Well the day has finally come. Part of my motivation (food was priority #1) for getting my first job at 10 years old was to get cable for WGN, TBS, and TNT. I was motivated to see every Chicago Bulls game MJ played. Summer of 1984 I used my social security number and had cable installed and the one parent I lived with, didn’t know about it. One day she busted me and I had to get her, her own box, and pay for it. I got blackmailed into that and if I didn’t do it I’d get narc’d on. So 1984 until today, is a long damn time.

For 20+ years I have had Dish network satellite. Throughout this cut the cord deal going on the last 10 years Dish has always worked with me to keep my monthly bill around $80 a month, with their most basic TV package, locals, and what I want to actually watch and pay for, all the movie channels. Until now, that $80 was great. They charged me something like $27 a month for basic programming including locals and I kept all my movie channels on promotional rates. 4k DVR, and 3 set top boxes for 4 rooms with panels in them. Well I got my bill this morning and it went up. The basic programming package is now $40 a month but includes local channels. I watch zero of the basic programming channels. I loathe commercials. I have the locals for say sports, like the Olympics, a Tom Brady game, and try to keep up with what the left is spouting, via 60 minutes weekly. Know your enemy.

I’ve been happy to pay this to have a centralized DVR for recording sports (I’ll record a sporting event and won’t start watching until +1 hour so I can FF through commercial breaks) and recording films off one of the movie channels. I turn on the tv, flip through the menu, see a film I haven’t seen in years, and click showtimes, record next airing. Then the “convenience” of moving rooms and picking up right where I left off. That menu, and guide, is a chunk of the money I was paying for.

Well today, as I mentioned above, they want $40 a month for basic programming package which they require. That meant, with promotional rates on everything, $98 a month. And that also means at one time or another, if something falls of promotion, I’m over $100 a month. It does include local channels, but see all I want is the locals, and maybe 2 cable news stations. Fox News and say one of the lefties to keep track of the spewing. Don’t care which, MSNBC, CNN, any of them. That’s it. Everything else is movie channels. Historically the monthly bill has fluctuated, with many months being say $73, all the way to $90. So typically $80 a month which for what I’m getting, take my money. But having this go over $100. Hell no. And it’s really just that basic programming fee that busted my balls. I remember not long ago it was $27.99 with locals. Now it’s $40.99 and even though they offered a temporary $5 a month credit, it was fuck you this morning. I’d happily pay you $5, 10, or $20 something a month. It’s not the money, I can afford it, it’s the principle. I hate paying for shit I don’t use and more specifically, loathe.

So I came up with a list of “apps”, man it makes me damn near vomit to even type that and I’m definitely eating crow as I hate streaming service compression on audio, it’s awful. But it is what it is. These are the monthly costs I found by searching the web.

HBO Max: Free with my home internet
Showtime + Paramount: $11.99
EPIX $5.99
Starz $8.99
Disney + $7.99
Netflix 4k streaming $17.99

I’ve looked at YouTube, Hulu, ATT streaming cable, Spectrum streaming cable. All seem just like cable. $69.99 for monthly service now, which if I add my movie channels is more than Dish would charge me so fuck all that. I may stick to the above list. Looks to be just under $60 with tax. To me a pain in the ass to have to open apps and swap back and forth, but I don’t know of any online internet based application which just encompasses movie channels, and locals. So this is a la carte action to the max. I’m open to any suggestions.

Now as far as OTA. What do you do? Should I be searching for an antenna for the roof for local channels? I have coax from the existing dish now, that runs into the attic with coax drops already everywhere I need them. Or do you just buy separate antennas and install them on each TV? And then what do you do with the OTA if you want a guide and want to record stuff so I don’t have to watch commercials?

All of this is long and a royal PITA to me but time to sift through it as I set the cancel date on the satellite for 30 days from today to give me some lead time. I’ll be running Apple 4k TV boxes for each panel and already have them set up. So no Roku, fire stick, or anything else. Fucking app life dude, hate it. I’m getting drug by the fingernails into cord cutting as it is really not what I want to do but it’s finally time. I’ve always liked the fact that I have redundant service. Internet goes down, meh, satellite is up and running so no big deal. Well at the beginning of the pandemic I installed a 2nd ISP to the prem for work purposes. Couldn’t have a localized or regional ISP failure impact my work. And I like it as I run a surveillance system now, and have everything on UPS. DVR, hidden, for the security system, and my router and modems, are all backed up to last power outages.

I feel like I’m a crackhead going to my first meeting

Depending on your cell carrier you can get some streaming for free, right now T-Mobile, no contracts, Apple TV free for a year and basic Netflix Free so you can get the Netflix Premium for $4.99 a month..

Check to see if you carrier offers a promo, if not, switch if you can...

There are no deals. You can jerk around and look for a short term deal here or there. But you are going to pay no matter what. I have been with direct TV for more than a couple decades. Not perfect. But about as good as anything else including all the streaming/internet whopditoos imho.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
There are no deals. You can jerk around and look for a short term deal here or there. But you are going to pay no matter what. I have been with direct TV for more than a couple decades. Not perfect. But about as good as anything else including all the streaming/internet whopditoos imho.

I've had them for around 3 decades at this point. When I first got it, you paid $200 and got to install the dish and receiver yourself, which I did in a couple of hours. Nice selection of things to watch, lots of movies, lots of sports although I never watch sports.

Spent 2 weeks in a condo recently and they had the streaming options but no cable and no satellite.

What a pain in the butt. Hard to find what you want and in some cases, hard to access it. I have no idea what they pay for it though.

I'll stay with DirecTV.

During the early days of streaming it was somewhat possible to save a bundle with streaming, with the exception of sports and "news" channels. Now, with everybody and their brother smelling money and Balkanizing the streaming landscape, it is no longer.

So, you can choose to pay or learn to live without some things you want.

My wife and I never found "TV" to be important enough to pay what we felt to be the outrageous fees subscription TV charged, so we did without. Now we don't feel "TV" important enough to pay what we feel to be the outrageous fees packaged streaming services demand, so we do without.

We have OTA TV, a subscription to guide service for the OTA TV DVR, NetFlix, HBO Max, PBS Passport, and OAN. $46/mo. That'll go down, slightly, once we decide to stick with HBO Max and switch to an annual subscription.

We rent the occasional newer release or whatever via VuDu. We occasionally buy a BD disc if we think something's good enough we'll want to see it several times over the years.

For OTA TV everywhere throughout the house we have a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun CONNECT Quatro networked tuner, hooked to a roof-top antenna, and a networked DVR server, running on a Synology NAS, that gets its feed from that. Then a streaming device on each TV to talk to those servers.

ensigmatic, That sounds like a pretty elaborate set up for folks who do not watch tv

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
ensigmatic, That sounds like a pretty elaborate set up for folks who do not watch tv

It is

I did it as much for the enjoyment of the technical challenge as anything else. That and, at the time, we were watching about six-eight hours of OTA TV entertainment programming, plus "news," every week.

Now there's hardly any OTA TV entertainment programming we watch. Young Sheldon and Jeopardy are about it. We don't watch the "news" anymore at all, save the local nightly "news" - and that mainly for the weather.

All told that system cost us somewhere north of $1k. It would have paid for itself in about... two years? three? over subscription TV. Would have. About the time I finished putting it all in, we stopped watching so much OTA TV

I don't know as I'd do it again today.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
There are no deals. You can jerk around and look for a short term deal here or there. But you are going to pay no matter what. I have been with direct TV for more than a couple decades. Not perfect. But about as good as anything else including all the streaming/internet whopditoos imho.

I've had them for around 3 decades at this point. When I first got it, you paid $200 and got to install the dish and receiver yourself, which I did in a couple of hours. Nice selection of things to watch, lots of movies, lots of sports although I never watch sports.

Spent 2 weeks in a condo recently and they had the streaming options but no cable and no satellite.

What a pain in the butt. Hard to find what you want and in some cases, hard to access it. I have no idea what they pay for it though.

I'll stay with DirecTV.

This is the dilemma that both of you bring up. Film is a passion and I loathe watching anything with commercials and haven’t for 20+ years. Same goes for music in the vehicles.

But you as you pointed out, I also recently rented a house for a few days to attend a race. It was setup the same way. Apps. My group wanted to watch the Sunday night football game after the race. None of us were going to get into the 80k people traffic jam after the race and elected to stay on, until Monday morning, then depart. We must have jacked with that TV, 2 TV’s actually, for an hour, just to figure out someway to get the game on. No OTA installed, just a bunch of fucking apps. It was to the point one of us signed for NFL something or other, and that didn’t work. So I broke out the iPad and used a free app and propped the tablet up in the kitchen where we could all see.

This is why I scheduled disco for 30 days. So I can evaluate. Previously, at $80 a month, this was not a concern because I damn sure use the service. Love having it in every room, and much enjoy the simplicity of a guide, menu, and live channels. Even if over half the time it’s background viewing. I don’t dine out, at all, sans say a weekly taco plate trip for $7, so it’s all relative. I’m definitely thinking on this. Do I want to save say $30 a month, limit this and that, have to use apps. Have to buy antennas, or mount one on the roof, then a DVR, sign up for 5 apps? I don’t know. Really depends how much 4k content is on via these apps but I already know the compression sucks, especially audio compression, and I’m going to hold out with my 4k discs, and 1080p blu rays, both of which I rent cheaply, until they are no longer made.

I guess I’m in a Gran Torino moment. Have to decide to go all millennial on this space, and join the app crowd. Or just realize I’m getting old, don’t want to change, and just pay the got damn fiddler.

Mohu Leaf OTA antenna. One per TV. Minimize coax length. If attic antenna, recommend a signal amplifier. Each drop and "Y" connector to another room will diminish the signal strength.

Ethernet from your WiFi router to the smart TV. Better connection. Not necessary, but foolproof.

OTA is with commercials, as is any non-subscription provider.

The myriad of apps offers some incredible selection, but nothing free. Either commercials or subscriptions. I use Pluto.

I use OTA, as well as Amazon Prime, and all the free apps I can use (like Pluto). I splurge for YouTube premium, so I can watch all the content there without commercials, for $13 a month. That's not a huge sum. I choose what I watch, and I don't try to watch what I used to watch, on expensive cable or other suppliers (like YouTube TV for $65 a month). Not worth it.

Got my standard antenna at a hardware store in the late 90's and it works well without an amplifier or booster. I tried a YAGI style also, and it works ok but it still isn't as good as the 'old man antenna'. The YAGI would probably be as good if all the signals were on the same azimuth, but there are a few coming in from a different vector. I used the signal strength meter on the main TV, going through different channels and making adjustments until it was right.

We have used an OTA with Window media center/digital tuners since 2009 and added ROKU boxes in late 2017 with Netflix and Amazon Prime. Added a Showtime sub last year.

Aren't you in the vicinity of Garland Mesquite area? You should be even closer to the main antenna array down by Joe Pool lake than I am and I am using an attic antenna (inside). You likely have a stronger signal than I do unless you are in some kind of valley or depression. Try Antenna.org for accurate aiming.

I dropped Directv after 15 years and fighting to keep the bill under $125 month with no premium channels. I have you tube tv with free unlimited dvr and can watch on my phone or iPad. $65/ month. Love it!

Sounds like you are on the right track for your needs. I’d add Hulu for 99 cents a month but hurry it ends tonight.

antenna.org looks like a retail website that sells stuff?

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
There are no deals. You can jerk around and look for a short term deal here or there. But you are going to pay no matter what. I have been with direct TV for more than a couple decades. Not perfect. But about as good as anything else including all the streaming/internet whopditoos imho.

Same here. DTV worth it to avoid the aggravation. Had it since 97.

That price you quoted above for Hulu includes local channels. They offer Hulu without local channels for less...(at least they used to). If you can use an OTA antenna for local channels you should be able to lower your bill quite a bit. I live in the mountains so I can't get local channels OTA, so I have Hulu + local channels. The local channels add like $30 per month or so.

Satellite TV is so old school.

Buy a new TV with ROKU built-in.

The actual amount of money being spent to waste time is crazy.

I think you'll grow to like streaming. On demand, without having to skim channel guides and set recording, is really quite convenient.

Switching between apps is pretty much like changing channels or surfing the channel guides. Just use your iPad to scroll through each apps offerings and build a "watchlist". The algorithms will get to know your preferences and will make recommendations based on what you've watched. Then, you just open the app and are presented with shows or movies. Watch a few of those until, some weeks later, you've realized you are caught up with the shows on Service A, then you switch to Service B and repeat. In a few more weeks, you just switch back to Service A and catch up on the new releases. It's far less channel surfing than what you are used to on streaming.

One technique to keep prices down is to just turn on a service for a month or two at a time and just rotate services. Netflix and Amazon Video are always on for me, since they are basically free with my T-Mobile plan and Amazon Prime membership (I also use Amazon Prime for the occasional video rental), but I'll turn on Disney+ once every 3 or 4 months, watch a bunch of stuff until I get all caught up, and then just turn the service off (all done within the app).

I have an HD Antenna for emergencies, but there is zero things worth watching on "TV". Not even the news.

I cut the chord about a year ago. I've been really happy with YouTube TV. I also use Netflix and Prime.

I got sick of Cox's crap. Always increasing price for same service.

Hulu Plussumthin or other $65, may go to $70 for less ads. Netflix $13? I think. Amazon Prime. HBO max is free through our ATT interwebs and Dinsey+, the grown Sailor pays for that subscription. I would like paramount but I'm not paying for anymore services. Still cheaper than what we were paying Direct TV

quote:

Originally posted by Aeteocles:
The actual amount of money being spent to waste time is crazy.

I think you'll grow to like streaming. On demand, without having to skim channel guides and set recording, is really quite convenient.

Switching between apps is pretty much like changing channels or surfing the channel guides. Just use your iPad to scroll through each apps offerings and build a "watchlist". The algorithms will get to know your preferences and will make recommendations based on what you've watched. Then, you just open the app and are presented with shows or movies. Watch a few of those until, some weeks later, you've realized you are caught up with the shows on Service A, then you switch to Service B and repeat. In a few more weeks, you just switch back to Service A and catch up on the new releases. It's far less channel surfing than what you are used to on streaming.

One technique to keep prices down is to just turn on a service for a month or two at a time and just rotate services. Netflix and Amazon Video are always on for me, since they are basically free with my T-Mobile plan and Amazon Prime membership (I also use Amazon Prime for the occasional video rental), but I'll turn on Disney+ once every 3 or 4 months, watch a bunch of stuff until I get all caught up, and then just turn the service off (all done within the app).

I have an HD Antenna for emergencies, but there is zero things worth watching on "TV". Not even the news.

One, a waste of time is not yours to define. Two I mainly watch film. And I don’t mean men in tights marvel stuff. Film is a break from stress. Stress of a career, work, bills, etc, basically everything. For me, that’s old films, new films, etc. I stated in the OP, that’s 90% of what I watch. I don’t waste my time watching mindless crap like the Masked Singer, or any commercial programming. Series? There are just too many. Back when those were mainly HBO/SHO I kept up with them. But there are far too many now, spread across 20+ platforms. I’m a film buff, and that isn’t going to change and it’s not a waste of my time, especially now during consumer product bonanza season where the roads are jammed 24/7. It’s quite nice to skip all the holiday bullshit and fire up some new films, as well as old films. Rest of my days are filled with career work, physical exercise, etc. I’m in the gym 2 hours a night and I’m sure that’s a “waste” of time to some. Different strokes for different folks.

Switching between apps is cumbersome. Open, one, scroll, two, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll. I’ve had free access to most of them prior. Netflix was a cluster fuck, geez you’ll spend some considerable time digging at their record store, so to speak. Amazon Prime better. Movie channels, for me, are like a DJ, IE a monthly programmer. Rotating new, and old. It’s really nice not to have to break out the Encyclopedia Brittanica for something 10, 20, 30, 40 years old, etc. Some of the movie channel programmers are quite the film buffs. Earlier tonight, for my wind down of the day, I caught a part of Night Shift. Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton. Hadn’t seen in a few decades and wouldn’t have thought of it. Click info, select record next airing, seeing those are in SD, but I have an on demand option for it in 1080i, download. So it’s a convenience thing, and time is money so it’s been a wash until now. Dish Network, like DirecTV, Comcast, Cox, YouTube TV, etc, requires a base package. That used to be $27.99, the welcome pack. Blood money as I don’t watch anything in it, not a single channel save for locals for just a couple of things. There was a $5 price increase in January, and another one in November of this year. Two in one year.

If you know anything about this space, you are subsidizing a bunch of shitty channels you don’t want to watch and are forced into it for the service. They won’t let you, say just buy local channels for $5 a month, then add in your HBO, SHO, STARZ, EPIX, etc.

I also know what everyone does. Enable X, watch all the shit on it you want for 1-2 months, then cancel it. Then move to another one, rinse and repeat. That part is a hassle, time consuming, but it is what it is. The bright side, is a lot more 4k content via streaming but the audio is compressed. But I got educated tonight on BEQ and a mini DSP to fix the low frequencies problem of streaming, and to a lesser extent discs. That’s a game changer.

I tried Pluto just to have a menu, a guide, etc, for some basic stuff. Good news is it’s free, just in stereo, no surround. But it’s free.

I’ll be making the switch. HBO Max is free with my primary ISP. Showtime/Paramount is not a bad combo. And Stars and Epix are pretty reasonable. As is Apple TV+. But it’s just a matter of time for all before monthly rates are raised. So rotating them will be necessary, which to me is a hassle but it’s time. It isn’t cutting the cord, unless you mean trading coax cable (and coax runs from a sat dish inside the house) for coax internet, or copper/fiber DSL. Video is still coming over a physical wire or plastic sheathed laser, it’s just internet based instead of being shot from space. I have come to terms with it. I can gain things I don’t have now, and a lot of 4k content I don’t have access to, today, for less money. I’ll probably end up spending 50% less than what a I have been. And with dual ISP’s set up, no big deal. And rid myself of monthly equipment charges once OTA is installed. It’s just a big change of almost 38 years. The ATV’s gather all the various shit up and it’s in their main “app”. I just know the game, and the streaming services will continue to go up. That’s their game. Get you in with the $5.99 or whatever, and steadily increase it in price when you are hooked. It’s the same game the sat/cable providers have done over the years and before long it’ll be where cable was in monthly fees. If I wasn’t running dual ISP’s I wouldn’t even think about doing it, as I liked the redundancy. The only thing that killed my sat service was flood rain, for maybe an hour but I had a DVR, still had the net. I have friends who’ve been at this a while and I’ll get a random call, and it’s because they want to talk because the internet is down, so TV is down, gaming, surfing, all of it down.

I’ve got a list together. I’ll cancel my dish soon, fire up a bunch of this shit and do the evals and end up with 2-3, or 3-4 and be done with it. Have to find a solid roof OTA that I can run to everything, and perhaps a DVR for it of some kind so I can watch +1 hour sports and transfer rooms. A couple of DSP’s, and use BEQ to fix the pitiful compressed audio. I have a HT so it’s important enough for me to “waste” my time as I used to go the cineplex every weekend before phone addicts ruined that entire experience. I got to watch King Richard tonight and that was the best film I have seen in some time. Will Smith carrying the entire thing and even though the Oscars are trash now, it was an Oscar worthy performance by him. And it was in 4k Dolby Vision so great in my Dolby Cinema in the house.

I just put off this new way of doing things…… 37 years of a constant to abruptly have to change methodology is just new. I still have to research OTA roof mounts that are quality, will last and work for what I want to do. They use coax and I already have coax drops where they need to be. One step at a time. I’ve waited for a la carte channels on Dish for long enough and this streaming bullshit is as close as I’m going to get. I’m always going to have something running in the background while I work, clean, wash clothes, cook, etc. Just have to change the way I do it. It was not much different than putting panels on my house, and swapping to an EV for DD. New times. But I did all that almost 8 years ago. Some members have provided, as usual here, some great intel. Pluto is cool. It’s free, has a guide, and serves a great purpose for background. One step at a time.

no amazon prime video? what kind of heathen are you ?