We have a Firestick and Roku, and I’ve slowly started to gravitate more toward the Firestick. It is a slick device. One advantage the Roku remote has over Firestick is its earphone port. That has been nice when either my wife or I are working, and the other wants to watch something on TV.
I agree with you that Hulu has been a game-changer. I much prefer it over the other platforms I’ve tested.
I’m resigned to the fact that I will eventually ween off of DirecTV and “cut the cord”. However, I’m waiting as long as I can, so that whatever choice I select will be as “user friendly” as possible. I understand that there are options now to get the programming that I wish to see - but most of them involve switching back and forth between various input devices or services, and/or limited DVR options (compared to the super setup I have now). I monitor threads like this, and see that there has been a lot of positive movement towards consumer ease of use in even the past year or two. I’m thinking in 3 or 4 years I’ll make the move.
That is, so long as I can keep my DirecTV costs “liveable”. I’ve been on a cycle of renegotiating my monthly costs annually - usually in August. This year, I’ve got the best deal yet.
I bundle my ATT internet service (relatively slow at a max or 30 mbps, but works fine for the things I do) - which I had before the ATT acquisition of DirecTV - so that helps. Currently, my DirecTV service includes two HD DVR’s (HR34-700 in LR; not sure of model in BR) that are networked so I can watch shows recorded on either on both TV’s. I have the “XTRA” package, which includes all but a very few specialty networks (that I never would watch anyway), HBO, the “Sports Pak” which gets all of the FOX Regional sports channels around the country, every imaginable sports channel (All ESPN and FOX sports channels, The SEC Network, The Golf Channel, NFL Network, MLB, etc.). Plus - I got them to throw in the NFL Sunday Ticket for nothing. I choose to not pay for Showtime, and although I hear of a show or two I’d like to check out there from time to time, I have so many things I watch with my current configuration (I also have Netflix, and I watch a lot of movies and original programing of theirs) that I really don’t have time for anything else. I can record (I believe) up to 4 (may be more) shows at a time, and I’ve got all of my favorites set to record - so, I watch them when I want to - not when they are shown. It’s a fabulous set up.
Oh - and my son (out of state) can use my log on credentials to watch the NFL Sunday ticket as well.
All of this - including my internet - I now get for $111 a month.
I might could get by for a little less than that if I cut the cable - but, considering that $30 of that is for internet (which I’d still have to pay for in an alternate solution), not much. And I just can’t beat either the quality of options and picture quality.
So, for now, I’m staying put. But I will continue to read the experiences of others who are making the move.
So once I cut the cord, games on espn3/WatchESPNApp, such as many hog baseball games and a few hoop hog games, won’t be available? Unless I stumble upon a username and password right?
You’ll need to double-check this, but I think Hulu is one of the accepted providers to login to WatchESPN now.
Huge if true
Sling is an accepted provider as well.
I’ve been a fairly happy Sling customer for a few years now and I also get access to WatchESPN with my Sling account. Over the years, Sling has really improved their service. The first few months were kind of rough with crashes, screen lockups and the like. But they’ve really improved since then and I rarely have any issues these days. Plus the Sling on-demand content is awesome!
I use an Amazon Fire box on the main TV in the living room and a Roku TV in master bedroom and small TV with a Roku stick in the guest bedroom. I also have a Tablo OTA DVR system that allows me to record, pause, FF and rewind live OTA TV over my Amazon Prime 50 mile digital antenna.
I prefer the Amazon Fire box over any Roku device. FAR less buffering and faster app loading due to more internal memory.
I cut the cord about three years ago. I couldn’t be happier. I use SlingTV which provides you with all the ESPN Channels and also is a WatchESPN provider. Combine all of that with Google Chromecast (high school football, horseracing, etc.) and you are in sports heaven. To those people who have been told that you have to have 'line of sight" with TV towers, I say big goobs of baloney. I bought three separate HD long-range antennas with a 125 mile range in order to receive local TV. They cost me $69 dollars from a home antenna website. I also bought the $20 mounting pole for each (Don’t bother going to Lowes and trying to cobble together a pipe and flanges. It will cost about the same and be more trouble.). The antennas come with with a built in rotor controlled by a little remote from your easy chair. I have turned the antennas so that I can get all the local channels without having to use the remote, unless you get occasional slippage. I mounted all three in my attic and hooked them to three different TVs. Supposedly, you can split the signal but I didn’t want any degradation of the HD signal. I DO NOT have line of sight from inside my attic. The key is to stay away from Wal-Mart and Best Buy. Buy an antenna with at least 125 miles of range. I installed these antennas by myself when I was 70 years old.
Update:
I am 100% in belief that this is the way to go.
Had the 3 TV set up going with a Roku, Firestick and over the air antenna and had 3 games going at once without any issues and minimal buffering.
Only drawback is staying off Twitter due to spoilers. There is about a 45 second delay it seems.
Thanks again to Matt, Jimmy and others. I’m canceling directv today
That Hulu news is great. I can handle moving around from device to device. My wife’s thought on that shouldn’t be mentioned, for the sake of common decency.
The Beta Hulu live with Cloud based DVR appears pretty awesome.
With the money I would save from DTV, I can add HBO so momma has movies to watch.
My only concern is if my Century Link internet can handle it. I do stream Netflix now, so it should be OK. Not sure how it would handle 2 TVs streaming though, so i’ll need to test a bit.
I use an Xbox 360 in the bedroom and a Xbox One S in the living room. I may check into a Chrome thingy or something to replace the 360.
Thanks for reviving this thread. It is really informative.
Here is some good info on data caps.
Centurylink has a 1 Terabyte limit. COX, AT&T and Comcast have caps. The following article helps you understand how much that is and how it may impact you. It’s good information for cutting the cord.
<LINK_TEXT text=“https://www.consumerreports.org/telecom … -data-cap/”>https://www.consumerreports.org/telecom-services/how-easy-to-burn-through-1TB-data-cap/</LINK_TEXT>