Have you cut the (cable) cord?

[khardbored]

With football season less than a month away, I started up Sling TV again.

I found that I can no longer switch from Sling Orange to Sling Blue on the fly anymore. Used to be able to go online and change and it went into effect within a day (this was great if one Saturday our game was on a Fox channel, and the next Saturday it was on an ESPN channel). But no longer. The change is only effective at the end of your billing cycle, so, at most often, only once per month.

I suppose that's because they want you to pay for the much more expensive Orange+Blue option. Which makes sense, but I don't like it. Looks like Sling won't be a the obvious choice this fall.

 

[Clonedogg]

Great list to compare TV streaming options.
https://clark.com/technology/tvsatellite-cable/best-live-tv-streaming-plans-deals-2018/

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I've been using a second generation fire stick to stream PS VUE for the a year now. It was working great until late March and now it buffers a lot. My internet isn't the issue and I've pretty much isolated the issue to the fire stick. Has anyone else had this issue? What is everyone else using to stream? I've heard good things about the Fire TV's.

 

[norcalcy]

Cut the cord after our bowl game and knew I would need a solution for 2018 football season. Likely going with Direct TV Now through Apple TV Gen 4. Anyone have a review of that combo?

 

[fattgregg]

Cut the cord after our bowl game and knew I would need a solution for 2018 football season. Likely going with Direct TV Now through Apple TV Gen 4. Anyone have a review of that combo?

We run that combo currently. The prepay 4 months for the Apple TV 4K is a solid deal. I was with PS Vue for a year or so and switched for the A&E and Viacom channels. Directv Now has a just ok OS in my opinion. The DVR is only 20 hours and it is less than stellar. The guide is fine and the on demand works well most of the time. The recent addition of NFL Network will likely keep me around. If Vue were to add the Viacom channels and A&E I would go back.

The Apple TV is a great steaming device. I’d say it’s better than the Fire TV box and much better than the Roku.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

We run that combo currently. The prepay 4 months for the Apple TV 4K is a solid deal. I was with PS Vue for a year or so and switched for the A&E and Viacom channels. Directv Now has a just ok OS in my opinion. The DVR is only 20 hours and it is less than stellar. The guide is fine and the on demand works well most of the time. The recent addition of NFL Network will likely keep me around. If Vue were to add the Viacom channels and A&E I would go back.

The Apple TV is a great steaming device. I’d say it’s better than the Fire TV box and much better than the Roku.

I've been tempted to switch to DTV Now but with having little kids, the 20 hour DVR is kind of a deal breaker.

 

[Jmarsh13]

With football season less than a month away, I started up Sling TV again.

I found that I can no longer switch from Sling Orange to Sling Blue on the fly anymore. Used to be able to go online and change and it went into effect within a day (this was great if one Saturday our game was on a Fox channel, and the next Saturday it was on an ESPN channel). But no longer. The change is only effective at the end of your billing cycle, so, at most often, only once per month.

I suppose that's because they want you to pay for the much more expensive Orange+Blue option. Which makes sense, but I don't like it. Looks like Sling won't be a the obvious choice this fall.

Sling does not give refunds for downgraded to a lower package. If you add options they will be added immediately and pro-rate the up charge vs. remaining time in your billing cycle. If you down grade packages it will not go into effect until your billing cycle and then you will be billed for the lower rate / plan.

You cannot switch on a day to day basis between Sling Orange and Sling Blue to cherry pick ESPN (Orange) or FS1 / RSN / NBCSN (Blue). You will end up on the Sling Orange + Blue plan... Important to understand when your billing date is so you can minimize your bill.

 

[cycloneG]

I've been tempted to switch to DTV Now but with having little kids, the 20 hour DVR is kind of a deal breaker.

I have DirecTV Now and rarely use the DVR since everything is available on demand.

 

[TitanClone]

I've been using a second generation fire stick to stream PS VUE for the a year now. It was working great until late March and now it buffers a lot. My internet isn't the issue and I've pretty much isolated the issue to the fire stick. Has anyone else had this issue? What is everyone else using to stream? I've heard good things about the Fire TV's.

Fire TV has worked much better than my Fire Stick did for Sling

 

[Jmarsh13]

I've been tempted to switch to DTV Now but with having little kids, the 20 hour DVR is kind of a deal breaker.

I have 2 small kids and have Sling TV with the 50 hr DVR. With the VOD for each channel and the 72 hr channel history we very rarely use the DVR. Add in access to Nick Jr app, Disney Now app, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Youtube, etc... and they have no trouble finding something to watch without a DVR.

 

[GrappleCy]

I wish there was an 'All the sports channels and nothing else' option. Even if it cost 90% as much it'd still be a worthwhile savings since I never watch live TV for anything other than games so I value every other channel at $0.00

 

[FOREVERTRUE]

I've been using a second generation fire stick to stream PS VUE for the a year now. It was working great until late March and now it buffers a lot. My internet isn't the issue and I've pretty much isolated the issue to the fire stick. Has anyone else had this issue? What is everyone else using to stream? I've heard good things about the Fire TV's.

We also use PS Vue. We stream multiple ways in our house. From best experience to less favorable is: 1. PS4 2. PS3 3. TCL Roku TV 4. Amazon firestick

You can also watch from a computer obviously which works well but as far a watching on a full tv screen, the above 1. 2. and 3 are much better than 4. We currently use all of the above in different rooms of our house.

 

[1100011CS]

I'm saying that I pay for $45 bucks currently for internet and $50 bucks currently for DirecTV. I have them combined so I save some money there. $95 bucks total for the both. If I were to stream my live TV say through.. YouTubeTV, I'd be at $85 bucks/month but I would have to upgrade my internet to support that much streaming. So I'd over what I currently pay.

At those prices I wouldn't switch either. My internet alone cost about the same as those two combined before I cut the cable .

 

[Trainer]

We have never paid for cable. Not in college and not now. We have 1 gig fiber internet in a town of 10k here in Iowa and it is the ****. We pay for netflix, and Hulu. A friend gave us their HBO info, and I stream all my sports through firstrowsports on my laptop with adblock running and an HDMI cord.

I think our total bill a month is 115$ including internet netflix and hulu.

 

[1100011CS]

We also use PS Vue. We stream multiple ways in our house. From best experience to less favorable is: 1. PS4 2. PS3 3. TCL Roku TV 4. Amazon firestick

You can also watch from a computer obviously which works well but as far a watching on a full tv screen, the above 1. 2. and 3 are much better than 4. We currently use all of the above in different rooms of our house.

The FireTVs and FireTV cube works much better than Firestick. But, PS4 is still the best.

 

[CY88CE11]

I've been using a second generation fire stick to stream PS VUE for the a year now. It was working great until late March and now it buffers a lot. My internet isn't the issue and I've pretty much isolated the issue to the fire stick. Has anyone else had this issue? What is everyone else using to stream? I've heard good things about the Fire TV's.

We had the same thing happen with our Fire stick. It worked great for a bit, but then it loads up on cache data, and you have to clear it constantly for it to work well. It's much easier to just get a full Fire TV, Roku Premier, Apple TV, etc. than to try to make a stick version of one of those work on a TV you use a lot.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

We had the same thing happen with our Fire stick. It worked great for a bit, but then it loads up on cache data, and you have to clear it constantly for it to work well. It's much easier to just get a full Fire TV, Roku Premier, Apple TV, etc. than to try to make a stick version of one of those work on a TV you use a lot.

Yep. Our secondary TV's do just fine with the stick but our main TV is really bad. I'm kicking myself for not buying a Fire TV on Prime Day...

 

[CY88CE11]

Yep. Our secondary TV's do just fine with the stick but our main TV is really bad. I'm kicking myself for not buying a Fire TV on Prime Day...

We recently did the Apple TV 4k deal with DirecTV Now. Love the device, though I absolutely hate the remote. If that has all/enough of your channels to make do for 3 months, I'd recommend it.

 

[CloneGuy8]

I'd like to, but I don't think it would make sense for me. I pay $50.00/month for internet and $90.00 for satellite To cut the cord, I would go over data caps on my current internet plan, so I'd have to switch to one that is probably $80-$100/month, and then pay another $40.00 for a streaming service.

 

[NickTheGreat]

We have never paid for cable. Not in college and not now. We have 1 gig fiber internet in a town of 10k here in Iowa and it is the ****. We pay for netflix, and Hulu. A friend gave us their HBO info, and I stream all my sports through firstrowsports on my laptop with adblock running and an HDMI cord.

I think our total bill a month is 115$ including internet netflix and hulu.

Yeah cable is cheaper when you pirate and borrow logins