Fellow Cord-cutters...What is your setup?
 

I said I would never do it. I couldn't cut the cord. Live sports meant too much to me. I did the song and dance with my cable company for almost 3 years. They would raise my rates, I would call in and threaten to disconnect and they would lower them again. Then a few months ago, my bill went up $99 (to $237/mo. incl. internet) and they refused to lower it back to the original rate, so I parted ways with them. Today marked my second full month as a "cord cutter." Here is my current setup:

Playstation Vue Core Slim subscription - It was either this, DirecTV Now, or Sling, and for what I watch, it was a no-brainer. It has basically all of the channels I was watching when I had cable. I had some issues at first with buffering but after making some changes to the DNS addresses, it has worked pretty much flawlessly . It has cloud based DVR which is what set it apart from the competition for me (sling didn't offer dvr at the time but is in beta testing now). The HD pic is also very crisp as well. This is $35 per month for 60+ channels including all espn's and fox sports networks. Combined with my 50mbps internet, I'm paying roughly $115 per month (Was paying $237 with cable).

Android TV Box loaded with Kodi - I paid $125 for this box on eBay. It is an octo-core android box with a proprietary Kodi build on it. (Yes, I know I could have done it myself much cheaper but I always seem to have issues with these kinds of things when I get brave and do them on my own.) I use it for movies, PPV fights, and to watch the TV shows that I used to watch that are not included in the Vue programming (mainly HBO, SHOWTIME, network tv, History channel, and the Viacom networks - nickelodion, Comedy Central, etc.). If you don't already know about Kodi, just try a google search, it was sent from heaven for tight asses like myself.

Mohu Leaf Ultimate Amplified HD antenna - for local channels until ps vue adds them in my area (currently only in major markets like ny, la, Miami, etc.). It actually picks up about 35 channels, most in HD. I live about 30 miles away from the farthest TV tower. I was worried the pic would not be good, but it's just as good or better than the HD I had with cable. It cost me $55 on eBay.

Channel Master Over the Air DVR - this is what I really had taken for granted with cable. The DVR is one of the greatest inventions ever. I never watch my shows live anymore and figured I could go back to doing so, but I started to realize a couple days in that I either wouldnt remember to watch my favorites from network tv, the shows were live or local, or my schedule wouldnt allow for it. After some research, I came across the Channel Master DVR. It's an over the air HD DVR with up to 1TB of hard drive space and NO MONTHLY FEE!!! It's very similar to the one built into your cable box as it comes with an on-screen guide and dual tuner (yes, I. Wish there were more). It is quite pricy at around $200 on eBay but it's a one time charge where Tivo has a monthly fee (do some research on youtube to see if it's for you).

Like I stated earlier, I'm two months in. I'm still watching all of the same programming at $115/mo. that I was watching at $237/mo. so I'd say it's going well. The DVR on the PS Vue is awesome. The channel master DVR is very cool but not 100% necessary as I can still find almost all of the shows I miss on the kodi box. I mainly use the channel master for the pause ffwd and rewind features. The only real negative that I can take away so far is the inconvenience of having to change from one device to another. I didn't realize how much I took for granted being able to take a split second to change the channel rather than having to change the input from the PS4 to the antenna or he kodi box (and then having to find a good stream), but for the money I'm saving, it's worth the few minutes of annoyance. The buffering issue with the Playstation Vue was quite frustrating in the beginning, but a quick google search helped me find a quick solution. I found that you have to make some changes to the DNS servers and boom...problem solved.

If you have questions about my set-up,let me know. I'm curious to see the set-ups of other cord cutters on here mainly to find out if there are better options than what I currently have. Surely I'm not the only one.

• Three Roku devices (Roku 3 for my main TV, Stick for my bedroom, and Roku 2 for a seldom-used basement TV) and an old laptop to serve as a media server and occasional direct-view screen for stuff that doesn't have a Roku app.
• Subscriptions for Netflix, Sling ($20 version) and Hulu (commercial-free version). I guess I also have Amazon Prime, but I don't really even think of that as a video subscription and use it pretty rarely.
• Lots of movies I've purchased on Vudu (or bought Ultraviolet codes through third-party sites)
• Tablo DVR to record OTA shows.
• Plex to watch a handful of torrented shows that I can't get legally through any sort of streaming service.
• VPN + NFL Gamepass to watch Chiefs games when they're not on locally.

I don't have the patience to deal wish finding a non-shitty stream on Kodi (and I TRY to stay as legal as I possibly can, though the networks still make it impossible from time to time).

Ive got PS Vue as well. Works pretty well, but I've had a few buffering issues with ESPN during college bb games or fb games. Not sure why, maybe just a coincidence.

I like the "DVR in the cloud" feature, for sure....super easy, and no fear of running out of space. I have the max plan (without pay movie add-ons) and pay 45 a month for it.

I have a pretty good internet speed, so picture quality is typically pretty good.

Use Netflix and Hulu for all the other stuff. Also have Amazon (as I have a fire tv box, and wanted free prime shipping all year).


During MLB season, I subscribe to MLBtv - and it's well worth it for someone who doesn't live in the royals broadcasting area.

Even with all that, I'm paying about 60 bucks less a month than I was with Directv.

PC, chromecast, 123movies.is, reddit, and a friends dish network password~

Time Warner for internet, Sling TV Blue ( I think) paying for Netflix, Prime and Hulu (even though I can't access it).

Sling TV is... suboptimal.

OTA rabbit ears for local broadcasting.
Google Fiber internet.
Mac Mini running KODI. Mele F10 Deluxe remote to control it and the TV.
Furk subscription for media.
Netflix.

Have considered canceling Netflix, because it's unnecessary with KODI and Furk. But just never got around to it. 99% of what I watch all comes from KODI/Furk.

How is your VPN + NFL Gamepass working? I had it for one season but it ended up being a hassle and I dropped it. I'm wondering if my VPN wasn't very good. How much do you spend on the two together?

Anyone have any recommendations for an HD antenna?

The key to VPN and Gamepass is to disconnect from VPN after you get a game started. It only checks location when initiating stream. Basically, VPN performance should be a non-factor.

I started with a $10 pair of rabbit ears. I got all the local KC stations except a few that would give a really weak unreliable signal. Thinking I needed a better antenna, I bought a $40 powered one. It was actually worse all around, and after a few weeks I went back to the rabbit ears. I've now figured out the perfect position of the rabbit ears and get all available KC OTA stations. And I'll cut a bitch that touches my antenna placement.

Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and I'm currently trying out the Starz app because they have some good series. I have a Samsung Smart TV so I can watch them all on the big screen. It's more than enough to cover TV watching needs and there's no commercials. And all of those are $80-$90 less than DirecTV.

But sports is a real motherf'er. I had to ditch DirecTV after AT&T bought them due to a discrepancy over the bill, which had, over time, become bullshit. But I still paid the bill. The problem was, they didn't give me credit for paying my bill despite the fact that I proved to them that I did (this is a long, long story).

Anyway, for sports, I'll either go to a friend's, to a bar, or, if desperate enough, I'll go the illegal route. It is far from ideal and often a pain in the ass, but it works in a pinch. I'd been a DirecTV subscriber since the mid 90s and happily paid for NFL Sunday Ticket every single year because it's a bargain when compared to having to go to a game. But now I can't purchase the product through no fault of my own. So f*** it, I'll tap a european feed on the internet and watch for free on my computer. I really don't like doing that, but sometimes there's no choice.

I have a place in KC too and have google fiber anyway, so I hooked up a slingbox and get my football through local kc broadcast. I have a tivo on it to to catch the small number of OTA shows I want to watch since I can't get OTA reception in LA. That plus netflix and amazon (have anyway for the shipping) equals no more directv and sunday ticket for me. This was the first season I did it and it is just about perfect. I have not had a reception issue yet on the KC side as CBS is really a strong channel for my setup. The rare fox game could be an issue, but this year I was in kc attending that game so no issue.

All in all, I save close to 200 dollars a month, because the only added cost is the tivo fee of 15 dollars. I already had everything else, plus the initial one time cost of 200 for the slingbox. I have also watched one game from my phone (verizon does free local and prime time games on the nfl app.) That was the Thursday night game because I was still at work.

Compared to the annual freakout I have over the cost of directv, it is a huge success.

Oh and directv never once budged on cost for me when I threatened to drop the service after 20 years of subscribing. They even laughed and said they knew I'd be back when I dropped it for real. Not kidding. They told me I was considered a "lock" and they knew I'd return after one missed game. **** them. They will never get a dime form me again.

Have a Roku 3 for downstairs tv and a Roku 4 for upstairs tv, but my Samsung smart tv has all the access I need without using the Roku.

I have subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, Amazon Prime, and HD antennas for local channels. I dropped Dish at least 4-5 years ago and haven't missed it since.

I purchased NFL Sunday Ticket streaming service, but I will not be renewing next year...WAAAAY too many hiccups while streaming games.

http://www.wiz1.net/schedule

This chord cutting looks like it's a pain in the ass for the savings. Economies of scale I guess.

I run it off of my media center laptop using PIA VPN though Mexico, and it works great. $40/year for PIA I think (I'd probably pay for it anyway) and $130/year for NFL Gamepass (though I think they're bumping it to $200/year next season).

For whatever reason, the Windows NFL app is way better quality than what you can get through the web browser. I get full 1080p 60fps feeds pretty steadily, though it does bump down from that here and there.

Eh, while true, PIA at least regularly gets me a 15Mbps connection, so that's not necessary these days. Plus, it's a pain in the ass to get it all reconnected again if it drops.

Once you get the kinks in your setup ironed out, it's great. I'm on vacation right now and have been in hotel rooms for the past week and probably haven't had the actual TV on for more than an hour or two. I can't stand live TV anymore now that I'm used to having whatever I want any time I want it.

Also, the savings doesn't sound like much until you work it out as a per year thing. I figure I'm saving around $80/month these days. That's not a ton, but I'll gladly take that ~$1k per year.

I put an antenna up where the Directv dish used to be on the roof. Fire Tv in 2 rooms got Netflix, Hulu, and Prime. And I stream anything I want to watch live on various websites on a TV that is hooked up to my laptop. Internet+Netflix+Hulu+Amazon=70 bucks a month. My cable bill with internet was previously over 200 bucks.

I can get basic channels which is all the local ones for $19 a month and since I have cable internet I get a $12 reduction for multiple services, drops me to $7 a month for local channels so I don't need to deal with Antennas, etc. Then I have Netflix and decided to do DirectTV now for the 100 live channels at $35 a month. Have Kodi for anything else I want.

DirectTVNow - $35
Local Channels - $7
Netflix - $12
Kodi - Free

Puts me at $54 a month for a pretty good selection with lots of live channels and all my local channels. Also if you do a one month pre-pay of DirectTVNow you get a free Firestick, 3 months you get a free AppleTV. Did the 3 months since I already have 2 firesticks and wanted to try the AppleTV anyways. Think that offer is only good for a couple more days.

Been curious about the DirecTV Now offering. How are the on demand offerings? Good enough to drop Hulu?

nothing personal, Oprah wants what you do.

Four sticks and one Fire TV Box. All side loaded with KODI. 54$ per month for internet service. 4 HD antennnea that get 34 local channels. If I want to watch sports I have multiple log ins for apps like ESPN/FOX/NBC Sports Channel that I traded to people for setting up their firestick.

I've been free for 15 months and I will never go back to cable.

Also, thanks to Fish for getting me started. I was nervous at first trying to do it on my own, but after the first set up each one after that got easier.

Thanks Fish!

I have an HDTV Wonder for OTA and satellite feed [I'm still on a bundle for TV/Internet/Satellite so the price isn't an impediment at present], Kodi for streams, and JRiver for playback/organization.

:Edit: and the whole thing is routed to my HT through DLNA to my BluRay player, if I want to sit down for something. Otherwise I watch/listen through my PC.

I have no idea what this means.

Fire tv and fire stick with kodi and netflix. Can watch everything I want. Nothing else needed. Been cable free for over a year and will never go back.

Mohu Leaf antenea, Fire Stick, Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now and Amazon Prime... 1/3 the cost of cable once you factor in the internet access and everything we want to watch (except the wife misses MSNBC). Oh, and the kid has an XBox One on her Roku TV... we used to use it in the living room, but use the Fire Stick now.

Thinking about dropping Netflix too, but wife wants to keep it. Kid loves Hulu and I like HBO Now..... No one watches Amazon Prime. Still more stuff than we can ever watch (or would want to watch).

I am incredibly too lazy to mess with all of this shit just to save $100 a month.

Depends on your setup. Reconnecting to VPN is an absolute breeze for me, and dropping the latency of sending my data through other countries made mine so stable that the only time I ever needed to reconnect was after when switching games, which I don't do regularly. But, I use a PC and browser.

Either way, any VPN + Game Pass should be a pretty solid experience.

No, the On Demand is pretty underwhelming. Looks basically like what you can get from their individual sites, just packaged nicely for you.

Bunny ears and Netflix. And in the summer, MLB.tv.

:(

Thanks for the info.

I have an old Windows 7 desktop that I plug directly into my living room TV with HDMI. Windows 7 media player has a DVR. I use this for OTA. I even have a remote that works with the media player DVR.

For ESPN, I'm using a co-workers XFINITY password, but I'm tired of having to watch all the sports live and not being able to fast forward through commercials. I'm willing to go illegal when the only option is some type of bundle (I started paying for Sunday ticket when I could buy a stand alone streaming that didn't require DirectTV). But $40 for the ESPN sports isn't too unreasonable.

So the Playstation option with a cloud DVR sound like it has potential.

How friendly is the DVR for fast forwarding through commercials? So I would be using the Windows 7 desktop. I have a wireless mouse and keyboard on the coffee table. As I presume I would have to do this with a mouse (as opposed to any sort of remote). It is not a "smart" TV nor do I have any other type of console or cable box attached to it.

CBS all access now claims to be streaming NFL games. That's pretty interesting.

wiz1.net has been solid for Bob Dole this season. Won't load on the TV native, but a miniDV to HDMI cable solves that.

Amazon Fire Stick (jail broken), Hulu, Amazon Prime and Netflix, shared 2 ways.

Call me old...but I'm with you. It's nice just to sit down and flip on my Xfinity and watch what I want with the package I picked.

My internet works fine and I actually have the channels I actually watch the most.

I keep thinking this thread is about cutting cords of wood.

I guess for some folks it's just a few bucks. For me, it's a ridiculous amount of money for channels and content that I have zero interest in. I've saved 2800$ in the last 15 months.

Plus, I love learning about this stuff.

Oh, I get people's desire to cut the cord and applaud it. But I haven't had to spend over $90 a month for the internet and cable packages I have wanted/needed for the past 7 years.

Everyone has been talking about the death of cable and satellite TV for years. I can see it happening eventually, but not within my lifetime.

Anybody use PlayStation Vue?

I do.

Only complaint is sometimes TCM can't stream a movie it's broadcasting because of weird rights issues.

Me on both counts

For those in Wichita on PS vue, I just noticed last night that local CBS (KWCH) was added to the channel lineup! Hopefully the other locals are close behind!

It is not that much money for me and I hate learning this stuff. But Comcast has a monopoly on broadband in my neighborhood. I have to pay them for broadband and I really don't want to pay them anymore money.

So I'm really out of touch about how all these different systems are set up. For the playstation streaming through a desktop, is there a way to use a remote to fast forward through commercials? Is there anyway to do something like a 30 second advance with one button or one mouse click?

It's a weird naming thing that is confusing. Playstation Vue is run by Sony, but you don't need to have a Playstation to use it. The interface just depends on what device you're viewing it through (e.g., Roku, desktop computer, Fire TV, etc.).

Can you fast forward? Is it like regular cable in that it's on at a static time or is it more on demand? Any way to DVR anything?

OTA antenna with a Tablo, so I record a shitload of stuff from broadcast TV. Tablo is the best investment I've made.

I have free Google Fiber until 2023. $300 to install and free for seven years. They say it takes 5 Mbps for HDTV and I say bullshit. I stream HDTV all the time and it MAY max out at 2.5Mbps. Of course, Google Fiber is a pure signal so there is no data packet loss which is a problem with other providers.

Roku 3 on my primary TV and I just bought a Roku TV to replace my old TV in the bedroom.

What I like about Roku is the simple casting option from my phone. It's amazing that it can stream a great picture from Google fiber, to my phone, back through my router and to Roku. I'm sure I can find Royals games using this technique.

Since I just bought my Roku TV I have 2 months free of every option for streaming video. So far, I like Hulu with Netflix in a close 2nd. We'll see how things change by the end of March.

OTA - ABC,CBS,NBC,FOX,PBS,MeTV,etc...

Amazon Fire TV - everything else.


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OK, Our Directv bill is $120/month before Sunday ticket. I've been with them for 15 years. we originally payed like 60 per month for an equivalent package. Their HD/DVR/per receiver fees are ridiculous.

I just signed up for the PS Vue trial. So far so good. I have a FireStick loaded w/ Kodi etc. My question for the OP or anyone else, how are you getting sporting event streams to play on Kodi? I tried MLB games last night and every stream I tried gave a generic error or did nothing. I tried all kinds of different add-ons (SportsDevil, WiseGuys, ProSports, etc). What add ons work for sports (mainly MLB, NFL, Boxing/WWE PPVs)?

I can't seem to get any of them to play.

Where's Guru? I was sure he'd have this thread on alerts.

What Kodi add one are you using for sports? Everything I try gets a web request error or steam not available

So I've been using Rokus for a while now, but now that my Roku stick just died, I want to see if there is a better option. Amazon Firestick? Chromecast? How do they compare to the Roku stick?

So it looks like the only one that can be powered by the TV's own USB port is the Roku stick. That may be the deciding factor for me.

Don't want another thing plugged in/another cord or?

Looks like my contract is up in September with DirectTV. Not sure I’ll be renewing with them.

I know I asked earlier in this thread but anyone still have Playstation Vue?

No comment about Vue, but here's what I did this past fall with DTV. For the first time ever, I wasn't bluffing them. I told them what it would take to keep me - I wanted my $150+/month bill down to $75 or lower without sacrificing any of my lineup, and I wanted Sunday Ticket at no cost. When I called, I told the CSR I wanted to cancel service, so they sent me to retention. I went back and forth with them for 15-20 minutes; every time they'd put me on hold and come back with a better offer, more discounts, etc. but they couldn't get where I wanted to be - I was up front with them about what I wanted to stay. When they didn't meet it, I set up a cancellation date about 1 month out (my renewal was only 2 days away, which wasn't enough time for me to set up something else). The next day, I got a call from DTV wanting to get me back, and straight out of the gate they gave me enough discounts to get my monthly bill down to about $60/month for the entire year, Sunday Ticket at no cost, and offered a $200 Visa gift card.

tl;dr: I'm still a DTV customer, but it took me actually trying to quit to get it.

Yeah, I’m sure that I could probably get them down to a lower price. I’m just kind of fed up with cable/satellite TV as a whole. Our bill is only $115 a month and I usually get Sunday ticket for super cheap each year.

My kids and wife just usually end up watching Netflix instead of regular TV and I can get Vue for like $39.99 a month and it covers most of the channels they want to watch anyways.

The only thing I’ll have to figure out is Sunday ticket but I’m pretty sure I can get that at full price if I really want it. Either that or I can stream it and see if that works.

It's all somewhat subjective, but I think the Roku's are the most versatile out there, especially since they aren't linked to any particular ecosystem.

That said, I personally use both a Roku and Chromecast. The latter works better for YouTube for me and is good for random screen mirroring here and there, but otherwise I like the Roku best.

I have playstation vue and have had no issues with it. They even have all local channels on it now.

Which package?

And as it turns out, it didn't die. One of the kids must've accidentally switched it to the wrong video out settings. Its working fine now.

I have the core package