somdfunguy
not impressed
I've been this way for over a year but it has only been successful because I moved. I have a TiVo Roamio and a few Minis and they are great. We also have Amazon and Netflix. I can't imagine ever going back to a pay TV service.
somdfunguy
not impressed
Not me, we use it enough the price is fine.
Dakota
~~~~~~~
Titled, I believe that is for NEW customers, not current ones so you might want to double-check that because I think we have 1 year before being hit with the extra dollar a month.
somdfunguy
not impressed
My 2 screen HD plan price is $7.99 and guaranteed through May 2016. You can see what you rate is when you log in to your profile.
SamSpade
Well-Known Member
What is ONE TV?
glhs837
Power with Control
H
Hodr
Guest
These are good, but not without their issues. The big caveats to powerline adapters is that they come rated with the total physical layer bandwidth available for the system (so devide by the number of devices, then by two for bi-directional communications, then account for overhead etc.), which people confuse with the actual throughput you will receive when connected.
I actually had the exact adapters linked by Sam (coincidentally, connected to my Roku 3), and while they are "rated" for 500Mbit (per the AV2 standard), first and foremost they only have a FastEthernet adapter in them, so they can only connect up to 100mbit max, which is fine since Metrocast's fastest service is 75mbit I believe.
Second, you are incredibly unlikely to get connected at the higher rates, and actually stressing the connection will force it to negotiate to a lower rate. With both adapters connected to the same circuit in my home (so maybe 30 ft of romex cable with zero breaks between them) the highest negotiated rate I saw was 88mbit, but when running UDP throughput tests (iPerf), which is indicative of the type of data you would receive when streaming video, the negotiated rate dropped to the 50 something, and the effective rate to the upper 20s.
Again, this really isn't an issue as even the highest data-rate 4k video from Amazon Prime or Netflix is well below 20mbit (I believe Netflix's 1080P resolution floats from 6 to 8mbit).
And the third issue with powerline is that anything high powered on the same circuit (microwave, fridge/freezer, AC, etc.) will kill your connection when it kicks on.
Even with all of that, it should still be a much much better solution for streaming media than wireless.
For a cheaper and faster solution, if you have unused coax in your wall (which you might if you are a cord cutter) try a MOCA or DECA adapter. I bought this pair for $14 and have had a perfect 100mbit connection back to my network closet for my media devices in the living room. They are a bit bulkier, and I have found the power bricks draw about 2 watts when idle and 5 watts when in use.
http://www.amazon.com/DIRECTV-Broad...8&qid=1444747237&sr=1-2&keywords=directv+deca
H
Hodr
Guest
Something else to keep in mind for the people with wireless issues. Whether you use 802.11a/b/g/n or ac, you will likely be subject to slowdown based on the capabilities of your slowest device.
The issue being that virtually all wireless routers are only capable of operating on a single channel per radio at a time. So if you are using the 2.4ghz radio (For wireless b/g/n/ac) or the 5ghz radio (for a/g/n/ac) and you allow for backwards compatibility, if you have an old device that connects at a slower rate, your router will slow down (internally, not the reported connection speed) the other device so that it doesn't have to play tricks with caching and timing to keep two different speed devices synchronized on the same radio frequencies.
Yes, there are some really nice (very expensive) routers that will beam form, or contain multiple radios for each frequency and allow for asynchronous connections, but they aren't the ones most consumers buy or that are provided by the cable company.
The easy solution is to pick a single standard (802.11n might be your best bet right now), and hopefully all your devices will negotiate more or less the same speed connection. If you have a nicer router, maybe stick all your legacy devices (a/b/g/n) on the 2.4ghz radio, and your newer stuff (ac) on the 5ghz to make sure they never have an issue.
The issue being that virtually all wireless routers are only capable of operating on a single channel per radio at a time. So if you are using the 2.4ghz radio (For wireless b/g/n/ac) or the 5ghz radio (for a/g/n/ac) and you allow for backwards compatibility, if you have an old device that connects at a slower rate, your router will slow down (internally, not the reported connection speed) the other device so that it doesn't have to play tricks with caching and timing to keep two different speed devices synchronized on the same radio frequencies.
Yes, there are some really nice (very expensive) routers that will beam form, or contain multiple radios for each frequency and allow for asynchronous connections, but they aren't the ones most consumers buy or that are provided by the cable company.
The easy solution is to pick a single standard (802.11n might be your best bet right now), and hopefully all your devices will negotiate more or less the same speed connection. If you have a nicer router, maybe stick all your legacy devices (a/b/g/n) on the 2.4ghz radio, and your newer stuff (ac) on the 5ghz to make sure they never have an issue.
somdfunguy
not impressed
MoCa is great and very easy to implement.
Dakota
~~~~~~~
I'll bet it's one more TV than no TVs, and one less TV than two TVs.
Yep... we only have 1 box on 1 TV for Directv and it costs $85 a month which was the point I was trying to make.
glhs837
Power with Control
Wait, so is that two Rokus for $37? Or one Roku 2 for $37. And I cant see why you would buy that when a new ChromeCast will only set you back $35 all day long at Wally World? WE use a Roku stick upstairs, but only because the TV we bought came with it. Just being able to throw your Android phone content onto your TV makes that worth it to me. Not enough to go buy one, but if I didn't already have streaming through my PS3 I would go chromecast.
http://gizmodo.com/new-fire-tv-stick-vs-new-chromecast-vs-roku-stick-stre-1733805988
Last edited:
lucky_bee
RBF expert
While they have many similar features, Chromecast does not = Roku. 9.8x outta 10 I'm using the Roku stick bc it's less complicated for someone like me. No need to mess with streaming from my phone or iPad bc my accounts are already linked to my Roku.