Many cutting the cord on cable/satellite

[ArkRescue]

After talking to DTV, they say I get $10 off the Verizon service regular charge if I bundle through them for my Verizon services - $10 Hmmmm, so now I'm not sure if I'd really gain anything by switching. Verizon jacks your rates up whether you like it or not and if you call to inquire that there is an error, then they say they will fix it then they don't, and if you keep calling back over and over and get an attitude, they will put you on hold until you hang up and still never fix your bill. Been there done that, so I wish I could get away from Verizon all together but they and Cable are the only options for high speed internet where I live. Lesson? Never get an attitude with Verizon for not fixing your bill. They will code your account so everytime you call you get put on hold and no one comes back or you are accidentally disconnected ......

 

[Dakota]

Ark, I am also asking myself how important TV is to us.

Right now I'm a cable shaver. That term is used when somebody cuts thier cable/sat. service to the bare bones and to 1 room. I do have HBOGO because the men in our house love having that. Since they are going a la carte next year, we won't have to have a cable subscription to get it.

With our OTA antenna, we were able to pick up 4, 5, 7, 9, 14, 20, 22, 26, 30, 32, 33, 50, 66 and all the sub channels in between. I cannot complain because ours is in our attic. My husband didn't want rain or wind to touch our antenna and we both know that putting it on the roof would pick up many more stations.... but we got what we wanted. This also enabled me to return Directv's $6.00 a month box (per room) back to them and still have access to channels.

Channel 14.4 is like ID investigate with crime show programming. That I enjoy.
Channel 9.3 is all day radar like the Weather Channel. That comes in handy.

When comparred to the local channels in my directv package, I see the only 2 I am not getting are channel 8 and 47 (Unimas) but I don't care.

Since my computer is along the same wall as our TV, recording live TV is simple using media player.

Out of the 250 channels provided, we came down to 29 that we may or may not want after crossing out locals, music, Spanish, religious and shopping channels. When we narrowed that list down even further, we found we really like maybe 12 of them but would be happy to just have 6 of them. Can we live without them? Yep... I found fox news online, have my PC connected to my TV, so it is easy peasy to stream it over there without losing my computer and I am just not sure we can live without that channel. Sometimes I like all day news. :shrug:

And for some reason, our surround sound system is allowing us to stream local NHL games with center ice, which should be subjected to blackout rules. I am thinking it was programmed in another country and cannot detect our location or something because I cannot see these games on my computer or roku box which are all on the same network.

Even with all that, cutting the cord, even a shaved cord, is hard to finally do but since I'm under contract, I have time to re-evaluate that decision in late Spring.

 

[Tilted]

Dish Network's new over-the-top television service, Sling TV, is apparently up and running as of yesterday. It's them dipping their toes into the over-the-top content delivery market, offering more options to customers than the traditional cable / satellite bundles do. For $20 a month you get a limited number of channels - currently including ESPN, TNT, TBS, HGTV, CN, Disney and the Food Channel, among others - with the ability to watch shows whenever you want on a variety of different devices. So, you can stream shows, e.g., on a computer or tablet or smartphone or through Roku. You don't need one of Dish's own boxes. On the good side the service is contract free, you can turn it on or off as needed. On the bad side, it appears that you only get one stream at a time (someone can correct me if that's not correct).

They also offer other mini-packages for $5/month. I imagine the available channels will expand over time.

I know some people who are close to cutting the cord, so to speak, but haven't done so yet primarily because of sports programming. This service may make it easier for them to decide to do so.

Dish Network Rolls Out Sling TV, Reaches Deal With AMC

 

[lucky_bee]

Dish Network's new over-the-top television service, Sling TV, is apparently up and running as of yesterday. It's them dipping their toes into the over-the-top content delivery market, offering more options to customers than the traditional cable / satellite bundles do. For $20 a month you get a limited number of channels - currently including ESPN, TNT, TBS, HGTV, CN, Disney and the Food Channel, among others - with the ability to watch shows whenever you want on a variety of different devices. So, you can stream shows, e.g., on a computer or tablet or smartphone or through Roku. You don't need one of Dish's own boxes. On the good side the service is contract free, you can turn it on or off as needed. On the bad side, it appears that you only get one stream at a time (someone can correct me if that's not correct).

They also offer other mini-packages for $5/month. I imagine the available channels will expand over time.

I know some people who are close to cutting the cord, so to speak, but haven't done so yet primarily because of sports programming. This service may make it easier for them to decide to do so.

Dish Network Rolls Out Sling TV, Reaches Deal With AMC

I've been following this. I'm curious to how well it works. I only have one TV in the house so I'm not concerned about streaming more than one at a time. But I've been living off of my Roku for now with a Netflix account and use of friend's cable provider info to watch certain shows on certain network's apps like ABC. Unfortunately HGTV and Food Network are extremely limited on what shows you can watch on their apps, so this caught my eye. I'm definitely sure I don't want an actual cable package...my only option in my unit is Metrocast, plus now that I've cut the cord I'm totally fine without. But for $20 to have access to two of the only channels I actually miss and watched frequently? I'm definitely interested. I kind of want to wait and hear some reviews first though, before starting.

 

[Tilted]

I've been following this. I'm curious to how well it works. I only have one TV in the house so I'm not concerned about streaming more than one at a time. But I've been living off of my Roku for now with a Netflix account and use of friend's cable provider info to watch certain shows on certain network's apps like ABC. Unfortunately HGTV and Food Network are extremely limited on what shows you can watch on their apps, so this caught my eye. I'm definitely sure I don't want an actual cable package...my only option in my unit is Metrocast, plus now that I've cut the cord I'm totally fine without. But for $20 to have access to two of the only channels I actually miss and watched frequently? I'm definitely interested. I kind of want to wait and hear some reviews first though, before starting.

They're offering a 7-day free trial, so you should be able to try it and figure out if it suits your needs before spending money. You'll have to set up an account of course, but I suspect it's pretty easy to do. And they may require a credit card which would be charged if you don't cancel within the 7 days.

https://www.sling.com

 

[lucky_bee]

They're offering a 7-day free trial, so you should be able to try it and figure out if it suits your needs before spending money. You'll have to set up an account of course, but I suspect it's pretty easy to do. And they may require a credit card which would be charged if you don't cancel within the 7 days.

https://www.sling.com

Thanks! I'll look into signing up for a free trial asap!

 

[merc669]

I signed up for Sling Tv and got my invite 2 weeks ago. Nice to have Live News along with ESPN 1and 2. TBS, TNT, HGTV, Food, Disney and ABC Family along with Cartoon network to start. This weekend they added two more. El Rey (B Rated Drive In Movies) and the maker channel. Not sure of what to make of the Maker Channel yet. AMC supposedly this week maybe and thats to be followed by the other AMC Channels, BBC America, BBC World News, IFC, Sundance TV, and We TV. AMC will be in the 20 dollar package. Not sure if they will charge another 5 for the rest. But quite happy and no issues with streaming them (i.e. pixels, buffering, etc). So far the spouse who pays the bills is quite pleased. Along with that, we have Netflix, Hulu+, Amazon and the free CBS Channels (news and tape delayed or short clips). Music channels like shoutcast and Pandora round out the rest. Ala Carte is nice and I wish cable companies along with the sat folks would take the hint.

 

[Tilted]

I signed up for Sling Tv and got my invite 2 weeks ago. Nice to have Live News along with ESPN 1and 2. TBS, TNT, HGTV, Food, Disney and ABC Family along with Cartoon network to start. This weekend they added two more. El Rey (B Rated Drive In Movies) and the maker channel. Not sure of what to make of the Maker Channel yet. AMC supposedly this week maybe and thats to be followed by the other AMC Channels, BBC America, BBC World News, IFC, Sundance TV, and We TV. AMC will be in the 20 dollar package. Not sure if they will charge another 5 for the rest. But quite happy and no issues with streaming them (i.e. pixels, buffering, etc). So far the spouse who pays the bills is quite pleased. Along with that, we have Netflix, Hulu+, Amazon and the free CBS Channels (news and tape delayed or short clips). Music channels like shoutcast and Pandora round out the rest. Ala Carte is nice and I wish cable companies along with the sat folks would take the hint.

It's been slow getting to this - more content delivery options, de-bundling, over-the-top delivery, a la carte pricing, etcetera. The bundlers (cable and satellite service providers) have thought it in their interests to resist the push as much as possible, and they've made it difficult for content creators (and other providers) to move us in this direction quicker. The likes of Google and Amazon and Netflix and Apple and HBO and Roku have been trying to get us there for a while, and I think we're close to completely breaking through. Every step along the way puts more pressure on the bundlers, and Dish's move with Sling TV should help even more so to force the hand of the others. At some point they're all gonna have to go along with the content delivery revolution or risk getting left out in the cold with nothing but a dying business model.

Anyway... can you confirm that the basic Sling TV package allows only one stream at a time?

 

[Tilted]

Thanks! I'll look into signing up for a free trial asap!

You're welcome. Let us know what you think, if you don't mind.

 

[merc669]

Had the wife just now try it out. She went to one TV and put on CNN and then went to Living room and put on TBS. When she back to the bedroom there was a message saying your stream has been cutoff due to another device being used. So I would say yes, only good for one TV or device. But since its just wife and me, no big deal. And if I want to watch a B-Ball game she can always watch netflix or one of the other channels in the bedroom. We have 2 Roku3 and a spare Roku XP or Roku2

 

[lucky_bee]

You're welcome. Let us know what you think, if you don't mind.

Won't get a chance to enjoy it until next week, going out of town this weekend so I'll sign up next weekend. Hopefully there's not expiration on that 7-day free trial. I checked out the website...didn't seem to be.

Had the wife just now try it out. She went to one TV and put on CNN and then went to Living room and put on TBS. When she back to the bedroom there was a message saying your stream has been cutoff due to another device being used. So I would say yes, only good for one TV or device. But since its just wife and me, no big deal. And if I want to watch a B-Ball game she can always watch netflix or one of the other channels in the bedroom. We have 2 Roku3 and a spare Roku XP or Roku2

I forsee them offering the option to stream more than one at a time for an extra $5-10 in the future. But for now, one at a time works for me.

 

[Tilted]

Had the wife just now try it out. She went to one TV and put on CNN and then went to Living room and put on TBS. When she back to the bedroom there was a message saying your stream has been cutoff due to another device being used. So I would say yes, only good for one TV or device. But since its just wife and me, no big deal. And if I want to watch a B-Ball game she can always watch netflix or one of the other channels in the bedroom. We have 2 Roku3 and a spare Roku XP or Roku2

Thank you.

 

[sockgirl77]

$11 for Netflix, no satellite, and no cable TV. And soooooooooooo happy!

 

[Dakota]

I'm curious.... with slingtv, can you view episodes that have already aired or is it only live TV?

 

[merc669]

I'm curious.... with slingtv, can you view episodes that have already aired or is it only live TV?

Only Live or current episodes. Netflix and Hulu have prior episodes for a lot of the past and prior seasons.

 

[sockgirl77]

Only Live or current episodes. Netflix and Hulu have prior episodes for a lot of the past and prior seasons.

I considered Sling, but I'd rather save the money. There's just nothing on TV that I feel the need to watch anymore. I love Netflix. I love watching the old episodes of shows. I've been on a Criminal Minds kick. I didn't start watching it until 2 years ago. They have all of the older episodes on Netflix. I started with 2005 and am 9 episodes in.

 

[merc669]

I considered Sling, but I'd rather save the money. There's just nothing on TV that I feel the need to watch anymore. I love Netflix. I love watching the old episodes of shows. I've been on a Criminal Minds kick. I didn't start watching it until 2 years ago. They have all of the older episodes on Netflix. I started with 2005 and am 9 episodes in.

Agree 100% with above except Sling. Nothing new worth watching. And what is on comes on so late for us that we just do not watch it. Spouse has been burning thru Grey's Anatomy, LOST and a couple of shows she wanted to watch but came on too late. I am waiting for the next season of Marco Polo. Burned thru them in about 4 weeks and that was trying to extend them out.....

 

[Misfit]

I've not found a current show or sporting event that I couldn't find a stream for. :shrug:

 

[sockgirl77]

I've not found a current show or sporting event that I couldn't find a stream for. :shrug:

I can watch games online. I haven't searched for current shows. There's just not one show that I absolutely have to watch anymore. I love my CSIs and such, but can catch the old episodes and be just fine. I do miss the ID channel but watch it at my fiancé's house.

 

[Misfit]

I can watch games online. I haven't searched for current shows. There's just not one show that I absolutely have to watch anymore. I love my CSIs and such, but can catch the old episodes and be just fine. I do miss the ID channel but watch it at my fiancé's house.

I have Netflix too. You can't go wrong with that for the $.