Posted August 9, 20159 yr I signed up for an account at www.sling.com, and bought the hollywood and sports package....all of the ESPN channels. In all about 38 channels for $30 a month, no contract. With TWC to get all of the ESPN channels you have to buy the top tier package. I stream via my Roku 3 box, works really well. 7 day free offer, so looks like I will cut the TWC cord soon. Probably buy an HD antenna for "local" stations. With Netflix and Amazon prime, I am good to go.
August 9, 20159 yr I've found that my overall monthly spend on media has stayed roughly the same even after cutting the cord...it's just spread out among more players.
August 9, 20159 yr I've found that my overall monthly spend on media has stayed roughly the same even after cutting the cord...it's just spread out among more players. I am going save a decent amount.
August 9, 20159 yr I've found that my overall monthly spend on media has stayed roughly the same even after cutting the cord...it's just spread out among more players. I am going save a decent amount. I'm probably going to sign up for Sling as well when college football starts up. One of the things that's been somewhat unclear to me is whether or not the minor college games that are typically available streaming on ESPN3/WatchESPN (a handful of UC's football games are only available there) come with Sling. Somewhere I read that those streams are still only available via a cable subscription. I'll probably get the 7 day free trial when the first college football weekend starts up, and see how I like it. Otherwise I only watch Netflix and DVDs I pick up from the Library. It's probably about $100 cheaper than what I paid for cable, which I haven't had since 2010.
August 9, 20159 yr I've found that my overall monthly spend on media has stayed roughly the same even after cutting the cord...it's just spread out among more players. I am going save a decent amount. I'm probably going to sign up for Sling as well when college football starts up. One of the things that's been somewhat unclear to me is whether or not the minor college games that are typically available streaming on ESPN3/WatchESPN (a handful of UC's football games are only available there) come with Sling. Somewhere I read that those streams are still only available via a cable subscription. I'll probably get the 7 day free trial when the first college football weekend starts up, and see how I like it. Otherwise I only watch Netflix and DVDs I pick up from the Library. It's probably about $100 cheaper than what I paid for cable, which I haven't had since 2010. Looks like ESPN 3 is not on there, but worse case hook laptop via HDMI to TV for that. First game and at Miami Oh are ESPN 3 games. Going to both so not too concerned. Game at USF is CBS sports network. Uconn, UCF, Tulsa, ECU, Houston are not announced yet. I bet most of not all of those will be ESPN, 2, U, or News. UC will probably have a few bball games on CBS Sports network also, conference games. I bet they eventually offer live programming via an app or a streaming device soon.
August 9, 20159 yr Also bought an HD antenna from Amazon. Hope it works good. Where I live I think it will be fine.
August 9, 20159 yr Man Cincinnati had a TON of channels on the rabbit ears when I lived there. I could also pull in Dayton channels.
August 9, 20159 yr I tried sling for a few months but canceled. Turns out, I don't watch as much tv as I thought.
August 9, 20159 yr It's been a year now since I've had cable and I don't miss it at all. When I had it I watched it, but now I don't even watch any antenna stations on a regular basis. It's nice to read books instead of scheduling my time around TV shows. “To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal.”
August 9, 20159 yr Currently subscribing to Netflix, Hulu Plus, and HBO Now. I tried Sling for a few months but I didn't watch much live TV and found their app to be sluggish and/or their steaming to be choppy.
August 9, 20159 yr My roommate and I cut the cord two years ago. I have a cheap ($20) antenna from Target that gets all terrestrial stations in glorious HD. I am in Columbus near all the towers, so perhaps if you live further out you'd need a more expensive antenna. It's great except for sports. No Indians or Cavs. I don't have time to watch all regular season games, but it'd be nice to watch one once in a while. The price they charge for their streaming services, I might as well add TV to my Time Warner subscription.
August 10, 20159 yr I've found that my overall monthly spend on media has stayed roughly the same even after cutting the cord...it's just spread out among more players. I am going save a decent amount. I'm probably going to sign up for Sling as well when college football starts up. One of the things that's been somewhat unclear to me is whether or not the minor college games that are typically available streaming on ESPN3/WatchESPN (a handful of UC's football games are only available there) come with Sling. Somewhere I read that those streams are still only available via a cable subscription. I'll probably get the 7 day free trial when the first college football weekend starts up, and see how I like it. Otherwise I only watch Netflix and DVDs I pick up from the Library. It's probably about $100 cheaper than what I paid for cable, which I haven't had since 2010. Looks like ESPN 3 is not on there, but worse case hook laptop via HDMI to TV for that. First game and at Miami Oh are ESPN 3 games. Going to both so not too concerned. Game at USF is CBS sports network. Uconn, UCF, Tulsa, ECU, Houston are not announced yet. I bet most of not all of those will be ESPN, 2, U, or News. UC will probably have a few bball games on CBS Sports network also, conference games. I bet they eventually offer live programming via an app or a streaming device soon. I'm going to all the home games, too, so I guess the game at Miami will be the only one I'd miss, I should be able to live with that. My current setup is HDMI built into my wall, with the computer on another floor so I don't get the noise from the fans/hard drives. The bluetooth mouse and keyboard work from a good distance. Man Cincinnati had a TON of channels on the rabbit ears when I lived there. I could also pull in Dayton channels. I can see most of the TV antennae from my house, but for whatever reason cannot get ABC (channel 9) no matter what I do. I live a block from the NBC (channel 5) tower, and wonder if being too close to that may cause the problem. I know people in Loveland that get 30+ channels over the air.
August 10, 20159 yr Yes with digital you can be too close to stations and they become too powerful. This especially goes for when you are right next to one station and it overpowers the others... like with analog.
August 10, 20159 yr FYI, don't get fooled into paying extra money for an "HD antenna." Any regular antenna will pick up over-the-air HDTV broadcasts. All that matters is that your TV has a digital tuner built in, or if your TV is too old, that you buy an external converter box. Unfortunately a lot of companies tried to take advantage of the public during the transition to digital TV. Some cable companies were using misleading language, implying that over-the-air broadcasts were completely going away, to get people to sign up for cable.
August 10, 20159 yr I cut my cable last year, and I don't really miss it most of the time. In addition to the usual NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox stations, I get three stations each from the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Kentucky PBS broadcasts, plus WB, CW, and some other random stations. With Netflix, Amazon's video service, and Watch ESPN, I pretty much always have something to watch. The only time it stinks is during live events that I can't watch. I was able to find streams of the NBA playoffs, but couldn't find any place to watch the Republican debate, for example.
August 10, 20159 yr Been very happy with signing up for sling. I cut my cord about four years ago and relied on viewing most "TV" type shows through various free online outlets.
August 10, 20159 yr What's the deal with PBS stations offering 4 or so streams of standard-definition programming over the air, rather than 2 streams of HD like the commercial stations? This might've seemed like a good decision back when the digital transition happened, bit they probably need to re-evaluate it now. Most people are so used to HD programming that it's painful to look at those SD channels.
August 10, 20159 yr A lot of their content isn't hd cause its historical stuff from the early 2000s like the Ohio channel stuff.
August 10, 20159 yr ^The Ohio Channel has some really interesting programming. Kentucky's PBS also has some really interesting things, especially documentaries about Louisville culture and history.
August 10, 20159 yr Man Cincinnati had a TON of channels on the rabbit ears when I lived there. I could also pull in Dayton channels. The Dayton and Lexington channels were usually duplicates of the Cincinnati channels, except KET often played completely different programs than Cincinnati's Channel 48. Channel 64 and especially Channel 25 were the total wild cards in the Cincinnati TV landscape. Channel 64 aired bootleg shows like "The Real Ghostbusters" whereas Channel 25 literally aired random films they found for free at the library. One day they were airing a random dirt track race filmed on Super-8 in the 1960s, with commentary added by some "pro" announcer. I seem to remember from the 80s the following channels from when I was a kid: 2 Dayton 5 Cincinnati NBC 7 Dayton 9 Cincinnati CBS 12 Cincinnati ABC 14 Dayton PBS 16 Lexington PBS 19 Channel 19 WXIX independent, then it became a Fox affiliate around 1990) 25 UHF independent low-quality programming 45 Dayton UHF 48 Cincinnati PBS 64 WIII ("the I's of CIncInnatI") independent low-quality programming, became a WB affiliate around 2000
August 10, 20159 yr Currently subscribing to Netflix, Hulu Plus, and HBO Now. I tried Sling for a few months but I didn't watch much live TV and found their app to be sluggish and/or their steaming to be choppy. I haven't watched TV since 1996. I've never owned one and I've never paid a cable bill. Assuming $50/mo, I've saved about $11,000.
August 10, 20159 yr Channel 64 and especially Channel 25 were the total wild cards in the Cincinnati TV landscape. Channel 64 aired bootleg shows like "The Real Ghostbusters" whereas Channel 25 literally aired random films they found for free at the library. One day they were airing a random dirt track race filmed on Super-8 in the 1960s, with commentary added by some "pro" announcer. 25 is the one where a Trekkie got behind a desk and called for Dick Cheney to be hung as a war criminal during the 2008 election season.
August 11, 20159 yr I haven't had cable for almost 5 years now! Here is my homemade antenna, third rendition (version 1 was made from coat hangers!). It's made from materials that I had lying around the house; scrap wire, scrap wood, scrap flu liner for a reflector, and a $5 transformer from RadioShack. The antenna works great (picks up about 25 channels) and actually outperforms my friends antenna that he paid $50 for! I'm only 10 miles from the broadcast towers and have this mounted on my third floor. I also have Sling TV, Netflix, and amazon prime streaming. I really don't use Sling that much but only for games on ESPN. I also downloaded the ESPN streaming app on my Firestick, plugged in my DirectTV/Sling credentials (since sling is a DirectTV service), and now have access to live stream all ESPN channels even including ESPN 3 and the college channels. I haven't logged into the app in about 3 months so I honestly don't know if I still have access to all that. If you're thinking about cutting the cord then I highly recommend building a homemade antenna. It's cheap, simple to make, and outperforms what you will buy in the store!
August 11, 20159 yr JG, that is positively brilliant! "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
August 11, 20159 yr Channel 64 and especially Channel 25 were the total wild cards in the Cincinnati TV landscape. Channel 64 aired bootleg shows like "The Real Ghostbusters" whereas Channel 25 literally aired random films they found for free at the library. One day they were airing a random dirt track race filmed on Super-8 in the 1960s, with commentary added by some "pro" announcer. 25 is the one where a Trekkie got behind a desk and called for Dick Cheney to be hung as a war criminal during the 2008 election season. Well I missed that since I wasn't watching TV. We always had horrible reception of Channel 64. They had a really great Saturday night show called Eddie Fingers' Basement Tapes. They showed all of the B movies like Swamp Thing. The new broadcast tower was built in 1990 or 1991. I could see the new tower from my bedroom window, but reception didn't improve at all! The thing about TV in the 80s was that nobody in the country had cable -- they all had satellite. I remember driving with my parents to Washington, DC through West Virginia in the late 80s and my mom and dad howling at all of the people living in trailers with satellite dishes. Back then those things cost about $2,000, or about half the cost of a trailer home.
August 11, 20159 yr Channel 25 actually was a WB affiliate from 1995-98. Then Ch. 64 picked up WB in '98 and Ch. 25 became UPN. WB and UPN merged into the CW in 2006. In most cities, the CW affiliation was given to the station with the better signal. Since this left a lot of stations without an affiliation, Fox created a new network called MyTV and picked up many of these newly unaffiliated stations. It was widely expected that Ch. 64 would become a CW affiliate and Ch. 25 would get MyTV. However, Ch. 12 actually picked up the CW affiliation and runs it over the air on digital channel 12.2. This left Ch. 64 to pick up the MyTV affiliation and left Ch. 25, once again, as an independent UHF channel.
August 11, 20159 yr I haven't had cable for almost 5 years now! Here is my homemade antenna, third rendition (version 1 was made from coat hangers!). It's made from materials that I had lying around the house; scrap wire, scrap wood, scrap flu liner for a reflector, and a $5 transformer from RadioShack. The antenna works great (picks up about 25 channels) and actually outperforms my friends antenna that he paid $50 for! I'm only 10 miles from the broadcast towers and have this mounted on my third floor. I also have Sling TV, Netflix, and amazon prime streaming. I really don't use Sling that much but only for games on ESPN. I also downloaded the ESPN streaming app on my Firestick, plugged in my DirectTV/Sling credentials (since sling is a DirectTV service), and now have access to live stream all ESPN channels even including ESPN 3 and the college channels. I haven't logged into the app in about 3 months so I honestly don't know if I still have access to all that. If you're thinking about cutting the cord then I highly recommend building a homemade antenna. It's cheap, simple to make, and outperforms what you will buy in the store! Cool. Do you need a digital ready tv?
August 11, 20159 yr I signed up for an account at www.sling.com, and bought the hollywood and sports package....all of the ESPN channels. In all about 38 channels for $30 a month, no contract. With TWC to get all of the ESPN channels you have to buy the top tier package. I stream via my Roku 3 box, works really well. 7 day free offer, so looks like I will cut the TWC cord soon. Probably buy an HD antenna for "local" stations. With Netflix and Amazon prime, I am good to go. I had a month free trial of Sling TV and it included HBO. I'm on a 20Mbps/2Mbps FiOptics but that didn't seem to matter as the app or stream would freeze/stutter on occasion and I'd end up missing several minutes of programming. Not every channel allows pause/rewind so this became quite frustrating. Volume was also an issue. My TV volume is generally around 30-35. When watching Sling I had to crank it to 75-80. "It's just fate, as usual, keeping its bargain and screwing us in the fine print..." - John Crichton
August 11, 20159 yr I haven't had cable for almost 5 years now! Here is my homemade antenna, third rendition (version 1 was made from coat hangers!). It's made from materials that I had lying around the house; scrap wire, scrap wood, scrap flu liner for a reflector, and a $5 transformer from RadioShack. The antenna works great (picks up about 25 channels) and actually outperforms my friends antenna that he paid $50 for! I'm only 10 miles from the broadcast towers and have this mounted on my third floor. I also have Sling TV, Netflix, and amazon prime streaming. I really don't use Sling that much but only for games on ESPN. I also downloaded the ESPN streaming app on my Firestick, plugged in my DirectTV/Sling credentials (since sling is a DirectTV service), and now have access to live stream all ESPN channels even including ESPN 3 and the college channels. I haven't logged into the app in about 3 months so I honestly don't know if I still have access to all that. If you're thinking about cutting the cord then I highly recommend building a homemade antenna. It's cheap, simple to make, and outperforms what you will buy in the store! Cool. Do you need a digital ready tv? Yes, which all new tv's are. If it is an old CRT tv then you would need the digital converter. Tons of how to's online for building one at home.
August 24, 20168 yr Finally, Netflix is bring a full range of "slow TV" shows to their service. The full roster is: National Firewood Evening National Firewood Morning National Firewood Night National Knitting Evening National Knitting Morning National Knitting Night Northern Passage Northern Railway Salmon Fishing The Telemark Canal Train Ride Bergen to Oslo
August 24, 20168 yr I watched most of Train Ride Bergen to Oslo one or two years ago on youtube. Good stuff.
August 24, 20168 yr I grew up in a duplex and got cable for my childhood because the landlord had the two units' cables combined. That lasted for a longggg time until you needed individual boxes at the TV to decrypt the signal. By the time our cord got "cut" I was in high school and got most of my shows via torrents. In college I never even considered getting it because of the cost and the lack of perceived benefit and here I am, 4 years after college and I've never gotten cable. I just never got used to it so there's nothing for me to miss. I have an aerial but most of its use is recording TV shows on Windows Media Center and watching them later. It also scratches the itch of just watching "something" on weekends. I've always been tempted to see if I can get channels from Canada. According to TV Fool it's technically possible but I'm sure the antenna wouldn't be pretty.
August 24, 20168 yr Finally, Netflix is bring a full range of "slow TV" shows to their service. The full roster is: National Firewood Evening National Firewood Morning National Firewood Night National Knitting Evening National Knitting Morning National Knitting Night Northern Passage Northern Railway Salmon Fishing The Telemark Canal Train Ride Bergen to Oslo That's like the fish channel over in Europe that's just a camera on an aquarium.
June 16, 20177 yr https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianmorris/2017/06/13/netflix-is-now-bigger-than-cable-tv/#4865de6b158b Netflix Is Now Bigger Than Cable TV Very Stable Genius
June 16, 20177 yr I had a guy from the cable company call me trying to get me to add cable TV to my internet. He asked me how I "watch my favorite shows". I just blurted out "Oh, acting isn't really my favorite performing arts realm" Afterward I realized that acting had so much control over people's eyes and ears in the 20th century due to the influence of media gatekeepers and what sells well on a given medium. Once that was removed by the internet everything became completely upended for Old Media. Nowadays I rarely watch acting, but I'm sure I'd watch more if it was "what is on". "It's what was on" is what fueled the popularity of the 3 main ball sports and later NASCAR. Now all those things are starting to run into trouble since "what is on" is so different for each individual person. It's also the source of ESPN's woes.
June 16, 20177 yr I have a conspiracy theory bone to pick and I'm not sure if you guys will think I'm crazy or not. I recently cut the cable cord as it got out of control with the price. I bought an Apple TV and signed up for Playstation Vue, I switch to *Spectrum* Internet Only, and I'm set. The Internet Only still costs like $75 a month, but it is the "only" option. It is for 100 MB speed, which is insane, I believe. With Playstation Vue, I was told and saw online that you can stream this extremely well with only 20 MB speed. Ever since I have had this, I have had extreme trouble with the internet from Spectrum, causing my Vue to be very delayed, slow, etc. I also have a ton of trouble on simply my cell phone. I have called in, got it re-set a million times, on and off, etc. I keep thinking to myself, how the eff does my phone internet go so freaking slow almost constantly with a brand new modem, wireless , 100 mb speed, I don't even have the Vue on. Here is my conspiracy. Everytime I call in to complain, they try to sell my again on their cable, now which is a rock low price of $99 total when bundled with TV Internet and Phone, for 12 months. I believe they intentionally set whoever buys internet only to go extremely slow even though they are selling it as 100 mb. At work I think we got 60 mb Spectrum Business for everything we do here and that is about 10000% more than I would do in my tiny apartment I do the checks online, but how do I not know that all those websites are payed off by Spectrum? I think Spectrum makes it intentionally hard to stream for anyone who buys Internet Only for home use so that people get frustrated and go back to buying Cable and phone. Crazy, yes? Plausible... of course When the government basically let's you set up a monopoly / oligachory for Internet/Cable/Phone, they control everything - Price, service, etc. It's BS
June 16, 20177 yr I am internet only with them at 30mbit and haven't experienced any problems like that. But I'm in a different city and (even bigger BUT) I don't subscribe to any streaming services. I mostly watch music videos and old motorcycle races on YouTube. There's a chance that the paid streaming services are on the shitlist while YouTube isn't.
June 16, 20177 yr Using Roku/Sling, $20 a month during the summer then bump up for the sports package during football/Bball season. Watching stuff on Roku/Youtube as much as any other channel lol.
June 16, 20177 yr Spectrum is a scam. We were on the "promo" price of $35/month internet and at the end of the first year we were going to switch. When we called to cancel, they said wait, we'll let you extend at $35/month for another year. We said ok, and transferred the service to a new address. The first bill came and BANG...$45/month. After several "supervisors" up the ladder, we were told that yes, they could see we had the $35/month internet pricing (I think it was for 15 MB?) but that there was nothing they could do. Which...WTF?? They have on file that we should be getting it at $35/month but they can't do anything? LOL So we said ok, please cancel service immediately, we'll pay the pro-rated amount of this month, and please refund the installation service since we were going off of the stated rate when we moved. After hours of hassling we finally got them to agree - throwing around terms like "fraud" really scares their customer service reps. So I have no doubt Spectrum is running an illegal scam. I'm sure plenty of people don't pay attention to their bills and that's where they can make a lot of their money. We bought a ~$50 antenna for local channels plus some oddball extras on there as well. We use Netflix via a family account and in the past, have shared the HBO GO login with family - mostly around Game of Thrones time for a month or two. That's it. I stream sports using family cable login info, but I watch less and less of it so I don't particularly care about adding Sling. Btw, we switched to WOW for internet on a good promo deal for I think a year, maybe two - $35/month. It's only 10MB but two of us stream and play games fairly regularly, no issues yet. Very Stable Genius
June 16, 20177 yr these days downtown in ny we have as many basic tv channels on free broadcast tv, like about 100, as we did way back in the 1900s when we had basic cable tv. of course its back to the future with some of them occasionally fading out and then moving the antenna around at times. we also have a friend's cable pass info so we can watch on the websites of some cable channels. i never bothered with roku, although its popular. netflix & amazon prime is enough. we tried the free hulu, but eh, ditching that. the only lag in the system here is for sports, but i like to go out to watch that anyway.
June 16, 20177 yr Spectrum is a scam. We were on the "promo" price of $35/month internet and at the end of the first year we were going to switch. When we called to cancel, they said wait, we'll let you extend at $35/month for another year. We said ok, and transferred the service to a new address. The first bill came and BANG...$45/month. After several "supervisors" up the ladder, we were told that yes, they could see we had the $35/month internet pricing (I think it was for 15 MB?) but that there was nothing they could do. Which...WTF?? They have on file that we should be getting it at $35/month but they can't do anything? LOL So we said ok, please cancel service immediately, we'll pay the pro-rated amount of this month, and please refund the installation service since we were going off of the stated rate when we moved. After hours of hassling we finally got them to agree - throwing around terms like "fraud" really scares their customer service reps. So I have no doubt Spectrum is running an illegal scam. I'm sure plenty of people don't pay attention to their bills and that's where they can make a lot of their money. They called people so often and mailed them so much stuff last month that tons of people accidentally didn't pay their bills. People thought everything from them was spam. It's a very hard lesson when you don't get your money from being too pushy.
June 16, 20177 yr Spectrum is a scam. We were on the "promo" price of $35/month internet and at the end of the first year we were going to switch. When we called to cancel, they said wait, we'll let you extend at $35/month for another year. We said ok, and transferred the service to a new address. The first bill came and BANG...$45/month. After several "supervisors" up the ladder, we were told that yes, they could see we had the $35/month internet pricing (I think it was for 15 MB?) but that there was nothing they could do. Which...WTF?? They have on file that we should be getting it at $35/month but they can't do anything? LOL So we said ok, please cancel service immediately, we'll pay the pro-rated amount of this month, and please refund the installation service since we were going off of the stated rate when we moved. After hours of hassling we finally got them to agree - throwing around terms like "fraud" really scares their customer service reps. So I have no doubt Spectrum is running an illegal scam. I'm sure plenty of people don't pay attention to their bills and that's where they can make a lot of their money. We bought a ~$50 antenna for local channels plus some oddball extras on there as well. We use Netflix via a family account and in the past, have shared the HBO GO login with family - mostly around Game of Thrones time for a month or two. That's it. I stream sports using family cable login info, but I watch less and less of it so I don't particularly care about adding Sling. Btw, we switched to WOW for internet on a good promo deal for I think a year, maybe two - $35/month. It's only 10MB but two of us stream and play games fairly regularly, no issues yet. They did EXACTLY THIS to me. Absolutely REFUSED to put me back at $35/mo even after they explicitly told me I'd keep that rate since I moved to a new address. I wanted to threaten them with cancelling service but TWC is basically the only game in Dayton so I really have no choice to put up with their B.S. As a "consolation prize" they said they'd bump my internet from 15mbps up to the standard Spectrum 60mbps for the basic plan at the same $45, but really they were supposed to have switched me up to 60mbps automatically when they changed from TWC to Spectrum, but they were being sneaky about it and never changed it. I bet there's a ton of people who should be getting 60mbps internet right now but aren't because they never called Spectrum about it. ^RE: all those spam letters they send... I've always wondered what sort of PR experiment they're running with all those letters. Every single spam mail from Spectrum comes packaged differently or on a different type of paper. I'm sure someone in the Spectrum Fortress of Evil is monitoring which variations get the most responses, and in turn bring in the most money for them. Such a f-ing terrible company. “To an Ohio resident - wherever he lives - some other part of his state seems unreal.”
June 16, 20177 yr ^Every single piece of mail I get from Spectrum goes straight to the trash. I also tell off their customer service people quickly. I feel bad for them honestly.
June 16, 20177 yr This is why net neutrality is no important. Without it, Spectrum can slow down YouTube, Netflix, Playstation Vue, Sling, etc. or restrict the amount of data you can transfer from them each month. Then, if you bundle cable TV with your internet service, they'll throw in unlimited video streaming from their Spectrum app that won't count against your monthly transfer caps.
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