if your researching "cutting the cord"....

[kikdakan]

i am enjoying learning my new apple tv (gen 4). if it had more sports options, i would really, really consider dropping my DTV.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2016/01/04/cutting-cord-what-wont-happen-2016/77828600/

 

[TheBeav815]

DTV is suspended til middle of summer and I don't miss it at all. Been watching Netflix. Once you wean yourself off live TV you pretty much never want to go back. ESPECIALLY commercial breaks.

We got in the habit of recording football games and honestly I hate watching them live now. There's a commercial break every 2 minutes. End of the quarter, break. Touchdown, break. Kickoff, break. Couple of plays, injury, break. Another play, timeout, break. You fast forward through all that BS a few times and you'll never watch live again.

 

[St. Anger]

Cut the cord almost a year ago. Now stream movies and sports where I can. Don't miss it one bit. The only thing lacking is the occasional live sporting event.

 

[leodisflowers]

DTV is suspended til middle of summer and I don't miss it at all. Been watching Netflix. Once you wean yourself off live TV you pretty much never want to go back. ESPECIALLY commercial breaks.

We got in the habit of recording football games and honestly I hate watching them live now. There's a commercial break every 2 minutes. End of the quarter, break. Touchdown, break. Kickoff, break. Couple of plays, injury, break. Another play, timeout, break. You fast forward through all that BS a few times and you'll never watch live again.

I agree with you on TV shows, but I will always want to watch sports live. There is no way in hell I could not fast forward to the live action.

 

[NUAlum78]

i am enjoying learning my new apple tv (gen 4). if it had more sports options, i would really, really consider dropping my DTV.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2016/01/04/cutting-cord-what-wont-happen-2016/77828600/

I dropped cable three years ago. Using an antenna in the attic (HOA restrictions) and roku for netflix, hulu, amazon, etc. Saving over $150 per month. I would like some advice, though. I have to host a men's group for our church on Jan 24th - basically a drop in - and I would like to have the AFC and NFC games playing. Where I am the CBS and Fox stations are spotty via antenna. Anyone know if there are streaming options? I have access to dish and direct tv logins from family members.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

I need live baseball and football. Until someone comes up with a viable solution that is extremely simple to use, I will be paying DTV. And I don't even mind. If my budget was so tight that I got angry at cable/satellite companies, I would know that tv should be my last priority. When I was younger I spent that time working multiple jobs, not sit in front of tv or a video game.

 

[WHCSC]

I found that I actually miss just flipping through the channels. I didn't expect that.

 

[Pennsyhusker]

I got rid of cable 2 years ago. Do not regret it at all. I just stream everything. As for NU football? I listen on web radio and then can usually find full game replays online later. If it is a really big game and I want to watch it live I go to a sports bar. No commercials anymore!! No paying out the nose for 300 channels I never use!

 

[St. Anger]

I got rid of cable 2 years ago. Do not regret it at all. I just stream everything. As for NU football? I listen on web radio and then can usually find full game replays online later. If it is a really big game and I want to watch it live I go to a sports bar. No commercials anymore!! No paying out the nose for 300 channels I never use!

This is pretty much me too. But I absolutely have to watch the games. If it's a home game, I'm in Lincoln. If away, we find a bar in Omaha and make an event of it.

 

[NikkiSixx]

Go to Amazon, search for "android tv box" pick one, and thank me later.

 

[WuTang_Husker]

Roku + Sling with the sports package for $5 extra. $25 a month for HD ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN News, ESPN U and SEC Network. All live events and a lot of replays.

 

[GretnaShawn]

Roku + Sling with the sports package for $5 extra. $25 a month for HD ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN News, ESPN U and SEC Network. All live events and a lot of replays.

I am looking into the Sling box (we have Netflix). I have heard there are some streaming issues (slow, not very smooth, etc.). What has your experience been?

 

[nudan92]

I cut the cord 3 years ago...I use Roku boxes in my house and have an antenna that pulls in probably 20 stations over the air in HD quality (I live in Lincoln). I traded my brother my Netflix/Hulu/Amazon Prime passwords for his DirecTV password and get a crapload of streaming channels (Showtime/HBO GO/ESPN and more). I also have Sling so my wife can watch The Walking Dead, but Sling really sucks at heavy usage times and that includes Monday Night Football. ESPN always seems to have buffering issues on Sling, but they do allow you to use your Sling Log In to get the ESPN app.

There are private channels on Roku called MachTV or WOW TV that will give you over 200 live streaming channels for $20-$25/month including all the NFL/MLB/NBA and PPV sporting events.

http://www.wowtv-live.com/

The legality of those channels is dubious though.

Oh, I also have an Amazon Fire Stick so I can use my brother's DirecTV login to get Fox Sports 1. Not sure why they haven't added a channel to Roku yet.

 

[nudan92]

I am looking into the Sling box (we have Netflix). I have heard there are some streaming issues (slow, not very smooth, etc.). What has your experience been?

Sling is not the same thing as a Sling Box. Sling is a channel on Roku/Amazon Fire and other streaming devices that is owned by Dish Network. It cost $20 a month for their basic 20-30 channel lineup.

It's highly unreliable when a big event is taking place (Walking Dead premier, NFL Monday Night Football, Baseball playoff games on TBS/TNT, etc), but works most of the rest of the time. They also take no blame when their service goes down, they constantly tell you on the phone or through facebook that the issue is with your device, but it's not. At some point they will get their service running better, but right now they are still in the beta stage, but charging people non-beta testing prices.

 

[WuTang_Husker]

I am looking into the Sling box (we have Netflix). I have heard there are some streaming issues (slow, not very smooth, etc.). What has your experience been?

I have had very few issues with the quality. I have internet through cox(highest speed).
Been loving this bowl season, Watched the NU game with zero issues, none.

I'm sure there are occasional hiccups in quality for some people but truthfully that may be more about their internet speed than anything else, at least with the Roku streaming stick.

 

[jteten]

I would have to be pretty damn broke to drop cable and the option of all live sports over several networks. Cable, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBOgo. I will keep them all. Most people spend more money at Taco Bell and McDonalds in a week than they do on a month of cable, but that is not as tangible for some reason. $ to time spent between myself, my wife and 2 kids, cable and Netflix more than justify the bills.

 

[seattle-sker]

I would have to be pretty damn broke to drop cable and the option of all live sports over several networks. Cable, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBOgo. I will keep them all. Most people spend more money at Taco Bell and McDonalds in a week than they do on a month of cable, but that is not as tangible for some reason. $ to time spent between myself, my wife and 2 kids, cable and Netflix more than justify the bills.

You think MOST people spend over $100 a week at McDonalds and Taco Bell?! Damn dude, how fat are the people you know ? I haven't eaten that garbage in years...

 

[St. Anger]

You think MOST people spend over $100 a week at McDonalds and Taco Bell?! Damn dude, how fat are the people you know ? I haven't eaten that garbage in years...

Me neither. I hardly ever eat out, let alone garbage like that.

 

[seattle-sker]

I need live baseball and football. Until someone comes up with a viable solution that is extremely simple to use, I will be paying DTV. And I don't even mind. If my budget was so tight that I got angry at cable/satellite companies, I would know that tv should be my last priority. When I was younger I spent that time working multiple jobs, not sit in front of tv or a video game.

I assure you that I don't drop cable in the spring/summer because my budget is tight. Every April, after March Madness, we put our Comcast account on a "seasonal hold." Drops our bill from $155 to $15 until the end of August. We keep our century link internet and AT&T digital life but place the cable service on hold.

My wife and I find that it is good to take a break and focus more on getting outside and staying active with friends.

 

[ThrowBones92]

Cut the cord a few years ago. Don't regret it at all. Use a Chromecast, Netflix and over the air channels. Currently have a two month trial of SlingTV, but I'm running into some of the issues mentioned on here - lots of glitchy viewing. I assume they will iron it out, but we have flipped through the 20 channel-offering more than a few times thinking we would find something we wanted to watch. Turns out we miss it even less than we thought we did. We'd rather watch what's on Netflix, read, or *gasp* talk to one another (my wife and I) than stare at the TV while a show we don't care about attempts to entertain us. We have our shows on Netflix and HBO Go that we'll watching religiously, but watching TV is just not as important as it used to be to us. I guess that's not a bad thing.

 

[jteten]

You think MOST people spend over $100 a week at McDonalds and Taco Bell?! Damn dude, how fat are the people you know ? I haven't eaten that garbage in years...

McDs and Taco Bell were examples. People spend an inordinate amounts of money on food, Starbucks, and other disposable garbage, yet cut the cable and act like they are owning their budgets. lol

 

[St. Anger]

McDs and Taco Bell were examples. People spend an inordinate amounts of money on food, Starbucks, and other disposable garbage, yet cut the cable and act like they are owning their budgets. lol

Well, I don't know about you, but I actually need the calories contained in food to provide energy for human survival.

 

[TheBeav815]

My neighbor has Roku and the reception is kinda crappy. It'll cut in and out during games. Anyone know if having your ethernet cable hardwired to the box rather than wireless improves that?

I use an old Xbox 360 that I bought used to stream Netflix and Amazon upstairs, and I use my PS3 to stream them downstairs. I run a media server and I can use that to play movies/music housed on my computer through either device.

My PS3 won't stay connected to WiFi for all the tea in China, but the Xbox 360 does great. So I ran an ethernet line to the PS3 and it's never a problem, and also very fast.

I'll put a plug in again for Republic Wireless if you're looking for huge savings off your cell bill. iPhone loyalists can stop reading, they only carry Android devices. They sell Mototola phones and it's a WiFi-first service that uses Sprint's network for cell coverage when you're not on WiFi. I pay $29 a month for unlimited talk & text, and I chose unlimited 3G data because it's cheaper and I don't use much cell data anyone. You can get 4G data for like $40 a month.

I have the Moto E and I'm very happy with it. It has a micro SD card slot so I dropped 32 gigs of memory into the side of it.

 

[GretnaShawn]

Cut the cord a few years ago. Don't regret it at all. Use a Chromecast, Netflix and over the air channels. Currently have a two month trial of SlingTV, but I'm running into some of the issues mentioned on here - lots of glitchy viewing. I assume they will iron it out, but we have flipped through the 20 channel-offering more than a few times thinking we would find something we wanted to watch. Turns out we miss it even less than we thought we did. We'd rather watch what's on Netflix, read, or *gasp* talk to one another (my wife and I) than stare at the TV while a show we don't care about attempts to entertain us. We have our shows on Netflix and HBO Go that we'll watching religiously, but watching TV is just not as important as it used to be to us. I guess that's not a bad thing.

Speaking of Netflix, has anybody watched 'Making a Murder' yet? The wife and I are halfway through and my goodness it is gripping. Highly suggest.

 

[seattle-sker]

McDs and Taco Bell were examples. People spend an inordinate amounts of money on food, Starbucks, and other disposable garbage, yet cut the cable and act like they are owning their budgets. lol

This is a poor example. So would you say cutting cable and saving someone $2400 a year is pointless to a budget if that person still eats food, has a gym membership and plays golf on Sunday mornings? Lol..

For the record, there are many better reasons to cut cable than money. We drop it in the summer months because we spend this time outside staying active and find it ignorant to pay for something that we don't use.

 

[TheBeav815]

McDs and Taco Bell were examples. People spend an inordinate amounts of money on food, Starbucks, and other disposable garbage, yet cut the cable and act like they are owning their budgets. lol

This is my favorite thing about the price of buying your daily coffee vs making it yourself:

I drink a cup of coffee most days and I drink a lot less coffee than other coffee drinkers. So let’s do the math as if I had one cup of coffee every day.

Making my coffee at home for one year adds up to $.28 x 365 days = $102.20. Or, $8.52 per month.

Buying coffee once a day for one year adds up to $2.40 x 365 = $876. Or, $73 per month.

Making coffee at home every day saves me $773.80 per year.
That is a savings of $64.48 per month. Say you put those savings into a basic mutual fund and each month added an additional $64.48 that you saved making homemade coffee. How much would that turn into over ten years?

If the mutual fund average earnings of 6.50% interest and you compounded whatever you made (which means buying more mutual funds with the dividends), that measly $64.48 would grow into $10,981.93.

And that's very conservative. If you buy a big, fancy drink at Starbucks every day, that's an easy $6.

 

[ThrowBones92]

Speaking of Netflix, has anybody watched 'Making a Murder' yet? The wife and I are halfway through and my goodness it is gripping. Highly suggest.

haven't seen it - Netflix original or network show? I'll have to add it to the list.

 

[Mack In Motion]

Going on 6 months and it's great. Combined with some other changes, the extra 80 - 90 bucks a month makes a difference.

However I couldn't do it without sling. Just visited my in-laws. All they had was Netflix and antenna. On New Year's day. Yeah. Had to go get the roku stick out of their basement so we could get sling and watch some college football. Not an option for me to not have some live sports.

 

[St. Anger]

Pfft, I seriously can't believe you guys won't give up food but you'll give up cable. People are so strange these days.

 

[Mack In Motion]

I'll put a plug in again for Republic Wireless if you're looking for huge savings off your cell bill. iPhone loyalists can stop reading, they only carry Android devices. They sell Mototola phones and it's a WiFi-first service that uses Sprint's network for cell coverage when you're not on WiFi. I pay $29 a month for unlimited talk & text, and I chose unlimited 3G data because it's cheaper and I don't use much cell data anyone. You can get 4G data for like $40 a month.

I have the Moto E and I'm very happy with it. It has a micro SD card slot so I dropped 32 gigs of memory into the side of it.

x2 on Republic Wireless.

10 bucks a month for my wife to have unlimited talk and text. No real need to pay a lot for data, she's at home most of the day. Got one for my 13 year old son as well. 10 bucks a month for him to have unlimited talk and text on the Sprint network. 20 bucks for the two of them.

Can't beat it. I think they're going to be changing their pricing structure soon though. No option to not have data, just a refund back if you're not a high data user.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

Pfft, I seriously can't believe you guys won't give up food but you'll give up cable. People are so strange these days.

Who said that? I eat just fine, probably too much fresh beef, but oh well. I simply want live sports, and can afford the ability to watch when I want. I watch tons of baseball through the year after coming home from the kids ball events. Helps me unwind and relax, I won't be giving it up to watch a choppy, delayed broadcast.

 

[St. Anger]

Who said that? I eat just fine, probably too much fresh beef, but oh well. I simply want live sports, and can afford the ability to watch when I want. I watch tons of baseball through the year after coming home from the kids ball events. Helps me unwind and relax, I won't be giving it up to watch a choppy, delayed broadcast.

Ha, scroll up, you'll find it.

 

[9and4]

I am looking into the Sling box (we have Netflix). I have heard there are some streaming issues (slow, not very smooth, etc.). What has your experience been?

I subscribe to Sling TV just to have access to the Watch ESPN app. Sling itself isn't all that great, but without some subscription that includes ESPN, then you really don't have a chance to watch live sports in a stream-only world. I also get the MLB package for all the Royals games because I live outside the Midwest.

 

[GretnaShawn]

haven't seen it - Netflix original or network show? I'll have to add it to the list.

Netflix Original. It is a documentary (10 hour long episodes) on a guy that was falsely imprisoned for 18 years and then arrested for murder. Really good.

 

[jteten]

Well, I don't know about you, but I actually need the calories contained in food to provide energy for human survival.

Sigh. I'll do my very best to ignore the literal interpretations that you are taking and assume you are smart enough to understand that I am simply suggesting that humans spend too much money on eating out/drive through and Starbucks, as opposed to eating at home or making a cup of coffee at work. And then act like cutting a cable bill is the move that will change their budget. For the record, I do both...have cable and buy Dunkin from time to time.

 

[Harry Caray]

I trade my Netflix password to my parents for their DirecTV password for WatchESPN/BTN2Go.

I have basic Internet and a fairly old laptop, and I've never had any problem with the streaming quality of the live sports.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

Ha, scroll up, you'll find it.

I don't see where someone said they don't eat food. I keep missing it.

 

[anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi]

I trade my Netflix password to my parents for their DirecTV password for WatchESPN/BTN2Go.

I have basic Internet and a fairly old laptop, and I've never had any problem with the streaming quality of the live sports.

I am not taking a shot at only you here... but why do people think "sharing" passwords is so cool. Do they feel like they are getting one over on the providers? I just find it funny.

 

[St. Anger]

I am not taking a shot at only you here... but why do people think "sharing" passwords is so cool. Do they feel like they are getting one over on the providers? I just find it funny.

I wasn't aware this was a difficult concept to grasp.

 

[jteten]

I wasn't aware this was a difficult concept to grasp.

Speaking of concepts difficult to grasp........