Getting Rid of Cable- What am I missing?

[Tornicade]

Better performance based on what I've been told (and read).

The stick or the Box. while there may be difference in performances with the boxes . I m not sure there would be a huge performance gap between the sticks

 

[Tornicade]

The only thing I see missing for someone who wants to drop the whole cable company setup is the DVR option and watching programs or even a basketball game (can you watch ballstreams games a day later?) at a later time.

Playon has playlater which lets you record stuff. so with the big harddrives and USb drives 32gb+ The DVR advantage for cable boxes will be negligible.

even with casting issues I can set my playon to record. save it a usb stick and either cast it or run it directly from the usb port on the box. its a matter of having the channels available to record without a TV provider.

For instance My mother has a Uverse account. if she has the uver app or website on her pc. she could record on her pc from the uverse app any program she wanted to. Uverse does keep some channels designated as box only but that mostly for channels that have current titles worth pirating.

Thats alot of bandwidth though so @gourimoko could probably better answer the impact, if any, on the internets as this goes mainstream.

 

[gourimoko]

I gotta admit, the Roku is convenient. Depends on you man. If you are remotely computer savvy you could just build an HTPC and roll with that and you'd be good. If not, the suggestions here are good too..

Personally, I haven't had a need for traditional television. I can stream anything and everything I need, and what I can't I can get within 5 minutes via a torrent and watch over Plex.

The ONLY reason we pay for cable in my house is because my wife likes her Filipino and Korean television shows.. That's it.

 

[Tornicade]

I gotta admit, the Roku is convenient. Depends on you man. If you are remotely computer savvy you could just build an HTPC and roll with that and you'd be good. If not, the suggestions here are good too..

Personally, I haven't had a need for traditional television. I can stream anything and everything I need, and what I can't I can get within 5 minutes via a torrent and watch over Plex.

The ONLY reason we pay for cable in my house is because my wife likes her Filipino and Korean television shows.. That's it.

you mean the free stuff on all the global tv apps.

Gouri you play those streams on the tv or on the pc monitor/laptop/tablet. Theres still value in sitting in the living room with your household

 

[gourimoko]

you mean the free stuff on all the global tv apps.

Gouri you play those streams on the tv or on the pc monitor/laptop/tablet. Theres still value in sitting in the living room with your household

Always on the TV.

 

[Cavsfan1985]

The only thing that hurts cutting cable is if you have multiple people in your house watching it. I have 5 tvs in the house, living-room, basement, master bedroom, office, and kitchen. It can get expense to try and stream to all of them as sling tv is only good for one access.

I have luck just changing providers every 1 to 2 years depending on the contract. I just went from Direct-TV to Dish as it saved me almost 40 month for the first year.

 

[The Oi]

I have a Rokustick and I'm very happy with it. I have no basis of comparison bc I haven't used its competitors, but I have zero to complain about.

Can someone briefly explain what I'd need to do watch LIVE NBA and NFL on my tv's if I were to also do this?

Wife likes the morning shows, Today Show and there's 1 or 2 others I believe. I assume those are out?

 

[natedagg]

I need help in this regard too. Wife wants to have SproutTV for the kids and she likes Bravo.

I have watched precisely 0 minutes of TV at home in the last month, including streaming. Not to get on a soapbox here, but there's a strong argument to be made for cutting TV-->not having your TV substitutes--> then deciding whether or not to get them. There's just too much fun and things to do besides TV. Weather's been great and in IL/OH, that's something to take advantage of, along with the long days. Great books out there too, but I don't know how many people are into that anymore. Simply tons of choices, both active/outdoors and for fats, to choose from.

 

[Ohio]

Can someone briefly explain what I'd need to do watch LIVE NBA and NFL on my tv's if I were to also do this?

1. Get League Pass
2. Sign in on NBA Gametime App on Rokustick
3. Watch basketball

League Pass does not allow you to watch the national TV games. ABC games can be picked up with an antenna. ESPN and TNT games can be watched via SlingTV. You will be SOL for NBATV games. Thankfully, a team only plays about 5 games max on NBATV. Watch at bar or friend's place.

For NFL, get an antenna that picks up the local channels (ABC, CBS, FOX, etc). All NFL games are on CBS or FOX unless it is a NFL Network game. Browns play one NFLN game a year. Watch it at a bar or at a friend's place.

 

[Tornicade]

Thanks you Nate for coming in and pointing out were a bunch of lazy bum couch potatoes wasting our lives away.

I think Oi both the NFL and NBA have TV package.
Football is at least on OTA Channels so you wouldnt need a package for those to get your fix.

Your roku should have a channel store.If your trying to cut the cord and wanna watch sports on chennels like ESPN and TNT you can sign up with an Internet TV provider like sling
https://www.sling.com/programming/s...orts on roku&cvo_crid=6793976920&matchtype=bp
all you would need for your roku is the slingplayer app.(they have AMC too so walking dead isnt sacrificed.

Most of the cable providers offer an app so if your goal is to keep your subscription and get rid of the 7-12 dollars a month box rental fee you can use that roku stick as a box if the cable provider has a compatible app. or for 50 bucks get a service like playon/playlater and with a usb stick have full DVR capabilities
as an example. NBCSN which broadcast nascar races. can play live events from the NBC sportsextra live app if you have Dish but will only work from the uverse app if you have AT&T
The App Watch TNT is the same either your cable provider allows you to log in directly to the channels app or requires you to login in to their app to watch the content. Dish in my experience is by far the least friendly in using indiviudal apps but if you have dishanywhere app you can watch those channels(BCSN seems the exception
Slingtv and playon and other programs like that all have trial periods so you can test them out before committing to them.

Foxsports go is not available on slingTV and requires a sub to a traditional cable provider to watch. Thats where you would find your Cavs games. so to watch the cavs game live without a cable provider sub you would need a NBA package.

Does anyone have playon? im curious how often you have to relogin to your channels

 

[gourimoko]

1. Get League Pass
2. Sign in on NBA Gametime App on Rokustick
3. Watch basketball

League Pass does not allow you to watch the national TV games. ABC games can be picked up with an antenna. ESPN and TNT games can be watched via SlingTV. You will be SOL for NBATV games. Thankfully, a team only plays about 5 games max on NBATV. Watch at bar or friend's place.

For NFL, get an antenna that picks up the local channels (ABC, CBS, FOX, etc). All NFL games are on CBS or FOX unless it is a NFL Network game. Browns play one NFLN game a year. Watch it at a bar or at a friend's place.

Use BallStreams.. It's vastly superior to league pass. There are other streaming services like BallStreams as well, but League Pass has too many limitations by comparison.

 

[Otsego Mar]

Use BallStreams.. It's vastly superior to league pass. There are other streaming services like BallStreams as well, but League Pass has too many limitations by comparison.

Anybody been using ballstreams over wireless on a 15mbps down connection? I'm trying to go cheap as possible and wondering if this will be doable.

 

[gourimoko]

Anybody been using ballstreams over wireless on a 15mbps down connection? I'm trying to go cheap as possible and wondering if this will be doable.

I used BallStreams in one of the more remote parts of the world on a janky "LTE" connection. It worked fine.

If there is a poor signal, watch the streams with VLC and set your buffer amount to something around 11MB; this should ensure a good solid quality stream, that has a roughly 2 min+ lag but will have ample time to catch up with lost packets.

Essentially, the size of the buffer should equal the sum duration of the lost frames. So essentially, what you're doing with a 10-12MB buffer is giving yourself 2 minutes worth of time to catch up to the stream. If there is a drop, it will be a single drop and likely not very long rather than numerous, constant drops and lost frames.

It works wonders on VERY slow connections (we're talking 1mbps).

 

[Otsego Mar]

I used BallStreams in one of the more remote parts of the world on a janky "LTE" connection. It worked fine.

If there is a poor signal, watch the streams with VLC and set your buffer amount to something around 11MB; this should ensure a good solid quality stream, that has a roughly 2 min+ lag but will have ample time to catch up with lost packets.

Essentially, the size of the buffer should equal the sum duration of the lost frames. So essentially, what you're doing with a 10-12MB buffer is giving yourself 2 minutes worth of time to catch up to the stream. If there is a drop, it will be a single drop and likely not very long rather than numerous, constant drops and lost frames.

It works wonders on VERY slow connections (we're talking 1mbps).

Well that settles it. I think I'm going SlingTV (free roku stick), free local HD channels via HD/digital antenna ($40), ballstreams for the Cavs games ($60 for season), and maybe PlayOn/PlayLater to add a DVR type thing ($25 for a year).

That's less than $60 a month for 15/1 mbps internet and Sling TV:

ESPN
ESPN2
AMC
TNT
TBS
A&E
History
Food Network
HGTV
Disney
Adult Swim
Cartoon Network
ABC Family
CNN
Lifetime
Travel
Bloomberg
H2
Polaris+
IFC
El Rey
Maker
Galavision

ABC
NBC
Fox
CBS
PBS
MyNet
CW
*& several other OTA free channels via antenna

 

[Ohio]

Use BallStreams.. It's vastly superior to league pass. There are other streaming services like BallStreams as well, but League Pass has too many limitations by comparison.

Is there a ballstreams app I can watch games on?