I cut the cord


Llama

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I cut the cord... Bought an Nvidia Shield box for my streaming needs.

It's only been a day, but I am super psyched! It comes with a xbox one style controller as the system is also capable of playing high end games in HD. Right now on Amazon and through their site, you can get the standard remote, a $50 value for free. It is smaller than my phone, and has full functionality. It is quite intuitive. I have not used the game controller as today has been rather busy. I'll get to some games later.

I bought this box because I needed a stand alone box that the kids could use to get to Netflix and some other apps as well. At $200, it is one of the most expensive boxes on the market. I haven't used the other ones, so I can't provide a comparison. 

To misquote Frank Zappa, There aint nothing this box won't do... :)

Anyway, thought I'd share my thoughts. 

 

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10 minutes ago, N00b-in-training said:

i hope to follow the same path in June when my contract is up. My fear (and upcoming research) will be related to how do I get College Football...

My only hesitation with the whole thing is watching football in HD. I'll have to figure out something by then. 

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My wife and I haven't been able to pull the trigger on this yet. We pay for Netflix, amazon prime and directv. I figure we save $100/month by killing directv. We just watch so much stuff that thusfar, there is no complete solution for our needs (other than piracy.) Really looking forward to the day we do this though. My wife also has this thing where she watches live tv on her days off when she wants to be lazy. She just lays on the couch, naps and lets HGTV play, so she'd lose that insane ability. 

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11 hours ago, Cliff said:

My wife and I haven't been able to pull the trigger on this yet. We pay for Netflix, amazon prime and directv. I figure we save $100/month by killing directv.

I got sick of them raising my bill to the point of insanity. We have Netflix, Prime and are thinking about Hulu. All said and done, we have faster internet and are saving over $150 a month. While on the phone, I asked about my cell bill I got into a new plan and am now saving $50 a month on that.

All in all, a very good day. 

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Has any one found a good source for watching sports after not getting any sort of cable TV? The only thing that i miss is being able to watch the odd hockey game or the Olympics. I wish these orgs would get smart and realize that they could profit directly from the consumer and cut the cable companies from being the middle man. I'd pay directly for a streaming package, heck i already do for college hockey.

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7 minutes ago, Mike. said:

I think the challenge is the network contracts are huge and they come with exclusivity clauses.  

You can get an over the air HDTV antenna to get your local network affiliates (Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS, etc).  The signal quality is actually better than the compressed signal you get from your cable company.  From memory most of the Olympics are on ABC.  

Each league as its own season pass subscription that you can access without cable.  I don't know about NFL but the NBA certainly does.  Local games might be blacked out. 

Or you can just listen on radio.  

I don't own a TV actually so the antenna isn't really an option ....

I know the contracts exist I'm just wondering how long it is until the networks realize the money they could make from streaming would far outweigh the contract benefits. Heck look at Hulu, why can't something like that for sports exist. Or better yet why can't i select individual channels and pay for them à la carte. I don't need a 250 channel packed for 1 channel. I'll pay $5 / month for a single channel. Hey maybe now that I've typed it out someone will see this idea and steal it.

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Just now, Mike. said:

  It will happen, eventually.  But all of our parents need to die first.  

I was thinking get too old, it's a bit less morbid. I run into the baby boomer resistance at work a lot. My least favorite thing to hear is "It's always been this way". Just because it's always been that way doesn't mean it should keep happening. Don't get me wrong i love that generation they have done great things but they are also having a hard time giving up the reigns. They won't know if the millennials have the ability to take them up unless they give us the change. What a better time to do it than when they are still around to help us when we make mistakes.

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i cancelled everything except netflix, so my monthly tv bill is 8 dollars.

im not a sports watcher, so i dont miss any games of any type.  i could see the sports offerings being a major hurdle for a sports fan.

if they networks want to cut down on piracy, then give the consumer a reasonable alternative.  i dont pirate, but i am sure lots of people would be willing to pay instaed of pirating if there was a streaming option for major sports.

i could never go back to regular tv again, with all the commercials.  i also love the binge watching option netflix offers.

 

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Either way, the games are available over the air. I generally don't watch all that much football anyway. I'm just too damn busy. As for the lack of DVR, I get no enjoyment over watching a game that I know the outcome of.

I usually watch the games on mute because I don't need some moron telling me the guy ran for 3 yards. I can see it. And I can't stand Joe Buck, he and Aikman are such tools. I'd go more into this, but I would quickly disturb the family friendly policy of this prestigious forum. 

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All I need to drop DirecTV is a way to get ESPN Game Day and College Football. I can live without other sports... College Sports Live looks pretty promising as they are now carrying the majority of the games. Combine that with SlingTV and I think we're set. 

I really like @Llama's idea of going to BW3 to watch the games but that has two downfalls... 1) I'll spend more than $100/mo in beer there, 2) I won't be able to get back out in my shop after going to BW3. I can resist several beers at home during a game, but not at BW3. ;)

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2 hours ago, Llama said:

Either way, the games are available over the air. I generally don't watch all that much football anyway. I'm just too damn busy. As for the lack of DVR, I get no enjoyment over watching a game that I know the outcome of.

I usually watch the games on mute because I don't need some moron telling me the guy ran for 3 yards. I can see it. And I can't stand Joe Buck, he and Aikman are such tools. I'd go more into this, but I would quickly disturb the family friendly policy of this prestigious forum. 

It's not like it used to be where you got fairly unbiased commentary during a game but now there's so much butt kissing of the athletes and emphasis on not using any negativity.  So the analysis is backed with an agenda and useless stats.

Put yourself in my shoes.  Joe Buck's old partner Tim McCarver signed with the Cardinals last year so I get to listen to him 3-4X per week. While not as bad as Joe you have to listen to his Mr. Obvious analysis.  Geared toward kids I guess.

I go through extensive, drastic measures to not hear any scores so I can watch them on my DVR commercial free at home.  

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There are ways to get sports streamed live.  You can get MLB TV, NHL Gamecenter and the regional sports networks allow streaming of games.  The biggest problem is the subscription fees for some will get you right back to where you were with satellite or cable tv. Maybe I should stop liking sports so it would be easy to cut the cord.  Having fast and reliable internet would also help.

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The cable/satellite companies have it all planned out beyond just the tier packages.  It seems like almost every household has a connection to sports and this keeps the last remaining sports fans attached to his cable/satellite because of all the channels you need.  

College football uses ESPN and local channels; and your local affiliate will have your baseball.  Playoff baseball will have a game or two on TBS, ESPN, MLB, and a local channel.  The NFL uses ESPN, NFL network, and local channels. 

So I need my local baseball affiliate channel, ESPN, TBS, MLB, and NFL network if I want to watch all football and baseball games.  I dropped the NFL since my Rams left so I was able to drop college football as well; but I still need 4 different channels to watch baseball.  The greed involved is so pathetic I've got only baseball left.  It's the only thing keeping me from cutting the cord.

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