Cutting the cord, going streaming only. Recommendations?

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Spectrum raised my cable rate again by almost $40 a month. $150 for cable alone, screw that. I'm trying youtube tv now. Just started it today. $64.99 a month. I like HBO so I added HBO max to the account for an extra $15 to. So roughly $80 not including tax. I now have youtube tv app on my nvidia shield and all my rokus. My nvidia shield has HBO max app which worked great. I've been watching movies on it today. The rokus only have the HBO app and not HBO max, but I was able to log into those with the account no problem. HBO max should be getting alot better now that all the DC universe content is going on there. I should be saving roughly $70 a month now. I also have netflix, my digital movies on vudu, movies anywhere and my plex account. Plex and Pluto tv apps also have free live tv channels.

I like the unlimited DVR of youtube tv and it has all my local channels. Hulu looks interesting but it doesn't have all my locals which is why I went with youtube tv. The on demand for youtube tv looks pretty good so far. It looks like I can watch 10 seasons of mythbusters and season 2 of one punch man is on there. I'll have to try it out more. There's a promo right now where I got 2 weeks free trial and after the first month payment they'll send me a free chromecast worth $50.

Any other streaming services you guys recommend? I'm tempted to get amazon prime again since it'll give me their streaming service and free fast shipping. I'd like to get add free premium youtube but it looks like it'd be tied to my youtube account only as opposed to letting lady watch ad free on her account too. Instead of a per user account I was hoping it'd be a family account like YouTube tv is.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Sledgstone
Typo

[slippers 3,168]

no cable service since 2012ish. kept adding random channels and charge them without notice. i think it was road runner. horrible service.

ondemandkorea is really good but you have to be a fan of kpop and kdramas/movies it offers a lot of variety shows, documantaries, and news channels and they are all free with ads. and i have apple tv 4k about 2 years now but i only use it to watch netflix, youtube, amazon prime etc. even though my new iphone offers 1 year free trial to watch apple original tvs and dramas but im not that interested. i havent really checked other features like games and stuff but its really easy to use with a remote so i like it.

[Myk JL 1,731]

I cut the cord over a decade ago from what I can tell.

I'd recommend

• Saving your money and just watch whatever you can get for free online.
• Play more video games. (Especially if you can avoid microtransactions.)
• Read Web Comics
• Creative Writing (Try AI Dungeon)

If you're looking for a YouTube recommendation I'd recommend Fennah.

[slippers 3,168]

“..Pluto tv apps also have free live tv channels.“

well ill be..O_o i bought my mom tcl tv 2 years ago and now im noticing it offers free streaming services lol. roku for one (started to watch only a month ago) and i just noticed it has pluto tv as well bc u mentioned it. i just browsed through. i guess i didnt bother to look bc i thought i had to pay to watch. my samsung tv has tv plus with 150+ channels but only worth watching channels are nickolodean and a few others..not really worth it. i only play games with it so no biggie. have you heard of tubitv? it needs to be activated so i didnt bother with it last night but it has good reviews and its free. ill might get it later and see if its any good 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

My samsung tv has those free live channels too, but I wasn't impressed with the offerings. Plex live tv seems decent mostly because they have an entire channel dedicated to Bob Ross.  You can watch Bob Ross paint 24 hours a day.  btw, plex also has free movies on demand with ads. Vudu has free movies with ads to but I haven't used that app in a while since I have most of my digital movies all on my plex server.

I haven't heard of tubitv until your post. lol. I'll look into that later to. My brother and a friend of mine both use the Kodi app to stream movies and series but they both say its a bit hit or miss, probably because I think alot of the kodi stuff is all pirated movies but the different servers or addons keep getting taken down. Something like that.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I "cut the cord" yesterday right at the end of my billing cycle. With Spectrums crazy price increase last month my bill jumped to a staggering $240 a month with cable / internet / phone. I never used the phone but it was needed at the time in the dumb bundle to give me the best price. Somehow with that bundle it was initially saving me $20 a month to have the phone part of the bundle instead of just tv and internet. Anyway, years later and multiple price increases I'm done with them. My bill for internet only is now $69.99 a month for 100 mbps down and 10 mbps up. Along with youtube tv with HBO max at $80 a month, my new monthly totals for the same level of service is $150.00 a month. I'm now saving $90 from cutting the cord. Whats really surprising to me is Spectrum didn't even attempt to keep me as a customer of those services. Didn't offer me some new package at a lower rate or anything. Back in the day time warner would have broken down and given me a new customer package at a better rate to keep stringing me along and start the cycle of price increases over. Spectrum seems almost content in knowing their cable service is dying. The only thing they tried to sell me was a streaming package they offered with basic channels only for $15 a month and barely has any channels compare to youtube tv, it includes no DVR and no on demand. ehh. And they seem to be focusing entirely on mobile packages now. They really wanted me to switch to them for cell phone service. I'm guessing years from now Spectrums primary business will be internet and cell phone service from now on.

[Myk JL 1,731]

4 hours ago, Sledgstone said:

My bill for internet only is now $69.99 a month for 100 mbps down and 10 mbps up.

I spend around $99 a month for Cable Phone Service and 200-400+ MBPS down 20+ MBPS up internet. When I upgraded I found out my TP Link was only capable of doing about 50 MBPs so I rarely use it now. I still don't have the urge to get Wi-Fi.

5 hours ago, Sledgstone said:

Spectrum seems almost content in knowing their cable service is dying.

I still get snail mail about how all my neighbors are bundling Cable TV with their internet and phone services and how it's my turn to join them. I could care less whether or not those letters are actually true.

5 hours ago, Sledgstone said:

The only thing they tried to sell me was a streaming package they offered with basic channels only for $15 a month and barely has any channels compare to youtube tv, it includes no DVR and no on demand. ehh. And they seem to be focusing entirely on mobile packages now.

I was shocked when I first started getting those offers through my email. It just makes them seem more desperate.

5 hours ago, Sledgstone said:

They really wanted me to switch to them for cell phone service. I'm guessing years from now Spectrums primary business will be internet and cell phone service from now on.

I'm still expecting the cell phone industry to crash once VOIP Wi-Fi Phones become a thing. Who is going to want to pay for a phone bill when plenty of places will offer free Wi-Fi? Only thing Spectrum can do now is sell me on upgrading to Fiber Internet.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

17 hours ago, Myk JL said:

I spend around $99 a month for Cable Phone Service and 200-400+ MBPS down 20+ MBPS up internet. When I upgraded I found out my TP Link was only capable of doing about 50 MBPs so I rarely use it now. I still don't have the urge to get Wi-Fi.

They offered me to upgrade to I think 400 mbps for $99 but didn't include the phone service. The spectrum lady i talked to did say that they have specials that run monthly which I found interesting. She said I could call next month and ask if there is any specials on the package I have now and if so they could change me to that deal with no issues. She said there was currently no specials/promotions for the internet package I was on. So I asked her its OK for me to call once a month every month to see if there's a deal and I can get a locked in cheaper rate. She said yes and it'll never be a contract.

When time Warner upgraded my internet to 300 mpbs years ago they had to upgrade my cable modem because the modem could only go up to 50 mbps. When I moved to my new house years ago they made sure to get me a decent modem again, but their wifi router sucked ass. They never charged me for the wifi until my bundle package finally expired And they wanted to start charging me $5 a month. I turned that router in with the cable boxes the other day.

This is the tp link router I have right now. It handled the 300 mpbs no problem.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079JD7F7G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabt1_s69QFb4H7BB4Y

17 hours ago, Myk JL said:

I'm still expecting the cell phone industry to crash once VOIP Wi-Fi Phones become a thing. Who is going to want to pay for a phone bill when plenty of places will offer free Wi-Fi? Only thing Spectrum can do now is sell me on upgrading to Fiber Internet.

I'm thinking the cell phone companies will become the new internet companies. We're getting 5th generation networks now, but once 7g, 8g, etc finally start coming out, cell phone internet will probably be as fast as current cable internet. At that point we can completely cut the cord and either have the phones be our personal hotspots or buy a dedicated hotspot from the cell phone company to be the equivalent of a cable modem. But then again wifi tech is growing just as fast. Once wifi can be so strong my local Walmart broadcasting its wifi across 50 miles could become a new internet provider and wifi phone provider because they'll never give it away free once it becomes that far reaching. And whoever controls that wifi router controls everything on it. They could restrict the ip#s needed for wifi voip phone connections, restrict all internet traffic on all connected devices to just walmart.com only or less restrictions but still block domains of competitors like Amazon.com so people can't price compare while in store, etc.

[slippers 3,168]

wanted to replace my decade+ old toshiba 43" tv so went to best buy last week and bought a new Samsung 43" for under $400 with my 2nd stimulus check. i was planning to get 50" LG but lot of them are out of stock due to holiday sales and left with size either 43" or over 60+" on all their brands. some even had under $300 but had bad reviews so picked a tv thats $100 more just to be on the safe side. so now i have 3 samsungs in my room (55" bought last year under $400 also bc it was on sale and 32" one that id had it for years) with conflicting remote controllers. i tried electrical tape and mirror to block ir sensor but didnt work. i figured out only way to work them individually is to point directly at the bottom of dead center at point blank range..its okay bc they are only like one or two arm length away from each other so i can reach it easily to change channels/volumes whatever. i would like to get a bigger tv for the living room someday but i would have to rent a truck bc my car could barely fit 55" last time and i had my head pushed forward while driving and that was kinda dangerous lol..the newer samsung offers better channels but i use apple tv so i normally have my tvs disconnected from internet. amazon prime started to offer uhd on some of my fav movies so i purchased Gladiator last night. to think i had owned it on dvd and hd version so it feels like a waste of money to buy another version but it does look really good in uhd. im sure buying 8k tvs will be useless and incredibly expensive now but maybe in 5 -10 years itll be norm for most households as something probably better comes out

[Sledgstone 8,672]

What do you need 3 tvs in a single room for? 🤔  

I'd like to upgrade from the 50 in my living room to a 60 or 65 but I'd also have to wall mount it and get it delivered because any TV that big would never fit in my car. I like my Samsung TV but the particular one I have has a slight sound delay issue that annoyed me. I got used to it after a while but if I actively paid attention I could see the delay in the lip sync but it was more noticeablewith my old surround sound. The TV speakers still did it but not as bad. Ever since I bought a new receiver to get my surround sound working again all my devices connect the hdmi directly to the receiver and there is no audio delay anymore since the TV doesn't produce sound anymore.

[slippers 3,168]

lol i only use two. main one 55" for pc use and ps4 games only, second one 43" for tv shows and movies. i unplugged samsung 32" due to conflicting remote controller issue but i had used it to play switch and ps2 games before since samsung 55" only have 2 hdmi ports. which model do you have btw? my 55" is series 6 and the reason i got it cheap was bestbuy employee told me that it was a last year's model (then) so it was on sale. havent noticed any sound issue and works great so far. only wierd thing is it wont play hd on my pc amazon prime due to hdcp error, but if i log in to tv amazon prime and it plays 4k movies no prob. my new 43” is series 8 and it gives me 4 hdmi ports, more than i need for its use. 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Almost all hdcp errors I've ever come across is because of the hdmi cable. Different hdmi cables are all different versions, they all look the same and none of them say what kind of hdmi cable they are printed on the actual cables. Kind of aggravating to me. I test hdmi cables with my ps4. I'll plug the ps4 into the TV with one cable, check to see if I can turn on HDR, if it works that cable is at least a hdmi 2 cable.

If you need a new cable I highly recommend bluerigger. It's the only one I'll buy anymore.

https://www.amazon.com/BlueRigger-Rugged-High-Speed-Cable/dp/B003XM1WE0

My Samsung is a 6 series. UN50NU6900B

[Pchan 5,162]

I don't think I ever got cable TV when I moved here, so it's been what ... 15ish years? My current streaming goes through Apple TV and here's what I have - 

YouTube

YouTube TV

HULU

HBO MAX

Crunchyroll

Disney+

Amazon Prime

Netflix

I feel like I'm forgetting an app or two aka subscription service we pay for. Also, I just realized that listing these seems like having a lot and paying for a lot. Whichever accounts allow you to share/ have different profiles is how I have it currently set up - to the max profiles legally allowed. So overall, we're paying a fraction of the total subscription cost. 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I currently have

Youtube TV

MBO Max

Netflix

Disney+

Paramount+

Discovery+ (just got this one, haven't tried it yet)

I'm on my parents plan for a few of these with sharing so it makes everything alot cheaper. But I can't share the price of my Youtube TV with anyone because nobody is close enough to me to combo it with to cut the costs down that wants Youtube TV. I tried doing it with my brother but hes in another state. Turns out youtubue tv needs everyone to be in the same general area or it considers the non primary account to be on vacation and will disable it's access after 2 weeks unless it logs back in at the region location of the primary account, like central ohio or wherever. Oh well. Youtube tv is still way cheaper than what Spectrum has to offer. I am tempted to pay for premium youtube to remove the ads because I've been using regular youtube as much as all my other streaming services.

[Pchan 5,162]

Oh snap, I didn't know that about YouTube TV. I guess the issue never came up for me because the folks I'm tied with are all within NYC. 

[slippers 3,168]

finally tried tubitv. it has some good selections of movies and some old animes. not too many ads, maybe once every half an hour. i was watching cowboy bebop with it but its sub only so i headed to amazon to see if prime has it and it seems like its having an error or something. one hd episode is $3.99 but the entire hd season is just a buck more at $4.99 LOL. i purchased it just incase it corrects itself later. i checked other stream anime series and they are at $30 ~ $50 range so somebody definitely f’ed up hehe. also trying to watch gundam wing on youtube but no dub..:( i dont mind sub but i dont just sit and watch the whole thing anymore so i dont have time to read them while they play. but yeah cowboy bebop entire hd season at amazon for $4.99. 👍

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Thats a good price. I haven't check netflix to see if it has Cowboy Bebop, but they might have it soon considering their company is making the live action Cowboy Bebop series. I like Tubi, I've been watching it more recently. Its great for putting a movie on in the background and it auto plays into another movie in a similar genre. The amount of ads isn't that bad either.

Discovery+ is great btw. It has all the science channel content. Many many many hours of high quality space documentaries. I love it.  It also has every episode of myth busters on there. Discovery made it impossible for years to ever find a decent clip of mythbusters, but at least its all finally available to stream. 

I've been trying the Funimation app over the last week thanks to my friend. So far the quality is really good.  Fruits Basket is so sad.

[slippers 3,168]

maybe thats why its so cheap lol. i saw outlaw star in hd is under $8.00 too, not bad. hmm i just checked funimation website/app. too bad it only has 14 day free trial and its asking me to sign up or something. perhaps if i sign up i can still watch it for free. hey i see wolfs rain. definitely gonna watch that 😛 ill check discovery+ as well later. i like watching lions and whales on tv playing as background. kinda have soothing effect on me 😌 

[Myk JL 1,731]

 

[slippers 3,168]

On 2/8/2021 at 7:48 AM, Sledgstone said:

Almost all hdcp errors I've ever come across is because of the hdmi cable. Different hdmi cables are all different versions, they all look the same and none of them say what kind of hdmi cable they are printed on the actual cables. Kind of aggravating to me. I test hdmi cables with my ps4. I'll plug the ps4 into the TV with one cable, check to see if I can turn on HDR, if it works that cable is at least a hdmi 2 cable.

welp, i finally got to it and it works on my 43” samsung with apple tv. but my 55” samsung connecting to pc doesnt. yt says id need hdmi splitter and thats like $30+ something dollars so meh ill pass. i mean if i play directly from tv itll display 4k..i just dont like to connect my tvs with internet access. 

and i didnt know TCL made phones. their tv is great from what i can tell. i just got done setting it up..its called TCL A30 ($109) and it has like a 0 review frim amazon or anywhere else lol..but i took a risk and ordered it bc another one thats $89 more has great reviews called TCL 20se. what happened was i accidentally left my iphone 7 in a truck for about half an hour and it started showing temperature warning/error..since then its been acting weird. i reset it a couple times and didnt help. but updating it manage to fix a major glitch when making/during phone calls. but it froze when i was using apple map to get to DMV to renew my CDL license so its not reliable anymore. i do have a new iphone i bought last year but its $400 and i dont want to damage it or lose it. so far cheap TCL phone works. no problems yet. if it does well, ill might get that better version either TCL 20se or 20s, between $189~$250 range.