PCS Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 Not me,but that sounds like it would be a great idea. May have to add that to my ever growing research list. So the Mrs. and I go out and start asking questions and gathering information. End of the evening,we have a smart tv and an amplified antenna. I set everything up and start experimenting. Come to find out that this t.v. uses a linux based system and of course,adobe flash isn't doing much in the support of the older and even newer linux system. In other words,can't watch certain channels,(like Amazon prime),without an adobe update and these t.v.'s won't take it. Grumble. May try a couple of the apps made for the tv by these sites,but looks like I maybe going the Roku route with a smart tv,(since most tv's these days are smart t.v.'s apparently). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinfan2k Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 does apple, roku and hulu have a vast package of international programming? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 To me it's hassle to watch online so if I can't just turn on my TV and watch i won't. I could watch raw online, I don't. Yeah but now you don't have to have intermediate steps to stream... These TV's have Iruku and Google Chrome built into them... Your TV hooks right up to your wifi or internet cable and sucks the content right off the internet.. All that's left for you to do is choose from which of the 1000 channels available on Iruku you want to watch... Or you can watch directly off your mobile devise / PC via Google Chrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 (edited) does apple, roku and hulu have a vast package of international programming? Roku has like 1000 channels.. hulu and Netflix are individual channels you can subscribe too on roku.. or Apple TV.. Apple TV has way fewer channels but allows you to buy content like HBO game of thrones, football games etc... ala cart... and watch them on your TV.. Seriously though how many channels on cable do you really watch? four out of 800 or something.. so saying Apple has fewer channels doesn't really rule Apple out.. I've found the thing I really love about Roku which I can't live without is the search feature.. Roku allows you to search for a movie or Show and it scans across all of it's channels to find it for you... Which is super convenient.. Where as with Apple it's more of a pain you have to descend into the specific channel and then initiate a search with a scope of just that channel. Google Chrome is a cross between both and is probable best used in conjunction with either Roku or Apple TV.. Google Chrome allows you to simulcast from your mobile device to your TV... So if you have a movie or Utube video, or Neflix or Hulu client handy on your ipad iphone, you could stream it directly to your PC. ... It's somewhat redundant but it's can be convenient and is very cool for the 35$ it costs.. Edited August 11, 2014 by JMS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMS Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 (edited) I had a Comcast guy come to the house a few weeks ago.. I wouldn't have given him the time of day but he outsmarted me... He didn't mention Comcast... he said he was with Xfinity. I hate Comcast with a passion which can ignite a white star. Problem is I also hate Verizon with a near equal passion... So when I heard their was a third player I was all ears... I went through my checklist... Is it Fiber... check... what's the band width... 100 meg up and download speeds great exceptional... Can I get it without TV or Phone.. check... Can I get it without a monthly plan at a reasonable rate... check... 50$ per month.. Only watching the installer I find out it's not fiber... it's just comcast copper which means that 100 meg is shared across several homes. Also turns out the 100 meg is a hypothetical high end and not the actual speed they deliver... Turns out they delivered 5 meg and after several weeks on tech support hold and endless calls I gave up... two weeks and I never broke 5 meg up or download. I went back to verizon fios.. I have 50 meg up and down but it costs twice as much at the Comcast / Xfinity service which they actually never had the ability to deliver. I still hate verizon, but Comcast/Xfinity makes them look like LL Bean or the old Hechinger's for customer service. Edited August 11, 2014 by JMS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dont Taze Me Bro Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 I'm not going to cut the cable cord completely. But after looking at our monthly satellite bill and my wife telling me she could be put on furlough soon, or worse, their office get closed down completely. I can scrap an HD package of channels (Hallmark and some other **** wife watches) that's $5/mo, drop the protection plan (that's never been used) for $8 and sadly, scrap my premium channels (HBO, Max, Showtime and Starz) and drop down to the package below it and save $48 more dollars per month for a total savings of $61/mo. I just worked out a deal where I save $40/mo on my pay channels for 3 months, then another discount of $10 off my base package and sports package ($20/mo for 6 months) to cancel out the NFL Sunday Ticket. So, in three months, I'm scrapping and scaling back. I'm gonna ****ing hate it cause, "My name is Taze. And I'm a TV-aholic." Wife made a good point a long time ago, with all the shows going to Netflix or Amazon (and we have both) 2-3 months after they air on the pay channels, its not like I can't watch them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gortiz Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 cut the cord about 3-4 months ago and it's been pretty great, but with the Skins coming up, gonna fire it up again. I loved listening to the Wiz and Nats on the radio, so much fun. Bought an attenna and could get 3-4 channels, TV is in the basement. Besides that been doing Netflix and Plex ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCS Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 So here we are,prepping for no DTV when a bill from them came in the mail. Yep. After the Mrs. spends I don't know how long talking to customer service and retention about discontinuing the whole service,they promptly charge us for another month and the NFL ticket. Sigh. More time on the phone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No_Pressure Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 I'm 26 and I grew up in a household where we didn't have cable TV. There was broadcast, sure and we watched some shows here and there, but the television was not really the center of entertainment in our household in the way that I noticed it was with, say, my friends at school. My dad always saw it as an unnecessary expense. He always said "you're paying for commercials and 90% of the channels are special interest things you probably don't have much of an interest in." I still agree with that sentiment, and television has always been the sort of thing I could take or leave. It isn't where I derive much entertainment. Even when we were kids we usually just watched the news, maybe watched the simpsons (if my mom let us, she hated the show) maybe some saturday morning cartoons, and a movie here or there. My wife's family however always had cable and they have always watched what I consider to be far too much television. They will sit around for hours watching shows, catching up on other shows they recorded, etc. I think it's all a bit odd and unhealthy. Not to say that I have the healthiest of entertainment habits. Sure I work out, like to go play basketball, etc. but I also have played a great deal of PC games in my lifetime. The thing is, those games are social and interactive. I'm actually doing something far beyond mindlessly watching something. That's my justification for why my vice is better at least, and even with age and responsibilities my video game hours have gone from insane to barely anything at all. When we got our house I had to battle my wife over cable. It's so ****ing expensive! She was freaking out saying she couldn't live without it, and what was she going to do. I compromised. We had an internet connection because it's an absolute necessity for my work (plus videogames I mean c'mon...) and that was expensive enough, she could just get a netflix subscription and stream shows on the TV. She found this to be acceptable, and so we've avoided the cable bill by going for streaming netflix. When there is something current that she wants to watch, she goes to her parent's house and watches it with her mom (with whom she would rather watch shows anyway because I constantly critique the quality of programming) and we save money. I don't think the high price of tv is justified. Comcast and Verizon try to keep it at a high point by controlling channel packages and adding technology which is largely unappealing to me at least. I already pay far more than I should for cell phones with a data plan (which I wouldn't use if I didn't need it for work), and I don't want to bump the total payment to Verizon up to essentially a car payment...a NICE car payment just so my wife can sit on the couch with dead eyes and stare at reality TV shows. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praise_gibbs Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Ok, so I am using my Vizio Co-star on my bedroom TV (42" LG) and I stream Showbox (looks to be similar to Time4Popcorn, only it's strictly an android app) and I get my movie fix. I need to get a wifi extender to get my Netflix working, I think, because it just will not load on this Co-Star. I think my signal is not strong enough so I want to hardwire it to cut out any lag, so to speak. As soon as the WWE Network is available for all devices, I am set for my bedroom. I am using my Xbox 360 to stream Netflix and the WWE Network on my living room TV (65" Mitsubishi). My next step, will be to get a Tuner (possibly the HDHomerun) to use my PC as a media center. I have XBMC installed but, it's not worth it for me to use just yet without the Tuner and repositories. So, until then, I am using a software called Plex. So any movie format can play from my computer to any bluray, XBox, or my Vizio Co-Star, effortlessly. I am gonna go the antenna route to get the basic channels (approx 13 channels) and for my football fix and Monday Night Raw, I am gonna figure out the XBMC for live TV. I feel like I am close to cutting out cable. If it were just me in this house I would be fine with cutting it now and streaming sports and WWE on various websites if needed. But, wifey needs to be able to watch TV with ease and not with a little work around. I'll get her on my side soon enough lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praise_gibbs Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Searching Youtube about XBMC and I found out that I do not need a Tuner if I am using the software from my PC. I found this guy by accident and not only do I have XBMC up and running and watching Live TV, he is absolutely hilarious! Take a look if you want to watch Live TV from your PC or laptop (which could then be connected to your TV)... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZuZ4D4WGmyCLlWkgXvqqEg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinsfan1311 Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 (edited) ...and, on the other side of the coin... ...cutting the cord is too much time and effort for me. I work long hours, and don't have the time, or patience, to do much more than hit the power button on a remote. My sister "cut the cable cord" and tells everyone that it's "just as good" as her Verizon FIOS was. She still has Verizon as her internet provider. Verizon is our provider. We have the Triple Play, (Phone, FIOS, Internet) We have 3 TV's, 1 HD DVR, 1 HD STB, 1 STB, 50/25 Internet and all of the movie packages. It's pricey, $208.00 per month. I don't want to use different remotes. I don't want to hook up more devices. I don't want to have to buy new TV's, that have the aforementioned devices built in. I don't want to stream anything. I don't want to fiddle around with the wireless, subscribe to different services, download apps, (or anything for that matter) I don't want an antenna. I don't want a dish jutting out of the side of our house. I don't want to "make a point" about not giving the big, evil cable company my hard-earned money. I don't want to watch on a mobile device, laptop, or PC. I want to park my fat ass on the couch, pick up the remote, hit the power button, and watch TV The savings some you are realizing seem pretty substantial. I'm the cheapest **** on ES and, admittedly, our monthly cost is high, but it's worth it to us. Edited August 15, 2014 by Skinsfan1311 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOF44 Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 ...and, on the other side of the coin... You could have just said "get of my lawn" you whippersnappers with your savings$$$ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corcaigh Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 You could have just said "get of my lawn" you whippersnappers with your savings$$$ I take the same view on those new-fangled horseless-carriages. Apparently you have to put gasoline in them as often as weekly. Who wants to do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinsfan1311 Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 You could have just said "get of my lawn" you whippersnappers with your savings$$$\ "Yeah!..and take those newfangled electrical thingies with you!!" I take the same view on those new-fangled horseless-carriages. Apparently you have to put gasoline in them as often as weekly. Who wants to do that? What is this "gasoline" thing that you speak of?? Some type of new feed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elessar78 Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 People choose areas based on school districts. Do you think there will be a movement toward picking housing based on the ISP (assuming you can't get into a competitive area) availability? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elessar78 Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 ...and, on the other side of the coin... ...cutting the cord is too much time and effort for me. I work long hours, and don't have the time, or patience, to do much more than hit the power button on a remote. My sister "cut the cable cord" and tells everyone that it's "just as good" as her Verizon FIOS was. She still has Verizon as her internet provider. Verizon is our provider. We have the Triple Play, (Phone, FIOS, Internet) We have 3 TV's, 1 HD DVR, 1 HD STB, 1 STB, 50/25 Internet and all of the movie packages. It's pricey, $208.00 per month. I don't want to use different remotes. I don't want to hook up more devices. I don't want to have to buy new TV's, that have the aforementioned devices built in. I don't want to stream anything. I don't want to fiddle around with the wireless, subscribe to different services, download apps, (or anything for that matter) I don't want an antenna. I don't want a dish jutting out of the side of our house. I don't want to "make a point" about not giving the big, evil cable company my hard-earned money. I don't want to watch on a mobile device, laptop, or PC. I want to park my fat ass on the couch, pick up the remote, hit the power button, and watch TV The savings some you are realizing seem pretty substantial. I'm the cheapest **** on ES and, admittedly, our monthly cost is high, but it's worth it to us. That's certailny your prerogative and you certainly feel like you get your money's worth from it. I felt differently, not to make a point, just that there was not enough I enjoyed watching on cable to make me stay. I would probably watch 4 hours a week on cable. I worked in marketing for a cable ISP and our line was that $5/day for entertainment (cable tv+internet) is pretty hard to beat but I looked at it like $10 per show based on my watching habits. Still not bad, but now I get it for $1.60 a day. Just as happy. But people were getting tired of rate hikes and reality programming. Basically subscribers stuck around for sports, which in turn drove the rate hikes (Olympics contract, NFL contracts, Fox Sports contracts) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcsluggo Posted August 16, 2014 Share Posted August 16, 2014 Searching Youtube about XBMC and I found out that I do not need a Tuner if I am using the software from my PC. I found this guy by accident and not only do I have XBMC up and running and watching Live TV, he is absolutely hilarious! Take a look if you want to watch Live TV from your PC or laptop (which could then be connected to your TV)... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZuZ4D4WGmyCLlWkgXvqqEg actually the guy is a f**king annoying idiot. i HATE the trend towards youtube for this sort of thing.... instead of a two paragraph "here is what you do".. i have to slog through 10 minutes of this booger eating moron droning on and on about whatever flashes through his semiretarded synapses... i couldn't take it i have had XBMC for years, but i have a hard time streaming it to my tv from my ancient computer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ixcuincle Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 (edited) Got to love football season without cable. I can't even watch NBC 4 clearly and it's lightly raining out Being blacked out from Redskins games even though you live DIRECTLY in the area, about 15 minutes away...just pathetic For any fans of football I'd strongly recommend not cutting the cord. You can't even get a strong signal here. Edited August 23, 2014 by ixcuincle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve09ru Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Does anyone know the difference between Hi-V and UHF for antenna? May be losing nbc with directv in richmond so have been messing with homemade antenna. I'm able to get fox, cbs, abc, cw and a couple others with just a coax with the end cut off and aluminum foil (added metal hanger and thought that may increase signal to pull in others) but am at a loss on nbc right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PCS Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Dayum. Well we have the Roku 3 and the smart tv. Have the antennae as well. Will see how this all works as soon as I can get the boys leave their second bedroom. Otherwise known as the living room. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinsfan1311 Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Here's a great article, on cutting the cable cord, from USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/08/24/for-millions-of-cord-cutters-cable-tv-fades-to-black/14513495/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tulane Skins Fan Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 Can anyone help me out on this stuff? I'm pretty fed up with verizon fios. Here's the basic questions I have about what I want to watch: 1. How do you watch local sports. I got the 'skins no problem. Nats games? Wiz? Caps? 2. Can you get things like HBO or Showtime without a cable subscription? 3. Does something like Hulu really cover pretty much every channel you'd get with basic cable? I'm thinking of my wife, things like HGTV. I can't find Hulu's lineup on its website, which I find strange. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ixcuincle Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 You can't without cable. You listen like me. You must have cable for hbo No hulu doesn't Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springfield Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 2. If you have a "friend" with a login then it's possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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