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Cutting the Cord (Ditching TV, not having a baby)

Channels that we would watch frequently: HGTV, DIY, A&E, NFL Network/Redzone, Fox Sports Carolina's/Southeast

Less frequently: beIN, Fox College Sports,History, Travel

But it has abc, fox,NBC, CBS built in so I don't have to switch back and forth to antenna (with no guide and no DVR).

Hoping they add some of the missing ones in the future.
 
How’s the picture when watching live sports? Is it like WatchESPN where you get a lot of pixilation during fast movement?
 
I have found sports to be great so far. I think they have a handful of channels that are broadcasting in 1080/60fps which is not bad for live streaming. I think I saw a list somewhere on Reddit with which channels specifically.


In my experience YT TV is much better than watchespn picture wise.
 
For those who subscribe to T-Mobile, MLB.tv is free for the year via the T-Mobile Tuesday’s app today.
 
What channels does youtube TV not have that you wish that it did?

It doesn't have DIY or HGTV which I would watch on occasion. It also doesn't have Travel or Food which I watched before but haven't missed. I do like having the networks with the digital DVR. It has a Smithsonian channel that I've watched a fair amount of over the last few weeks. Also, sports are in excellent quality. I don't notice any blur or anything. It looks just like I was watching it on cable.

Honestly, between streaming, Netflix, and Amazon Prime, I have more of what I want to watch and less of what I don't.
 
Any recommendations for internet-only in Winston? Don't need any tv and we have streaming services. Thanks, y'all.
 
Well that experiment is over. Streaming from DirecTV and Sling were both a pain in the ass in different ways. Ended up going with SlingTV which was just ok. Watching the Caps playoff games on it was pretty much craptastic. Constant buffering, resolution drops (drastic ones), frozen frames, etc. Some channels you just click and they come in instantly and high quality. Just a total crapshoot that induced way too many "I want to throw my remote through my TV screen" moments. It was also clear that some streams would get corrupted or screwed up where it was streaming fine but something upstream was off, so every 8 seconds you'd get a 3 second freeze and shit like that. Wouldn't get corrected for hours. All this on a 200Mb connection.

Bit the bullet and went back to normal cable tv with an X1 DVR. Just so much better and not really much more expensive.
 
Damn those issues suck.

I’ve never had problems streaming hockey, or any sports for that matter on sling. The only constant annoyance is it’s about a minute behind real time so I can’t even glance at my phone for fear of spoilers.
 
It's amusing to me that I started this thread nearly five years ago and it still gets traffic. Also, we have still never switched away from DirecTV. Still rocking the satellite dish on our roof nearly five years later. I have been unable to find any other service, or combination of services, that gives us what we need. There's always some trade-off I'm unwilling to make, although it seems like these services are getting closer finally. For now we're paying about 80 bucks a month for fiber internet from AT&T. Well, that gets installed on Saturday since I've had nothing but trouble with my cable internet since Spectrum took over TWC AND my rate for 300mbps internet shot up to $105 a month.

We pay about $127 a month for DirecTV with no premium channels. That bounces around as we turn HBO on and off with promo rates to watch things like Game of Thrones. I have Ooma for phone, at about 16 bucks a month. So all in, we're paying about $233 a month for TV, Internet and phone. I can't ditch internet and phone because of work, so the 96 a month for that I can't change. I could switch over to DirecTV now, Sling, YouTube TV, etc. but there's always hangups.

Namely, sports is still an issue although getting much, much better. The channel lineups across the various services have some holes no matter where you look. Looks to me like YouTube TV is the sweet spot right now, although it's still missing things we'd want.

Biggest thing for me though is that last I checked, none of the streaming services send audio in anything other than 2.0 stereo sound. I have a pretty awesome setup in our living room and I'm not interested in any of these services until they could send at LEAST 5.1 surround audio. I'd prefer an Atmos signal and 4K video. Then I'd really be interested. For now, I'm willing to pay the extra 50 bucks a month to get a solid 1080i or 1080p signal from DirecTV with Dolby 5.1 audio. This thread has inspired me to go check on that again though, since it's been a few months since I looked.

Nearly five years on from starting this thread there's still no combination of exactly what I want, but we are oh so close...
 
Thanks for posting that. Makes me feel better about not pulling the trigger. We moved into a new home five years ago today. I strongly considered cord cutting but never pulled the trigger. As we got new smart TVs, we got DirecTV and Sunday Ticket. It’s just too much of a leap to get rid of it.
 
DC, I meant to ask: were you streaming over wireless?

The only reason I ask is because my internet speeds are lower than yours, but being directly jacked via ethernet has made that moot in my experience.
 
I cut the cord about 2 months ago in-between college basketball and college football season and have no regrets yet. We are still paying 70 bucks for Spectrum internet though :/
 
I’m about 8 months (and a major sports cycle) into cutting the cord, and here’s my setup and review:

Setup
Internet through Spectrum (formerly TWC): $50/month
Sling with Orange/Blue/Sports Package: $50/month
Amazon Prime Video: $10/month
Netflix: Free (riding on the coattails of in-laws account)

Startup Costs
Roku Premiere+ ($80, ethernet-capable – this is vital to a cord-cutting operation)
OTA Antenna ($25)

I also recently replaced the Roku with an ethernet-capable Roku 49’’ TV (which was a major upgrade over my ten-year old tv, anyway) for $300. Old tv and Roku moved to the bedroom.

Pros
-Monthly all in price for tv, internet, and streaming services is $110.
-I get practically everything I want, particularly in the sports department (perhaps most importantly: RedZone Network!), with some exceptions noted below. The quality and consistency of streams has been just as good as Directv on the whole.
-I can stream all my channels anywhere on any device (I have Sling on my Phone, Tablet, and Laptop).
-Wireless headphone capability through Roku remote. Perfect for when the family is sleeping.
-Absolutely no haggling or introductory price drop-offs. You pay a consistent fee for a consistent service, and you can add and cancel stuff immediately and easily.

Cons
-Not having the major networks on Sling is probably the biggest drag. The OTA reception is not perfect where I live, particularly Fox, which comes in poorly.
-I occasionally miss having some of the peripheral channels (CNBC for some NHL playoff games and Olympic coverage and TruTV for specific NCAA tournament games are two examples that come to mind). However, if I really wanted something I can add and drop it by the month for a $5 or $10 fee – it’s not a problem of Sling not having it, it’s just me not wanting to buy a whole package for one channel I will use very rarely. Plus, sometimes you can still access those things online, and reddit can always hook you up with a stream if all else fails.
-As mentioned previously, there’s about one minute lag with Sling compared to cable (as far as I can tell). It’s very annoying watching sports live while also following on phone, twitter, sports tracker etc. spoilers are inevitable in that situation.
-Changing channels is harder than traditional setups (because there are no channel numbers) and it takes a second to change the streams, so it’s not instantaneous.
 
Do you get access to WatchEspn with that Sling package?
 
Thanks for the summary. I think that it’s worth it for me to pay an extra $100 a month not to have those cons. I can save and make up elsewhere to make up the difference. My parents and in-laws have to use these set ups too.
 
Very similar situation to Hail for me but I use Youtube TV instead of Sling. It just seemed to have all of the channels I wanted which I why I went that way over Sling. The only thing I'm worried about is Redzone. Between netflix, hbogo etc. I don't watch much live tv anymore besides sports. I have it hard wired into my xbox one and that works absolutely perfect. I use wireless streaming into a roku in my bedroom and that is much less reliable. Thats been my biggest problem so far. Saves me close to 100 bucks a month overall.
 
Im currently using DirectTV Now because I got the Apple TV promo, but once thats over I am choosing between Hulu Live, Sling TV, wnd Youtube. I basically want whichever one is cheapest that gets me the whole ESPN package. I would also like Fox Sports South and the SEC network
 
Dish basic membership with one DVR for approximately $37 per month with taxes.

Fiber Internet for $70 per month.

Use fire stick, google nexus player, and Roku devices to stream content.
 
Im currently using DirectTV Now because I got the Apple TV promo, but once thats over I am choosing between Hulu Live, Sling TV, wnd Youtube. I basically want whichever one is cheapest that gets me the whole ESPN package. I would also like Fox Sports South and the SEC network

I just prepaid three months of the cheapest DirecTV Now service in order to get the Apple TV 4K for cheap. My plan is to cancel it at the end of 3 months but I'll play around with it until then and see what I think. We just re-upped for 2 years with regular DirecTV to get all new equipment so we're not going anywhere just yet, but I'll give it a shot.
 
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