Cord Cutters Rejoice [Sling TV]

RooksGambit wrote:

That was a retention specialist. I actually spoke to 3 tiers of CSRs at TWC. I started out with the regular one, then got a retention specialist, then they transferred me to an even higher tier for Intelligent Home customers.

At this point my wife and I are seriously debating dumping everything but internet and buying season passes as Billt721 suggested above. I figure 4 season passes would be a $100 (approx), thinking about it as a "monthly" bill it would cost around $8 bucks a month which isn't terrible. I'm just so done with all of them.

Thanks for the heads up on AT&T, I dodged a bullet with those overage charges. They may charge it inconsistently but since I'm not working while I go back to school I can't afford to roll the dice in the hopes they don't charge me. Being stuck behind a contract with overage charges would be a disaster.

IMAGE(http://media.makeameme.org/created/yessss-join-us.jpg)

Officially cut the cord. Wow TWC made that super painful

Me: I'd like to eliminate my cable TV and intelligent home
TWC: I'm sorry to hear that, can you tell me which cable channels you like watch?
Me: This is my 3rd time calling, I've done that twice already. I just want a price on internet alone
TWC: Ok hold while I check
TWC (FIVE minutes later...): Ok I was able to secure a one time special bundle that includes your DVR, all your current channels and your intelligent home for only 230 a month, that's a 10 dollar savings a month over your current bill. Now if I -
Me: No no no no no. How much just for internet
TWC: Ok hold while I check
TWC (ANOTHER FIVE minutes later...): Ok sir I was able find another bundle that includes basic cable and your current internet for only 160 a mo -
Me: Nononononono. How much for just internet? That's all I want. Internet. Just internet. INTERNET
TWC: Ok hold while I check
TWC (YET ANOTHER FIVE minutes later...): Ok sir I do have this great special, it's starter cable plus your current internet for 120
Me: I feel like I'm in crazy land. Can I talk to a supervisor? This is crazy. I just want internet
TWC: Of course, the retail for internet would be 130
Me: Wait, that's more than you just quoted me for starter TV

...AND I'm just going to stop there because I'm tired of typing but that went on for another 20 minutes at the end of which I almost screamed "JUST F&I$#NG CANCEL EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING GONE" but i held my cool and now just have 30MBPS internet.

Good lord...

Yeah, they don't want anyone cutting the cord. Really, more people should use that to their advantage. "I'm leaving." "Wait! We can cut your bill in half!" "...Ok."

In fact, NFL Game Day peeps should do that every year, they'll offer it to you half off.

You have got to be f*ing kidding me!

Time Warner Inc. wants a stake in Hulu, and an end to current-season streaming

Do the Time Warner execs wake up everyday and think to themselves, "How can we sh*t all over our customers and piss as many people off as we can?"?

I mean seriously?

RooksGambit wrote:

You have got to be f*ing kidding me

Do the Time Warner execs wake up everyday and think to themselves, "How can we sh*t all over our customers and piss as many people off as we can?"?

I mean seriously?

Pretty sure that's the exact thought, yep.

I signed up the for the Sling TV seven day trial yesterday and I've watched it for a few hours on different channels on my Roku and it has worked surprisingly well. The quality is on par with cable HD channels, channel switching is fast and the guide is decent, better than any cable box guide I've seen. If you want the channels they have I don't see any reason why you would pay more for cable.

The biggest complaint I have is the spottiness of the DVR-like functionality where you can rewind or pause shows. It seems to be channel specific so you can on some channels but not others, which is a bummer.

Yeah, the DVR aspect always irritated us, especially on Freeform (ie. ABC Family) where they played the same commercial over and over again.

Zoso1701 wrote:
RooksGambit wrote:

You have got to be f*ing kidding me

Do the Time Warner execs wake up everyday and think to themselves, "How can we sh*t all over our customers and piss as many people off as we can?"?

I mean seriously?

Pretty sure that's the exact thought, yep.

Blurgh. I actually love my Hulu Plus (WITH NO COMMERCIALS, REJOICE) subscription, but would definitely cancel if that happens.

Hulu Plus dropped commercials? Huh, might be worth buying finally.

garion333 wrote:

Hulu Plus dropped commercials? Huh, might be worth buying finally.

This is game changing!!

Hulu Plus charges an extra $3 per month for the no commercials option. Money well spent as far as I'm concerned. The same commercials, often played back to back, was a big part of why I cancelled my subscription with them a few years back.

What do you cord cutters do for tennis?

Sling has ESPN and ESPN2, which also gets you access to ESPN3 stuff on watchESPN app or on espn.com. That has most of the important tennis I think. NBC (over the air broadcast) might have some of the major finals, too?

Tennis Channel offers a sub for $90/yr through their app if you no longer have a cable subscription.

Cool beans

I switched from the OG Sling (Orange) to Sling Blue about a month ago when they released it out of beta.

I lost ESPN, ESPN2 and a few other channels that I never watched, but gained a LOT more in the process. It is well worth the extra $5 a month and now feels like cable tv to me combined with my OTA HD antennae. I can also stream on 3 devices instead of just the 1 in the Orange package.

Here is a link with a comparison of the 2 packages plus more at the bottom that shows what else you can add ala carte:

http://www.techhive.com/article/2909...

It's just a shame that Disney is not a part of Blue. ESPN I can easily live without, but Disney seems like a pretty big loss for someone with kids. Definitely prefer Disney programs to Nick Jr.

I think for myself I will stop trying to stay current on shows I don't love and just waiting for them to go to netflix, dvd, prime, or something. Just looking back a bit there were or are only a few shows I cared enough about to want to watch right when they came out. Those were Game of Thrones and Mr Robot.

I'm watching Killjoys, Dark Matter, Power, Powers, and Unreal but I don't really need to watch them as soon as they come out.

How's the quality of the streaming gotten for sling? My wife really liked having something she could just turn on and not have to seek something out but it was never a consistent stream. None of the other services have a problem so I just assumed it was sling so I dropped it.

Sling has been working good to very well for most of the time we've had it over the last 11 months. Certain really popular basketball games and the Walking Dead would tank the stream (for that channel only), though. This is through a Roku; could never really get the PC app to work correctly when I tried it 11 months ago.

I use the Roku Stick myself for the main tv and have only the occasional hiccup with the signal, but really no more than any other broadband based signal coming in for us. I will add more once I get moved into my new apartment and get it setup through Chromecast and the Xbone on the other 2 tvs.

I will say that I have had no problems whatsoever using Sling on my computer, and I use it a lot on my pc since it's in my bedroom.

Arise Thread

So, my 2 year contract is up with FIOS. Love the service but they are way too expensive. The last time our contract was up, they wanted to double our price.

How is SlingTV? I tried to figure out the pricing, but their website is being obtuse about pricing. What speed internet service do you need to keep a good stream.

Generally, I want to compare the price of FIOS vs Internet + Sling and Netflix vs Cox Communications.

Has anyone else looked at this?

Sling is okay, it's definitely cheaper than standard cable, but it's a bit more limited.

We paid for Sling for a few months, but I don't care for their interface. They've since updated it, but the little I messed with it I still didn't care for it. We tended to have some small issues with wifi speed on my old router, but I got a new one and had a lot less buffering issues. On a hard connection it was smooth as can be. We were on 20 or 30 mbps when we paid for it.

Playstation Vue felt more slick to me, but it's also pricier. I think I prefer it's channel options.

Keep in mind that if you want more than one tv at a time streaming stuff you will need to have a decent internet connection. Netflix, I believe, uses 5 mbps when doing HD, but the closer you get to maxxing your mbps overall the more buffering you'll get. I'd say 20 mbps is the least I'd ever consider for watching two streams at a time.

I use Sling Blue, upgrading from the standard Sling Orange. I have more channels like AMC, Comedy Central and SyFy but I did lose the ESPN channels as well as Disney and can stream on up to 3 different devices simultaneously, paying approx $25 a month for it. The original (Sling Orange) is $20 a month and can only be streamed on 1 device at a time. You can combine both services for $40 a month that will get you both Orange and Blue together, but I didn't bother since I don't really watch sports.

I team that up with my Mohu OTA HD antennae, Yahoo View (rebadged free version of Hulu) and a Netflix subscription, so I don't fell I am missing out on anything when it comes to entertainment.

I will add that I am on a 100mbps signal and routinely stay around 120mbps, so I have not noticed any issues with my service/signal.

Channel guide and additional info on the packages:
http://www.techhive.com/article/2909...

For me, I went with Hulu + Netflix + HBO Now. I then supplement by purchasing season passes of my shows on Amazon and so far I'm saving a ton of money and couldn't be happier.

I usually watch about 15 shows throughout the year and 5 of them are free on the channels website (like the CW shows). So that's

10 shows * $25 (avg full season pass) = $250/ yr
12 mo of Hulu, Netflix, HBO @ 15/mo = $540 /yr
= $790 /yr

versus cable (extended channels so I get ScyFy and BBC + HBO) @ $130/mo = $1560 /yr

It's not just the savings though, it's that I can watch what I want, when I want at my own schedule. Also sticking it to the monopolistic cable companies is almost worth it in itself.

I just got an OTA antenna installed, and my internet is now through a local ISP. Freedom (well, at least perceived freedom).

After the second year in a row of a letter from Spectrum saying our promotional rate had ended, and they were raising our rate (and not actually having a promotional rate this last year), I saved $120/month yesterday by cutting the TV out of the bundle.

Bought this HDTV antenna a few days ago, got delivered this afternoon, and had to verify on two different TVs that it was the antenna that didn't work, not the TV for some reason. Even amplified, it detects one channel on my old TV, with a signal strength too low to even display anything. So it's going back to Amazon.

We're about 37.1 miles from the transmitters in Austin, according to the Antennas Direct app that shows exactly the angle to point the antenna.

Had a Mohu Leaf a few years back (unamplified), that'd only get half the channels in the living room, the other half in my office, so I figured I'd try amplified this time, but had no luck with this turd. Considering this one I found via The WireCutter. At least Amazon's got a good return policy.

Anyone have any recommendations on amplified indoor HDTV antennas?

I paid about $400 to have one installed in my house. He installed it in my attic and hooked it into the existing cable wiring. I just had to disconnect the cable coming into the house. Of that $400, the antenna was about $250. From what he was saying anything less then $200 will probably give issues. It has been a year and I have only had a two outages that I know of.

I had good luck with the amplified version of the Leaf. If the unamplified got you half it is probably worth trying the amplified version if you are looking for a low cost option.

I got a Winegard powered antenna from Amazon 4 years ago. Supposed to be 50 mile range and so far so good.