Sanity check from you cord cutters

[CMV]

All the recent posts here on the subject got me motivated enough to do it. This is the plan & what I signed up for. Can change/cancel if I did something stupid, but I *think* I will get OTA channels on 3 TVs, have a simpler interface, and mrs cmv still can find lifetime/hallmark movies easily.

Service : Sling Blue ($25/mo) + $5/mo for extra channels which include several of the lifetime/hallmark/womany ones
Come with free indoor antenna, and air player https://www.amazon.com/AirTV-Stream...eywords=airtv&qid=1552412313&s=gateway&sr=8-6

The air player thing has real bad reviews and will go in rarely used spare/guest bedroom. Don't know if this doubles as Sling player or if I still need a separate Roku or something, but it can just be OTA for in there.

For the upstairs & downstairs living room TVs, got Roku Steaming Stick+ for each, and this airtv thing https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BCGXZZ2/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I think difference is this one sends the OTA signal to all sling devices from 1 antenna, vs an antenna for each like the one that sling promo gives me. Got a separate antenna for it that looks a lot better than the free one from sling.

So what I *think* I will end up with once everything gets here is 3 TVs that get local OTA channels combined in the sling interface which gives me about 50 cable channels (and I can hide/not see the ones I don't want). I can then return everything to cable company, cancel all services except internet. Spectrum/Time Warner/Charter (whoever they are this week) is still lowest cost internet provider available to me for >50Mpbs speed - even without bundles & multi-service discounts. I can also reduce from 300Mbps service to 100Mbps as that should be more than sufficient even if all 3 are streaming at once and someone web surfing or whatever on another device.

That makes my TV bill (Sling) $30/month + tax, internet $44/mo + tax. Call it $79/mo, probably less. Not counting Netflix or Prime since was paying for them anyway, but may cancel netflix since price keeps going up and more shows, less movies, and I'd rather have movies. We pay for prime anyway for the free shipping so the TV & music are freebies. So this will be just a little over 1/3 what I was paying for (faster) internet, phone, and cable. Using my own cable modem and wireless router, so no extra rental fee to cable company.

 

[kcflhrc]

I record and watch later, so streaming service of any kind is a deal breaker for me. I work crazy hours and have 10 acres to maintain in the summer so if it wasn't for the DVR I would miss a lot of shows I like watching.

 

[thekkfan]

I have no experience with Sling or their air option. But I can tell you that Tablo has their $h!t together. Menus fly on my roku expresses throughout the house as well as playback.

Watch your internet $. Mine was $44.99 for 100M until the promo ended, its now $65.

 

[drssg]

I can’t comment on the entire setup, since I find all the paid internet TV services to be a waste of money. OTA TV with a DVR provides me with more TV on demand than I would care to watch.

In regards to internet speed, are you using ethernet cable or WiFi? You’d have to have very good WiFi equipment to make use of anything over 50mbps.

If there is a financial incentive, you might be able to go to a still lower internet service and never notice the difference.

If you can get a straight answer from Spectrum, it would also be good to know the longer-term cost of the services, after the promotional period is over. I found their variable pricing model to be infuriating.

 

[CMV]

Since KKfan & I are same place and I am currently with Spectrum, I might end up with same $65 he has. I just looked on their website & saw $44. Didn't look into it to see that was a promo price for new customers.

Doesn't matter much since only alternative is ATT & they are more expensive for slower speeds. When their Uverse first came in, we switched since it was a great deal & even after promo periods it was still more for less $. But kept having downtime and they couldn't be bothered to fix it. Go thru same 15 troubleshooting steps with India tech support for same issue over & over - was actually glad to go back to TimeWarner since at least they're pretty reliable and will send a tech out right away if a problem.

As far as the DVR....I can get that for another $5 but kind of thought I had something similar to on demand for all the sling cable channels - just go back and watch that way if necessary. Or watch on the network's site - most have recent few episodes up shortly after airing. Dunno.....will play with this setup a little while before returning all the cable company's equipment. Will make sure it works well enough & we like it before making the change permanent.

I have a Netgear Nighthawk router which I think is a pretty good one. Was a gift from my BIL. No single device can suck up that much bandwidth over wifi, but I'm thinking if 3 TVs are going at once and then some other devices too, could eat up more than 50 maybe? Or if I get a 4k tv maybe that will need more? No idea, but 100 seems to be minimum Spectrum offers on their website, ATT offers lower, but for same or more $. Regardless, paying over $200/mo now, so even cutting that in half is a good first step.

 

[TheMan419]

Regarding the cost of the internet connection..... I find with Dish when I call and ask about promotional pricing the first people I talk to can "do nothing" for me. If I then ask for some one who can help me disconnect service. They always magically find a promo I am eligible for that reduces the bill.

 

[IXLR8]

I have been a Spectrum customer for a few years. I was at their office yesterday trying to find a way to reduce my $170/month bill. That is internet and "basic" TV for 2 TV's, basic is 140 channels and no movie channels. If I drop all the TV stuff, Internet only is $70/month. The base internet speed is listed as "up to 100Mps". Hard wired to the router I am getting 110 Mps download, over wifi I am getting 70-80 Mps download. More than enough speed for me, even streaming on 2 TV's. I am going to try the $45/month Fubo, it has everything SWMBO wants except for DIY network. If I want that, it is another $5/month. I am not sure it I am going with a Roku stick or pony up for an Apple TV box. We are an Apple household and it would keep things relatively simple for us and we could use the Apple TV box for other things.

 

[HillStreet]

I decided that the best solution for my wife and I is DirecTV with no premium channels, Spectrum internet, and mobile with US Cellular. We tried the spectrum changeover but they lied. It sucks but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.

 

[kcflhrc]

Direct TV is great but now they bend you over the 2nd year of the 2 year contract. Dish Network is the same price throughout the 2 year contract. I pay $90 a month, no premium + local channels. That includes a DVR and second TV connection.

 

[drssg]

I have a Netgear Nighthawk router which I think is a pretty good one. Was a gift from my BIL. No single device can suck up that much bandwidth over wifi, but I'm thinking if 3 TVs are going at once and then some other devices too, could eat up more than 50 maybe? Or if I get a 4k tv maybe that will need more? No idea, but 100 seems to be minimum Spectrum offers on their website, ATT offers lower, but for same or more $. Regardless, paying over $200/mo now, so even cutting that in half is a good first step.

This got me curious, so I did a little testing. I also have a Netgear Nighthawk router, and I recently changed my home internet to fiber optics, with a whopping 500Mbps download speed. (I didn't particularly want that speed, but it was cheaper than my current Spectrum service for 25Mbps. :confused2

I powered up two laptops using WiFi, and I checked them using speedtest.net. Each laptop individually was getting about 70Mbps, so I'm limited by my WiFi speed. Then I did a test where I click the start button at the same time on both laptops. Each PC's download speed was substantially reduced, and the total of both PCs was still right around 70Mbps.

The router also offers a 5G WiFi, which I never used before, because my regular WiFi speed was faster than my internet download speed. Also, the regular WiFi seemed to offer a stronger signal. I tried the 5G option, and it gets about 157Mbps.

I thought that might be of some use to you, since we seem to have similar equipment.

 

[CMV]

I usually get around 325 down on hardwired connection. Our laptops are older, 802.11g so upper 20's is all they can get wireless. But iPad & our phones can hit mid - upper 200's speeds on 5Ghz connection but were 175ish (if I remember correctly) with the cable company's supplied wireless router on 5Ghz so the Nighthawk is faster - or just has a better signal getting down to 1st floor. They can't use that much, but can test there....

If I'm streaming a movie or something and do a speed test on a different device, I'll still hit that device's wifi limit. The router appears capable of supplying several connections with a lot of bandwidth simultaneously. Maybe ping or upload a little worse, but nothing drastic - not halved.

No idea how fast Roku sticks can go but doubt they could suck up more than a 3 y/o laptop. Everything I've read for streaming seems to indicate 10mbps down is most you'd need for HD streaming per device (don't know about 4k, but don't have it), so going down to 100 for me should be sufficient. Absolute worst case for us would be 3 TVs streaming, 2 phones or iPads doing something light like facebook or a word game, burglar alarm, and security camera DVR all using bandwidth simultaneously. Will find out I guess since everything for 2 TVs arrives tomorrow, but I think even maxing out 100mpbs down wouldn't happen in our house. I can always go back up on the internet speed too but think I'm just paying more for a bigger # right now that is only noticeable during a speed test. I don't know if there is a way to capture it, but if there was some type meter that could show "you're using X bandwidth total" (kind of like a Kill-A-Watt does for electricity use) that would be nice - just run everything at once and see what that is.

Will learn as I go since I know very little about this stuff. As long as mrs cmv can easily find something interesting to watch or play a music channel for background sound while she's doing something around the house, we'll be happy. I'm so rarely watching a live TV broadcast I really don't care. Streaming a whole series or movies is more my thing & do that today so expect that to at least be same, probably improved from how I do it now.

 

[kcflhrc]

The Netgear Nighthawk routers are an excellent choice but keep in mind wifi speeds are going to be all over the place. The 5G Band will be faster back to the router but has substantial distance limitations.

 

[NorTracNY]

I've been following these threads also. Spectrum took over Time Warner and took me off the Time Warner pricing plan. They jacked my TV and internet up from $70 to nearly $100 and it will be $140+ next year. I simply won't pay that, so I'm searching. I let them know I wanted a lower bill and they said there are no options. Unfortunately, my only internet options are Spectrum or cellular. I'm thinking of trying the cellular to see what it's like. It looks like it will cost me $300 for the equipment with a free month of connection. I believe a user then mentioned getting an AT&T sim card for a year that doesn't throttle.

 

[drssg]

The Netgear Nighthawk routers are an excellent choice but keep in mind wifi speeds are going to be all over the place. The 5G Band will be faster back to the router but has substantial distance limitations.

That’s good to know. I will say that the regular wifi signal strength is very good from all points of the house. I don’t think I’ll switch to the 5G.

 

[kcflhrc]

The new Mesh Systems are an outstanding choice in large and multi story homes. The routers I install on our Fiber to the home are dual band but without external antennas. I'm in hopes our next roll out will have external antennas, they work much better. But Mesh is still the king at this point.

 

[drssg]

I've been following these threads also. Spectrum took over Time Warner and took me off the Time Warner pricing plan. They jacked my TV and internet up from $70 to nearly $100 and it will be $140+ next year. ...

I was paying $75 for Spectrum internet only, and I called and cancelled this morning. Even though they just recently raised my rate, they now magically have drastically reduced options.

I get sick of all the games. It would be nice if they all just sold their products at a fair profit, instead of trying to screw each customer as much as he’ll tolerate.

 

[kcflhrc]

I was paying $75 for Spectrum internet only, and I called and cancelled this morning. Even though they just recently raised my rate, they now magically have drastically reduced options.

I get sick of all the games. It would be nice if they all just sold their products at a fair profit, instead of trying to screw each customer as much as he’ll tolerate.

My Company just started a few months ago "Price for Life" Our 100 meg is $55 a month however long you decide to keep it and no contract. This is what people want and the way it should be.

 

[drssg]

My Company just started a few months ago "Price for Life" Our 100 meg is $55 a month however long you decide to keep it and no contract. This is what people want and the way it should be.

I would appreciate that. I hope the idea catches on.

 

[MAD777]

..... Unfortunately, my only internet options are Spectrum or cellular....

Is satellite internet an option for you? Dish or DirecTV?

 

[NorTracNY]

Is satellite internet an option for you? Dish or DirecTV?

Actually, not sure. I thought the latency of those was bad. At least I've heard enough negative stuff about them that I didn't even consider them. I also thought cost was higher than cable. Am I wrong?