(Topic ID: 236041)

CUTTING THE CORD. Tips and tricks to do it right?

By Chitownpinball

5 years ago


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There are 1,588 posts in this topic. You are on page 11 of 32.
#501 4 years ago

Every DVR solution for OTA seems to have some sort of drawback (price, reliability, stupid limitations, video quality). I ended up snagging a used Tivo Roamio OTA with Lifetime sub for ~$100 off CL. This was perfect for me. I've noticed people seem to be dumping Tivos too. The new Hydra OS sucks IMO, but it is easy enough to revert to the traditional Tivo OS which is great. I wish I could have everything piped through one device. The Tivo "should" be able to do that, but no Philo app. The Roku is fine for Philo, but for sports it sucks. Sunday ticket looks so much better on my Xbox vs Roku.

#502 4 years ago
Quoted from mcluvin:

Every DVR solution for OTA seems to have some sort of drawback (price, reliability, stupid limitations, video quality). I ended up snagging a used Tivo Roamio OTA with Lifetime sub for ~$100 off CL. This was perfect for me. I've noticed people seem to be dumping Tivos too. The new Hydra OS sucks IMO, but it is easy enough to revert to the traditional Tivo OS which is great. I wish I could have everything piped through one device. The Tivo "should" be able to do that, but no Philo app. The Roku is fine for Philo, but for sports it sucks. Sunday ticket looks so much better on my Xbox vs Roku.

Yeah, we're doing our broadcast networks with a Roamio OTA and TiVo Minis. Few hundred bucks set up the whole house. Problem is, supposedly TiVo will force all boxes to the new terrible interface sometime this year, no reverting after that point. Not looking forward to it. TiVo had the best interface in the business. No idea why they changed it.

#503 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Yeah, we're doing our broadcast networks with a Roamio OTA and TiVo Minis. Few hundred bucks set up the whole house. Problem is, supposedly TiVo will force all boxes to the new terrible interface sometime this year, no reverting after that point. Not looking forward to it. TiVo had the best interface in the business. No idea why they changed it.

I've been using Tivo for a couple of decades off and on. My last new purchase was a cable only (which I regret) Roamio. I had that sucker 98%+ full most of the time and never got a nag to upgrade to the new OS. I figure if I keep the HD full, they won't be able to upgrade it. As little as we watch OTA, I thought we'd be OK with live broadcasts, but once you get used to pausing and rewinding, it's tough not having it.

#504 4 years ago
Quoted from mcluvin:

I've been using Tivo for a couple of decades off and on. My last new purchase was a cable only (which I regret) Roamio. I had that sucker 98%+ full most of the time and never got a nag to upgrade to the new OS. I figure if I keep the HD full, they won't be able to upgrade it. As little as we watch OTA, I thought we'd be OK with live broadcasts, but once you get used to pausing and rewinding, it's tough not having it.

They have a spare OS partition. They WILL upgrade you, and it will suck.

We were original TiVo loyalists. Bought a Series 1 the first month it came out. We owned at least one of every model they made up until the Bolt where they lost their way. Now, we've sold all our Roamios except the OTA one and are sadly mostly out of TiVo. They lost us for the most part. And yes, it does suck.

#505 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

They have a spare OS partition. They WILL upgrade you, and it will suck.

Given how so many have voiced disdain for the new OS, it's a little hard to believe they will totally force it on me. Ultimately this is a band-aid until I have an ATSC 3 solution. I don't see that happening anytime soon, so I should get at least a couple of years out of the Tivo.

#506 4 years ago
Quoted from mcluvin:

Given how so many have voiced disdain for the new OS, it's a little hard to believe they will totally force it on me. Ultimately this is a band-aid until I have an ATSC 3 solution. I don't see that happening anytime soon, so I should get at least a couple of years out of the Tivo.

It would've been hard to believe they'd force COMMERCIALS on you before letting you watch recorded shows on your local TiVo, not that long ago, but the "new" TiVo company is doing that now, too. Terrible all around.

#507 4 years ago

foxyoutube (resized).PNGfoxyoutube (resized).PNG

@who-dey

#508 4 years ago

You have got to be shitting me? The only thing left that Carrie's it is Hulu now right?

#509 4 years ago
Quoted from Who-Dey:

You have got to be shitting me? The only thing left that Carrie's it is Hulu now right?

You are correct sir. Bunch of shit this Sinclair company

#510 4 years ago
Quoted from djsolzs:

[quoted image]
who-dey

Just received the email myself. If I remember correctly the same thing happened with Sling.

#511 4 years ago

Oh well, off to HULU TV i guess.

#512 4 years ago

I think the cable companies are very much behind this as well.

#513 4 years ago
Quoted from djsolzs:

You are correct sir. Bunch of shit this Sinclair company

Sinclair is bad news. They've been sucking up local affiliates to push their propaganda. In the old days not so long ago, they wouldn't be allowed to own as much local TV as they do.

#514 4 years ago

I don't think any of the streamers will have access to Fox Sports after Youtube loses it. I know a lot of the streamers have FS1 and FS2, but up here, none of the local games were on those two channels, they were all on Fox Sports (North) for our region.

I went with MLB TV a couple of years ago and really liked it. I got around the blackouts by paying $2/month for a different/remote DNS server to watch all Brewer games.

EDIT.... just looked at the locals.... Hulu Live still carries it for now.

Who-Dey.... if your girlfriend just needs it for Reds games, check out MLBtv.... it will save you some money over Hulu Live.

#515 4 years ago
Quoted from ralphwiggum:

Who-Dey.... if your girlfriend just needs it for Reds games, check out MLBtv.... it will save you some money over Hulu Live.

That would be awesome but im not sure how to set up the DNS server thing?

#516 4 years ago
Quoted from Who-Dey:

That would be awesome but im not sure how to set up the DNS server thing?

Here is the service I used a few years ago-
https://unlocator.com/channel/mlb-tv/

The even have guides for the non-IT folks-
https://unlocator.com/setup/

Their pricing has gone up a little bit ($4/month for the DNS only service), but still a much better deal than Hulu if you only want it for MLB.

#517 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

My main problem with SlingTv is the video quality is ATROCIOUS. So crappy. I got spoiled with Vue, which had very good to excellent video quality, so SlingTV was a slap in the face. We were out after the one month trial and moved to Fubo (because we already tried Philo and its channel selection was too limited and had a bad interface, too).
There's a huge market for the taking for the first service that gives you all the channels you would get on cable AND a decent interface AND a good cloud DVR - at a reasonable price. No one provider has that - yet. But as HBOMax and Peacock and others enter the market this year, there will HAVE to be consolidation. There is just too much fragmentation and it's only getting worse.

Ive had sling for years and I find the video quality very good. I actually recently gave youtube TV a trial and thought that sucked. Id never pay the higher cost for that..

#518 4 years ago
Quoted from ralphwiggum:

Here is the service I used a few years ago-
https://unlocator.com/channel/mlb-tv/
The even have guides for the non-IT folks-
https://unlocator.com/setup/
Their pricing has gone up a little bit ($4/month for the DNS only service), but still a much better deal than Hulu if you only want it for MLB.

Unsure of how changing DNS servers works since MLB.tv blackouts are based on the location of your source IP.

#519 4 years ago
Quoted from Rager170:

Ive had sling for years and I find the video quality very good. I actually recently gave youtube TV a trial and thought that sucked. Id never pay the higher cost for that..

We're very sensitive to video quality and Sling is objectively terrible. Massively overcompressed, making everything muddy, and crappy 20th century 30fps frame rates on all but a couple sports channels. Nasty.

It's not just us, though. Here's one of dozens of articles on how crappy SlingTV quality is:
https://www.techhive.com/article/3408376/sling-tv-would-be-great-if-it-wasnt-so-chintzy.html

We have a 400Mbps connection and AppleTV4K boxes, so it's not that. SlingTV says they can deliver the best quality (for them) at 3mbps, which says it all. Netflix needs 7Mbps for 1080p/60 and 3.6Mbps for 720p/60 and has noticibly better quality. Fubo delivers 720p/60 on broadcast live and 1080p/60 if you watch the shows on demand.

#520 4 years ago
Quoted from VectorGamer:

Unsure of how changing DNS servers works since MLB.tv blackouts are based on the location of your source IP.

"Whenever you try to use a streaming service then your location is revealed to the streaming service via your IP address. However, when you use Unlocator Smart DNS on your device then we make sure that all requests that, using a normal DNS server, would reveal your location are rerouted to our infrastructure in order to mask your real location."

#521 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

We're very sensitive to video quality and Sling is objectively terrible. Massively overcompressed, making everything muddy, and crappy 20th century 30fps frame rates on all but a couple sports channels. Nasty.
It's not just us, though. Here's one of dozens of articles on how crappy SlingTV quality is:
https://www.techhive.com/article/3408376/sling-tv-would-be-great-if-it-wasnt-so-chintzy.html
We have a 400Mbps connection and AppleTV4K boxes, so it's not that. SlingTV says they can deliver the best quality (for them) at 3mbps, which says it all. Netflix needs 7Mbps for 1080p/60 and 3.6Mbps for 720p/60 and has noticibly better quality. Fubo delivers 720p/60 on broadcast live and 1080p/60 if you watch the shows on demand.

That article doesnt mention anything about video quality.. dont know, but I dont have the issues you are mentioning...

#522 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

We're very sensitive to video quality and Sling is objectively terrible. Massively overcompressed, making everything muddy, and crappy 20th century 30fps frame rates on all but a couple sports channels. Nasty.
It's not just us, though. Here's one of dozens of articles on how crappy SlingTV quality is:
https://www.techhive.com/article/3408376/sling-tv-would-be-great-if-it-wasnt-so-chintzy.html
We have a 400Mbps connection and AppleTV4K boxes, so it's not that. SlingTV says they can deliver the best quality (for them) at 3mbps, which says it all. Netflix needs 7Mbps for 1080p/60 and 3.6Mbps for 720p/60 and has noticibly better quality. Fubo delivers 720p/60 on broadcast live and 1080p/60 if you watch the shows on demand.

Edit - i didnt scroll down enough to see the frame rate stuff. I dont have problems with it but if you super into video quality, i woulnt stream in general. For movies, im a disk only guy anyways. Streaming will never compare...

#523 4 years ago
Quoted from Rager170:

Edit - i didnt scroll down enough to see the frame rate stuff. I dont have problems with it but if you super into video quality, i woulnt stream in general. For movies, im a disk only guy anyways. Streaming will never compare...

Netflix is fine. Fubo is acceptable. Good streaming can be done. SlingTV just isn't doing it.

#524 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Netflix is fine. Fubo is acceptable. Good streaming can be done. SlingTV just isn't doing it.

Philo is surprisingly good to my eyes. My senior citizen in-laws can't tell the diff between SD and HD.

#525 4 years ago
Quoted from mcluvin:

Philo is surprisingly good to my eyes. My senior citizen in-laws can't tell the diff between SD and HD.

Philo is okay. Better than SlingTV because it's compressed less so the picture isn't as soft, but they only offer 30fps. We had it for a while, but the interface was the thing that turned us off more than anything. If they had popular news channels, we'd probably have sucked it up and kept them since it was a perfect compliment to our OTA TiVos. But extremely limited news options (Cheddar news doesn't count!) killed them for us.

#526 4 years ago

I ended up adding Philo for 2 channels....Comedy Central and the History Channel.
Wish youtube had them.

#527 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

But extremely limited news options (Cheddar news doesn't count!) killed them for us.

I just use the news apps on my Roku when I'm not using OTA. I like the MSNBC app. The evening news is generally live on it.

Quoted from OLDPINGUY:

I ended up adding Philo for 2 channels....Comedy Central and the History Channel.
Wish youtube had them.

Philo mostly scratches my itch for cable TV. I do miss CN, but you can always find certain shows somewhere on the web.

#528 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Netflix is fine. Fubo is acceptable. Good streaming can be done. SlingTV just isn't doing it.

yea sorry, I just disagree. I have netflix, hulu and sling. They all look the same at my house.

I have not seen one streaming media that comes close to looking as good as a bluray. And it isnt going to be possible due to compression rates and bandwidths. Lots of artifacts floating around with streaming.

#529 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Philo is okay. Better than SlingTV because it's compressed less so the picture isn't as soft, but they only offer 30fps. We had it for a while, but the interface was the thing that turned us off more than anything. If they had popular news channels, we'd probably have sucked it up and kept them since it was a perfect compliment to our OTA TiVos. But extremely limited news options (Cheddar news doesn't count!) killed them for us.

60 FPS isnt required imo. For sports yes, but 60 fps is for fast movie scenes.

This is always a big topic in the video game industry. And even with 30 fps, games will still look good.

#530 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Philo is okay. Better than SlingTV because it's compressed less so the picture isn't as soft, but they only offer 30fps. We had it for a while, but the interface was the thing that turned us off more than anything. If they had popular news channels, we'd probably have sucked it up and kept them since it was a perfect compliment to our OTA TiVos. But extremely limited news options (Cheddar news doesn't count!) killed them for us.

This is even on the youtube tv website. So granted, perhaps the reason it doesnt bother me is becuase I do most of my movie watching via disc..

"The higher frame rate smoothes the image and makes high action streams look much better. While this is not that noticeable when watching most entertainment shows, it becomes very noticeable on streams with a lot of motion, like live sports and movies."

#531 4 years ago
Quoted from Rager170:

yea sorry, I just disagree. I have netflix, hulu and sling. They all look the same at my house.
I have not seen one streaming media that comes close to looking as good as a bluray. And it isnt going to be possible due to compression rates and bandwidths. Lots of artifacts floating around with streaming.

Depends on your TV/AV receiver. We're working with 4k OLED and Plasma (depending on the room), so if you have crappy source, it's obvious.

Same thing with frame rate. If you're sensitive to it, it's obvious.

Netflix is MARKEDLY better on our OLED than SlingTV. Not even in the same universe.

#532 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Depends on your TV/AV receiver. We're working with 4k OLED and Plasma (depending on the room), so if you have crappy source, it's obvious.
Same thing with frame rate. If you're sensitive to it, it's obvious.

I have an LG OLED and Samsung QLED.

#533 4 years ago
Quoted from Rager170:

I have an LG OLED and Samsung QLED.

Well there's your problem. If you are okay with QLED after having OLED, you must not be sensitive to picture quality.

#534 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

Well there's your problem. If you are okay with QLED after having OLED, you must not be sensitive to picture quality.

Oh please lol. Now you are just getting silly .

But this is a good example of why streaming will never be as good as disc. So yes, perhaps im picky with my movies and dont care about the tv. (I dont actually watch much actual tv).

https://thewirecutter.com/blog/are-you-really-watching-4k-on-your-new-4k-tv/

#535 4 years ago
Quoted from mcluvin:

I just use the news apps on my Roku when I'm not using OTA. I like the MSNBC app. The evening news is generally live on it.

I hate this crappy trend to require discrete apps to get the content you want and refuse to do it. Companies just want the user data for themselves, so it's an artificial constraint. I won't support it.

#536 4 years ago

Sling was only $5 this month so I subbed just so I could watch speedweeks on Fox. Video quality looks fine to me.

I read PlutoTV redesigned their interface on Roku. Going to fire it up tonight to see what all changed. Would be nice if I could just create a favorites listing to filter out all the stuff I don't watch.

#537 4 years ago
Quoted from Rager170:

Oh please lol. Now you are just getting silly .
But this is a good example of why streaming will never be as good as disc. So yes, perhaps im picky with my movies and dont care about the tv. (I dont actually watch much actual tv).
https://thewirecutter.com/blog/are-you-really-watching-4k-on-your-new-4k-tv/

You DO realize thewirecutter.com is a pay for review site that has been caught pushing product they've been paid to. That linked article reads like an advertorial for Blu Ray, which it likely is given their history and reputation.

#538 4 years ago
Quoted from PinMonk:

You DO realize thewirecutter.com is a pay for review site that has been caught pushing product they've been paid to. That linked article reads like an advertorial for Blu Ray, which it likely is given their history and reputation.

There are numerous articles that say the same thing. And like these articles say, 4k streaming is close to the quality of a 1080p bluray.

https://www.reviewgeek.com/6416/is-it-better-to-watch-a-4k-movie-on-blu-ray-or-through-streaming/
https://www.whathifi.com/us/features/4k-streaming-vs-4k-blu-ray-vs-blu-ray-which-best
http://www.pavtube.cn/4k-streaming-vs-4k-blu-ray-vs-blu-ray.html

#539 4 years ago

It appears Fox Sports is going to remain on YouTube tv temporarily as they work out a long term deal

#540 4 years ago
Quoted from djsolzs:

It appears Fox Sports is going to remain on YouTube tv temporarily as they work out a long term deal

I gotta believe that the owners of Fox Sports has really hurt themselves by being such dickheads. They have to be missing out on a lot of money with all these streaming services dropping them wouldn't you think?

#541 4 years ago

I wish I had an app to manage my streaming services.
Say I wanted Star Wars and Star Trek, along with NetFlix and Amazon Native shows.
Something I could optimally turn on and off a stream, so that I binge watch a couple series a month,
on one service, turn off, turn on another service, and repeat.
A Master, Master remote.

BTW There are two Credit cards to pay all these bills with nice reward.
5% on chase ink, and 6% on Amex Blue.
They list the companies that this applies to, but Im happy with a bit more than $15 a month back.

#542 4 years ago
Quoted from OLDPINGUY:

I wish I had an app to manage my streaming services.
Say I wanted Star Wars and Star Trek, along with NetFlix and Amazon Native shows.
Something I could optimally turn on and off a stream, so that I binge watch a couple series a month,
on one service, turn off, turn on another service, and repeat.
A Master, Master remote.
BTW There are two Credit cards to pay all these bills with nice reward.
5% on chase ink, and 6% on Amex Blue.
They list the companies that this applies to, but Im happy with a bit more than $15 a month back.

AMEX Blue Preferred outright gives you $20 back on Fubo each month as a rebate, as long as you're signed up on the AMEX control panel.

The only thing I outright hate about Fubo is they have it set so if you swipe left or right (even a little) on the apple remote, it changes the channel and you lose the buffer of the channel you're watching. I've picked up the remote and in the process accidentally changed channels more times than I can count. It's a TERRIBLE feature, but there's no way I can see to turn it off.

#543 4 years ago
Quoted from OLDPINGUY:

I wish I had an app to manage my streaming services.

I subscribe, watch the full season of whatever, cancel, then get it again when I need it...for stuff like cbs all access. Only bummer is avoiding spoilers for shows until the whole season is available

#544 4 years ago

Getting warmer out...probably venture out on the roof and take the dish down finally. Plan to replace it with this. Any objections, tips or tricks? I plan to use the same coax and mast from the dish.

TV Antenna - RCA Outdoor Yagi Satellite HD Antenna with Over 70 Mile Range - Attic or Roof Mount TV Antenna, Long Range Digital OTA Antenna for Clear Reception, 4K 1080P https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0024R4B5C/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_hd7yEb6Z43BXN

#545 4 years ago
Quoted from Wickerman2:

I subscribe, watch the full season of whatever, cancel, then get it again when I need it...for stuff like cbs all access. Only bummer is avoiding spoilers for shows until the whole season is available

I do the same with sports. Signed up with Sling for college bowl season on ESPN, canceled after National Championship Game. I signed up again at the beginning of February for their $5 month special to watch speedweeks on Fox and canceled earlier this week.

Signed up for ESPN+ for $5 a month for NHL, will cancel in a few weeks when the season is over.

#546 4 years ago
Quoted from Chitownpinball:

Getting warmer out...probably venture out on the roof and take the dish down finally. Plan to replace it with this. Any objections, tips or tricks? I plan to use the same coax and mast from the dish.
TV Antenna - RCA Outdoor Yagi Satellite HD Antenna with Over 70 Mile Range - Attic or Roof Mount TV Antenna, Long Range Digital OTA Antenna for Clear Reception, 4K 1080P amazon.com link »

That should work fine. You can use the same coax as the dish. They probably used RG-6. I have RG-6 Quad shield on mine because we have above ground power line in our neighborhood which can cause interference.

#547 4 years ago
Quoted from Chitownpinball:

Getting warmer out...probably venture out on the roof and take the dish down finally. Plan to replace it with this. Any objections, tips or tricks? I plan to use the same coax and mast from the dish.
TV Antenna - RCA Outdoor Yagi Satellite HD Antenna with Over 70 Mile Range - Attic or Roof Mount TV Antenna, Long Range Digital OTA Antenna for Clear Reception, 4K 1080P amazon.com link »

There's a multiple page thread on an antenna forum about this antenna. I think it's supposed to be pretty good and is an old winegard design. I only need UHF. The UHF portion of this antenna is that little section at the front.

Here it is...

http://forum.tvfool.com/showthread.php?t=16264

#548 4 years ago

Cut the cord a while back, not missing it much, enjoying streaming and YouTube TV helps a lot.

Question I have is about connectivity for the rest of the house, I'm seeing lots of slowdowns in WIFI for laptops and house. We upped our bandwidth when we switched but still seeing lag. Is this likely a modem/router problem? I thought about buy/using our own equipment figuring that it would be better than whatever spectrum provided us.

Is this a valid fix? And an easy switch? I know they won't support it but figure I would just swap back if any service required in future.

Thoughts? Thanks.

#549 4 years ago

I know there was a setting on my router called "media prioritization" or something similar where you listed devices by what you wanted to have the best/fastest speed but it ended up limiting the entire bandwidth I had by 30% or so. Once I turned that off, everything ran better and I was getting all the speed I was paying for. Are your speed tests up to par for what you pay for?

#550 4 years ago
Quoted from Leeb18509:

I know there was a setting on my router called "media prioritization" or something similar where you listed devices by what you wanted to have the best/fastest speed but it ended up limiting the entire bandwidth I had by 30% or so. Once I turned that off, everything ran better and I was getting all the speed I was paying for. Are your speed tests up to par for what you pay for?

Just make sure speed tests are done at the modem and not the router. Router speeds are not what the companies are claiming, only what is coming into your house...

For personal experience, what you can buy yourself is much better than what the companies are giving you.

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