OT: TECH...Getting Fired Up

[Husky25]

I just wonder how long these live tv streaming services are going to last now that net neutrality is gone. Why would the cable company support any of these services who are direct competition to their cable services?

Is there an echo in here?

 

[Dove]

Is there an echo in here?

You might be on his IGNORE list.

 

[TheChamps990411]

You might be on his IGNORE list.

No he is not. I just did not read through all the comments. Great minds think alike

 

[8893]

yes it does. at consumer level.

I get 50 MB/50MB Fiber at work, and Im actually purchasing through ATT but Frontier owns last mile of all runs in state. Its a screamer. But dealing with them is also a nightmare of epic proportions. Frontier can blow me.


And here is the thing with cord cutting. I want to do it so bad. I work in tech, if anyone should be ahead of these curves its me. But every time I do my due diligence to estimate costs of cutting cord and replacing what I currently have I have never once in the last 3 years come up with more than 10 bucks a month savings. Could I save more? Sure. By giving up some services I currently have. Which is another discussion. But every time I go apples to apples the savings just isnt there for me.

Same here.

One thing I just learned was a bonus from Comcast though: our router finally crapped out last week (we'd been using the same Linksys router for around 15 years or so) and in the process of trouble-shooting the problem with Comcast on the phone they told us: (1) they had a faster modem to give us; and (2) they now provide free routers paired to their modem. I expected to have to call Nerds to Go (or bribe you to come over) but it was easily solved the next day by stopping by Comcast in North Haven, picking up the new stuff and assigning my 16-year old (who drains more data that the rest of the house combined) to figure it out. It was done by the time I got home from work, for free!

 

[8893]

Is there anything better than the "c" button on an X1 remote?

That and the voice commands are great improvements to my TV watching experience.

 

[Husky25]

You might be on his IGNORE list.

As far as I know, I'm nearly controversial enough to be on anyone's ignore list, so long as THEY are in their right mind (Has nothing to do with me, naturally.)

 

[Minicoop69]

I currently have comcast 100mbps for internet for $80/month. I then got signed up for directvNOW when they just came out and it was $35 for the normal $60 package for life. Also it includes HBO for free. So $35 a month for life with no fees. I use a Roku to access it on the TV which is great.

If you are a sports fan, obviously, I think YoutubeTV is the way to go if you can get this in your area. It has a lot of the local fox sports affiliates and all of the others. Not sure about MLB though.

I missed the DVR by switching to DirectvNow, but they are releasing it here soon and it is pretty good as I am in the Beta for that.

Currently saving about $70-$80 a month doing it this way. And have access to all of the streaming apps like WatchESPN, fox sports go, amc, nbc, etc.

 

[Husky25]

Is there anything better than the "c" button on an X1 remote?

Yes. The microphone button. Especially since Xfinity changed the channel line up (I have since re-learned where NESN and CSNNE are.).

 

[August_West]

Same here.

One thing I just learned was a bonus from Comcast though: our router finally crapped out last week (we'd been using the same Linksys router for around 15 years or so) and in the process of trouble-shooting the problem with Comcast on the phone they told us: (1) they had a faster modem to give us; and (2) they now provide free routers paired to their modem. I expected to have to call Nerds to Go (or bribe you to come over) but it was easily solved the next day by stopping by Comcast in North Haven, picking up the new stuff and assigning my 16-year old (who drains more data that the rest of the house combined) to figure it out. It was done by the time I got home from work, for free!

yup. Lets put it this way. I use their modem, router and built in wifi these days and I get all the other gear I could ever replace it with for free and choose not to. It works great.

 

[August_West]

Yes. The microphone button. Especially since Xfinity changed the channel line up (I have since re-learned where NESN and CSNNE are.).

hitting C on the remote and getting the side screen up for every game in every sport on at the moment and the ability to get there in a single click without knowing channels is so fricking fantastic.

 

[Husky25]

hitting C on the remote and getting the side screen up for every game in every sport on at the moment and the ability to get there in a single click without knowing channels is so fricking fantastic.

During the summer, I care basically only about the Red Sox. Come Winter, that expands to the Celtics and Bruins. As far as the Huskies are concerned, I will use the voice command. Though I do know that the sports channels start at 1205 (Used to be 1605).

 

[August_West]

During the summer, I care basically only about the Red Sox. Come Winter, that expands to the Celtics and Bruins. As far as the Huskies are concerned, I will use the voice command. Though I do know that the sports channels start at 1205 (Used to be 1605).

this time of year I watch a ton of college hoops and a fair amount of hockey and it is when it really pays off. Its how I keep up with Bill Walton weekly. Its how I watched zona last night. I would never start hunting through Pac12 network channels manually but as soon as the wife gives the first snore in bed, I hit the C button and ready to go.

Last night after the Zona game I left the Pac12 channel on and watched a replay of the 97 zona kentucky title game.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Exactly this.

And FWIW, it's worth the extra $ to get the Fire TV rather than the Fire Stick, which is old & slow.

The new Fire Stick came out this fall and is neither old nor slow. It also has Alexa support in the remote, which I think would appeal to an elderly person.

For anyone talking about Hulu, it is pretty close to useless if you have streaming of the network channels via some other service.

 

[Husky25]

this time of year I watch a ton of college hoops and a fair amount of hockey and it is when it really pays off. Its how I keep up with Bill Walton weekly. Its how I watched zona last night. I would never start hunting through Pac12 network channels manually but as soon as the wife gives the first snore in bed, I hit the C button and ready to go.

Last night after the Zona game I left the Pac12 channel on and watched a replay of the 97 zona kentucky title game.

With a 5 and nearly 2 year old, I don't have nearly that much liberty. Being between houses makes it worse. First of all, they are more often than not occupying one or both TVs prior to bedtime. Then once I fulfill my fatherly duties and get them to bed, I am lucky to be able to watch part of a DVR'ed game, even while fast forwarding through commercials. 9:00 tips are better for me to watch a live game, but there is a 72% chance I ain't making it to 11:00 on a school night.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I just wonder how long these live tv streaming services are going to last now that net neutrality is gone. Why would the cable company support any of these services who are direct competition to their cable services?

For you and @Husky25, The FTC and DOJ have not gone away. Refusing competing bandwidth is a sure way to get broken up. What they might do is charge appropriately. At night, Netflix is some absurd percentage of all bandwidth. All non Netflix users are subsidizing Netflix and Netflix users right now. So I think about it the same way we think about ala-cart cable. There will be flexibility to build packages. But the targets won't be you and me, it will be the high bandwidth providers like YouTube (Google). They are getting a free ride.

And remember, the cable companies are in on the streaming game too. AT&T owns direct TV. Comcast is NBC/Universal, which has a ton of streaming options, including partial ownership of Hulu.

 

[8893]

With a 5 and nearly 2 year old, I don't have nearly that much liberty. Being between houses makes it worse. First of all, they are more often than not occupying one or both TVs prior to bedtime. Then once I I fulfill my fatherly duties and get them to bed, I am lucky to be able to watch part of a DVR'ed game, even while fast forwarding through commercials. 9:00 tips are better for me to watch a live game, but there is a 72% chance I ain't making it to 11:00 on a school night.

This is just the beginning of losing your space in the house. It only gets worse. First we moved from the house where I had a separate outbuilding all to myself, because we needed a bigger house once we had more kids. Then I lost my "spare" bedroom in the new house when my two oldest daughters refused to share a room any more. Then I lost the living room when they co-opted my TV. I finally got my revenge by putting on an addition under the guise of a "family room" at the same time that we remodeled our kitchen, so I got a wide berth to fill it with a great TV, audio system, recliner and a separate entrance and door to block off the rest of the house, essentially making it my man cave.

 

[August_West]

With a 5 and nearly 2 year old, I don't have nearly that much liberty. Being between houses makes it worse. First of all, they are more often than not occupying one or both TVs prior to bedtime. Then once I I fulfill my fatherly duties and get them to bed, I am lucky to be able to watch part of a DVR'ed game, even while fast forwarding through commercials. 9:00 tips are better for me to watch a live game, but there is a 72% chance I ain't making it to 11:00 on a school night.

Been there bro. Im out the other side now (almost) and time requirements are non existent for me on that end pretty much these days, I barely ever see her! so I can do that. And you will be able to too in 14 more years. I gotta tell you though there is a trade off. Your wallet.

 

[whaler11]

this time of year I watch a ton of college hoops and a fair amount of hockey and it is when it really pays off. Its how I keep up with Bill Walton weekly. Its how I watched zona last night. I would never start hunting through Pac12 network channels manually but as soon as the wife gives the first snore in bed, I hit the C button and ready to go.

Last night after the Zona game I left the Pac12 channel on and watched a replay of the 97 zona kentucky title game.

I actually hit guide twice and then sports. Shows you everything on and you can sort by sport. If you pick movies you can scroll through everything currently on and it includes the rotten tomatoes percentages. You can see what shows are trending on twitter too.

Also when you set favorite teams it shows you the next few weeks of games. I’d never remember a UConn hockey game was on TV without it.

 

[8893]

I actually hit guide twice and then sports. Shows you everything on and you can sort by sport. If you pick movies you can scroll through everything currently on and it includes the rotten tomatoes percentages. You can see what shows are trending on twitter too.

Also when you set favorite teams it shows you the next few weeks of games. I’d never remember a UConn hockey game was on TV without it.

Which button is the movie one? I've only used the C (sports) button so far.

 

[whaler11]

Which button is the movie one? I've only used the C (sports) button so far.

It’s not a button. If you hit guide twice it shows you categories.

 

[whaler11]

The Xfinity Stream TV app is awesome too. Ton of stuff you can download for the gym and airplanes where the wifi sucks.

 

[8893]

The Xfinity Stream TV app is awesome too. Ton of stuff you can download for the gym and airplanes where the wifi sucks.

I found out about that from my oldest, who is away at college and uses it to watch her shows. After she left for school I noticed that shows she typically watches were being recorded on our DVR at home. I asked her and she explained that she can set the recordings remotely from the app and then watch them on her computer or phone. It blew my mind, and then the next week when I was out and forgot to record a UConn game I texted her at school and she did it for me...

 

[Waquoit]

The new Fire Stick came out this fall and is neither old nor slow. It also has Alexa support in the remote, which I think would appeal to an elderly person.

Does it let you disable Alexa?

 

[8893]

Does it let you disable Alexa?

Wrong board dude.

Wait, what?

 

[August_West]

The Xfinity Stream TV app is awesome too. Ton of stuff you can download for the gym and airplanes where the wifi sucks.

Yup.....

thats the other thing I use all the time. Download stuff for offline trips. Also use it to just watch TV on one a couple of my Ipads in the house. have one downstairs on the treadmill one in the kitchen on breadbox.

Lol this cord cutting thread turned into an X1 ad. lets face it. Im never cutting the cord. I like all that stuff too much and I will never get all those features at the pricepoint Im paying for X1.

 

[Husky25]

The Xfinity Stream TV app is awesome too. Ton of stuff you can download for the gym and airplanes where the wifi sucks.

They took away the ability to set the DVR away from the home network, which blows and it can't be thrown up to the big screens through Chromecast. Other than that, I like it.

 

[8893]

They took away the ability to set the DVR away from the home network, which blows. Other than that, I like it.

When did they take that away? My daughter did it last month for me.

 

[Husky25]

When did they take that away? My daughter did it last month for me.

About two weeks ago.

 

[methodology]

If it wasn't for live sports I would have cut the cord 2 years ago. Just not an option seeing there no real alternatives for live sporting events.

I hate the price of Comcast but their internet can't be touched unless fios is available to you. Think I pay $225/ month for tv/internet with screen.

Kodi is great if you understand what you're getting and not expecting more/everything. If you want it for watching tv shows and movies already released in DVD then it has everything you can imagine.

With net neutrality expect cable companies to charge per gb or whatever method in the future. Hopefully congress blocks net neutrality. Everyone should be calling their state reps to have them block the fcc ruling

 

[TheChamps990411]

For you and @Husky25, The FTC and DOJ have not gone away. Refusing competing bandwidth is a sure way to get broken up. What they might do is charge appropriately. At night, Netflix is some absurd percentage of all bandwidth. All non Netflix users are subsidizing Netflix and Netflix users right now. So I think about it the same way we think about ala-cart cable. There will be flexibility to build packages. But the targets won't be you and me, it will be the high bandwidth providers like YouTube (Google). They are getting a free ride.

And remember, the cable companies are in on the streaming game too. AT&T owns direct TV. Comcast is NBC/Universal, which has a ton of streaming options, including partial ownership of Hulu.

So youre ok with the FCC getting rid of Net neutrality?