Cutting the Cable

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by TheFreak55, May 14, 2015.

  1. Shawn Hunter

    Shawn Hunter Vote Corey Matthews for Congress
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    Unless you are streaming/downloading 4K stuff, have shit downloading/streaming round the clock, or have like 8 people living in your residence, I don't know how the hell anyone goes over 1TB.
     
  2. am16401

    am16401 Praise God
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    Unless Comcast is trying to jip me which is possible they claim we're doing like 600-700gbs a month and that's only streaming Netflix, prime, and terranium and my oldest on Xbox live. I don't torrance anymore so I don't know how we're over half the cap when most of the TV watching is through the boxes if cord cutters in this thread aren't coming close to exceeding that cap.
     
  3. UM_Spoon

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    I usually have 2-3 running at same time
     
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  4. WillySaliba

    WillySaliba Well-Known Member
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    There are ways that you can track usage. You can either set up a centralized PC or upgrade your network. If anyone is interested or needs help with this, let me know. Disclaimer, you need to be computer literate and/or have the patience to work through some of the set up. Can be a pain to work through the initial process but once it's running it's smooth.

    Also just checked, we did 220 Gig last month, no cap.

    4 people, 5 TVs, quite a bit of streaming from an ipad and two kid PCs. Other item of note, I worked from home which could probably account for at least 50-75 Gig of that traffic, if not more.
     
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  5. bro

    bro Your Mother’s Favorite Shitposter
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  6. roonskie

    roonskie Getting older every day
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  7. Principal McVicker

    Principal McVicker Not so New Member
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    My favorite apps on my firestick is Modbro (streaming channels/shows) and Terrarium TV (streaming movies/shows). I am trying to learn how to use Kodi, are there any apps/programs similar to those two?
     
  8. ButchCassidy

    ButchCassidy Well-Known Member
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    for $17/month you can get access to myStreams which will grant you access to nearly every sporting event going on. only add-on i use within Kodi since i got Terrarium.
     
  9. BrickTamland

    BrickTamland You're not Ron...
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    Two months into cable-less life. $40 a month for Comcast to bring internet into our house, and otherwise just getting content through my Amazon Fire TV (subscriptions: Pandora, Netflix, Prime.)

    Overall happy, just head over to a local restaurant if I want to watch sports. News via free apps (Al Jazera, Fox, CNN all have free content.)

    Fiancée definitely spends less time watching TV now since she can’t just waste away in front of HGTV, Cooking Channel, and Hallmark movies.
     
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  10. Principal McVicker

    Principal McVicker Not so New Member
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    I'll research that. Thank you.
     
  11. NoNatty

    NoNatty Keyboard Cowboy
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    is mystreams actually working? Dropped it after they moved because I couldn’t login.
     
  12. WillySaliba

    WillySaliba Well-Known Member
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    I got it working, posted what I did a few pages back. Worked for about a month and now no dice again. Going to pretty much wait it out until mid August before the mass football rush.
     
  13. NC Wolfpack

    NC Wolfpack Go Pack Go
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    Haven’t had any issues in the past 45 or so days.
     
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  14. Det. Frank Bullitt

    Det. Frank Bullitt God Bless Texas
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    everybody ready to cancel espn+ tomorrow, befores Sat renewal?
     
  15. dump

    dump TMB’s premier expert on women’s CBB
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    I’ve wasted $5 in worse ways
     
  16. BP

    BP Bout to Regulate.
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    YouTube TV losing $60M a year with ‘no obvious path to not losing money,’ analyst says
    by Daniel Frankel |
    May 14, 2018 1:30pm
    [​IMG]
    YouTube TV's losses rise with each additional subscriber, analyst Todd Juenger said. (Pixabay)
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    While it has carved out one of the more attractive offerings in the tightly competitive virtual MVPD marketplace, YouTube TV faces daunting prospects in regard to achieving profitability, Bernstein Research analyst Todd Juenger says.

    “Here's one big problem—any way we add it up, it loses money. (Just like all the other vMVPDs also lose money),” wrote Juenger, while staying that YouTube TV has “no obvious path to profitability.”


    Performing a somewhat speculative yet transparent mathematical exercise replete with cost and revenue estimates, Juenger concluded in a note to shareholders late last week that YouTube’s live streaming service loses around $5 per customer.

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    Alphabet hasn’t reported subscriber numbers for its year-old vMVPD. In January, citing anonymous sources, Business Insider estimated that the service had around 300,000 customers.

    Basing an estimate on the service having 1 million subscribers, however—and factoring in programming cost figures from SNL Kagan—Juenger estimates YouTube TV is losing around $5 per customer, or $60 million a year.

    “That’s not even a rounding error for Alphabet,” he noted.

    But with programming costs expanding over time with annual reups, and YouTube TV’s expenditure rising with each customer, what happens when the service gets to 5 million customers and is losing $10 on each of them?

    “Now we have a loss of -$600 million. Material yet?” Juenger added.


    Of course, this economic discussion could be applied to any of the vMVPDs in the market. Some of their operators, notably AT&T, have tried in recent weeks to convince investors that the evolution in factors such as advanced advertising revenue will eventually fatten margins for vMVPD services like DirecTV Now.

    RELATED: Deeper Dive—AT&T gets explicit on its ‘transition’ to DirecTV Now … and how the low-margin virtual platform will pay its freight

    Since Alphabet hasn’t released any similar spin on YouTube TV, Juenger speculated on what he thinks the company’s ultimate profitability path for its live streaming service might be.

    Might Alphabet be hopeful that customers will so fall in love with YouTube TV that it can raise the price of the service? Not likely, Juenger noted, given the competitiveness of the vMVPD market.

    Might Alphabet be banking on the extraordinary digital ad sales capabilities of Google? The analyst doesn’t buy that either.

    Finally, might Alphabet be trying to form its own “network,” replete with powerful sports rights packages, by proving its ability to live stream? Juenger was warmer to that prospect.

    “If YouTube won a significant sports rights contract (it wouldn't necessarily need to be one of the major pro sports leagues, by the way), they could create their own 'network' on YouTube TV as a home for it,” he analyst wrote. “And they would control and monetize 100% of the ad inventory.”
     
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  17. Fran Tarkenton

    Fran Tarkenton Hilton Honors VIP
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    Directv Now starting to slowly release their updated interface with Cloud DVR. Seems to be limited to web based then moving to streaming devices.

    Still find Youtube TV to be the best for my $, but DirectTV with the highest ceiling if they ever get their shit together.
     
  18. westcoastbias

    westcoastbias Well-Known Member
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    Guidance is appreciated.. My wife's remodeling our house and so I get to upgrade our entertainment room. Here's the setup:

    Hardware:
    Sony 900f 75 inch (supports Dolby Vision with future firmware release)
    Sonos soundbar and sub

    Content:
    Netflix $13
    Hulu $10
    Sling TV $20

    My friend just sent me a jail broken Fire Stick. I haven't followed the instructions to set it up yet but I assume that replaces everything I'm currently paying for.

    Two questions - if I'm only going to stream 4k movies and not going to buy any blu ray/4k discs, is there any point to getting a PS4 or X Box to stream 4k movies? My assumption is that a 4k movie streamed direct to my TV or my Fire Stick isn't going to be any different than one I stream through a separate device but I don't know the answer for sure.

    Sports... For the best possible picture for live sports, I need Directv right? Fubo looks good but frame rate is super important on a big screen and I don't think I can do anything but Directv.

    Any other recommendations are appreciated to make the setup better. I'm probably going to get a Switch for my kids (4 and 6) unless there's a reason outside of gaming to go with a PS4 or Xbox.
     
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  19. WillySaliba

    WillySaliba Well-Known Member
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    For the question regarding streaming, none of your devices are going to throttle bandwidth, which mean anything should work in terms of streaming 4K content. Almost all the devices are agnostic in that you can just get the app you need, tailored for the device. I frequently experience issues with my Playstations where they don't have an app I need. I can't speak to XBox, but I would assume it's the same for reasons to ultimately pigeon hole you and drive you in one direction or another. I'd recommend FireTv or Roku as they really don't care what you use on them. Fire I have not encountered any issues with, just got my first roku TV and it wont be set up for another month. I'd probably lean Roku, without having used it, for geek reasons I won't get into here that can rabbit hole.

    I would recommend figuring out how to "jail break" a Fire Stick. It's not that hard and you will know how to fix it, delete your current config, and/or reinstall whatever the latest and greatest is. It's not that horrible. Highly recommend one of these if you dive in.



    Last recommendation is upgrade your in home wireless and/or run a few Ethernet cables to your entertainment area while your remodeling is in progress. With your 4K goal this is important. Your wireless router could potentially throttle your bandwidth.

    If you go the wireless route, Ubiquiti is the way to go. This would cost about $400, possibly more if you need cabling run. PM me if you have any questions on that.
     
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  20. westcoastbias

    westcoastbias Well-Known Member
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    Thanks, I just ordered a Nighthawk AC1900 to help with the streaming.
     
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  21. mangler

    mangler Well-Known Member
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    Hulu (Live) has been shit since last Thursday or Friday for me on both a Fire TV & Fire Stick, and to a lesser degree on the Roku Stick. Called them and they asked if I was on TWC, which I am, because they've been seeing consistent errors on that combination. Seems a little suspicious, but I'm not going to make any assumptions. On a positive note, they did give me a 1 month credit.

    So now I'm thinking of switching to YouTube TV as I'm not going to pay for Hulu when it barely works, but you can't get the App on the Amazon devices because Google and Amazon are petty bitches.
     
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  22. Det. Frank Bullitt

    Det. Frank Bullitt God Bless Texas
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    YouTube TV has 60fps on some channels, do other providers support this?
     
  23. Bruce Bowen

    Bruce Bowen Well-Known Member
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    I've not tried it yet and it's probably annoying to deal with but I did find this yesterday:
    https://yourtechexplained.com/2017/12/05/how-to-watch-youtube-tv-on-amazon-fire-tv/
     
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  24. WillySaliba

    WillySaliba Well-Known Member
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    This was kind of what I was alluding to with Roku as the preference. Ultimately most people probably will always need more than one device anyhow, and most TVs have at least four HDMI ports out of the box.
     
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  25. mangler

    mangler Well-Known Member
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    I found the same thing last night, but didn't try it either as on the surface it seemed to complicated to get my kids and wife to use. I may try it and report back, but switching to Roku or one of the other providers will likely be the easier solution.
     
  26. Bruce Bowen

    Bruce Bowen Well-Known Member
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    Yeah I went with Roku, highly recommend. Trying to get my buddy to switch to YouTube but he has 3 Fire TVs. Think I convinced him to do directvnow for 3 months to score a free apple tv so he doesn't have to replace all his devices out of pocket and then switch to YouTube when that's up.
    https://www.directvnow.com/appletv
     
  27. Kevintensity

    Kevintensity Poster/Posting Game Coordinator
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    Finally cut my cable and signed up for ps vue. Cable bill was 185, internet and Vue will be about 115-125
     
  28. pacey

    pacey Well-Known Member
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    I just bought a Fire Stick and loaded Kodi on it. I put one build on it (Neptune RIsing) . Anyone have other suggestions? Possibly a sports one. Accidentally loaded an adult Build called No Limits. Not family Friendly.
     
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  29. WillySaliba

    WillySaliba Well-Known Member
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    mystreams, but it's pay. Well worth the price IMO.
     
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  30. NC Wolfpack

    NC Wolfpack Go Pack Go
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    MyStreams. Should also download terrarium, but that will be on your firestick and not through Kodi.
     
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  31. 1

    1 A real fan. GBR!
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    I'm almost 3 months into cutting the cable and have zero complaints. My setup is a Roku Ultra that I have directly connected to my modem/router via Ethernet cable. I subscribe to YouTube TV and have never had even 1 second of buffering or any issue. I also have a Chromecast that I use rarely for things that aren't available thru the Roku or YouTube TV but I only use that like 5% of the time. Still good to have it as a back up though as it just has the one time cost and was a cheap cost at that.
     
  32. 1

    1 A real fan. GBR!
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    Also, we're half way thru 2018. Might be time to update the thread title TheFreak55
     
  33. TheFreak55

    TheFreak55 He should keep his mouth firmly shut
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    dropped the year are you happy
     
  34. 1

    1 A real fan. GBR!
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    [​IMG]
     
  35. NoNatty

    NoNatty Keyboard Cowboy
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    We’re moving and my contract with Comcast is up (and so is the promotional offer). Are they a company that is easy to get them to give you another promotional offer provided you do another year agreement?
     
  36. Zebbie

    Zebbie Hey Mike, guess what I have in my underwear?
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    Cancel current service & sign up for the new service at the new place under your wife’s name
     
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  37. cskey

    cskey Well-Known Member

    thats a solid starter setup you got....i do sonos soundbars and woofers in everyroom except the media room.....as much as i love sonos it still cant compete w real gear
     
  38. * J Y *

    * J Y * TEXAS
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  39. Doug

    Doug Skeptical Doug-o
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    I re-cut the cord a few weeks ago, it's been great - the only thing I miss is turning on the TV for simple background noise. Using Amazon, Netflix, and the wife likes Hulu. Have a cable log-in for NBC Sports / ESPN.
     
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  40. * J Y *

    * J Y * TEXAS
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    If I have:

    400 mbps xfinity internet
    Directvnow + Apple TV 4k
    Amazon, Hulu, Netflix

    What will I be missing?
     
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  41. Petito

    Petito coys
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    The chromecast is useful for throwing illegal streams to your tv. I know for sure that you can do this with the major sports, especially NFL/MLB games. Not sure about boxing/mma
     
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  42. westcoastbias

    westcoastbias Well-Known Member
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    I have second entertainment/adult room on our first floor with a 65in 900e I got last year. I added a Sonos sound bar to that too this week.

    I've got them installed now. Very cool how you can group them and watch a game throughout the downstairs now. It's a good surround sound system with the sub but I agree, it's not as good as a wired more audiophile system. My downstairs is really open and there isn't a true media room so wired 5.1 didn't really work with the floor plan. I'd recommend the Sonos system for anything similar.

    The app and ease of use is a huge plus. My wife is big on Alexa and it makes it so she can control everything too, which is nice that I'm not required to play music or adjust anything for her. Our downstairs surround sound is essentially remoteless and she can play any music source (Spotify, Amazon, iheart, phone library) and adjust volume in both rooms using voice control.

    Still setting up the room and installing wood shelves after the remodel but here's the 75 in the media room.
    tjsq2nKA-16663244.jpg

    I did subscribe to fubo and it's pretty great for coverage. World cup games are all on and you can watch games that you missed live. Picture quality is a 6, comparable to like a low quality hd college football broadcast. The issue is really FPS. Even with the new router at 200mbs dedicated, the FPS is too low and causes blurring that doesn't happen with cable and directv.

    I'll probably cancel fubo and sling when football starts and let directv take my money but right now I'm really pleased with the value I'm getting.
     
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  43. 1

    1 A real fan. GBR!
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    The only thing you'll be missing is the extra money that you're paying for that fast of a connection. You could easily get by with 100 mbps.

    Also, YouTube TV > DirectvNow but I'm biased
     
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  44. Fran Tarkenton

    Fran Tarkenton Hilton Honors VIP
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    I agree with both of these. DirectvNow still has to iron out a few issues.

    Use savings with 100 internet for supplemental sports subscriptions.
     
  45. lfriend

    lfriend Well-Known Member
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    Even 100 mbps is overkill unless you plan on running a bunch of streams at once.
     
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  46. * J Y *

    * J Y * TEXAS
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    The lowest they offer is 150 mbps. Which basically gets cut in half right?
     
  47. * J Y *

    * J Y * TEXAS
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    Oh nm I was only looking at the bundles.
     
  48. * J Y *

    * J Y * TEXAS
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    Id do directv to start so i can get the apple tv 4k.
     
  49. Det. Frank Bullitt

    Det. Frank Bullitt God Bless Texas
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    Then cancel and switch to youtubetv.

    In my experience, att uverse/directvnow web player is trash
     
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  50. WillySaliba

    WillySaliba Well-Known Member
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    I can’t really say anything bad about PSVue either. Coming up on a year.