I don't remember cable TV ever being ad free outside of HBO and other premium movie channels.
It's the people who grew up on the internet that have this weird compulsion to eliminate the very revenue that makes the content they enjoy possible. Hopefully we are seeing an end to that mindset.
Is it so weird? I know you don't mind ads, but can't you take it on faith that a lot of us find them really obnoxious and annoying?
If I could snap my fingers and eliminate ads from my life, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Just because this is one way that people can fund things doesn't mean that I as a consumer should be accepting of it. Luckily with video we are starting to have some real choices (between the ad-free VOD services like Amazon, Netflix, and now adding Hulu).
If I could snap my fingers and eliminate ads from my life, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Just because this is one way that people can fund things doesn't mean that I as a consumer should be accepting of it. Luckily with video we are starting to have some real choices (between the ad-free VOD services like Amazon, Netflix, and now adding Hulu).
Also, Daredevil was the best tv season/series of anything I saw in the 2014/15 season. No commercials. Netflix. Win-win.
Jayhawker wrote:I don't remember cable TV ever being ad free outside of HBO and other premium movie channels.
It's the people who grew up on the internet that have this weird compulsion to eliminate the very revenue that makes the content they enjoy possible. Hopefully we are seeing an end to that mindset.
Is it so weird? I know you don't mind ads, but can't you take it on faith that a lot of us find them really obnoxious and annoying?
If I could snap my fingers and eliminate ads from my life, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Just because this is one way that people can fund things doesn't mean that I as a consumer should be accepting of it. Luckily with video we are starting to have some real choices (between the ad-free VOD services like Amazon, Netflix, and now adding Hulu).
That's just it. You don't need to snap your fingers. There are tons of ways to buy that content and get it ad free right now. I watched the first several seasons of The Walking Dead and American Horror Story without cable or ads. It was $3.99 an episode. If you are willing to pay for it, you can skip the ads in almost every single TV show you want to watch. Even when we miss a network TV show because we didn't get it recorded, we can buy it the next day and watch it ad free. We started watching The Blacklist after the last Super Bowl, and my wife liked it so much we went back and bought season one, one episode at a time, ad free.
gore wrote:If I could snap my fingers and eliminate ads from my life, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Just because this is one way that people can fund things doesn't mean that I as a consumer should be accepting of it. Luckily with video we are starting to have some real choices (between the ad-free VOD services like Amazon, Netflix, and now adding Hulu).
Also, Daredevil was the best tv season/series of anything I saw in the 2014/15 season. No commercials. Netflix. Win-win.
And you had to pay a subscription to get it, and you also got a little bit of stuff you want to watch and whole heaps of stuff you don't, and you had to pay for all of that as well. Sound familiar?
Content costs money, and there are only a few ways that sh*t gets paid for.
I'll just drop this here... (NSFW!)
I don't mind paying for content. However, I do believe that most people in marketing and advertising really are Satan's little helpers. They steal time and attention from people's lives and they sell it. They are life thieves.
I moved last May to a new state/new job and never got cable, only internet. I've had Netflix and Youtube, and my DVD collection to entertain myself with. I'm thinking of adding Hulu to that list. I just started a free week trial, and so far have enjoyed the first couple episodes of the muppets, a few comedy central shows and I'm starting to watch Last Man on Earth from the beginning and I'm really enjoying that one.
One thing that's always bugged me about Hulu, is that many shows only have the last 5 episodes that have aired, so if I want to dive in from the start of one of those shows it's impossible. I'm trying the ad free version for this week- but I'm not as down on ads as some of you, so I'm still debating if I'll spend the extra 4 bucks on it or not.
Oh wise Goodjers, help me in my quest.
We moved and now Verizon FIOS is screwing us. Apparently we were "grandfathered" into some old pricing scheme and even though we didn't change anything other than our address they have bumped up our payment. They also signed us up for a "free trial" we didn't ask for and will autocharge us when it expires. We got it removed but it is those kind of shenanigans that have made me tire of them.
My wife is the lone holdout because she couldn't cut the chord on our landline. Or as I like to call it "The last remaining point of contact between telemarketers and our house." Seriously, she has one friend, her mom, and her brother that still use it for some damn reason. I am not exaggerating when I say 90% of the calls are telemarketers even though we are supposedly on the "do not call" list.
We can knock $80 a month off our bill by dumping the TV and telephone packages. We already pay for Netflix. I am thinking we can use Hulu for our shows. What do people do about local newscasts? That is the one thing my wife refuses to give up. Again, not sure why as I find televised news to be the most superficial and worthless of all news.
If you're close enough to a Metro area, I highly recommend and HD OTA antennae! I pick up about 30+ channels, including the major broadcasters (CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, CW, et al). YMMV of course. I live less than 10 miles from Nashville, TN and use a Mohu 50.
Outdoor antenna (this depends heavily on where you live and what stations are around you). I used to use a WMC box as a DVR, but don't anymore.
Many locals now stream newscasts on their websites as well. I know we have for years.
Crazed botsjava, some thoughts.
If you guys have cell through verizon, would she be willing to set up another line on that account for a cell linked handset in the house? I'm thinking it should be less than $80 for a non-data line. Honestly, in my mind it's silly that removing a hardline and adding a cell line would be cheaper, but maybe something to look at.
As for TV. My wife and I cut the cable in August. We have Amazon Prime(some series and kid shows)($100/ year or $50/year for student), and Netflix(some series , movies, and kid shows)($8/month). We have Over The Air set up through a fairly standard set of rabbit ears that I will upgrade at some point. My sister uses Hulu plus, and I believe hulu has more current content on the shows they support. Another option my wife and I have considered is SlingTV, especially for the disney channel($20/Month).
After cutting the cable tv cord we also adjusted our cell plans through Verizon, and are now spending $150 less a month on tv and phones.
Another option my wife and I have considered is SlingTV, especially for the disney channel($20/Month).
Whoops! Yeah, I neglected to mention that I use SlingTV as well, and have been since it was released. It's a very solid $20 a month spent, even with it's hiccups. I took advantage of SlingTV's promotion and got the free Roku stick and my boys use it a ton for watching CrunchyRoll and YouTube videos.
Indoor antennas like the Mohu Leaf, Wineguard, or AmazonBasics knockoff can get OTA up to 35 miles away pretty easily. The powered ones go up to 50 although YMMV.
I get all 6 networks (CBS, FOX, NBC, CW, PBS, ABC), plus one other local station, and each of those channels has between 2-4 total channels, that show other content (old shows, movies, extra news, weather, music videos, etc). So something like 22 channels for free.
(Puts on TV-nerd hat)
Indoor antennas will depend very-very much on the frequencies of the stations you're trying to receive. If you're going for all UHF stations, likely okay for now -- with possible trouble coming from the repack. High VHF still has a chance, but not nearly as good. Low VHF, no way in hell.
Take Memphis for example. Channel 5 (WMC) there is actually on low VHF channel 5. If you can't see the tower from your house, I'll put that in the "no f*cking way" category. You'd pretty much HAVE to have an outdoor. Of course, just because it's "Channel 5" doesn't always mean it's on 5, as virtual channel remapping means many of those low channels are actually up in the UHF range. There aren't very many low VHF, but again -- much of this is going to depend on what channels you're going for.
I mucked around with various web sites that purport to tell you what channels you can expect to receive where with what kind of antenna, but honestly, indoor antennae are cheap enough that you're better off just buying one and seeing how it works out.
I was kind of hoping avoid the antenna but it looks like not. The good news is I think it will be worth it in the long run.
Yeah the best thing I found from antennaweb or one of those places was where the towers were in relation to me. A couple were NE, and most were SE, so I put the indoor antenna on the east wall of my living room. Boom, channels.
Over on the west wall, a couple wouldn't come in, behind the TV on the south wall a couple different ones were spotty, but on the east they all worked.
Does anyone else run Plex on an Amazon Firestick?
This version is the most incomprehensibly buggy software I have ever used in my entire life. I don't make that statement lightly. At any time, any button you click on the remote might trigger a random movie or show to play. Any random movie or show.
Scrolling through categories or show names might start playing something. And I can understands when it starts playing an episode of Luke Cage, because we've been watching that series. But when it starts playing Three Amigos! as we're changing folders? What? Why that movie?? It's a movie so it's in a completely different folder structure. Just now it started playing Black Adder after I stopped Supergirl and tried navigating to our shared TV show folder.
Three Amigos? I think whoever programmed that version of Plex is trolling Firestick owners.
"Flex"? Where is my head...
That is really weird. Try Plex Classic if it is available? I use Plex on Rokus and it has always worked pretty well for me.
Anyone using DirectTV Now? I started using it back in December and while it has had its ups and downs, overall it's been pretty good. I just got an Email last night that because I was one of the people to sign up at the start, they are including HBO for 12 months at no cost. I only pay $5 a month currently to add it on to my current package but any savings is definitely appreciated.
As to whether the package is worth it at this point I would say no. The $35 was a promo rate, it's up to $65 or $70 a month now.
The better part? I have AT&T Gigapower which makes DirectTV Now zero rating. I am using, according to ATT, around 2.5 terabytes a month and not being charged a thing.
I've been using Playstation Vue and have been pretty happy with it. 5 simultaneous streams, cloud DVR, plays on lots of devices, good quality stream, $30 a month. My only complaints about it are the 5 minute pause limit and no Comedy Central.
FWIW, my in-laws (who are very not-techy) have been using Sling TV with their Roku for the past few months quite successfully.
Doublepost - Arstechnica just posted a comparison article between PS Vue, Sling TV, DirecTV Now, and the new YouTube TV service: https://arstechnica.com/business/201...
The information from that article are incorrect (at least for PS Vue). Vue TV is $30, not 35. PS Vue offers local channels depending on the area (not just CBS). The sports channels are incorrect (they listed the channels available for $30 but you can get additional ones at $35 and $45 and pay for some standalones ). The list of what PSVue is available on is incomplete/incorrect. Things are mentioned for Sling that also have PSVue availability which is not listed. I have a difficult time trusting the author when they can't get basic things like price, packages, and local channels correct.
Phandroid has a decent comparison. That gets the basics right.
As a PS Vue subscriber, YouTube TV is the first competitor that doesn't automatically look inferior in comparison.
But I consume YouTube a lot on set-top TVs and, well, let's just say I'll be waiting to see what their UI and user experience look like before even considering a switch. YouTube's set-top UIs have been made crappier and less useful with each update.
Does anyone else run Plex on an Amazon Firestick?
Maybe you've got a buggy remote? We use it on the fire stick on our TV in the bedroom and I've never had these troubles.
Quintin_Stone wrote:Does anyone else run Plex on an Amazon Firestick?
Maybe you've got a buggy remote? We use it on the fire stick on our TV in the bedroom and I've never had these troubles.
It happens with both of our remotes and buggy remotes wouldn't explain the behavior we've seen (playing a random movie when I'm navigating between tv-show folders).
Just reading about VUE adding split screen to PS4, and having all 4 March Madness channels. Thinking a 7-day trial for this weekend might be good. Anybody tried the split screen this week and like it?
Well, I came really close to sort of cutting the cord again. I called Charter spectrum to cancel cable, and just live on the content we get via Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and OTA. And then we were considering Hulu Live TV because out was going to just cost us another $28 a month and would work on the XB1, which we already have. PS Vue was the other choice, but it is $45 a month and we would need a box, since my daughter has taken my PS4.
Well, Charter made a deal I couldn't say no to. They tried to get me in to a special rate, but I wasn't interested in that. Then they offered a plan they don't advertise, and is only for people that have been with them for awhile, or whatever. Anyway, it's $11 per month and we get our locals plus any 10 national cable channels we want. I decided that was a deal I could live with.
The one bummer was that Fox Sports Midwest was excluded because it is not a national cable channel. That kind of sucked, but I decided for $11, it was okay. There is no contract, so I can cancel it and sign up with another service that gets FSMW any time. I should add, that the $11 is only good for two years, and would go up to $23 at that point. You know, if cable TV is still a thing then.
The 10 I chose:
MSNBC
CNN
ESPN
ESPN2
AMC - TWD and much more
FX - AHS, Fargo, and many more
USA - Mr. Robot, Colony
TNT - Major Crimes
Lifetime - Project Runway
Bravo - Top Chef
We can alter the list during the first 30 days. We may kick Bravo, and maybe MSNBC, in order to get SyFy and Spike. SyFy has several shows we watch, even if it is kinda B-list stuff. Spike has Ink Master, which we have really gotten into. It also has Bar Rescue, which is terrible and no one should ever watch it, even though I still do.
Oh, and the deal also included the full suite of HBO channels for free for one year. I was told that it would drop off automatically, and that I didn't have to cancel it on my own. So it felt like a pretty damn good deal for now.
We haven't setup cable TV in our new house yet. Feels good. We'll probably have to cave when the NBA kicks off, though.
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