Cut the cord!

[iahawk15]

I literally only have DirecTV for one reason - I still have  .5meg up, .5meg down DSL.  If I can ever get better internet, I'm gone.

[betarhoalphadelta]

I get closer to cutting the cord every day.  The two major things holding me back are

1) Having to navigate multiple providers/services and potentially separate hardware, to get all the things the cable box currently provides.  I know that I can manage it, but I'm not sure my wife can.  She has a hard enough time switching between cable and Bluray, bless her heart. 

2) Access to all of the sports that I want.  Which is mostly college football through Disney/Fox, but I also follow Formula 1 which is primarily on NBCSN right now.

• It's easier than you think. When I was still married, my ex figured it out and she's about as non-techie as they come. Now, my girlfriend has ZERO difficulty navigating either our Roku (main TV) or the Apple TV (bedroom). Heck, my kids have no trouble with it. If you actually care about local channels, the biggest streaming services include locals so you don't need to get crazy about switching inputs all the time if you're worried about swapping between antenna and the streaming box. And a Roku is the only box you really need--you don't need to switch between 3 different boxes to find your content.
• DirecTV Now has NBCSN in its base $35/mo package, along with ESPN/ESPN2. Playstation Vue has the same, in its $39.99/mo package. Both include locals.

[betarhoalphadelta]

And now there's apparently a way to watch BTN with your Sling subscription... Not sure whether this is a "glitch" that will go away...

[Thumper]

Interesting... There appears to be an antenna streaming option that must include some sort of onboard flash, because it allows pause/rewind... Basically time-shifting of up to 1 hour.

http://cordcuttersnews.com/antenna-direct-release-new-streaming-stick-stream-antenna-device/

This can help if you have the antenna in a strange location in the house, and want to view live OTA TV without running cable to every location.

Only downside is that it's a single tuner... So if multiple people in the house at the same time wanted to watch different channels, you're SOL. But if that doesn't apply to you, it's worth checking out.

Edit--one thing I didn't think about is that this might affect quality, since it will probably compress the OTA signal to send it over WiFi... So you may give back the signal improvement that you get from going OTA by using this...

There are various dvr devices that let you record/pause/rewind OTA TV.  I have a cheap Insignia TV with Roku built in.  It has a USB slot that lets me plug in a flash drive and I can time-shift up to 90 minutes of OTA TV.
For a more complete DVR capability there is Tablo https://www.tablotv.com/
It is becoming less of an issue as the local affiliates of Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS are allowing the networks to negotiate with the streaming providers in behalf of the local stations. This is speeding up the availability of the local stations.

[Thumper]

I literally only have DirecTV for one reason - I still have  .5meg up, .5meg down DSL.  If I can ever get better internet, I'm gone. 

Do you have 4G service from AT&T available?  If you sign up with one of their unlimited plans, they will throw in DirecTV Now for free and it won't count against your data.

[Thumper]

• It's easier than you think. When I was still married, my ex figured it out and she's about as non-techie as they come. Now, my girlfriend has ZERO difficulty navigating either our Roku (main TV) or the Apple TV (bedroom). Heck, my kids have no trouble with it. If you actually care about local channels, the biggest streaming services include locals so you don't need to get crazy about switching inputs all the time if you're worried about swapping between antenna and the streaming box. And a Roku is the only box you really need--you don't need to switch between 3 different boxes to find your content.
• DirecTV Now has NBCSN in its base $35/mo package, along with ESPN/ESPN2. Playstation Vue has the same, in its $39.99/mo package. Both include locals.

This.  Roku is the king of compatibility with services and extremely simple to use. Get the top end model and you get 4K and UHD compatibility along with voice search across multiple providers.  My wife is very non-techie and she has no problems with it.  I did add a Sideclick to the Roku remote so there is only one remote to navigate all devices.
If your TV doesn't support screen mirroring, Roku will add that function so you can cast video from other devices to your TV.  Very handy as you can use your headphones in your phone to listen quietly while watching.

[CatsbyAZ]

The Mountain West considering cutting the cord with major networks, cites a disappointment in lack of control over kickoff/tipoff times: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/aztecs/

[MrNubbz]

Is there any chance cable providers may see the writing on the wall and offer up competitive ala carte packages?

[betarhoalphadelta]

Is there any chance cable providers may see the writing on the wall and offer up competitive ala carte packages?

[Drew4UTk]

have any of you guys used a rooted firestick? 

[betarhoalphadelta]

have any of you guys used a rooted firestick? 

I tried to use the rooted Fire stick to run Kodi for a while. It did not work well on a good day, and on a bad day was such a nightmare as to be unusable. It wasn't the Fire stick that was the problem, either. I tried the Kodi platform on a PC and had the same issues. They just didn't have reliable streams at all, and they were also all terrible quality.

[MarqHusker]

Great wsj article today on the resurgence of the rabbit ear antenna for purposes of viewing OTA networks.   Despite this, 29% adults said they were unaware that network tv stations broadcast over the air for free.  I'm feeling old.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Great wsj article today on the resurgence of the rabbit ear antenna for purposes of viewing OTA networks.   Despite this, 29% adults said they were unaware that network tv stations broadcast over the air for free.  I'm feeling old.

I liked the headline lol:

Millennials Unearth an Amazing Hack to Get Free TV: the Antenna

I did think they overlooked the point I keep making, that with digital transmission all the bad reception problem of old-school analog antennas go away. And that with the ability to send less-compressed broadcasts than cable/satellite, picture quality is IMPROVED by going OTA.

Most people of our generation that grew up with an antenna and then switched to cable did so partly for more channels, but partly also because the signal was much cleaner. That's no longer the case, and that's something I don't think people recognize.

Especially since 29% of them don't even realize free OTA TV exists lol.

[MikeDeTiger]

Ah geez.....i JUST yesterday spent like 3 hours researching all this crap and TODAY I find this handy article.  Of course that's how it works. 

Anyway....

Thanks for writing this.  Good to get some input from someone already doing it.  Here's a couple points important to me I didn't see you address.  May or may not be correct, may or may not be useful to others here.

The Sports Extra package from Sling TV is $10/mo, not $5, as per their website yesterday.  For me that means Sling Blue ($25/mo, + $10/mo during football season, for a total of $35/mo.) because Sling Orange doesn't have enough of the non-sports channels I want.  Gotta have the Sports package since Blue doesn't include the ESPN family natively. 

DirecTV NOW probably has the most impressive channel lineup in the lower tiers, and their cheapest, as you mentioned, is $35.  However two things are steering me to Sling.  Sling Blue + SP has more channels (sports channels, I think....I believe non-sports channels were comparable as far as the ones I watch) than DTV Now, and Sling now has online DVR capability.  Honestly, recording has been a primary reason I haven't cut the cord before now.  As far as I can tell with DTV Now, they don't currently offer that, but I'd be very surprised if they don't offer it soon.  That said, in order to get all the channels I want with DTV Now, I'd have to get the $50/mo package, and I believe I can get it all for $35 with Sling. 

Recording OTA networks is still an issue.  I've had a digital antenna for years, but appointment viewing almost never happens with me.  I notice there are now several manufacturers who make DVR devices with no monthly subscription fees like TiVo used to do, so if you or anyone has any experience with them, please give input/recommendations.  Especially need the ability to record CBS during football season. 

But it's roughly ~$25/mo for Netflix + AmazonPrime + Hulu, which gives me access to like, almost everything that's not in the realm of live TV.  Plus another $35/mo. in football season and probably $25/mo outside of football season (I don't ever watch ESPN or FSN etc except for cfb) for Sling.  Together, it's still half the price of the $100/mo DirecTV costs, and that's for pretty much the cheapest tier they have.  Our local cable company isn't really any better.  So this is probably going to happen soon. 

Even if someone can't access ABC for any reason, multiple sites assure Sling credentials work to verify access the WatchESPN app, so you can easily get ABC games even if you can't get ABC itself. 

Also, there's AirWave and AirTV which I don't fully understand yet (https://www.wired.com/2017/01/airwave-airtv-cordcutting-cable/), but other than the confusing nature (at the moment) of front-end setup, these could be solutions to watch for as far as issues like the one utee94 brought up.....my gf is in the same boat, she has a hard enough time grasping that we do most things via Chromecast, and we have to switch that out for FireTV Stick when we want to watch anything on Prime (because effing Google and Amazon can't stop flipping each other off for the time being, ugh.) 

Also, how the heck do you do links on this board?