Cutting the Cord

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Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Sat Dec 23, 2017 5:50 am

We're getting ready to do it. My wife and I have had enough of DirecTv and their extortion of Sunday Ticket and their ridiculous prices and we will now use an antenna and stream. In fact in my area this year only 4 times I needed to watch S.T. to see the Hawks out of the whole season.

Questions for all that have done it.

How do YOU do it?...What equipment do you use to record programs etc?
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby RiverDog » Sat Dec 23, 2017 7:01 am

Largent80 wrote:We're getting ready to do it. My wife and I have had enough of DirecTv and their extortion of Sunday Ticket and their ridiculous prices and we will now use an antenna and stream. In fact in my area this year only 4 times I needed to watch S.T. to see the Hawks out of the whole season.

Questions for all that have done it.

How do YOU do it?...What equipment do you use to record programs etc?


When I first read the thread title and the first few words of your post, I thought that you and your wife were getting a divorce.

I currently get my football from two sources: I have a Dish Network system and I have an over-the-air antenna feed. The OTA is by far the better picture, and from my limited understanding, it's because their signal is uncompressed whereas satellite and cable has to compress their signals in order to accomodate the 500 or so channels they squeeze into their pipelines. I also get several channels via OTA that are not available on Dish or cable.

But I am interested in streaming some NFL games. I like sitting on my deck in the fall and with our impending retirement, plan on spending more time in our motor home, so I would love to be able to watch games on my tablet, but the NFL's cost to stream games is outrageous, something like $150/year. So keep me posted on your cord cutting!
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Sat Dec 23, 2017 10:08 am

I'm hoping that some here that have done it will chime in. My neighbor has an Amazon fire stick that he knows how to modify and he gets premium channels for free!!
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby burrrton » Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:47 am

I have friends who've 'cut the cord' and the consensus seems to be that you do it with a variety of sources depending on what you want to watch and when. An OTA antenna + a Fire Stick + a Hulu subscription, etc, seems to be how everyone does it.

Maybe you already knew that, so sorry for not being able to be more specific, but I think if it was me, I'd just start with an obvious good source (like that hacked Fire Stick you mention), then add or replace based on what I found I was missing.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby idhawkman » Sat Dec 23, 2017 3:56 pm

Largent80 wrote:We're getting ready to do it. My wife and I have had enough of DirecTv and their extortion of Sunday Ticket and their ridiculous prices and we will now use an antenna and stream. In fact in my area this year only 4 times I needed to watch S.T. to see the Hawks out of the whole season.

Questions for all that have done it.

How do YOU do it?...What equipment do you use to record programs etc?
RiverDog wrote:
When I first read the thread title and the first few words of your post, I thought that you and your wife were getting a divorce.

I currently get my football from two sources: I have a Dish Network system and I have an over-the-air antenna feed. The OTA is by far the better picture, and from my limited understanding, it's because their signal is uncompressed whereas satellite and cable has to compress their signals in order to accomodate the 500 or so channels they squeeze into their pipelines. I also get several channels via OTA that are not available on Dish or cable.

But I am interested in streaming some NFL games. I like sitting on my deck in the fall and with our impending retirement, plan on spending more time in our motor home, so I would love to be able to watch games on my tablet, but the NFL's cost to stream games is outrageous, something like $150/year. So keep me posted on your cord cutting!


Ok. I'm going to tell all of you how to get "Sunday Ticket" for $50/year. (NOTE: It technically is not Sunday Ticket but effectively it will give you the same thing).

Here's what you do: Go to https://www.hidemyass.com/en-us/pricing and buy a year subscription for proxy service. (It looks like they've raised their prices but I'm still grandfathered for the year what it costs for 6 months now. Just get the 6 month deal in August and it will last you through the year).

Once you have the proxy service downloaded, start the app, connect to the city that the game you want to watch is being played in and then find the local station's stream. If the game is blacked out locally because the game wasn't sold out, just connect out of the local area but where the game is still showed and start the local stream from that location. Works like a charm - especially if you have dish Anywhere.

If anyone needs me to shoot a video on how to do this, let me know and I will. BTW, if you have Chromcast you can cast from your laptop to your t.v. and if you have Chromecast Ultra you can stream 4k to your T.V. (Apple and Amazon also have streaming services you could use to go from your PC to your T.V. if you want to.)

Voila, all games free from there on.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby idhawkman » Sat Dec 23, 2017 3:58 pm

Largent80 wrote:I'm hoping that some here that have done it will chime in. My neighbor has an Amazon fire stick that he knows how to modify and he gets premium channels for free!!

Be careful, if you are caught doing this you can go to jail for pirating and face big fines not to mention breaking terms of use by amazon.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby makena » Sat Dec 23, 2017 9:52 pm

I'm a cord cutter and have been using a variety of techs to watch whatever I want whenever I want.
There are numerous solutions but regardless of what you decide, get a VPN! It's even more important to have a VPN since net neutrality has been rolled back.

PM me is you are interested.

Mak
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Sun Dec 24, 2017 6:10 am

Thanks y'all. If I want to direct connect via hardwiring, do I go straight from the modem/router or my pc?

And what about recording?
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby idhawkman » Sun Dec 24, 2017 5:30 pm

makena wrote:I'm a cord cutter and have been using a variety of techs to watch whatever I want whenever I want.
There are numerous solutions but regardless of what you decide, get a VPN! It's even more important to have a VPN since net neutrality has been rolled back.

PM me is you are interested.

Mak


Exactly, that's what Hide My Ass does. There's two of us now stating that you need this if you cut the cord.

Mak, which VPN do you use? PM me if you don't want to publish it here.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Mon Dec 25, 2017 6:12 am

I do need to hide my ass for other reasons. The whiteness could blind...... :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Wed Jan 03, 2018 5:39 pm

Just bought an awesome ota antenna and an Nvidia Shield for streaming.

SUCK IT DirecTV.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby burrrton » Wed Jan 03, 2018 5:49 pm

Let us know how it works, largent. Interested to hear.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby RiverDog » Wed Jan 03, 2018 7:43 pm

Largent80 wrote:Just bought an awesome ota antenna and an Nvidia Shield for streaming.

SUCK IT DirecTV.


Yea, keep talking to us, L80. I need to get up to speed on this stuff.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Thu Jan 04, 2018 6:13 am

The Nvidia works awesome. If you have an android phone, it basically turns your tv screen into a giant phone.

Get the VPN as mentioned above. When you install KODI onto the Nvidia, it opens up a world of free streaming tv, music and even movies. I bought a 4 TB external hard drive to record, and also a wireless (small) keyboard with a touch mouse to control everything. The Shield can be hard wired and has 2 USB ports and HDMI to connect to your tv. It's super fast like this and the picture is awesome.

Cost of antenna $42
Nvidia Shield $198
Hard Drive $109
Keyboard $19

I cant believe I didn't do this earlier. That's about 2 months of DirecTv with Sunday Ticket.

Let me know if this is cool to post here if not I'll remove it and if anyone wants the links I'll send them via PM

All of these products got at least 4 stars with many reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024 ... UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N1 ... UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z8 ... UTF8&psc=1
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-easysto ... Id=5792405
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby c_hawkbob » Thu Jan 04, 2018 6:45 am

Largent80 wrote:The Nvidia works awesome. If you have an android phone, it basically turns your tv screen into a giant phone.

Get the VPN as mentioned above. When you install KODI onto the Nvidia, it opens up a world of free streaming tv, music and even movies. I bought a 4 TB external hard drive to record, and also a wireless (small) keyboard with a touch mouse to control everything. The Shield can be hard wired and has 2 USB ports and HDMI to connect to your tv. It's super fast like this and the picture is awesome.

Cost of antenna $42
Nvidia Shield $198
Hard Drive $109
Keyboard $19

I cant believe I didn't do this earlier. That's about 2 months of DirecTv with Sunday Ticket.

Let me know if this is cool to post here if not I'll remove it and if anyone wants the links I'll send them via PM

All of these products got at least 4 stars with many reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0024 ... UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N1 ... UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z8 ... UTF8&psc=1
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/wd-easysto ... Id=5792405


That looks awesome, but how does it set up for multiple TVs (4)?
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Thu Jan 04, 2018 8:17 am

I don't know as we only use one, but I'm sure if you go to the Nvidia website they have all that info. Plus there are many forums. Nvidia has great customer service.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby makena » Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:11 am

I shared this with idhawkman but thought I would share it with yalz here as well:
--------------------------
I use a Ceton infiniTV4 PCI in a dedicated win7 ultimate server with WMC with a couple of TB of storage. I use an XBOX 360 as an extender for the Ceton plus a wetek Android box with VPN for Kodi. I use our friends netfilx account and my wife has Amazon Prime so we get access to content from there.

So, from the XBOX we get:
Netflix (free)
Amazon movies and tv (comes with our annual subscription for $100 a year or $8.33 a month) We use this for the kids
TV with DVR. Over 100 channels (Free)
Ability to play DVD's
Youtube
we do not game

From the Android Box we get:
Android Play store
NetFlix
Amazon
Youtube
Kodi
a bunch of IPTV

I use skype for our home phone (Free) and access to 911 via our cell phone.

Here are some kinks:
https://wetek.com/us/en/
http://cetoncorp.com/

Up front cost:
Ceton: $199.00
Xbox: $100
HD: $150
Wetek: $100
Used and old computer that was laying around: $300

Total is ~$850 from scratch.

Comcast for the same service with less space is $225 per month. So it took me just under 4 months to recoup my costs.
Now I pay per month for internet and Prime of: $38.33

If we paid for our own netflix, it would just cost us $12 more a month.

I just pay for internet. But I share that with my neighbor as I hooked up a Cicso Meraki WAP that covers 3 houses but one of my neighbors was not interested.
Total cost for my portion for internet is 30. And that is 200 down and 20 up....

However, if the WMC community goes tits up, i'm thinking about switching to silicondust.
As you can see, I totally rely on the internet for all of our services.

Mak
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Sun Jan 07, 2018 9:58 am

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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Mon Jan 08, 2018 5:26 pm

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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby RiverDog » Mon Jan 08, 2018 5:30 pm

Largent80 wrote:Seahawks need to cut it too.....

http://sports.mynorthwest.com/390303/se ... tom-cable/


Now that was funny!
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Thu Jan 11, 2018 7:23 am

Just an FYI if you use KODI....

http://androidpcreview.com/is-kodi-legal/
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Mon Jan 15, 2018 6:33 pm

Nvidia Shield is so awesome, Super fast and the graphics are incredible. Not a surprise since they provide so many video cards to gamers. Speaking of game. They have a TON of free awesome games that are part of the system, Plus you get a wireless hand game controller.

Its an incredible streamer and game console for $198.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Tue Jan 30, 2018 4:21 pm

Holy crap, let me share my experience with Directv with you.

First, they have gotten literally THOUSANDS of dollars from me over the years, but when we moved we were going to cut the cord and cancel (last Oct.) but we decided to wait so we could focus on settling in and doing research on cord cutting. I just called them to cancel our service and they said that we had verbally signed another 1 year contract when we decided to move the service because THEY paid for an independent contractor to come out and hook it up. We never agreed to any of this.

So, in order for us to cancel Directv we have to pay $20 per month until October plus our bill accrued to this point.

It's simply extortion and unscrupulous business practice to do this to people.

The only reason I even had it is because the NFL gives them the monopoly of Sunday Ticket, but sorry NFL and Directv. YOU are the losers.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby RiverDog » Tue Jan 30, 2018 8:50 pm

Largent80 wrote:Holy crap, let me share my experience with Directv with you.

First, they have gotten literally THOUSANDS of dollars from me over the years, but when we moved we were going to cut the cord and cancel (last Oct.) but we decided to wait so we could focus on settling in and doing research on cord cutting. I just called them to cancel our service and they said that we had verbally signed another 1 year contract when we decided to move the service because THEY paid for an independent contractor to come out and hook it up. We never agreed to any of this.

So, in order for us to cancel Directv we have to pay $20 per month until October plus our bill accrued to this point.

It's simply extortion and unscrupulous business practice to do this to people.

The only reason I even had it is because the NFL gives them the monopoly of Sunday Ticket, but sorry NFL and Directv. YOU are the losers.


That's one of the reasons why I got rid of Charter years ago. They had a passive enrollment on their premium menu, if you didn't opt out of it, you got a whole bunch of channels you didn't need or want to pay for. So I could just imagine these little old ladies on Social Security that don't pay attention to all the fine print on contracts that got suckered into their web. I ditched them and haven't given them any business since.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 6:12 am

Not only that but at first they offer you this "package deal"....X amount (discounted) for 12 months, you have to sign a 2 year contract and after that 12 months they not only make all the money back that covered the discount but also a hefty profit on top of it. Add in the monthly cost of the receiver and fees for sports networks and if you want Sunday Ticket you can easily have a $200+ bill every month. We had internet with AT&T and since they merged our bill was over $270 per month !!!!!!

Now since I have less than $900 invested in my new system (which includes a brand new HP computer tower I can get every single channel I was paying for and we upped our internet on Comcast to stream better. I can't believe I didn't do this years ago. We have Netflix, Hulu, and Sling all for about $50 per month. Plus we are Amazon Prime members and get all their programming, and all this without mentioning the gazillion 3rd party streams available on my Nvidia Shield.

I hope this will help others out and take the money away from these extortionists.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby RiverDog » Wed Jan 31, 2018 7:06 am

Largent80 wrote:Not only that but at first they offer you this "package deal"....X amount (discounted) for 12 months, you have to sign a 2 year contract and after that 12 months they not only make all the money back that covered the discount but also a hefty profit on top of it. Add in the monthly cost of the receiver and fees for sports networks and if you want Sunday Ticket you can easily have a $200+ bill every month. We had internet with AT&T and since they merged our bill was over $270 per month !!!!!!

Now since I have less than $900 invested in my new system (which includes a brand new HP computer tower I can get every single channel I was paying for and we upped our internet on Comcast to stream better. I can't believe I didn't do this years ago. We have Netflix, Hulu, and Sling all for about $50 per month. Plus we are Amazon Prime members and get all their programming, and all this without mentioning the gazillion 3rd party streams available on my Nvidia Shield.

I hope this will help others out and take the money away from these extortionists.


Actually I'm pretty happy with what I get OTA. If not for sports and my wife's viewing habits, I'd have ditched my Dish Network system years ago. I love a couple of PBS programs, Nova and American Experience.

You would have to think that if enough people like you get rid of their satellite and/or cable subscriptions that they'd respond by offering lower prices in order to discourage people from switching. I know that you're not the only one to do it, my boss just got through doing what you've done.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Wed Jan 31, 2018 8:53 am

In 3 months I will have recouped all my expenses to get the equipment. Plus Sling has tons of sports, and with the computer and external HD I have 8 terrabytes of space for recording.

Here is what Sling has...https://www.sling.com/

You can even add HBO, Starz etc for a few bucks more.

It's a shame these companies treat people as money sponges, and to top it off their customer service at AT&T/Directv is the absolute WORST I have ever dealt with. We were lied to multiple times on so many levels, and for them what we are doing is spreading our story all over the internet.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby RiverDog » Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:21 am

I appreciate your starting the thread, L80.

Just this weekend, my wife and I have decided to "cut the cord." I had assumed that she was pretty addicted to some channels not available on OTA so I'd never discussed the subject with her. But when I asked, she seemed very open to the idea. So....I've ordered a Tablo 4 tuner DVR through Amazon. It arrives today. I already have a couple of very good OTA antennas with feeds into the house, and I have an old desktop computer that I'm hoping I can use as an external hard drive. I might need to get a smart TV if I want to watch events streamed over the internet, but for the time being, all I want to do is watch and record OTA programming.

One of the reasons I changed from cable to satellite years ago was because our cable provider did not offer the new NFL Network, but now with them simulcasting their TNF games, there's really not much I can't get from other sources. I can get all the football talk via my SiriusXM radio, which I listen to more than I do watch sports talk shows. And there's no better time of the year to "cut the cord". I do need to figure out how to get the most out of the March Madness event coming up next month, but even that event has a lot of games televised on CBS....and there's always a Buffalo Wild Wings not too far away.

The other good thing about the timing of this move is that I'm no longer working, it's still too cold to do anything outside, and we have two elderly dogs that my wife doesn't want to leave so we can't do much traveling.

Anyhow, thanks again!
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 6:11 am

Sure. I'm still learning how to do all of this stuff. There are a lot of useful YouTube videos with tutorials. There are tons of add-ons from 3rd parties that have content. It's a place where you could get yourself into trouble so be careful of what you add. I tried Nord VPN for a month. It seemed to work well, but this next month I will try IP Vanish for a month to compare and I will write about that experience later. I also got a 1 year subscription to Plex which does a great job of organizing all your media.

After buying a new computer to hook into my TV's system I thought why do I need a DVR since I already have a hard drive there, plus an external one connected to my Shield.

Doing some research I found this handy little gizmo the plugs into a USB port. It allows recording right onto the drive and also will stream WiFi to any connected device in any room.

It's on the way, once I get it hooked up I will give a review.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015I ... PDKIKX0DER
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 1:08 pm

Can this thread be applied to politics...?.. :lol:
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby RiverDog » Mon Feb 05, 2018 4:22 pm

Largent80 wrote:Sure. I'm still learning how to do all of this stuff. There are a lot of useful YouTube videos with tutorials. There are tons of add-ons from 3rd parties that have content. It's a place where you could get yourself into trouble so be careful of what you add. I tried Nord VPN for a month. It seemed to work well, but this next month I will try IP Vanish for a month to compare and I will write about that experience later. I also got a 1 year subscription to Plex which does a great job of organizing all your media.

After buying a new computer to hook into my TV's system I thought why do I need a DVR since I already have a hard drive there, plus an external one connected to my Shield.

Doing some research I found this handy little gizmo the plugs into a USB port. It allows recording right onto the drive and also will stream WiFi to any connected device in any room.

It's on the way, once I get it hooked up I will give a review.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015I ... PDKIKX0DER


Thanks for all the tips, L80! My device just arrived, so I'll be spending the next few days playing around with it. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm not a very good computer geek, but I try.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Mon Feb 05, 2018 5:10 pm

I think you should get a smart tv because of all the hookup capabilities, lots of HDMI's, USB's and ethernet so you can hardwire all of it.

I'm not using wifi for anything that is connected in my house even though we have it. Doing that aids in streaming and security.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby RiverDog » Wed Feb 07, 2018 2:25 pm

I bought a smart TV when they first came out, but the smart portion doesn't work anymore. As cheap as they are, I'll probably buy another one in another year or two. My wife and I are quite comfortable watching OTA programming so long as we can record it. About the only non OTA channels I want is ESPN and ESPN2.

I'm going to go at this slow. The first order of business is to get a tuner for my overhead TV that will allow me to watch and record OTA programming. I had been using Dish Network's receiver. I have one on it's way that by its description appears like it will work. I'll keep the satelitte through March so I can watch March Madness. By then I should have everything in order.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Thu Feb 08, 2018 12:48 pm

The Hauppage works awesome.

Their included TV guide is a joke.

So far it's recorded everything I wanted so far, but it takes dilligence to find the right channel/show/program and this is on my hooked up computers HD.

It pulls in the signals flawlessly. I will report later as bugs come in/out.

I bought my Vizio 60" smart TV right before our super bowl and it is still performing at an incredible rate. A killer tv. There are many out there however.
Last edited by Largent80 on Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Thu Feb 08, 2018 1:00 pm

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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby RiverDog » Sat Feb 10, 2018 7:51 am

I think you guys would like my system. Due to the location of where the TV had to go, right by a wood stove, we had to get an overhead projector if we wanted to utilize the best room in the house as my man cave. I currently have a Sony VPL-VW60 that I've had for about 10 years, which produces a great picture on a 120" diagonal screen. That's the one that I need to find a tuner to replace the Dish Network receiver. The new tuner that I paid just $35 for, called ViewTV, showed up earlier this week, but the remote didn't work at all, so they're sending me a replacement. Once I get my big screen off the Dish Network receiver, I can cancel my subscription, but probably won't do so until after March Madness.

Televisions are a great example of what a free enterprise system can do for the consumer. There's tons of competition out there, the quality is excellent and always improving, and the price extremely affordable, much less expensive than what we used to pay years ago when you adjust it for inflation. The first color TV program I saw was on a TV that cost the owner $1500 in 1960 dollars.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Sat Feb 10, 2018 11:41 am

That Hauppage product I bought works pretty sweet if you need to record onto a computer or HD.

Really clear picture (same as OTA antenna) and comes with a tv guide that you can tailor to your area.(I earlier reported it was a joke, but after tweaking updates on my computer and reloading the program it works flawlessly).

Has a scheduler included so you can set up automatic recordings of your favorite shows.

I hope other people do this because we gotta stick it to the man. Yeah, the same man that has it buried in out tushes for years. :o
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Fri Feb 23, 2018 1:32 pm

I have watched the entire olympics on Sling TV for free (free first week).v After that I get almost every single channel I paid Directv for.

So Netflix for $14 and Sling for $25 and I'm gold. SUCK IT Directv. $39 instead of $140.

I'll take my wife to dinner for your ridiculous extortion.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby RiverDog » Fri Feb 23, 2018 1:47 pm

I'm well on my way to cutting my cord. I have a Tablo 4 tuner DVR that I successfully installed and linked it to one TV closest to my router and I ran a 50' Ethernet cable to my 2nd TV and got it to talking to that one although making a permanent connection is going to take some time. The only technical thing I have left is to get my overhead projection TV linked to the Tablo, and I'm not sure how to do it. Even if I can't get it connected to the Tablo, I was able to pick up a tuner for $35 so I can watch OTA with it, which is going to cover me for about 90% of what I watch anyway.

And the really big hurdle has been cleared by selling the system and all the changes that go with it to my wife. So here shortly, perhaps even before March Madness, I might be off my satellite system.

Thanks again for starting this thread as you got me to thinking. I figure it's going to save me over $1200/year.
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Re: Cutting the Cord

Postby Largent80 » Sun Feb 25, 2018 10:10 am

That's great, glad you made the switch. I swear, I have all the channels I watched before for 1/5th the cost and all in HD. I can't record everything but a lot of it I don't need to as you can get repeats all over the place. Kodi has tons of apps with everything under the sun. It's a huge learning curve but well worth it. It put over a hundred bucks into our bank account every month (after the overhead of the hardware).
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