cutting the cord with satellite tv

  • Iowaboy1
    Posts: 3791
    #1695439

    I got the bill in the mail today for our dish network account,good grief!!
    with taxes included we were paying around eighty nine bucks a month before,the bill today was ninety four dollars !!
    I may not have cared so much even though it is ridiculous to pay that kind of money to watch so dang many commercials every six minutes,let alone have five hundred channels of the same crap just a different channel number.

    what tipped the cart over today was I found out last months bill was two hundred dollars !! why?
    we havent gotten a bill from them for a while and we were notified of a cut off of service due to this,when we called them and asked why, they told us that we had chose to pay online with a credit card and hadnt received a payment yet,wtf????
    we had never signed up for that at any time !!
    I fully believe it was a ploy to charge us a late fee to simply grab more money from us,talk about crooked as a snake !

    so I called them to cancel our service immediately,when asked why I told them, too many identical channels with different numbers,too many commercials,too many channels removed that we liked and total lack of anything new to replace them with.
    I then started getting the line we can do this for so long,and we can do that blah blah blah.
    finally I had to scream at the lady to tell her I was not interested in any deals only to be overcharged again down the road,what a deal that was!!
    now we are going to get three boxes that I am to put the receiver,dish,and smart card in,and I have to pay twelve bucks for each boxes return,it will be the best money I have spent so far!

    I guess what makes me sick now is to think I could have paid off a new Alumacraft or Crestliner by now with the money I have paid those knuckle heads in the last nineteen years !
    at least I get the satisfaction that part of my money is no longer helping to pay some entitlement babies bill,hmmmm,time to get rid of the cellphone and internet too??

    end of rant.

    Sam
    St.Francis
    Posts: 384
    #1695441

    Just get Hulu or Netflix waaaaayyyy cheaper

    Iowaboy1
    Posts: 3791
    #1695442

    yes it is !! and no commercials!!

    biggill
    East Bethel, MN
    Posts: 11321
    #1695458

    Get some rokus for your tvs and get sling. You will get many of the channels you had with dish for $25/month.

    Get Netflix and you’re set.

    $35/month.

    biggill
    East Bethel, MN
    Posts: 11321
    #1695459

    Oh and sling now has cloud based DVR for like $5/month extra if you need DVR.

    nhamm
    Inactive
    Robbinsdale
    Posts: 7348
    #1695462

    Wife and kids have Netflix, and good ol antenna.

    You might be surprised on how many free digital channels there are nowadays. The FIL came over to watch the kids for couple hours earlier in week and didn’t want to leave. He was surprised they all came in free and was gonna look for the channels on his cable when he got home. Many old western shows, detective, game shows etc that were big in the day that just rerun now. Heck I was watching Godzilla the other night.

    Sam
    St.Francis
    Posts: 384
    #1695465

    I like the older shows like on METV channel 5.3 they are pretty good compared to some of this new crap coming out

    Dutchboy
    Central Mn.
    Posts: 16658
    #1695467

    I’d tell them to keep their box just send the shipping labels. Wrap it in bubble wrap, shoot a picture, put it in a box, shoot a picture and send it to them.

    Brian Klawitter
    Keymaster
    Minnesota/Wisconsin Mississippi River
    Posts: 59992
    #1695469

    For all the hulus,netchicks and others, a person needs an internet connection. Don’t have that in my van down by the river.
    I use my phone’s hot spot but it’s not good enough for netchicks and when I leave with my phone the FW is stuck watching DVD’s or about 9 free channels.

    I’m not sure the $40 a month we pay for dish is worth it. Well, it depends on which one of us you ask I guess.

    Dutchboy
    Central Mn.
    Posts: 16658
    #1695491

    Keeping momma happy………..priceless. Well not really priceless we pay a lot of money to keep them happy I guess. jester

    404 ERROR
    MN
    Posts: 3918
    #1695495

    Haven’t had cable in about 5 years. Netflix and Hulu. I also leech off my parents DirecTV account to stream Wild games…Even NHL center ice has become a crock…had it for a week and the blackouts killed me. $140 a year for a service where “All games stream free”? Try maybe half…I felt like I was robbing them of their newborn when I called to cancel and get my money back…

    JoeMX1825
    MN
    Posts: 17884
    #1695498

    Just get Hulu or Netflix waaaaayyyy cheaper

    I keep seeing folks say this but how is it actually alot cheaper? When you take TV out of your Internet/TV bundle, they raise the price of just having Internet, add on the $15 Netflix or Hulu charges and you’re just about even, maybe you save a few dollars but you likely don’t have anywhere near the channels you had before, especially Sports channels…

    I get that you don’t watch a majority of the channels on your cable/satellite tv package that you’re paying for, but are the savings really there when you add up everything in the end?

    I’ve gone back & forth with this, after adding everything up, I end up paying $5-$10 more a month for cable TV and can watch every twins/wild game in addition to whatever is on the other 100+ channels I get vs Hulu/Netflix. It’s the Sports viewing limitation that’s holding me back from cutting the cord.

    What’s really exciting is that in the last year we’ve started to see several new companies offer pay per channel options and other channels are seeing what HBO has done by giving the middle finger to cable companies and offer their content via an app, so the future looks better for those of us who want to cut the cord and only pay for what we really watch.

    biggill
    East Bethel, MN
    Posts: 11321
    #1695520

    #1695498
    Sam wrote:
    Just get Hulu or Netflix waaaaayyyy cheaper

    I keep seeing folks say this but how is it actually alot cheaper? When you take TV out of your Internet/TV bundle, they raise the price of just having Internet, add on the $15 Netflix or Hulu charges and you’re just about even, maybe you save a few dollars but you likely don’t have anywhere near the channels you had before, especially Sports channels…

    Just give your internet company a call and tell them you want the same rate you had with the bundle. There are dozens or articles on the internet explaining how to do this.

    I was paying $130 for direct tv and $60 for my internet.

    I now pay:
    $60 for internet
    $10 for Netflix
    $25 for Sling

    I bought 2 roku costing me a total of $90. That’s it. I get all the wild and twins games. I have an antenna to get all the major sporting events on regular tv. YouTube is free.

    I’m missing out on very little. Sling is working on an app that can bundle your local (antenna) channels into your sling app so you never have to switch apps. They also have cloud DVR if you need that kind of thing. Some tvs have the ability to record live tv onto a flash drive, like DVR.

    With a little research you can really save some cash and still get everything you need.

    slipbob_nick
    Princeton, MN
    Posts: 1297
    #1695534

    got rid of satellite couple years ago. have the Netflix and an antenna. would never go back.

    TheFamousGrouse
    St. Paul, MN
    Posts: 11654
    #1695540

    Do you guys with internet TV have any issues with bandwidth when running multiple TV’s? Does the picture break up, etc?

    What is your true download speed to get a good picture?

    Are you running the Roku or other device over the home wireless or do you have a hard ethernet cable from your router to the device to max data transfer speed?

    Finally, I can’t get an exact answer on Sling’s website. Does Fox Sports NORTH come on Sling?

    Many thanks.

    Grouse

    JoeMX1825
    MN
    Posts: 17884
    #1695545

    I was paying $130 for direct tv and $60 for my internet.

    I now pay:
    $60 for internet
    $10 for Netflix
    $25 for Sling

    I bought 2 roku costing me a total of $90. That’s it. I get all the wild and twins games. I have an antenna to get all the major sporting events on regular tv. YouTube is free.

    I’m paying $110 for HD Cable TV and Internet, if I were to drop Cable TV, my Internet would be $70, add in $10 for Netflix and $25 for Sling and i’m only saving $5 and I would have a fraction of the channels I have now and would have to rely on my internet bandwidth keeping up with everything and no interruptions (We currently have 12 devices connected to our wifi)

    You can see in my case it’s not really worth it to drop cable TV…I’m sure my case is pretty common…. but for those who have every channel and their Cable bill is $200+ a month, then sure I can see the savings…

    biggill
    East Bethel, MN
    Posts: 11321
    #1695546

    Do you guys with internet TV have any issues with bandwidth when running multiple TV’s? Does the picture break up, etc?

    Not really. I actually had many more problems with cable and satellite.

    What is your true download speed to get a good picture?

    I pay for 75 Mbps and regularly get 50 Mbps. At worst I get around 20 Mbps.

    Are you running the Roku or other device over the home wireless or do you have a hard ethernet cable from your router to the device to max data transfer speed?

    Home wireless for everything. 2 tvs at the same time as well as 2-3 phones and one iPad. Wife likes to use her phone and iPad at the same time. I even watch YouTube on the iPad and watch tv at the same time. Never any issues. I have a dual band router which is good for fixed and close proximity devices, like tvs. It’s been recommended to me to get an AC1750 or higher router for streaming tv on multiple devices. Mine isn’t even that high and I don’t have any issues. If you start having issues, normally it’s because of the tv service provider. We had Play Station Vue and it sucked. Constantly buffering on the most popular channels. Same channels on sling had 0 issues.

    I’d recommend doing a free trial of both at the same time to see which you like better.

    Finally, I can’t get an exact answer on Sling’s website. Does Fox Sports NORTH come on Sling?

    A big fat YES. I get all wild and twins games on sling. You also get NBCSN. Playoff hockey. For an upgrade you can get NHL network and espn too.

    belletaine
    Nevis, MN
    Posts: 5116
    #1695551

    We have Century Link for Internet, haven’t paid more than $29 a month since we got it five years ago. I make about a 15 minute phone call once a year saying I want whatever promo price they’re offering or I’ll shop around. Piece of cake.

    However I think we’re going to be looking into a product that Verizon offers called the jetpack. It’s about the size of a deck of cards and works just like a wireless router for $20 a month.

    biggill
    East Bethel, MN
    Posts: 11321
    #1695553

    @skeeterzx225

    Call your company and tell them you’re cancelling your service because it costs too much. Tell them you may consider keeping internet if the price was right. Tell them $40 a month would be about right.

    $70 per month you’re getting ripped off. At $60 I’m getting ripped off too. I need to call again as well.

    If they offer introductory offers to new customers there’s no reason at all you can’t get that price too.

    If you get it that $35 per month savings for you.

    crappie55369
    Mound, MN
    Posts: 5757
    #1695569

    We have Century Link for Internet, haven’t paid more than $29 a month since we got it five years ago. I make about a 15 minute phone call once a year saying I want whatever promo price they’re offering or I’ll shop around. Piece of cake.

    However I think we’re going to be looking into a product that Verizon offers called the jetpack. It’s about the size of a deck of cards and works just like a wireless router for $20 a month.

    We use Verizon Jetpacks for work. they do the job but I wouldn’t rely on one for a connection capable of consistently supporting live streaming TV

    mplspug
    Palmetto, Florida
    Posts: 25026
    #1695570

    I’d (as in speaking for myself) be shy going to internet TV. Last year I went from Center Ice to NHL.TV and it was horrible. If I watched on my phone the framerate was great, but on the laptop or Apple TV is was like watching a recorded standard definition broadcast.

    Also don’t you have to pair Roku or Slingbox with some service provider be it cable, satellite, Netflix or Hulu?

    biggill
    East Bethel, MN
    Posts: 11321
    #1695571

    Also don’t you have to pair Roku or Slingbox with some service provider be it cable, satellite, Netflix or Hulu?

    No.

    I have a roku tv and 2 more rokus on two other tvs. Sling or PlayStation Ve are tv providers specifically for the internet. YouTube/google will have one too soon.

    I think you’re thinking of viewing roku apps like Nat Geo or ESPN that require a tv subscription to view it.

    Unfortunately sling isn’t considered a tv provider by those apps so you can’t watch them. PlayStation Vue is considered a tv provider for those apps. Apparently sling is working on this as well.

    mnrabbit
    South Central Minnesota
    Posts: 815
    #1695575

    I cut the cable in September 2015 and will never go back. We had DirecTV bundled with Century Link internet. I don’t recall the exact price per month, but I think it was somewhere around $100-$130.

    We now have a Frontier Internet for $29.99/month. We went with their lowest speed, I believe it is advertised at 6 or 7 mpbs. I have never done a speed test, so I am not sure what we are currently getting. It works good enough for streaming anything on the TV. If my wife and I are also both on our phones while streaming TV, then sometime the connection is bad. Not a big deal to me, but as our family grows I’ll have to upgrade our internet.

    We bought a Roku when Sling had a deal on them. I believe it was buy 3 months of Sling and get a Roku for 50% off. So basically either buy a Roku for $100 or buy a Roku plus 3 months of Sling for $110. We used sling for this 3 months, but then cancelled after. Didn’t use it enough to justify the $20/month. If you like having actual channels to flip through, then Sling works great.

    We have Hulu for $8.54/month. My brother has a Netflix account. He can access my Hulu, I can access his Netflix. Mutual agreement.

    The in-laws provide us access through their Xfinity Comcast subscription to use things such as WatchESPN and FoxSportsGo. Because of this, the only sporting events I’ve really missed have been NBA games that are on TNT/TBS. I’m sure somebody out there has login info they’d be willing to give you, and they probably didn’t even know their subscription came with streaming access to things.

    Put an average antenna on the roof for the local channels.

    Total Cost: Antenna $130, Roku + 3 months of Sling $110, Internet $29.99/month, Hulu $8.54/month.

    Which means for a 24 month time frame I will have spent $1,164.72 for my setup as opposed to the $3,120 I would have spent with my DirecTV and internet package.

    Sam
    St.Francis
    Posts: 384
    #1695632

    I don’t have wifi or internet at my house I pay 50 a month to boost Mobile for my phone and I got everything I need

    bwank1124
    Posts: 3
    #1695634

    I decided to use the 7 day free trial of playstation vue and it was awesome. Cloud based dvr, could start a program at home and watch it at lunch on my phone. PS Vue lets you use the watch espn and fox sports go apps like said above. We called our cable company (uverse) and they lowered our cost for tv and interent down for a year. I keep saying I really want to just be done and go ps vue. Plus you can view Vue on 5 tvs at once, sling and directv now are limitied on tvs.

    Iowaboy1
    Posts: 3791
    #1695641

    great bunch of replies everyone !
    I like the idea that hulu and netflix can be cancelled anytime without a contract or ‘deal’ of any kind.
    I am assuming the others mentioned are the same way.

    I think I am finding out though that one way the two I mentioned are cheaper is that they are selling out my email address,sigh,my spam folder has never had this much crap in it before! and the difference was overnight !

    wish the rain would let up,it is springtime,and I should be outside doing something besides worrying about what is on tv,I can save that for winter which I hope is a million years away.

    Opie
    Coon Rapids, MN
    Posts: 127
    #1695647

    A question for all of you cable cutters: Does Sling/Hulu/Netflix offer multiple TV’s on one unit/subscription? Currently with DirecTV, have been for over 20 years, but the price keeps slowly creeping up. My issue is we have 6 televisions (and 2 DVR’s) that are pretty much used daily in our house. Not sure if my savings would be very great depending on how the other supplier’s pricing structure is.

    Reef W
    Posts: 2747
    #1695650

    A question for all of you cable cutters: Does Sling/Hulu/Netflix offer multiple TV’s on one unit/subscription? Currently with DirecTV, have been for over 20 years, but the price keeps slowly creeping up. My issue is we have 6 televisions (and 2 DVR’s) that are pretty much used daily in our house. Not sure if my savings would be very great depending on how the other supplier’s pricing structure is.

    Netflix allows multiple simultaneous streams depending on plan. It is $7.99 for 1 stream, $9.99 for 2, and $11.99 for 4.

    About 3-4 years ago I got rid of satellite and use just Netflix and Google Play which is the same as iTunes basically. Netflix has a lot of content but there are going to be things you want to watch that aren’t on it, maybe a lot of things. With Play/iTunes you get the show the day after it airs so you can watch just about anything that’s on TV and never see a commercial. It costs from $15-45 for a season of TV but if you add up how much your cable/satellite bill is you can buy a lot of TV and still save significant amounts of money.

    What I found is that the first year I bought every season of everything I previously DVR’d, which was a lot of shows, but still way cheaper than satellite. I realized, when I’m paying per show, that a lot of those shows I didn’t actually care about so the next year I dropped a lot of them. Now I spend way less money and think I watch much higher quality shows that I really enjoy rather than just whatever junk is airing that year.

    eyeguy507
    SE MN
    Posts: 5215
    #1695652

    I was paying $140 for cable and internet so I finally had enough. Did a ton of research on how to get by with just a network connection and still get the shows and live sports i want. Over a year now and life could not be better for only $60 a month. Want live sports? I get EVERY game imaginable, it just may take longer to find a reliable and good quality stream is all. Want PPV UFC or boxing? It’s there, you just have to be patient and sift through many dead streams but hey….its free and I have yet to not find a working stream. 99% of every episode of every show is there dating back to who knows when! Heck you can even get movies that are still in theatres but the quality is usually poor and well there is the whole copyright thing. Local channels are the only feeds I don’t get. I can get any of the big networks live, it just may be a feed from another state. It is not for impatient people and it is not a perfect system but it is all free other than this small device and a fast network connection. Anybody know what I am referring to?

    crappie55369
    Mound, MN
    Posts: 5757
    #1695654

    I was paying $140 for cable and internet so I finally had enough. Did a ton of research on how to get by with just a network connection and still get the shows and live sports i want. Over a year now and life could not be better for only $60 a month. Want live sports? I get EVERY game imaginable, it just may take longer to find a reliable and good quality stream is all. Want PPV UFC or boxing? It’s there, you just have to be patient and sift through many dead streams but hey….its free and I have yet to not find a working stream. 99% of every episode of every show is there dating back to who knows when! Heck you can even get movies that are still in theatres but the quality is usually poor and well there is the whole copyright thing. Local channels are the only feeds I don’t get. I can get any of the big networks live, it just may be a feed from another state. It is not for impatient people and it is not a perfect system but it is all free other than this small device and a fast network connection. Anybody know what I am referring to?

    yeah a hacked firestick is pretty slick

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