Alternatives to Cable?

[Midswat]

My cable/internet/phone bill is about 160 a month.

I never really watch TV outside of football and occasionally tuning into the ID network (true crime reality shows). Outside of football season, I'd speculate I spend less than 3 hours a week watching TV.

If you've given cable the boot, like I'm considering, what do you use in the event you want to watch shows?

I'd need something where I could access cartoons as my kids watch TV when they're with me.

 

[DakAttack]

I haven't had cable my entire adult life. So for the last 20 or so years.

Living with my girlfriend now and she has a Roku. It's awesome.

 

[junk]

I have Roku. Netflix is $10 a month and has a ton of cartoons/kids shows

Amazon Prime is, I think, $100 per year and also has a good streaming service (along with 2 day shipping, photo storage, book lending library, etc)

I have those two plus an OTA antenna. There is more than I have time to watch. Sometimes we'll add a standalone premium TV service like HBO or Showtime for a month to binge a series

Sports options are limited however

I've heard PlayStation Vue has some good reasonably priced packages

 

[dbair1967]

You could read a book

 

[dbair1967]

Here you go Mid. Always happy to help out.

 

[eagle-9r-sknh8r]

Firestick with Kodi.

 

[icup]

i know this portuguese guy who will unlock the amazon fire stick for me. and i feel that is perhaps my most reasonable option. i don't know how much it will cost yet, but what i do know is that he will not accept weed as a form of payment.

i have heard from pretty much everybody that the fire stick is the way to go.

at&t is about to offer a streaming tv service for $35/mo. not sure what that's about yet.

 

[ThoughtExperiment]

I think I'm going to do the same, and I even just signed an extension with Directv a few months ago. But the installer was a real ass who did a lousy job, and their customer service has started slipping. Been a happy customer since you had to put the dish up yourself 20 years ago, but AT&T appears to be ruining the company just like I knew they would so I think in a few months I'll eat the cancellation fee and do it. Most of the big sports are over the air anyway, and PBS is underrated for nature/science/history type shows.

Anyway, I almost did Sling TV last time and kind of wish I had. They have two $20 packages, each with a lot of basic cable type channels and either the Fox Sports cable channels or the ESPN suite of channels. Or you can get both sports network families for I think $45.

You could even get a Fire TV stick for $40 and borrow someone's online password to watch the occasional ESPNU or regional Fox sports broadcast. The Watch ESPN and Fox Sports GO apps work well and the sign-in just takes a second. Only practical issue with those is you can't quickly flip back and forth between games/shows like you would with sat or cable, but that's probably not worth an extra $50+ a month anyway.

 

[eagle-9r-sknh8r]

i know this portuguese guy who will unlock the amazon fire stick for me. and i feel that is perhaps my most reasonable option. i don't know how much it will cost yet, but what i do know is that he will not accept weed as a form of payment.

i have heard from pretty much everybody that the fire stick is the way to go.

at&t is about to offer a streaming tv service for $35/mo. not sure what that's about yet.

Purchase them on Ebay for $65.00 already loaded.

 

[UVAwahoos]

I think I'm going to do the same, and I even just signed an extension with Directv a few months ago. But the installer was a real ass who did a lousy job, and their customer service has started slipping. Been a happy customer since you had to put the dish up yourself 20 years ago, but AT&T appears to be ruining the company just like I knew they would so I think in a few months I'll eat the cancellation fee and do it. Most of the big sports are over the air anyway, and PBS is underrated for nature/science/history type shows.

Anyway, I almost did Sling TV last time and kind of wish I had. They have two $20 packages, each with a lot of basic cable type channels and either the Fox Sports cable channels or the ESPN suite of channels. Or you can get both sports network families for I think $45.

You could even get a Fire TV stick for $40 and borrow someone's online password to watch the occasional ESPNU or regional Fox sports broadcast. The Watch ESPN and Fox Sports GO apps work well and the sign-in just takes a second. Only practical issue with those is you can't quickly flip back and forth between games/shows like you would with sat or cable, but that's probably not worth an extra $50+ a month anyway.

I agree about Directv. Sunday Ticket has been essential for me, and they were always willing to work with me on pricing in the past. This year, after the ATT merger, they wouldn't discount it at all, and basically told me I could discontinue service completely. I told them that their bundled packages are a ripoff and the only reason I am with them for is NFL season but it didn't really help much.

To answer the question though, Kodi on a firestick is sufficient for basically any programming you'd ever need.

 

[ThoughtExperiment]

Yeah, another thing is they got rid of the shortcuts or whatever the condensed games were called starting on Monday. Thought it was weird when I got ST and those channels weren't on there, bc I knew they were before. Then I read that AT&T made them streaming-only -- an obvious attempt to get you on their cell service. Tons of people complained but do you think they care? No way.

Anyway, what exactly does Kodi add?

 

[eagle-9r-sknh8r]

Yeah, another thing is they got rid of the shortcuts or whatever the condensed games were called starting on Monday. Thought it was weird when I got ST and those channels weren't on there, bc I knew they were before. Then I read that AT&T made them streaming-only -- an obvious attempt to get you on their cell service. Tons of people complained but do you think they care? No way.

Anyway, what exactly does Kodi add?

Anything you want. I get PPV, live tv, all movies (still in theatres ) live sports, XXX, all channels from around the world. Basically anything streaming is available.

Google or you tube firestick with kodi.

 

[SixisBetter]

AT&T appears to be ruining the company

My Directv will go away come January when my 2 years is up.I've got quite a list of stuff that's wrong with their service since the AT&T acquisition, but WGAS?
As noted in this thread, there are just too many reasonably priced services to put up with limber dick customer service and 700 channels of BS I will never watch.
BTW, my free preview of Sunday Ticket on opening day didn't even work properly until about the last quarter of the late games.

 

[UVAwahoos]

Yeah, another thing is they got rid of the shortcuts or whatever the condensed games were called starting on Monday. Thought it was weird when I got ST and those channels weren't on there, bc I knew they were before. Then I read that AT&T made them streaming-only -- an obvious attempt to get you on their cell service. Tons of people complained but do you think they care? No way.

Anyway, what exactly does Kodi add?

It's basically a streaming torrent server with all shows, movies and live tv you'd ever need. Since it's streaming, there's no virus risk, and most of the content is in HD. It still isn't perfect for live sports, but it's much better than other internet streaming options.

 

[This Bud's 4U]

Top 7 Sites for Watching Live Sports Streaming Online Free ~ Watch Free Movies TV Shows Online Without Downloading Anything

 

[lons]

I have a Roku, d/l every show known to mankind for free and run it through a Plex media server that allows me to stream it to any plex app and therefore the Roku is my TV. During football season I create a free account with USTV for live tv on the roku through their app. It gives me ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX AND THE WB for free Live. When the Cowboys, like today, played the Browns and therefore weren't on National TV, I just go to p2p and stream it to yet another roku app that mirrors the screen of my iPad.

I pay 60 a month for Internet and 10 more for a VPN to grab the movies under the guise of and yeah I can watch anything anywhere in the house or basically anywhere that has internet service since Plex also allows me to stream over the internet to anywhere.

 

[Sheik]

I have a Roku, d/l every show known to mankind for free and run it through a Plex media server that allows me to stream it to any plex app and therefore the Roku is my TV. During football season I create a free account with USTV for live tv on the roku through their app. It gives me ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX AND THE WB for free Live. When the Cowboys, like today, played the Browns and therefore weren't on National TV, I just go to p2p and stream it to yet another roku app that mirrors the screen of my iPad.

I pay 60 a month for Internet and 10 more for a VPN to grab the movies under the guise of and yeah I can watch anything anywhere in the house or basically anywhere that has internet service since Plex also allows me to stream over the internet to anywhere.

Is that C-F place still around?

 

[Midswat]

Why don't you use your web browser and figure that out on your own, fuck knuckle.

 

[lons]

Is that C-F place still around?

Skeety sold it to 247 sports or whatever, it's a dumpster fire now, they have no idea how a forum works and it's nothing but click bait etc, no one goes there anymore. I usually troll this forum or just stick to whatever has articles.

 

[Midswat]

This place became a dumpster fire after Sheik sold it also.