Thinking of eventually cutting the cord with our DSL TV provider. The pricing only escalates and at one time we were saving quite a bit when compared with our old cable bill, but now the pricing is as high or higher.
While I once was tech saavy, I’d prefer this be an easy install with as little headaches as possible. Currently leaning toward DirectTV Now since my wife would prefer to get the majority of her content from one place.
One of our TVs has some antiquated app capabilities so I would consider our TVs to be monitors for this discussion. To use DirectTV Now I would need a Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire TV, or to use Chromecast. I’ve found Chromecast to be glitchy so I’m not considering that. I have an Amazon Fire TV Stick, but it’s not been exactly stellar either.
What we may do is try cord cutting at another property and then eventually integrate it into our home.
Suggestions appreciated, but don’t get too technical as I might not be able to follow the conversation.
(1) Obviously you need a solid internet connection and good bandwidth. Some providers will throttle, as will some delivery formats (shared bandwidth in a community, for example).
(2) You need a good method of internal distribution. HD over WiFi works pretty well, but do consider the quality of your router and WiFi Hub (some have media packet priority settings). I personally prefer wired distribution, but use both. Fortunately I had all of my rooms pre-wired with CAT. In my business, I am running all WiFi with a fairly small range and it works OK. I have two displays there - on the older generation FireTV and Apple TV and use both for presentations.
(3) Figure out which services you want, need, then make a choice on the streaming receiver. I really like the Apple TV 4K and the Amazon FireTV 4K (not the stick). I believe that Direct TV Now is shipping with free Apple TV as a subscription promotion.
I would go ahead and get the 4K UHD version of the devices even if you do not have a supporting display. The newer chips are just much more efficient and capable, and run much more cool.
Great info. It appears with Direct TV Now I could do a $50 plan with add on for HBO and Showtime and still only be $63+ taxes, of course tack on another $50 for internet. Still less than our current bill and I could take it with me other places where I have a high speed connection.
I kept it really simple when we cancelled cable and bought a Sony Bluray player that can also stream Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. We only have one TV though, so that made it easy.
Monthly, Hulu is $12, Netflix is $10 and HBO through Amazon is $14. We have Amazon Prime for the other benefits it offers, so I consider Prime Video kind of a free bonus.
Agree. If you are in an apple centric house, it’s the no-brainer choice.
One thing to keep in mind. Cable companies are very aware that this is costing them money. Because of this they are raising the broadband only rates and establishing data caps. Where I’m at Cox gives us 1 TB per month. We are typically well below that at 200gb per month but it rocketed up to nearly 900 when my wife was home with our newborn. Unlimited with Cox and no other services is nearly $200 no contract.
I am not there yet with cutting the cord. We have Verizon Fios for Cable/Phone/Internet with HBO and a Netflix account. The prices are pretty good and the service is excellent.
With young kids who have shows they like on cable, I can’t really cut the cord right now.
My issue is my wife likes being able to get all her content in one place. If I had my way I would use 3 or 4 sources to access content and could drive the cost down further. We only have two options for high speed internet and both cost essentially the same thing.
Direct TV Now keeps looking better and better, but convincing my wife to switch may be the hardest thing to achieve.
Wow, I can’t imagine that kind of bandwidth. We’re lucky to get 6 Mbps down and .6 up. That’s orders of magnitude better than any alternative we have available.
I haven’t had cable in years. recently got Fiber and just use Netflix and Amazon TV and will get Sling TV for Amazon during football season. Never pay for cable or satellite again.
I have up cable back when the great recession pushed me into early retirement.
Where I live now there is absolutely no over the air options so the only tv we watch is from our DVD collection. We don’t miss it.
You can still do it. We’ve got 3 Mbps down and .5 up and a Roku and it works fine. Netflix and Amazon Prime (and the occasional PS Vue or Sling TV free trial for away football games).
FYI I don’t really consider Direct TV as “cutting the cord”. You are still paying the same for the crap you don’t want to watch only getting a different provider.
You “cut the cord” you choose what you want to watch and pay for that (mostly).
I have not watched commercials in about 8 months, except for what was in the breakfast room tv at a hotel I stayed at recently. It just seemed bizarre to me. Can’t comprehend that I used to pay $100 a month MORE than I do now, to watch commercials.
It’s been 18 months since I’ve watched any “news”. Caught a few minutes of it at the hotel and it nearly sucked my soul out the top of my head. Unless walter cronkite is resurrected, I’m done with news for this lifetime
Actually Direct TV Now is less than if we had to piece together all the networks and shows we regularly watch. I wish we only watched a handful of shows, but apparently some of the networks we watch are not available a la carte or those costs are somewhat expensive.
