I have to come up with another plan for TV

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Venom51

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I have to come up with another plan for TV

#1

Post by Venom51 » Sat Jul 25, 2015 1:48 pm

Now that the AT&T DirecTV merger is going to go through I'll need another plan for TV. AT&T will never get a nickel from me going forward. I hate that after 15 years I now have to rework what I've done in the house. This is likely the death nail for Media Center in the house as well.

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Scallica

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#2

Post by Scallica » Sat Jul 25, 2015 10:26 pm

Why not switch to cable or FiOS?
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adam1991

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#3

Post by adam1991 » Sun Jul 26, 2015 12:10 am

yeah, I'm with you on the AT&T not getting my business thing. I've been AT&T free for, um, many years now, and glad of it.

The nail in the coffin was how badly they handled my AT&T WIreless blue to Cingular orange transition.

I have ViaTalk phone, WOW cable for broadband, OTA for TV, and Netflix (4 streams) and Hulu. $63/month.

I could add Sling TV back in for $25/month, upping me to $88 and giving me what amounts to the basic tier of cable channels back. That would still be under the $93 I struggled to get the WOW bill alone down to with pay TV. Yeah, pay TV and 15 megabit broadband was $93/month, all inclusive. I still had to add two streams of Netflix plus my ViaTalk phone to that, for a grand total of $113.

Switching to OTA and adding Hulu plus two additional streams of Netflix to compensate saves me $50/month. $113 down to $63. And I upped my broadband from 15/1 to 30/3, which WOW then a few weeks later moved up to 75/5 with no change in price (they upgraded their network for everyone). I do all my TV through WMC (Silicon Dust HD Homerun, 3 of them refurb) and my streaming through Roku. I even bought a Roku TV for the living room. Best $300 I've spent in awhile.

My point is, there is life after paying for TV. Remember, paying for TV also means you're paying the Sports Tax, which is about twelve bucks a month. Since I don't watch sports, it grated on me. Badly.

And consider: how many hours per day or week do you have for watching TV, and what else could you fill those hours with besides TV that you pay for? Can you fill those with Netflix or Hulu? Or recorded OTA? Or something else?

I've discovered that Hulu isn't as bad as I thought it was. Because it's owned by the networks, it gives me access to TV that I need--be it old series, movies, or the show that I missed last night for whatever reason. And yes, they play commercials on TV shows--but we're talking 15 to 30 seconds, not four to five minutes. And there's talk of them offering a premium tier for a few bucks more, where they won't play commercials during shows--I'll be on that like white on rice if/when they offer it.

One thing I noticed with pay TV, be it cable or satellite, was that there's nothing on. Not really. I record all TV, and the stuff I don't have anymore is stuff that was just filler, like a McD's hamburger. Worthless filler. I don't have Food Network or Cooking, so I miss--what? Alton Brown reality cooking shows. I don't have HIstory channel anymore, so I miss--what? Pawn Stars. Who cares. The biggest ache, which isn't really an ache, is missing Discovery Channel and Mythbusters. I figure, they'll be available at some point via Netflix or something, and I'll catch up with them then. Besides, Mythbusters never really had a schedule per se, so it was always a crap shoot over the past few years as to whether they were on or not.

My brother over in DC has FIOS TV, something like 2000 channels (I dunno, it's a BUNCH). Premiums and everything. And whenever I"m over there, THERE'S NOTHING ON. I surf the channels, and it's either stuff I have no interest in or else a commercial is playing. Screw that.

I did have Sling TV up until today, and I did that (a) to try it out, and (b) because it had HGTV and DIY for my wife and daughter. But the moment I got Hulu my daughter said, "You can cancel Sling now" and my wife said, "I can watch Rehab Addict online, so no big deal". Ha. I never watched Sling because I simply DO NOT watch real time TV. So I finally dumped it today, and I don't anticipate going back unless they change their business model radically--and we all know that won't happen. The content owners won't let them be an on-demand service of any kind like Netflix or Hulu.

Put an antenna up, get some HD Homerun network tuners, and keep going on with your WMC. Switching over from Ceton cableCARD to SD HDHR OTA was seamless; even the recordings stayed put and kept on chugging on without interruption, the ones that were in the new channel lineup. It's painless.

For me, the key was having Roku at each TV to handle Netflix and Hulu. It also gives me some weird channels to play with. Oh--and if you're an Amazon Prime member, Roku has the Amazon channel where you can watch your Prime videos as well as stuff you've bought or rented from Amazon. And Roku also helps you find stuff if you don't know where it might be, and even sell/rent it to you if you want.

Venom51

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#4

Post by Venom51 » Sun Jul 26, 2015 4:22 am

Scallica wrote:Why not switch to cable or FiOS?
I currently have a system that completely avoids DRM. I'd like to stay that way. FOIS not available in my area. Of course neither are any OTA signals that are worth watching.

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STC

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#5

Post by STC » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:39 pm

It's been a while but I recall you use single tuner STBs and analogue capture cards?
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Venom51

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#6

Post by Venom51 » Mon Jul 27, 2015 3:14 am

HDPVR's.

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