Bye Bye Cox. A New Beginning

[2Husky]

I have Roku 3, with Hulu, Netflix, Sling with sports extra and Amazon Prime. I also pay for CBS All Access so that I get local news. Hulu 8 bucks, Netflix 8 bucks, Amazon Prime 99 for the year and 6 bucks for CBS. Sling is 25 a month. All told I pay approx. 55 a month.. Probably gonna rotate the Netflix and Hulu each month to switch it up. Cannot get WatchESPN or ESPN 3 without a cable subscription, unless someone wants to PM me their password. Most of the time the quality of the stream is very good. Occasionally it a little blurry for a second or two.

Watchespn is included with slingtv, you can sign in with your sling account. Espn3 is usually part of your internet service, included with comcast internet. I had sling last season, and I would have to sign out of my sling account on watchespn, if i wanted to watch an espn3 game, but i didn't have the sports package and i thought espn3 came with the slingtv sports package.

 

[Lefty2one]

I don't know about Cox but with Comcast they kill you the Internet rate if you don't have a TV package. We currently pay $67/mo for our Internet with Comcast. The wife has Hulu Plus ($8/mo). If you add on Sling TV that's $95/mo. You can get a great cable TV package (sports channels, HD, etc) on a 2-year deal with Comcast for $90. It reaches a point where it's not worth the hassle to cut the cord. The good thing with Sling TV is that you can start and stop it whenever you want. So if you only want it for college hoops, you pay the $25 Nov-March and then cancel it.

The wife and I have been cord-cutters for a year and a half. I cancelled Comcast after my 2-year deal ended and my bill shot up to $120/mo. They wouldn't give me a deal even close to what I was paying during my 2-year contract so that was the end of that. My solution was to put a Slingbox (NOT Sling TV and not related in any way, shape or form) at my folks' place which gives me full access to my old man's DirecTV. This has worked out great for me, it's "place-shifting", not streaming like Sling TV, Netflix, Hulu, etc. You attach the Slingbox to a STB and you have full control over the box remotely (use the guide, access the DVR, change channels, etc) It's $300 to buy the hardware but there are no subscriptions or monthly fees and the device pays for itself in a few months. To date, we've saved nearly $1,000 thanks to Slingbox.

I have a cheap HTPC I built for Slingbox connected to my 55" Panasonic Plasma but it's also great that I can put whatever I want on my laptop or phone while the wife is watching some trashy show on Hulu. We have an agreement that I get to watch UConn & Knicks (and Jets, blah) games on the TV but all the other games I'll watch on my laptop. It's worked out well, there really isn't much compromising anymore and I get to watch every game I want to watch, just some are on a laptop instead of a bigger screen. The one thing that really pissed me off is that the mobile app is $15 (per device, which is absurd considering you just bought a $300 piece of hardware). I wound up buying it, and it's been worth it, but still doesn't justify those bastards being greedy!

 

[Uconnrick]

Do you actually have slingtv? I've been interested in that but the reviews are.... not great when it comes to feed quality.

Sling does have feed issues on every channel they offer. ESPN is better, but not good. Hulu, Netflix and Amazon are flawless. The only reason I get Sling TV is it's the cheapest way that I know of to get Watch ESPN and ESPN 3.

 

[Versace_husky]

Is there a one stop shop tutorial on this? I googled but there is a bunch of different links out

Is there a one stop shop tutorial on this? I googled but there is a bunch of different links out there.

this HTML class. Value is http://m.ebay.com/it

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

I've been contemplating cutting the cord for a while now and last night sealed it.

We had gotten the Amazon Fire Stick in the mail earlier in the week and last night was the proof of concept.

Watched the game in my bed room without any pixilation or delay. Goodbye cable.

The digital antenna is spot on too for the over the air channels.

Looks like we'll have Amazon Prime, Hulu+ and SlingTV with the $5 sports add-on.

Who is your Internet provider?
How much does it cost you per month?
What speed is it, or if you don't know this, is it fast enough for Amazon Prime & SlingTV (assuming if yes it'll work for Netflix)?

Anybody else feel free to chime in with least expensive/fast enough internet-only in New Haven County.

 

[RichZ]

Every time I scroll by this thread title, I think, "Did something happen to Marcus?"

Or is it just like 15 years late?

 

[imno1]

Every time I scroll by this thread title, I think, "Did something happen to Marcus?"

Or is it just like 15 years late?

And I think did the OP go straight ?

 

[David 76]

Cougartown stopped syndication?

 

[Northbound]

And I think did the OP go straight ?

I have to admit I laughed out loud at this.

 

[pepband99]

I need to mention the one huge thing that will always prevent me from cutting the cord, and likely come into play for most here, too...

By cutting the cord, if you live in CT and most of metro NY, you lose SNY. Period. Yes, you can go to some russian hacker site to view stuff, or make friends at a bar but you lose all legal options. ESPN3 is "fine" for those out of SNY's home territory, but it won't work for those more local to UConn.

 

[David 76]

^ what he said.
Plus my worry that we won't get the same internet speed for my son's souped up gaming computer. our computer, 2 laptops, 4 tablets and various gaming systems which are often used 4 (or more) at a time .
Am I wrong about comcast & internet speed being better in practice?
I live in Guilford.

 

[Waquoit]

^ what he said.
Plus my worry that we won't get the same internet speed for my son's souped up gaming computer. our computer, 2 laptops, 4 tablets and various gaming systems which are often used 4 (or more) at a time .
Am I wrong about comcast & internet speed being better in practice?
I live in Guilford.

Do you ever use this link to check your speed? My speed seemed slow to me a while back. This test confirmed it and I had them come out to check for issues. Some minor rewiring later and I was much better.

 

[David 76]

Thanks Waq! I got a download speed of 49.83 Mbps and an upload speed of of 12.25 Mbps.
I don't know whether that is very good or not (I assume from the visual it is pretty good).
But my concern is I would not get anything as fast from a competitor. Any feedback on my speed and possible alternatives would be appreciated!

 

[Waquoit]

Thanks Waq! I got a download speed of 49.83 Mbps and an upload speed of of 12.25 Mbps.
I don't know whether that is very good or not (I assume from the visual it is pretty good).
But my concern is I would not get anything as fast from a competitor. Any feedback on my speed and possible alternatives would be appreciated!

I guess it's all relative. My download is usually in the high-50's these days, but my upload is usually only 6-7. Before the fix I was under 10, sometimes way under.

 

[David 76]

Who do you use?

 

[Waquoit]

Who do you use?

Cox

 

[minidarren]

Do you ever use this link to check your speed? My speed seemed slow to me a while back. This test confirmed it and I had them come out to check for issues. Some minor rewiring later and I was much better.

This link is fine to use, but it does not truly test the network of your ISP. Most companies will have a link on their website that checks the speed to their handoff with "the internet." Do a traceroute to see how many hops there are to the server that is being tested to. There may be points along the way that are far less superior than that of your ISP. Companies are constantly raising their speeds. It's like a who has the bigger dong contest. 50 down and 10 up is plenty for most, IMO.

 

[intlzncster]

This link is fine to use, but it does not truly test the network of your ISP. Most companies will have a link on their website that checks the speed to their handoff with "the internet." Do a traceroute to see how many hops there are to the server that is being tested to. There may be points along the way that are far less superior than that of your ISP. Companies are constantly raising their speeds. It's like a who has the bigger dong contest. 50 down and 10 up is plenty for most, IMO.

Speeds are also limited by your equipment at home too (router/wifi/etc). That's usually where the bottle neck is.

 

[minidarren]

Speeds are also limited by your equipment at home too (router/wifi/etc). That's usually where the bottle neck is.

This is very true. Check your router capabilities and port thru put. You can't pass 150 mbps through a 100 mbps port.

 

[formerlurker]

I'm only 45 and I remember when this was considered a pretty cool viewing experience.

The day they put HD p^rn on those little cardboard discs is the day I drop off the grid forever.

BTW: BYard filter changes p^rn to "smut". Haha.

 

[David 76]

My question is can I cut the cable and get similar speed with a non-cable provider with 4 active users in my house? My comcast bill is about $300, And I already called to try & negotiate.

 

[dogpause]

In the past couple of years I've done a couple of things that also create more free time for me while also enhancing my viewing experience. When an NFL game starts, I hit the Pause button on my DirectTV receiver. Then, I come back in 50 minutes and resume watching the game and fast forward through all the commercials and half time show. By starting my viewing at 1:50, I usually catch up to the live game action with about 5 minutes left. I also set the game to record, as a backup in case there's any problems.

For basketball, I resume watching after 40 minutes.

I've found it a lot more enjoyable to watch the game without all the commercial interruptions. And that extra time that I reclaim lets me do other things rather than watch commercials.

 

[minidarren]

My question is can I cut the cable and get similar speed with a non-cable provider with 4 active users in my house? My comcast bill is about $300, And I already called to try & negotiate.

Who is a non cable provider? Frontier sells DSL, which is junk. You can get rid of your TV package and use OTT applications, but you still need Comcast for your data connection.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

In the past couple of years I've done a couple of things that also create more free time for me while also enhancing my viewing experience. When an NFL game starts, I hit the Pause button on my DirectTV receiver. Then, I come back in 50 minutes and resume watching the game and fast forward through all the commercials and half time show. By starting my viewing at 1:50, I usually catch up to the live game action with about 5 minutes left. I also set the game to record, as a backup in case there's any problems.

For basketball, I resume watching after 40 minutes.

I've found it a lot more enjoyable to watch the game without all the commercial interruptions. And that extra time that I reclaim lets me do other things rather than watch commercials.

Yes, but for Husky games, you miss out on the brilliance of the chatroom. There is that one moment of brilliance, the "fort the ead" moment, that happens once every decade that makes the idiocy of our in-game selves tolerable.

 

[David 76]

Who is a non cable provider? Frontier sells DSL, which is junk. You can get rid of your TV package and use OTT applications, but you still need Comcast for your data connection.

Thanks, So DSL is a "No".
What is OTT?