Cutting the cable cord

[riser4]

So Kodi on Raspbian is the default for Pi streaming device? Any better suggestions? Actual experience?

[iceman]

I bought a Roku Streaming Stick+ on Amazon last night after doing a little research, I'l report back. It was only $29.00, I can't go too far wrong. If it works out I'll get them for the other TV's. Still haven't figured out which service to go with but I haven't spent much time on it yet.

[gravitylover]

Well, the cord is officially cut. On 12/17 we join the masses in figuring out how to entertain ourselves for less. I was on the phone with Verizon and was about to just cancel and toss a hail mary when the guy broke down and offered the new customer deal with the top end internet service and landline phone (the wife won't give it up because cell service sux on our hill) for $90/mo. I've been playing with our Roku tv for a while now and it looks like there are plenty of options to get just about everything or just suck it up and get YouTube TV or similar. Combined with Amazon Prime that we already have I shouldn't be missing anything that matters, maybe need one or two $5/mo things here or there. Faster internet will be nice, this old 50mbps is pretty weak especially when the kids are home and we're all doing stuff on our phones and laptops and I'm watching Gold Rush on Discovery Now.

Now it's time to tell SiriusXM to go away if they can't do it for $5/mo, this 25 is just stupid for shitty reception but I do travel 1k miles a week most of the year and have zero radio service in a lot of places without it.

[iceman]

How fast is the internet supposed to be?

[gravitylover]

940/880 https://www.verizon.com/home/fios-fastest-internet/

[skaredshtles]

<snip>
Now it's time to tell SiriusXM to go away if they can't do it for $5/mo, this 25 is just stupid for shitty reception but I do travel 1k miles a week most of the year and have zero radio service in a lot of places without it.

Spotify has worked well for me for in-the-car music. You get to use it everywhere else, as well. Individual account is $9.99/mo and family is $14.99/mo (6 accounts).

[skaredshtles]

940/880 https://www.verizon.com/home/fios-fastest-internet/

BASTARDO!!

[EWG]

I would like to cut back our cable package and replace it with more streaming, however I am not sure about the bandwidth. I work from home with a lot of WebEx conferences. When my father in law is staying with us, he watches TV all day. So that means I would have to compete for bandwidth. There's anywhere from 4-6 people here in the evening, all wanting to watch TV or stream a variety of different things. Plus there's a limit of two concurrent users for services like Sling. We have 3 TVs. For my father in law, finding his stuff needs to be dead simple. And my wife is often streaming one thing on her phone with one ear bud in and watching another on TV. She likes to compare what is on Fox with CNN and MSNBC. To each their own. We have the 200 Mbps service. In theory. Is the an alternative to Sling that carries MSNBC, CNN, and has a higher number of concurrent users?

Youtube allows 6 but they all need separate logins.

[RShea]

Well, the cord is officially cut. On 12/17 we join the masses in figuring out how to entertain ourselves for less. I was on the phone with Verizon and was about to just cancel and toss a hail mary when the guy broke down and offered the new customer deal with the top end internet service and landline phone (the wife won't give it up because cell service sux on our hill) for $90/mo. I've been playing with our Roku tv for a while now and it looks like there are plenty of options to get just about everything or just suck it up and get YouTube TV or similar. Combined with Amazon Prime that we already have I shouldn't be missing anything that matters, maybe need one or two $5/mo things here or there. Faster internet will be nice, this old 50mbps is pretty weak especially when the kids are home and we're all doing stuff on our phones and laptops and I'm watching Gold Rush on Discovery Now.

Now it's time to tell SiriusXM to go away if they can't do it for $5/mo, this 25 is just stupid for shitty reception but I do travel 1k miles a week most of the year and have zero radio service in a lot of places without it.

Sirius is from all I have read really easy to get either the 5 months for $25 or 6 months for $30 deal. Some have to call back, others mention that they cancel for a few days if Sirius does not give them a good offer before they terminate. A quick search reveled even a slightly better deal: https://www.dealcatcher.com/sirius-s...s?id=997283467

[iceman]

940/880 https://www.verizon.com/home/fios-fastest-internet/

So it's $69.00 plus the cost of whatever TV package you pick, right?

[gravitylover]

I ended up at 79 + 10 for the landline phone and yes if I wanted tv it would be on top of that. The thing is their least expensive tv package brings it up at least 75/mo and because I've been with them since the very beginning all of our equipment is outdated and needs to be replaced at a cost of a few hundred dollars and you still have to pay set top box monthly rental. You also can't get the best internet service if you get tv, they limit you to 300/300 max and that's even more expensive at over 200/mo. It's like they realized what's going on and they're not fighting for you to have cable tv anymore. They offer internet packages with YouTube TV and Disney+ but nothing great for cable packages and the guy I talked to on the phone kept hinting at changing peoples accounts over to internet only with YT TV is what he spends most of his day doing.

He did have some info that was a little disturbing though, they know that my wife and I run home offices out of the house by our email activity. It was really creepy when he told me the names of the two businesses and that they know the mailing address is the same as the service address. IOW you ISP knows more about you than you'd like.

[Bobby Finstock]

940/880 https://www.verizon.com/home/fios-fastest-internet/

+ taxes & fees. My last verizon bill included $22.00 in taxes & fees.

[liv2ski]

I bought a Roku Streaming Stick+ on Amazon last night after doing a little research, I'l report back. It was only $29.00, I can't go too far wrong. If it works out I'll get them for the other TV's. Still haven't figured out which service to go with but I haven't spent much time on it yet.

You may get Amazon by default if you have a Prime membership. We also have Netflix and get the local channels, HBO & Showtime and some others from our cable company for $50

[shaggy433]

Is there a streaming app that will run on a Pi build to create a DIY Roku type device? I have a Pi 3 collecting dust and have a need for a Roku. I thought there was but can't seem to find it. I don't really have the desire to collect movies and such using Plex.

You could install Kodi on it and use that.. I haven't played with Kodi in a while but it used to be a pretty good route for cordcutters to go!

He did have some info that was a little disturbing though, they know that my wife and I run home offices out of the house by our email activity. It was really creepy when he told me the names of the two businesses and that they know the mailing address is the same as the service address. IOW you ISP knows more about you than you'd like.

Sounds like its time to invest in a VPN service!

[jerlane]

I think Youtube TV is offering another three week trial for those considering it.

[gravitylover]

+ taxes & fees. My last verizon bill included $22.00 in taxes & fees.

Yeah but what are you going to do when it's the only choice you have for internet only? We have Fios and Comcast here but Comcast won't sell just internet here even though they offer it elsewhere and the cheapest package they offer is ~$200/mo. The only other choice would be to convince the neighbor to cut down a couple of trees so I could get satellite. Yeah this will be $23/mo in taxes and fees. Oh well...

So I think I want to buy a router rather than use what they have to offer at $15/mo. They do sell it for $199 but is there a better choice for the same price? I don't know squat about this stuff. Do I need one that's a modem and router combo, are there different power levels, what else do I need to know about these things?

[Bunion 2020]

Now it's time to tell SiriusXM to go away if they can't do it for $5/mo, this 25 is just stupid for shitty reception but I do travel 1k miles a week most of the year and have zero radio service in a lot of places without it.

When my yearly subscription ended last month they auto charged me at the new rate. I called them and as politely as possible I told them that the new fee was more than I could afford and wanted their most inexpensive option. The Rep. tolded me they had a ala cart thing or some shit but.... tell ya what I'm going to do.... The same package as I currently have with the streaming etc and all for the cheapest price. They hate to lose any revenue.

That said, I am getting kind of sick of their choices. I put in about 2000 miles a month driving.

[gravitylover]

I'm confused. Again. At least it's a familiar place

So it looks like all you need to stream from your phone or laptop to a smart or Roku TV is a Chromecast that costs $35 then open what you want to watch in a Chrome window but I bet I'm missing something. Are they just mirroring devices so that what's on your screen streams to the tv? My Roku TV has options to pair devices and mirror too but even though everything is enabled it won't let me add a device, is it because the tv is not on the wireless network but is using a wired ethernet connection directly to the router? Can I run an hdmi cable from a laptop right to the tv (it has 2 hdmi ports) and just stream that way? All this newfangled stuff...

[riser4]

I'm confused. Again. At least it's a familiar place

So it looks like all you need to stream from your phone or laptop to a smart or Roku TV is a Chromecast that costs $35 then open what you want to watch in a Chrome window but I bet I'm missing something. Are they just mirroring devices so that what's on your screen streams to the tv? My Roku TV has options to pair devices and mirror too but even though everything is enabled it won't let me add a device, is it because the tv is not on the wireless network but is using a wired ethernet connection directly to the router? Can I run an hdmi cable from a laptop right to the tv (it has 2 hdmi ports) and just stream that way? All this newfangled stuff...

HDMI from laptop to TV works. I hook my Chromebook to the TV occasionally.

[uglymoney]

I think we are doing this but have not cut the cord quite yet - trial run first. Cable just bumped our rates and it is getting crazy. Keeping our internet through them which is 100 mbps and getting Hulu Live with firesticks. Have prime and netflix. Still not cheap but should save us $70 ish a month.

[RShea]

Yeah but what are you going to do when it's the only choice you have for internet only? We have Fios and Comcast here but Comcast won't sell just internet here even though they offer it elsewhere and the cheapest package they offer is ~$200/mo. The only other choice would be to convince the neighbor to cut down a couple of trees so I could get satellite. Yeah this will be $23/mo in taxes and fees. Oh well...

So I think I want to buy a router rather than use what they have to offer at $15/mo. They do sell it for $199 but is there a better choice for the same price? I don't know squat about this stuff. Do I need one that's a modem and router combo, are there different power levels, what else do I need to know about these things?

If you are on Fios (unfortunately no Fios anywhere near me, so I have no first hand expereince with their install setup), then they provide what they call an ONT device- Optical Network Terminal (fiber does not use a modem) and you can plug your own Router into that and forego any rental stuff from them unless you also have TV service and then I have read that you need their Set Top Box.

As for what router- any of the newer AC1200 Gigabit Routers or higher wifi speeds (depending on how many devices and a few other things like coverage of the wifi- you may also want to do a Mesh wifi solution) TP-Link, Asus, are a few brands you may want to shop and check out.

[prsboogie]

researching streaming tv? I dunno, I feel like I've been around, not hiding at least. Down in Maryland right now but heading back there before too long.

Guess I just haven't been on the same threads. If you want let me know when your back up, maybe we can meet up again for bevys?

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using TGR Forums mobile app

[gravitylover]

If you are on Fios (unfortunately no Fios anywhere near me, so I have no first hand experience with their install setup), then they provide what they call an ONT device- Optical Network Terminal (fiber does not use a modem) and you can plug your own Router into that and forego any rental stuff from them unless you also have TV service and then I have read that you need their Set Top Box.

As for what router- any of the newer AC1200 Gigabit Routers or higher wifi speeds (depending on how many devices and a few other things like coverage of the wifi- you may also want to do a Mesh wifi solution) TP-Link, Asus, are a few brands you may want to shop and check out.

Thanks dude, that's the part that I wasn't getting. Yeah the guy on the phone said we can get our own router and just plug it in once they've done the upgrades from our old equipment and we're ditching tv altogether so no more set top boxes.

I was looking at one of those mesh systems at Best Buy yesterday and decided that what I'll probably do is go with the $15/mo one from them and see what's what before I decide how to proceed. If we need better coverage around the house I'll go with a mesh system. It's only ~1500 sq ft but with solid wood walls and the main router is going to need to be somewhat buried behind the tv so a boost might be the ticket. It looks like they are about $100 more than a good standalone router. I was thinking about it and when the kids are home there are at least 8 devices on the network between phones and laptops, then there's the tv's and printer so it really is a lot of devices.

[riser4]

If you are on Fios (unfortunately no Fios anywhere near me, so I have no first hand expereince with their install setup), then they provide what they call an ONT device- Optical Network Terminal (fiber does not use a modem) and you can plug your own Router into that and forego any rental stuff from them unless you also have TV service and then I have read that you need their Set Top Box.

As for what router- any of the newer AC1200 Gigabit Routers or higher wifi speeds (depending on how many devices and a few other things like coverage of the wifi- you may also want to do a Mesh wifi solution) TP-Link, Asus, are a few brands you may want to shop and check out.

Also consider routers with satellite units for whole house coverage, depending on your layout. Now is the time for Costco deals. I have an Orbi. They come in different speeds. Make sure the backhaul has it's own dedicated link for whatever unit you buy. I probably need to add a satellite to my set up to better cover the back deck and my wife's pottery studio.

[gravitylover]

What's backhaul?