Any Cord Cutters Here?

[Lawnboy1]

Are there any cord cutters here? If so, how long have you been without cable TV and what do you use for streaming?
I have need set free from the ever rising cable bill for about 2 years now. I stream all movies and on my Nvidia Shield Pro, I also have PLEX and an HTPC. I get local channels with an external Channel Master antenna and HD HomeRun. I can watch local tv over my network on any device and can also get them away from home on PLEX.

 

[sebastiantombs]

How far are you from the TV station transmitters?

 

[Robert G.]

I have a very similar setup. I have an OTA antenna, HD HomeRun & PLEX.

I have an antenna in Phoenix and can pickup the ATSC 3.0 broadcasts - BUT they are not broadcasting in 4K. The signal is only 1080 but it is in 60fps. Sounds good, but 60fps need a LOT more processing power and most of my playback devices struggle to play them back.

 

[JNDATHP]

Is there anything out there that can “house” streaming apps and a DVR? We currently have Tivo but they aren’t updating the streaming apps.

 

[Flintstone61]

I haven't had Cable TV in since like 2007-2008.
Rabbit ears. and Youtube, and Prime, and Netflix, and PBS.org for Nova programs.

 

[tigerwillow1]

I have an OTA TIVO and "love" it. If you can get a few stations with a bunch of subchannels, there is a huge amount of older shows and movies to choose from. Mine (a Roamio OTA) has 4 tuners, no monthly fees, and what I consider the world's easiest to use remote. I'm going on about 5 years with it. Right now we're binging on old westerns until we get tired of them.

 

[StevenFromTexas]

I cut cable in 1991 when I got my first computer. I haven't had cable since. No paid streaming services either. I rarely turn on the televison due to commercials. I do listen to lots of podcasts which have few commercials in them. I subscribe to many YouTube channels which don't cost anything. And I have almost all commercials blocked on YouTube. I am a nightmare customer for advertisers. LOL

 

[Holbs]

just tossing it out there....24/7 repeats of certain Dr. Who episodes from the B&W seasons to that weird dude dressed like a clown with 2 showgirls in tow. On Pluto.
But hay...lots of Daleks!

 

[sdkid]

I have an OTA TIVO and "love" it. If you can get a few stations with a bunch of subchannels, there is a huge amount of older shows and movies to choose from. Mine (a Roamio OTA) has 4 tuners, no monthly fees, and what I consider the world's easiest to use remote. I'm going on about 5 years with it. Right now we're binging on old westerns until we get tired of them.

Does that thing crush quality down to 640x480 or something, leaving it up to your tv to try to correct back via upscaling?

 

[Robert G.]

Does that thing crush quality down to 640x480 or something, leaving it up to your tv to try to correct back via upscaling?

There is a limited amount of bandwidth per channel.

NORMALLY most broadcasters will broadcast a 1080 signal as the main channel then have a few (4?) sub channels that they broadcast at 480.

SOMETIMES the broadcaster will broadcast their main channel at 720 to squeeze another 480 sub channel, fortunately that is not often as I can't stand watching the sub channels and do not want to see a main channel degraded to 720.

 

[Steve.L]

2.5 years ago, cold-turkey, no streaming. Only thing I still miss is Monday Night Football. Got fed up with DirecTV ratcheting up prices every year, when it hit $125 a month, I said "fuck this."

Got a Channel Master ULTRAtenna 60 and pull in about 100 channels. Of course, about 20 are Viet, Korean, etc., but the girls are cute! Anyway, high-def OTA is great, and MeTV is my must-watch channel now. And the MeTV umbrella of channels just added Story, which is sort of a History Channel knockoff, which shows old A&E stuff, Discovery, etc. I'm good with it, I'm mostly a news hound anyway.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Does that thing crush quality down to 640x480 or something, leaving it up to your tv to try to correct back via upscaling?

The Roamio OTA output resolutions are 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, via component or HDMI.

 

[sdkid]

The Roamio OTA output resolutions are 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, via component or HDMI.

Hmmmmm...... do I want one?
I have done NO research on such a device, and I am curious if there is an effective alternative for less? Yes. I am a cheap asshole. Hmmmm some under $300... OK -- Which one would you get--- knowing what you know now?

 

[redpoint5]

Exact same setup except a WinTV-dualHD tuner instead of HD HomeRun. My BlueIris server is also my media server, so all Plex content or recorded TV goes there. I pretty much only use the tuner once a year for the super bowl.

The awesome thing about Plex is it can automatically cut out commercials after the recording finishes.

Don't update your Shield TV Pro to the latest Android version as it has serious problems with external storage that haven't been worked out yet. Appears to be issues with later versions of Plex Media Server and hardware transcoding 4k content. I wouldn't update past v1.23.x

Never had money for cable growing up, and by the time I could afford it, streaming was already the better option. Been a Netflix subscriber since the 3 DVDs at a time days.

... oh, and I have the Shield TV Pro connected to a 4k projector I picked up for $600. Made a 152" projector screen from lumber and spandex

 

[Robert G.]

Hmmmmm...... do I want one?
I have done NO research on such a device, and I am curious if there is an effective alternative for less? Yes. I am a cheap asshole. Hmmmm some under $300... OK -- Which one would you get--- knowing what you know now?

I have tried two devices for OTA. Tablo and HD Homerun (2 different models). Hands down the HD Homerun wins. My Tablo is sitting in a box, never to be used again by me. I even purchased the lifetime subscription for it - total waste of money.

 

[looney2ns]

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[wittaj]

I am wondering how much longer we will see OTA programming.

With Disney tanking, I doubt that Dancing With the Stars will stay exclusive to Disney+ now, but if it does and is successful, we may start to see the beginning of the end of free broadcast TV as we know it (even though I think that beginning has already happened).

As long as there is a lucrative market because people are willing to to pay for what was previously the free broadcast channels to move their content to paid streaming services, what incentive is there for them to keep it on the free airwaves?

I would love to see the numbers that shows that having a show like DWTS wrapped up into a monthly streaming service is financially better than running it OTA with the fees they get from commercials. I would think the commercial revenue that can be directly attributed to that timeslot has to be more valuable than a portion of the monthly fee?

 

[sebastiantombs]

Judging by the number of subscribers that Disney and Netflix, in particular, are shedding I'm not sure where it's going. OTA will be around for a long time as a public service as mandated by the FCC. I know networks could just shut things down if they want to, but imagine the hue and cry the first time that happens and what would happen to that network as a result.

 

[tigerwillow1]

I have done NO research on such a device, and I am curious if there is an effective alternative for less? Yes. I am a cheap asshole

From one cheap asshole to another, I'll summarize everything I know about TIVO OTA DVRs. For context, I don't know much about the product line since I bought my Roamio OTA 6 years ago, and another for one of our kids 3 years ago. Since then, the product line has changed to the Bolt and now to the Edge. Six years ago the price was $300, and 3 years ago it was $349 for a "renewed" unit. I also bought the 3-year extended warranty for $40 because the lifetime service is not transferable, i.e. if your unit breaks and you buy a replacement, the lifetime service is lost. I also have a TIVO "mini" that cost about $100 that extends the main unit to another TV via ethernet. Bottom line is that I have the full TIVO capability on 2 televisions, total cost about $450, for 6 years and still running. It also has apps for youtube and a bunch of the streaming services. And repeating myself, the easiest to use remote I've ever had. I curse most of the other remotes and praise this one.

Two other points: To get the best deal you have to shop around and wait for promotions. If you don't get the lifetime service the monthly fee for the guide, which is required for it to operate, will add up fast. The lifetime service standard cost is very high, but occasional promotions throw it in for cheap or free.

 

[looney2ns]

The edge I linked above can be had for $349 and that includes a lifetime service.