Dumping Cable for Streaming

[fishnowworknever]

Haven't received a letter yet, once I get the first one I will and I've been doing this since the Napster days.

There are also sites out there that will download them for you, then you download from that page. 

I'm not sharing anything, download a few times here and there...maybe 3-4 x's a month.

The VPN business is doing great but the fear that you're going to get arrested for downloading a little content is a little overblown.  Heavy users, of course you're going to stick out, but if you're staying under your usage amount and not seeding/sharing, you'll be fine.

Edited April 7, 2016 by fishnowworknever

[eyeguy 54]

I gotta have FOX news. i wish the streaming deal had it.

 

[delcecchi]

12 minutes ago, fishnowworknever said:

Haven't received a letter yet, once I get the first one I will and I've been doing this since the Napster days.

There are also sites out there that will download them for you, then you download from that page. 

I'm not sharing anything, download a few times here and there...maybe 3-4 x's a month.

The VPN business is doing great but the fear that you're going to get arrested for downloading a little content is a little overblown.  Heavy users, of course you're going to stick out, but if you're staying under your usage amount and not seeding/sharing, you'll be fine.

Not arrested, sued.  And generally the ISP's have been ignoring the letters from the copyright trolls.  But if you are using torrents, you are both uploading and downloading simultaneously.  

Movies and TV, expecially movies, seem to be the most sensitive.   Then music.  

[fishnowworknever]

With the torrent app I use, I'm able to disable uploads so even as I'm nearing a download I have 0 uploads going.  Once that download completes it shuts down automatically.  

I know it's frowned upon by many, but in reality when I go pay to watch a movie in the theaters, or rent one I should be able to have a copy of said movie at home.  Since that doesn't happen, I take matters into my own hands... whether or not I watched it in a theater.

[brian6715]

I think fishnowworknever is probably safe, almost all of my friends torrent things daily and no one has even gotten a letter or sued yet. Torrents have millions upon millions of users, that would be a lot of lawsuits. For example, look up how many times Game of Thrones has been downloaded...

[fishnowworknever]

I'm not too worried, I'm in IT and pretty well versed in what's going on.  However to be 99% sure you're safe, delecchi is right and you should at the very least be using a VPN.

[delcecchi]

And if you want to stream live TV, looks like sling.com will do everything but foxnews.   Even has ESPN and ESPN2 and CNN. 

 

[fishnowworknever]

20 minutes ago, delcecchi said:

And if you want to stream live TV, looks like sling.com will do everything but foxnews.   Even has ESPN and ESPN2 and CNN. 

 

And to add to that, Playstation VUE I heard is pretty well worth it.  I'm thinking of signing up just for the NHL playoffs.

[delcecchi]

That looks like a really good package.  Has Fox News also.   What do you need to get it?  A Playstation I presume, but any other subscription or anything? 

[jbell1981]

Quote

Users can access PlayStation Vue through PS4, PS3, Amazon Fire TV, and Fire TV Stick, as well as iPad and iPhone through the PlayStation Vue mobile app. Google Chromecast is also supported via compatible iOS devices.

 

37 minutes ago, delcecchi said:

And if you want to stream live TV, looks like sling.com will do everything but foxnews.   Even has ESPN and ESPN2 and CNN. 

 

I was not aware of sling.com. Looks like something I might have to try. 

Here is a good page that compares sling.com to playstation vue. 

http://www.cnet.com/news/playstation-vue-vs-sling-tv-streaming-live-tv-compared/

[delcecchi]

Playstation vue, all those devices I don't have.  Have Roku, chromecast, windows pc, android tablet.   I guess I could add a firestick... 

[brian6715]

I almost got a sling box but the most current reviews talk of it being bombarded with ads and being extremely laggy to the point of people throwing it away. Not saying they are all bad, I am not an expert. but at least do a little research before you purchase so you don't get into a bad situation

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Other experience I have had in the past, when you threaten to cancel and your cable provider will actually let you without a new promo.  Streaming is a good in between for a month or two rather than getting into another contract because if you do actually cancel and they don't try and keep you with a promo price.  You will almost certainly get a new promo in the next month or so after you cancel.  I made the mistake of already being contracted with dish, but turned out to be a great experience with them so not all bad.

 

[jbell1981]

12 minutes ago, brian6715 said:

I almost got a sling box but the most current reviews talk of it being bombarded with ads and being extremely laggy to the point of people throwing it away. Not saying they are all bad, I am not an expert. but at least do a little research before you purchase so you don't get into a bad situation

Sling Box and Sling TV are different things. 

1 minute ago, Moon Lake Refuge said:

Other experience I have had in the past, when you threaten to cancel and your cable provider will actually let you without a new promo.  Streaming is a good in between for a month or two rather than getting into another contract because if you do actually cancel and they don't try and keep you with a promo price.  You will almost certainly get a new promo in the next month or so after you cancel.  I made the mistake of already being contracted with dish, but turned out to be a great experience with them so not all bad.

 

I called the cable company last week and let them know I was planning on cancelling but wanted to know if they had any promotions or cheaper packages that could sway me to stay. The only thing I could do according to that person was go down 1 tier and save $12/month. 

When I called Monday to actually cancel they told me I am all of the sudden eligible for a new promotion that could save me $40/month. I told her that I wasn't interested in staying now but if they would have offered it to me when I called the week before I may have been. She gave some story saying that the other person must not have seen what I was eligible for. She then said since they screwed up she would give me $50 off per month. I still said no cause I am fed up with them and it still would have been $150/mo. but its funny how their tune changes when you actually are canceling versus just threatening to cancel. 

[SkunkedAgain]

I got rid of DirecTV a few years ago. Throwing the satellite dish off of the roof was cathartic. I hooked up a digital antennae that I bought online for about $60 - it mounted right to the old DTV base on my roof. It worked great and used the same co-ax that was running DTV to my different rooms. I got impeccable reception. Eventually we tried Netflix, but we just don't watch enough television to justify that....just sports. We thought that we would be more productive without DTV but the reality is that we still sat on the couch the same amount of time, we just watched crappier shows/movies.

Football is our favorite sport so we could at least watch most things. This past fall, we finally got SlingTV. It's a great idea for $20/month. You get ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, and a bunch of other stuff. The problem was that even with 40MB internet speed here in the Cities, we had major problems. Most channels came in well except for ESPN and ESPN2. They would freeze or just have black screens. I could switch to other channels such as TBS and they would work fine. Back to ESPN or ESPN2 and still a black screen. About mid-October I was up watching the end of Monday Night Football. There was a minute left and may be it was Arizona set for a potential game winning drive with a little over a minute left. Right then ESPN froze. About five minutes later it snaps back and SportsCenter is on talking about the incredible ending.

The next day I was on the phone with DirecTV ordering service again. That said, it's more because the Gophers raised their ticket prices so that it's far cheaper for me to just have the Big Ten Network on DTV versus two season tickets. Either way, Sling Box has a lot of stuff that they need to fix before becoming viable for sports fans. At one point I remember asking my wife if she would feel comfortable inviting friends over to watch "the big game" (whatever that may be) on Sling and we both said 'not a chance.' It would freeze or go black.

Summary:  If you watch lots of tv shows, don't care about most sports, and can wait a year until things become available then cut the cord. If you want to watch that stuff - keep what you've got.

[delcecchi]

Yep, live sports is the big obstacle.  Especially live local sports. 

[nofishfisherman]

Local spots hasn't been as much of an issue the last 5 years or so with the Twins and T-wolves being terrible and borderline unwatchable.  If either of those teams come around and realize they are actually supposed to be a professional team then it makes the decision to cut the cord a little harder.  

I've been without cable for at least 5-6 years now so I don't see myself going back at this point.  The only way I add more entertainment options is if I can purchase just the 2-3 channels I want. 

[Big Dave2]

I looked into Sling a while ago but I don't like the fact that only one TV can watch it at a time.

[SkunkedAgain]

SlingTV is a great concept that is poorly executed. 

[delcecchi]

Several of the streaming services are one (or for netflix, two) tv's at a time.   After all, if you could have 6 tvs, it turns into a "split it with your buddies" thing and costs them revenue. 

Cable company charges for every box.  

[jbell1981]

55 minutes ago, delcecchi said:

Several of the streaming services are one (or for netflix, two) tv's at a time.   After all, if you could have 6 tvs, it turns into a "split it with your buddies" thing and costs them revenue. 

Cable company charges for every box.  

Netflix you can pay a couple extra bucks for 4 devices at a time. We have 6 users in our house and sometimes several are watching something different at the same time. We haven't had a problem with Hulu yet and have run it on at least 2 devices at a time but I don't know what there limit is or if they offer an increase. I don't think we have tried to run amazon on more than one device at a time yet so I don't know about that one. 

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Nobody here has mentioned what they are doing for a DVR.

We have a few shows we watch and need to record them.

[MN Mike]

I use a Tivo Roamio for OTA DVR recording, this device also comes with Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube and much more.

The Tivo DVR subscription runs $15 per month.

 

Mike

Edited May 1, 2016 by MN Mike

[delcecchi]

3 hours ago, Wish-I-Were-Fishn said:

Nobody here has mentioned what they are doing for a DVR.

We have a few shows we watch and need to record them.

Many shows, even OTA shows, can be streamed on demand so you might not need to DVR them.   Sports, as usual, being an exception.

[rundrave]

I have to say I thought I would regret my decision to dump cable. Mainly because I would no longer be able to watch the Twins but it turns out its been pretty easy so far lol

Has anyone tried to watch FSN on Fox Sports go app? If I dont sign in with someone elses account I can see the games to watch. But if I sign in using an account from someone else it goes away? Is it possible that its blacked out due to the location/provider I am borrowing?