Cable TV Alternatives

[Opintel]

The times they are a-chang'n.

Fox and FX, and other channels may be dropped from the Spectrum group as early as this weekend. Prices are climbing, and the landscape looks quite bumpy. We need to share our expertise in finding good alternatives to the current providers of our sports programming (and all that other stuff). It's much more than cost, it's about access.

Share your tested solutions here, in an easy to browse thread; there are comments spread over KFC, and this will help make it more productive.

 

[HG73]

I hate cable. And baylor.

 

[frognutz]

The times they are a-chang'n.

Fox and FX, and other channels may be dropped from the Spectrum group as early as this weekend. Prices are climbing, and the landscape looks quite bumpy. We need to share our expertise in finding good alternatives to the current providers of our sports programming (and all that other stuff). It's much more than cost, it's about access.

Share your tested solutions here, in an easy to browse thread; there are comments spread over KFC, and this will help make it more productive.

I've got Spectrum. If they drop Fox and FX, I'm dropping them the next day.

 

[cdsfrog]

Is there any benefit in keeping cable over vue or sling or anything else? Can't wait till Google fiber comes

 

[frognutz]

Is there any benefit in keeping cable over vue or sling or anything else? Can't wait till Google fiber comes

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is a huge market for independent turn key solution sources to help out the tired head generation get with the times. Me personally, I have 3 DVRs and multiple wifi routers due to the size and configuration of my house. I've spent countless hours with the cable company and independent contractors to get everything working the way I want it to. I know I'm getting ripped off now, but no more energy to deal with it.

 

[Opintel]

What I thought would be a good thing to talk about is personal experience with Sony Vue, Amazon's offerings, Roku, etc.

Different providers may offer the endangered channels (possible more to come), but with contracts, and at what level of security with this changing landscape?

 

[Chongo94]

I don't have any of the options such as Vue and whatnot but I'm close to finally pulling the trigger.

From countless discussions with people, it seems as if Vue is the most well rounded at the moment and I've never heard super complaints about it. That's the one I will probably use when I finally decide to cut the chord.

It has good dvr capabilities apparently and almost all of the channels I would actually watch including the movie and sport ones. And, depending on your urban area, it has the local channels too from what I believe.

And YouTube tv or whatever looks very intriguing but I don't know too much about it just yet.

 

[cdsfrog]

Agreed YouTube has a ton of money going behind it.

 

[Zubaz]

What do you use cable for the most? Access to content that's not time sensitive is super easy to get ahold of, both via legitimate and less-than-legitimate (e.g Kodi) means. Live stuff....that's a little trickier. Having a cable subscription (or at least knowing someone that does so you can use their credentials for streaming) is still the best option there's.

 

[Frogcrates]

I've been really pleased ever since cutting the cord and getting a Roku plus a Sling subscription.

Curious to see how YouTube will alter the market with their recent entry into this space.

 

[Opintel]

Just visited CordCutters. Pretty interesting, and the changes for content are really happening fast.

There's a lot of competition! Good for consumers.

 

[finafrog]

over the air tv + sling here.

 

[French Frog]

Over the air and Playstation Vue for me. I have Cox Cable Internet only, running at 350 Mbps and Roku devices on all my TV's. Tried Sling and didn't like it much so I switched to PS Vue. Good sports access and a good variety of news sources which are the only two things I really watch.

 

[Double D]

Dumped Directv after 21 years some 3 weeks ago. Gone to sling. They sent me a free ROKU Express for prepaying 2 months ($120). I'm using Amazon fire TV and Xbox One on my other TVs. Sling works with those as well. I have a big winegard antenna in the attic for local stations.

Ive gone from $125+/month with DirecTV to less than $60/month with sling. I have 20 megabyte internet with Uverse. Sling works great at that speed. I get all the sports channels I need including FoxSW.

 

[Opintel]

That's significant.

 

[ATC Frog]

Over the air and Playstation Vue for me. I have Cox Cable Internet only, running at 350 Mbps and Roku devices on all my TV's. Tried Sling and didn't like it much so I switched to PS Vue. Good sports access and a good variety of news sources which are the only two things I really watch.

This is my exact setup (albeit with a cheaper internet package) and we couldn't be happier. We went with the 2nd cheapest PSVue package and love saving $100+ per month compared to what we were spending on cable.

Edit: forgot to add that we use an Amazon fire stick on one tv and a PS3 on the other for access to PSVue.

 

[ifrog]

OTA via a Leaf and SlingTV for live broadcasting. Movies and shows - Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Apps are streamed from the XBox One using Uverse broadband @50 Mbps

 

[pgdaly84]

Switched to Vue 6 months ago. Saving over $100 per month compared to UVerse. Has all the channels we ever watched, including all of the ESPN and Fox Sports channels. It's the only cable alternative that has all of them, which is why I picked it. The DVR is different. You create a list of favorite shows and it saves every episode for 30 days. For example, you can add College Football on all the ESPN and Fox Sports channels and it saves all of the games for 30 days. Pretty neat to be able to watch other games, but you lose the ability to save things long term. Worth it to me since we save so much money.

 

[Opintel]

Seems like OTA plus something else is the money saver. Can someone embed a poll (pole...where is Steel?) for the major alternatives?

 

[The Artist Formerly Known as PhormerPhrog]

Switched to Vue in November and haven't looked back. Started out with 2 Rokus but added a Firebox and it's a million times better and faster than Roku. On 4k it's unreal. If you use a Firestick or box make sure you add the Kodi app. It's a gamechanger. You can watch nearly any movie or TV show ever made, including what's in theaters.