Switching to Spectrum tomorrow am I doing the right thing?
- Thread starter craneoperatr1_a_aol.com
- Start date
Cancel cable
Get Hulu (all cable channels and local available for like $40) and Netflix...
You will have better stuff for about 30% of what you were paying for any Att or cable package a available.
Other streaming tv services suck. Dir tv now is garbage- no good channels unless you upgrade to a oackage that costs as much as regular cable and Sling doesnt have local channels..
Get Hulu (all cable channels and local available for like $40) and Netflix...
You will have better stuff for about 30% of what you were paying for any Att or cable package a available.
Other streaming tv services suck. Dir tv now is garbage- no good channels unless you upgrade to a oackage that costs as much as regular cable and Sling doesnt have local channels..
Sling is meant to supplement OTA (over-the-air). Why pay someone else to deliver programming content that you can pick up with an antenna at no cost?
Put up an antenna, get Sling, and a streaming box, e.g., Roku, Chromecast.
and spend countless hours trying to teach my MIL how to find her favorite western channels.......I'll have to stay with cable for awhile longer. She is not technologically sound.
That is a lot of extra work- to buy, put up and switch back and forth between the antenna and your Roku/firestick depending on what channel you want to watch when Hulu costs the exact same as the full Sling package and includes the channels you would get with the antenna.... HULU also has it’s own proprietary programming and a movie package almost comparable to Netflix. Color me unimpressed with that alternative. Additionally, I have tried HD antennas and find them to be spotty at best- I couldn’t get ANY major networks in my area, and the few channels of NPR I could get were not clear or consistent at all.
I’m not a technician, but I’m guessing NPR is not clear on your TV because it is meant for the radio. Just spit-balling.
You scan it for her, and set up "favorites" on the remote.and spend countless hours trying to teach my MIL how to find her favorite western channels.......I'll have to stay with cable for awhile longer. She is not technologically sound.
No, it's not a lot of work. I do it all the time. No more work than switching between tv/cable and DVR. Plus, I get far more channels OTA (125 in Atlanta, and 30+ in Beaufort) than cable/satellite/Hulu, etc. would offer.
Besides, like "NPR TV" there's no such thing as an "HD antenna." Antennas will pick up a signal regardless if it's transmitted in analogue or digital. With most broadcasting today in the high-VHF and UHF bandwidths, antennas are smaller to better capture the smaller wavelengths of the higher frequencies. They are mismarketed as "digital antennas."
My guess is that your antenna is indoors instead of rooftop. That makes a difference.
I have u-verse tv and internet. I was about to do the same thing but called them and after some negotiations they dropped my bill $70/month and upgraded my internet speed to 50mbs for a year and gave me free movie channels for 3 months.
Just call and see what they’ll give you
Just call and see what they’ll give you
I no longer have it because it didn’t work well, and yes it was indoors. If there isnt such a thing as HD antennas then why do they call them “HDTV ANTENNAS”?
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/rocket...hU6fDe5-YI12Bm48CWYaAqAfEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Just saying.. they exist, they are garbage in my experience and they are meant to be mounted indoors. I have friends who use them and they work fine.. Just depends on where you are located I guess- apparently trees, how far you are from towers... All make a difference.
But to tell me it is not trouble... to MOUNT SOMETHING TO YOUR ROOF, and once it is set up you then have to exit one app, switch TV inputs, and then search channels vs just CHANGING THE CHANNEL? Sounds like a lot of work to me.. and the roof mounted antenas in my experience are MUCH more expensive, in the hundreds of dollars, so how much you think do you are actually saving?
Excuse the mind fart BTW- obviously I meant PBS instead of NPR. I know how superior it makes people feel to correct errors on the internet, but if any of you asshats are going to act like you didn’t know what I meant you can GFYS.
Regardless- the OP has options. Buy a $35 firestick, download Hulu for $40/month, or spend however much to get an antenna, and roku, and then spend the same amount per month to also get Sling, then navigate multiple different functions to get the same programming you get with one on Hulu (and still not have access to any extra movies), ORRR spend $100+ once the promotion is over to get cable... there are multiple otions! I have tried them all and settled on the easiest/ cheapest legal option personally. There is also a way to get EVERY movie, TV channel... for free using Smooth Stream, but that isn’t exactly legal...
There's one in every crowd.
Actually two. I have had Spectrum and it’s predessors since cable was available in Greenville, and I have been in this house 46 years.
I have Directv in my Lake house since 9/1/1994. And I am happy with it.
I just don’t see a reason to change either.
I just went through this last week
I just went through this two weeks ago Time Warner raised my bill again so I called to cancel my TV and keep my internet. Since they were no longer Time Warner, Spectrum offered me internet at twice the speed of my current internet with a free router and wifi modem (Around 60/month). I looked at all the streaming services and the most important thing to remember when choosing a streaming service is to make sure that they carry the channels that you like. I like the Discovery Channel but only a few services carry it. I usually only watch about 5 favorite channels so I settled on DirectTV NOW which is a online streaming service (No dish) I can get the app on my ROKU (also the newer Fire Sticks) I am getting my service for 10.00 a month for the first three months then my current plan goes to 35/month. (HBO can be had for 5/month and Cinemax is 7/month.) This is the cheapest package that they have They have other packages that carry more stations at higher prices but since DirectTV NOW has no contract, I can switch plans or services at any time. A guy told me about a streaming service called Tvizion. Offers about 500 channels plus pay tv services for about 50 month. I looked into it but it seems kinda sketchy Good deal if it is legit but I didn't find out. Most services offer you a free trial so try them out. Very Happy with DirectTV Now so far No problems yet plus with DirectTV Now. I can download the app on my iPhone and iPad and watch DirectTV NOW anywhere (I only use it with wifi when using my iPad or IPhone). The only downside I found is that you can only stream DirectTV NOW on two TV's or devices at a time with my plan. Not a big problem for me but if you have a houseful of people. it would create a problem. Higher price packages allow you to stream to more than two devices at a time. No local channels and as far as sports, I get ESPN and ESPN2 With the next higher package (50.00) you can also get ESPN news and ESPN U and the regular SEC network Most expensive package is 70/month. Hope this helps
Have you had buffering issues with DirecTV Now? I asked a couple of friends who had it for a while and they both complained of screen freezing. I also saw lots of complaints about it on a forum.
Screen is constantly freezng my wifi is dropping i already had service come out twice.
PM me and I can take a look at your performance data if you'd like?
Best Buy, like all the rest of 'em, succomb to the mismarketing of "HD antennas" as a way of selling people merchandise they may not need.. Any TV antenna from the analogue era will work just fine, as long as it's capable of picking up UHF signals, and VHF in the channels 7-13 range (VERY few stations broadcast on channels 2-6, since there's lots of technical problems in that frequency range).
Again, switching from antenna to Roku is no more trouble than switching from antenna to DVR.
I paid someone to mount the antenna to the roof. Worth every penny. My recurring monthly expenses for TV = $0.00. I had the antenna erected in October 2015. If I paid $60.00 a month for cable over 29 months, that would amount to almost $1750.00, over three times what I paid for antenna parts and labor.
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Unusual thing at Lake house today. One of my 5 Directv boxes was messed up so Directv guy came over to Check it out.
Short story, he replaced all 5 boxes at no cost. Then he said I was eligible to exchange all my boxes for free every two years.
I guess being with Directv for almost 24 years means something.
Short story, he replaced all 5 boxes at no cost. Then he said I was eligible to exchange all my boxes for free every two years.
I guess being with Directv for almost 24 years means something.
Glad that worked out for you, and that you got a good tech.Unusual thing at Lake house today. One of my 5 Directv boxes was messed up so Directv guy came over to Check it out.
Short story, he replaced all 5 boxes at no cost. Then he said I was eligible to exchange all my boxes for free every two years.
I guess being with Directv for almost 24 years means something.
We have Comcast internet and landline in Atlanta. They recently sent us a new box. The LAN/WiFi options on the Comcast box don't offer nearly the options that my home router does, thus, I ask Comcast to bridge/pass-through the internet connection to my router. 90 minutes on the phone with a level 1 tech was a waste of time, especially since he never really understood what I wanted (never had this issue in the past with box upgrades).. When speaking to his supervisor, she said that he told her that I didn't want to work with him. "BS", I said; she said she would review the conversation.
Spoke to another level 1 tech, but the voice connection was so lousy, and the internet connection so slow, that he escalated to an engineer. This level III engineer called back a couple of days later, and had my problems fixed in less than 10 minutes.
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Well the tech guy that came was great. The person I spoke to on the phone was not good. Could barely understand him with his accent. But all’s well that..........
That seems like a lot of work and extra equipment you have to buy just to get TV. Does Sling or anything else you mentioned have Internet and phone or do you have to get separate providers for those?
I tried this and it works like a dream. We have had an issue with getting a small TV to work in the kitchen without a box since they went 100% digital a few years ago. Bought a Roku ($32 bucks once) and use the Spectrum streaming app and it works like a charm. Wife happy!
Actually, an antenna is the standard way to get TV, and has been since TV broadcasting began (limited NYC service just before the US entered WWII).
SlingTV is an "over the top" (OTT) service which requires internet connectivity. You can stream their programming on a smart phone, tablet, PC (both Windows and Mac, I think), and on your TV with a streaming box, e.g., Roku, Firestick, Chromecast, etc. There may be some smart TVs with the Sling app included.
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"Could barely understand him"??........ hey, thats what he said 'bout u!
Hey. I’m quite elegant.
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Just buy your own cable modem. You can find modems that are compatible with their service here: https://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/. I recommend you buy one that does NOT double as a wifi gateway/router; let your favorite home router handle the wifi.
Once you have the cable modem you will need to call Comcast/Xfinity customer service and ask them to provision your new modem, just pray you don't get connected to a technically inept buffoon who gets testy when they can't stick to the script. All they should need is the make and model (or S/N), and MAC address.
Thanks for the info. That was the whole point. I wanted my own router to continue to handle the internal networking, both wired and wireless. The desktops, printers, Roku boxes, and the Slingbox are all wired; only the laptops, tablets, and smartphones are wireless.
I've never given serious consideration towards buying my own cable modem; given my experience last week, I wonder how incompetent Comcast would be on assisting me in setting it up.
What still amazes me is that I never had trouble with them in the past in setting up bridge/passthrough to my own router. Maybe too many people for whom they did that didn't have decent internal security set up - the Level III engineer did mention security to me - I replied that I've had no problems in the past.
I signed up for DirecTV Now (streaming, not the dish) three-month trial despite having read a lot of complaints about stream freezing, channels mistakenly being listed as blacked out, etc. Within an hour I was having the same issues I'd read about. I canceled my service less than two hours after I signed up, but they said I'll still be billed for three months. Trying to get it resolved, but it's really being a hassle. I would suggest holding off on DirecTV Now until it resolves its technical issues.
From the replies here, it seems that quality of service largely depends on the geography of where you live, and perhaps the age of the providers system (lines). AT&T Uverse only recently became available in my neighborhood after all these years. Spectrum is really the only player for internet service until AT&T runs the new fiber optic lines to where I live, which may take years. I looked at which providers gave us the best service/cost for what we watch. We have Spectrum internet ($70) and Sling Orange with sports add-on ($25). We share a Netflix acct with a relative, and also have Amazon Prime for TV, movies, music, and shipping discounts. With replays of TV shows and sports events, I have no need to DVR. All of that works great for us, and the total bill is ($95).
We also have Kodi (Exodus). I am not familiar with Terrarium and Mobdro, but will look into it.
and spend countless hours trying to teach my MIL how to find her favorite western channels.......I'll have to stay with cable for awhile longer. She is not technologically sound.
I know the feeling. My wife complains that she can't find her programs. I just remind her that we save about $1,200/year, but we could go ahead and spend that $1,200 on TV, and cut (fill in the blank with something she likes to buy or do). That usually does the trick.
Like rogue said in the very first reply. The intro price is awesome but after that it gets ugly. They charged me $260 a month for bundle that they offer the new customers for like 30 bucks. Also be careful of their billing. When they bill you they dont bill for the month you just went through like most companies. They bill a month in advance.
