watched commercials in about 8 months, except for what was in the breakfast room tv at a hotel I stayed at recently. It just seemed bizarre to me. Can't comprehend that I used to pay $100 a month MORE than I do now, to watch commercials.

It's been 18 months since I've watched any "news". Caught a few minutes of it at the hotel and it nearly sucked my soul out the top of my head. Unless walter cronkite is resurrected, I'm done with news for this lifetime
Walter Cronkite is doing about 3600 rpm. 8)
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Offline MDixon

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #19 on: May 23, 2018, 08:02:02 pm »
FYI I don't really consider Direct TV as "cutting the cord". You are still paying the same for the crap you don't want to watch only getting a different provider.

You "cut the cord" you choose what you want to watch and pay for that (mostly).

Actually Direct TV Now is less than if we had to piece together all the networks and shows we regularly watch. I wish we only watched a handful of shows, but apparently some of the networks we watch are not available a la carte or those costs are somewhat expensive.
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Offline majorvices

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #20 on: May 24, 2018, 06:07:32 am »
Unless walter cronkite is resurrected, I'm done with news for this lifetime

TV news is all hyperbole. There are legitimate news sources out there however.

Offline klickitat jim

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #21 on: May 24, 2018, 06:14:51 am »
Unless walter cronkite is resurrected, I'm done with news for this lifetime

TV news is all hyperbole. There are legitimate news sources out there however.
The real world that I interact with in person is all the news I need.

Offline majorvices

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #22 on: May 24, 2018, 06:16:47 am »
Unless walter cronkite is resurrected, I'm done with news for this lifetime

TV news is all hyperbole. There are legitimate news sources out there however.
The real world that I interact with in person is all the news I need.

In the interest of staying out of a political discussion I will agree to disagree and leave it there. ;)

Offline Stevie

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #23 on: May 24, 2018, 08:36:06 am »
If I got news from people around me, I’d be no better off than Charlie Mackenzie

https://youtu.be/g5vnZec964c#t=1m49s

Offline denny

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #24 on: May 24, 2018, 09:13:20 am »
Wow, I can't imagine that kind of bandwidth.  We're lucky to get 6 Mbps down and .6 up.  That's orders of magnitude better than any alternative we have available.

You can still do it.  We've got 3 Mbps down and .5 up and a Roku and it works fine.  Netflix and Amazon Prime (and the occasional PS Vue or Sling TV free trial for away football games).

Yeah, streaming isn't a problem as long as the internet is functioning.  Which is maybe 70% of the time. 
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Offline Phil_M

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #25 on: May 24, 2018, 09:19:27 am »
I've found that cutting the cord isn't possible unless you're willing to give up some show availability.

For me, that's Baseball. Sure, MLB has an excellent streaming service, but I'm well in the O's blackout area. And our illustrious owner, Angelos, has such a nice cable deal that you only get O's games with premium cable/satellite subscriptions. I love watching the O's, but it's not worth upwards of $150 a month. (Especially during seasons like this one.)

The wife and I don't watch much TV, so we can make do with just Amazon and Netflix. I also subscribe to Motortrend On Demand, I get most of my motorsports through that. Still need to figure out how to stream NHRA races, I know they stream them but I just haven't figured out how to get it to the tv yet.

As for news, I find it's much easier to filter it in online formats. Everyone puts out so much extra crap on top of the little bits of information that actually matter it takes insane amounts of time to actually watch the news and get anything useful from it.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2018, 09:21:06 am by Phil_M »
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Offline Wilbur

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #26 on: May 24, 2018, 10:26:54 am »
It's getting easier to cut the cord, you can get thursday night football on Amazon prime now. The big issue is lack of competition, related to some bad actors trying to control the market and manipulate the rules (oddly similar to the beer industry). With the sheer quantity of content available now, I think most will find they don't miss shows. A lot of shows can be streamed on the networks website if you're willing to watch commercials. Your local library is also a great place to get shows and movies of you're willing to wait. They also have these great things called "books", which have a wonderful smell and great content.

Offline jimmykx250

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #27 on: May 24, 2018, 11:15:52 am »
I have not watched commercials in about 8 months, except for what was in the breakfast room tv at a hotel I stayed at recently. It just seemed bizarre to me. Can't comprehend that I used to pay $100 a month MORE than I do now, to watch commercials.

It's been 18 months since I've watched any "news". Caught a few minutes of it at the hotel and it nearly sucked my soul out the top of my head. Unless walter cronkite is resurrected, I'm done with news for this lifetime

I couldn't agree more!!
Jimmykx250

Offline Slowbrew

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #28 on: May 24, 2018, 11:30:41 am »
I sometime feel like we were one of the first cord-cutters.  Not really true but we dropped cable 10 or 12 years ago.  Switched from a "real" landline to Vonage 4 or 5 years before that.  And then we dropped Vonage now that all the kids have cell phones.

For TV we have an antenna, Netflix and Amazon Prime.  Oddly, when we had cable most of what we watched were cooking shows and Sci-Fi and that hasn't really changed.  The cooking shows come from PBS and the Sci-Fi comes through Comet. 

I used to be a news junky but it's so bad now I really don't care to take the time to try and watch it anymore.  How many times do I really need to hear the weather on any given day?  The last time I tried to watch the local morning news the format was 30 seconds of headlines, 30-90 seconds of weather, 15 seconds for a traffic report and 5 minutes of commercials.  Rinse repeat for, I think they said, two hours.  Exact same "news" each time and on top of that it was all reruns of the stories they showed on the 9-10 news the night before.  The major news magazines have all stopped publishing actual paper magazines and they web content, if you can find it amongst the ads is as bad as TV.

Now I brew, do woodworking, garden and have a couple of beers when I need something to do. 

Ahhh.  I feel better.  Thanks for the rant.   ;D

Cut the cord.  I think it's like what I've been told about retirement.  The first month you will worry about everything.  The second month you'll wonder why you waited so long to quit.

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Offline ethinson

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Re: Cutting the cord options
« Reply #29 on: May 25, 2018, 06:08:40 am »
I've found that cutting the cord isn't possible unless you're willing to give up some show availability.

For me, that's Baseball. Sure, MLB has an excellent streaming service, but I'm well in the O's blackout area. And our illustrious owner, Angelos, has such a nice cable deal that you only get O's games with premium cable/satellite subscriptions. I love watching the O's, but it's not worth upwards of $150 a month. (Especially during seasons like this one.)

The wife and I don't watch much TV, so we can make do with just Amazon and Netflix. I also subscribe to Motortrend On Demand, I get most of my motorsports through that. Still need to figure out how to stream NHRA races, I know they stream them but I just haven't figured out how to get it to the tv yet.

As for news, I find it's much easier to filter it in online formats. Everyone puts out so much extra crap on top of the little bits of information that actually matter it takes insane amounts of time to actually watch the news and get anything useful from it.

The Portland Trailblazers did that this year, they switched from having 10-15 games a year on the local NBC affiliate to every single game on Comcast Sports NW, which requires a cable package AND the add on sports package to get.  I'm a fan, but I'm not that committed.  I can go watch games at the bar rather than pay $200 a month.  For football we can get by with mostly local channels only, Mariners games I don't mind listening to on the radio honestly. 

When I first moved into my Portland apartment I had an FM antenna and got internet so I could have computer and netflix.  We got a free trial of Comcast's Prism TV and we liked it enough to pay for but now after two years we're on the brink of cancelling.   We have a Roku TV, so we can get Netflix, Amazon prime and we're debating some other subscription services like Hulu or Sling.  Even if we have 3 or 4 things that are all 10-20$ a month it's still cheaper than Prism.  I have a few shows I follow on Netflix and Amazon, my wife hardly watches TV at all except NFL football.

The hitch of course is still paying 75$ a month for the high speed internet to run all the streaming stuff.  But, that's still better than the internet and cable which will go up to like 180$ a month when our current deal ends..
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