The unofficial online home for fans of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Alright peeps, I know we had an old thread on this, but can’t find it. My current TV situation is I pay about $210 a month for Spectrum’s WiFi and cable package that gets me all sports channels. I don’t really watch regular TV much anymore and my kids watch Netflix and YouTube.

Need some suggestions for the best way to get the stuff I want: Fox Spots channels and ESPNs, cable news, Netflix. Suggestions for high speed internet? Stick with Spectrum?

My cheap friend Rath says I’m gonna be stuck at $200 one way or the other.

(08-13-2020 12:30 PM)Billy_Bearcat Wrote:  Alright peeps, I know we had an old thread on this, but can’t find it. My current TV situation is I pay about $210 a month for Spectrum’s WiFi and cable package that gets me all sports channels. I don’t really watch regular TV much anymore and my kids watch Netflix and YouTube.

Need some suggestions for the best way to get the stuff I want: Fox Spots channels and ESPNs, cable news, Netflix. Suggestions for high speed internet? Stick with Spectrum?

Yikes...yeah, I have Spectrum Internet w/100mbs and unlimited data and Unlimited Hulu With Live TV for $128.85/month. I've recommended that setup to a couple of buddies who were in similar price ranges as you and it has worked out alright. Hulu with Live TV gets me channels for every Bearcats football and basketball game, along with just about every channel I'd normally watch, the On-Demand shows from every channel on there, and local stations that I like. Adding Netflix onto that would only cost another $15/month.

I would suggest you use a tool like this one (https://www.suppose.tv/tv) to find a streaming service that works best for you per the channels you would like to watch.

Thanks B Man

(08-13-2020 12:30 PM)Billy_Bearcat Wrote:  Alright peeps, I know we had an old thread on this, but can’t find it. My current TV situation is I pay about $210 a month for Spectrum’s WiFi and cable package that gets me all sports channels. I don’t really watch regular TV much anymore and my kids watch Netflix and YouTube.

Need some suggestions for the best way to get the stuff I want: Fox Spots channels and ESPNs, cable news, Netflix. Suggestions for high speed internet? Stick with Spectrum?

My cheap friend Rath says I’m gonna be stuck at $200 one way or the other.

Probably depends what you can get the internet for.

I'm paying $54.00 per month for cincinnati bell, I'm paying $65.00 for youtube TV (you may do better price wise with Sling TV since youtube just raised their prices). I've thought of switching off youtube, but th unlimited DVR is really nice.

Mark, what kind of speed do you get through Bell?

(08-13-2020 12:37 PM)Billy_Bearcat Wrote:  Mark, what kind of speed do you get through Bell?

50Mbps . I know a lot of areas throughout Cincinnati get significantly faster. Not sure how Columbus is.

I guess the key is we are going to need to have a provider where we can stream ESPN+ going forward right? A lot of our content will be on the traditional ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPN U stations but there will be a few games going to the + model. I haven't done anything yet because I was waiting to see how the season shakes out but I was thinking I needed to subscribe to the Disney+/Hulu package to get it. Am I wrong?

(08-13-2020 12:30 PM)Billy_Bearcat Wrote:  Alright peeps, I know we had an old thread on this, but can’t find it. My current TV situation is I pay about $210 a month for Spectrum’s WiFi and cable package that gets me all sports channels. I don’t really watch regular TV much anymore and my kids watch Netflix and YouTube.

Need some suggestions for the best way to get the stuff I want: Fox Spots channels and ESPNs, cable news, Netflix. Suggestions for high speed internet? Stick with Spectrum?

My cheap friend Rath says I’m gonna be stuck at $200 one way or the other.

Cheap is my middle name.

My cord cut set up being a little pricier is due to having to use an overpriced sat system for WiFi here in the Great Northern Woods. No other option for us. Heck I’m happy we have electric lines! Only utilities connection we have that is not 100% on site.

I have the same setup as Mark does with YouTube and Bell. With 2 teens in the house it actually works with all the wireless we run. My work phone and internet is set up directly to the modem, so no WiFi on those devices. It's possible to get a lag on YouTube once or twice a month, but it isn't significant.

I have a similar set up as Mark - Cincy Bell Fiber to the home ($50/month) and Youtube TV (started at $45/month but has since gone up to $65/month.)

Had DirecTV Now but when they raised their rates, I switched to Youtube TV. Now I'm thinking of dropping Youtube TV and going with Hulu or some other live streaming service that's cheaper. Great thing about streaming is no contracts, you can drop and add as you please and they take 5 minutes to cancel or sign up.

My advice is to go online and compare and see which streaming service has all the pros you're looking for.. they all differ from price, interface/ease of use, channels offered, cloud storage, number of simultaneous users, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed both DirecTV Now and Youtube TV.. increase in price was the only turn off. I'm going to guess if you unpackage your internet, get just internet and a separate streaming service, it'll be cheaper than what you're paying now.

Thanks for all the input

I used to be a DirecTV customer but got tired of the constant rate increases. Poor weather affecting the signal didn't help either. Loved the any room DVR access and I do miss that. However, since my family is all about streaming devices I upgraded my Spectrum internet service to 400+ Mbs but downgraded my Spectrum cable to the lowest tier channel package [silver?]. This also includes my phone LAN line and totals about $220/month. The internet speed/bandwith is awesome and I have my 4K tv direct wired to my router. I actually save a few bucks/month because I don't need the cable box for that tv. I use the Spectrum app for that. I have two other tv's in the house that are still coax connected to a cable box and one with the DVR. At some point, I will probably ditch the Spectrum cable package and go strictly streaming through YouTube/Hulu/et al. My family loves Netflix so we have that service as well.

(08-13-2020 05:03 PM)UCGrad1992 Wrote:  I used to be a DirecTV customer but got tired of the constant rate increases. Poor weather affecting the signal didn't help either. Loved the any room DVR access and I do miss that. However, since my family is all about streaming devices I upgraded my Spectrum internet service to 400+ Mbs but downgraded my Spectrum cable to the lowest tier channel package [silver?]. This also includes my phone LAN line and totals about $220/month. The internet speed/bandwith is awesome and I have my 4K tv direct wired to my router. I actually save a few bucks/month because I don't need the cable box for that tv. I use the Spectrum app for that. I have two other tv's in the house that are still coax connected to a cable box and one with the DVR. At some point, I will probably ditch the Spectrum cable package and go strictly streaming through YouTube/Hulu/et al. My family loves Netflix so we have that service as well.

All the providers do that once your initial contract is up. I had to make an annual complaint call to C-Bell. Every March they would try to up my bill 30-40 dollars, After a half hour on the phone and informing them if they didn't take care of the problem my next call would be ti Spectrum. They would knock the bill back down and give me a credit for the "overcharge." After going through this for a couple-three years, they finally started sending me a letter every March informing that since I was such a "good customer" they would not raise my bill and let me know a big favor they were doing for me (LOL).

Figured i would post this here since this is a dedicated thread to cord cutting. Two things that jumped out to me:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/24/big-medi...ibers.html

Quote:American viewers can now choose among streaming services from most of the major players, including Disney+, WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, NBCUniversal’s Peacock, ViacomCBS’s Paramount+, Discovery+ and AMC+, at prices ranging from free to $15 month. All have launched in the last year or are coming in early 2021.

The plan is simple enough: Hope enough people sign up for subscription streaming services to make up for cable TV subscriber losses.

Quote:“The only thing left holding the bundle together today is sports,” said former AOL CEO Jonathan Miller, who stepped down from the board of AMC Networks in July. “There is nothing any of the networks can do about it. The only question now is how far does it fall and how fast, and is there a bottom. And I don’t know if there’s a bottom.”

i know that some of the conferences have, or are in process, extending their media rights deal. This probably won't affect b10 or SEC but it will be interesting to see how this may affect the acc, Pac 12, or b12. This obviously does not bode well for g5 conferences.

Sorta related...for anyone who, like me, lives a ways off of Main Street and who struggles with limited internet/WiFi options, or who just wants a cheap WiFi connection for the house, we just deep-sixed the expensive and cruddy satellite internet for the deal TMobile has. Its $50/mo guaranteed not to go up...just a little 6 inch plug in router that powers our whole house. Coverage and speed is way better than the sat system we had to install last year. No brainer. No cables or other equipment to mess with. No contract. I was skeptical but it handles all of our streaming flawlessly (and cheaply).

I would guess all the other big cell carriers have something similar.

Are they just repeating their 5G service, Rath?

(10-26-2020 06:26 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Sorta related...for anyone who, like me, lives a ways off of Main Street and who struggles with limited internet/WiFi options, or who just wants a cheap WiFi connection for the house, we just deep-sixed the expensive and cruddy satellite internet for the deal TMobile has. Its $50/mo guaranteed not to go up...just a little 6 inch plug in router that powers our whole house. Coverage and speed is way better than the sat system we had to install last year. No brainer. No cables or other equipment to mess with. No contract. I was skeptical but it handles all of our streaming flawlessly (and cheaply).

I would guess all the other big cell carriers have something similar.

I'm sure they do, but the last time I looked there were caps in place that limited the amount of data transfer per month which made it impractical for streaming applications. I tried looking up Verizon's policy for their mifi pucks and it's not really all that clear. The company I work for uses 4G access points at some of the remote sites in Northern Michigan and we get dinged bigtime for excessive data use when the modems go over their allocation. If there truly are no caps in place for this service, that's awesome. Especially as 5G becomes available.

Old news at this point but Hulu also announced they've stopped negotiating with Sinclair and they're dropping Fox Sports Regional channels. I believe the only streaming service still offering is AT&T Now (formerly Directv Now). People are going to have to get creative in watching their MLB, NHL, and NBA teams.. luckily most leagues are in hiatus for awhile.

Sinclair's strategy for buying the regional channels for such a large price is questionable at best. Now they're only offered to satellite/cable customers and the lone streaming service.

(10-27-2020 12:19 PM)Cat_Litter Wrote:  

(10-26-2020 06:26 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Sorta related...for anyone who, like me, lives a ways off of Main Street and who struggles with limited internet/WiFi options, or who just wants a cheap WiFi connection for the house, we just deep-sixed the expensive and cruddy satellite internet for the deal TMobile has. Its $50/mo guaranteed not to go up...just a little 6 inch plug in router that powers our whole house. Coverage and speed is way better than the sat system we had to install last year. No brainer. No cables or other equipment to mess with. No contract. I was skeptical but it handles all of our streaming flawlessly (and cheaply).

I would guess all the other big cell carriers have something similar.

I'm sure they do, but the last time I looked there were caps in place that limited the amount of data transfer per month which made it impractical for streaming applications. I tried looking up Verizon's policy for their mifi pucks and it's not really all that clear. The company I work for uses 4G access points at some of the remote sites in Northern Michigan and we get dinged bigtime for excessive data use when the modems go over their allocation. If there truly are no caps in place for this service, that's awesome. Especially as 5G becomes available.

I have no caps on usage and there is none of that throttling down game going on. For my situation, this has been a home run.

My wild guess is the little thing I just plug into an electrical outlet and sit on a corner table top acts like a huge phone with a mobile hotspot on roids. We steam multiple TVs off of this at the same time.