A Better Way to Watch TV - Comments Page 1

I cut the cord over a year ago, and only get my high speed Internet from my cable company. You do not mention it, but there is a caution to the cord cutting. Sling TV, Netflix, Hulu, etc., all use up your data allotment at a pretty hefty rate if you are watching in HD. It is easy to go over your limit. We went over over 300 gb limit last month and got a warning from CableOne. A good antenna will keep the data limit lower by watching all of the network programs OTA.

A better way to watch TV free is to install a free software package called Kodi on your computer. It allows you to watch either live TV or prerecorded shows. You have access to vastly more content than you could get with Sling. Setting it up and configuring it can be a lot of work but there are a lot of Youtube videos and web pages to help you with this.

A couple of days ago I decided to cut down on my Cable Bill by removing most all of the Premium Channels. I don't watch certain Sports channels that are included. I have 3 Boxes, two phone lines and every channel you can imagine. Placed a call to an Agent.
She said that If I dumped the Premium Channels I would have to pay $20 for two boxes and $30 for the DVR, $35 for the modem, $6 for line coverage and $150 for the lowest tier. Bringing the cost up to $261 plus taxes.
It would remove me from a preferred customer and I would no longer get free Visits 24/7 from a tech if something goes wrong A trip charge $50 alone plus labor.
This brought the new package up way over my current charge of $248.00. Needless to say I kept my current package and will wait for the FCC to require Cable to offer a la carte channels.

Mott given while KODI allows some of what you mention, it is constantly being sued by the Broadcasters for rebroadcasting and allowing you to watch Movies still in Theaters.
A lot of people are being ripped off by sellers on ebay who sell boxes that are difficult to set up and do not have the advertised programs.

Besides KODI there was TVMC, no longer available but if you have it on your Computer or Tablet it still works a newer replacement is Free Telly using the same Ad-ons and Repositories as KODI.

Three years ago I cut the cord on cable TV service and didn't replace it with anything - except books, and DVDs that I borrow for free from my local library. Fortunately the DVD donors provide plenty of viewing to my taste.

Bonus: Lots more free time.
Bonus 2: 146 % smarter!

I cut the cord many years ago and have been a subscriber to Sling TV for quite some time. I wholeheartedly agree with all the positive things you've said here but I feel people should be warned that their web site has to be one of the worst I've ever had to use.
It is hard to navigate, difficult to find out basic information such as what packages you already have signed up for and what other packages are available. Worse, almost everything you click on includes information about the 7 day free offer even though you've logged in and already have a subscription and the 7 day free offer is no longer available for you.

We dumped cable/satellite tv all together last year. We now watch tv via over the air free tv, HULU, Youtube and the Newsmax app with the high speed internet($39.99 month) from a local microwave link internet service. We even got rid of our Century Link home phone service and rely on a Magic Jack($139 for 6 years) that plugs into the Ethernet port on the modem. We are saving a ton of money now and completely happy with our tv now. We were over paying for cable/satelite and only watching maybe 5-8 channels regularly.

The cable/satellite companies are ripping consumers off. We dumped them well over a year ago and just watch free tv over the air, HULU, YouTube and Newsmax apps on the android phone to stream to our smart tv. I am hoping more and more cable/satellite tv channels make their channels available via android apps. Its about time we consumers have the chance to pick and choose what channels we want to pay for instead of paying for a expensive bundle of channels when we only watch a few channels.

I cut cable and bought the Mohu Leaf indoor flat antenna. Works most of the time once I found the sweet spot. Might go with a stronger outdoor one later. I, too, use KODI for movies and some sports. However, I was getting bad stream sometimes and would have to re-acquire a signal. I broke down this year and got cable for ESPN only. I like college football and dislike interruptions in service. Once football season is over, I will cut cable again and install an outdoor OTA antenna that hopefully won't pixelate and freeze the shows I am watching. When, and if, networks and cable companies realize they can make more money by letting the consumer pay and choose what they want, then I will maintain pay TV.

I am afraid that should I "cut the cord" from my cable company, I may go into withdrawal for my 28 minutes of advertisements during a 60 minute program. How is one expected to make educated decisions in life without knowing which toilet paper is softest or instructions on how to use "My Pillow"?

Will Sling TV ever be available in CANADA? If so, do you have any idea when that may happen?

Thank-you, for your time.

Yours
truly,
Bruce McEachern

Will Sling TV ever be available in CANADA? If so, do you have any idea when that may happen?

Thank-you, for your time.

Yours
truly,
Bruce McEachern

Our daughter and family decided to cut a $200/month DirecTv bill by going to Sling just last week. Dropped Sling 3 days later due to constant buffering breaks. Went to PlayStation's streaming system and have been very happy with it.

I have been an enthusiastic user of Roku for 3-4 years, and I have never had cable TV. There is more free content than I could ever watch.

The main thing I miss is live games of my local MLB team. However, I can stream so many highlights at my convenience over my PC, that I'm not willing to sign up for cable just for that.

I have been using Kodi off of the internet now for over a year. Kodi offers virtually all movies and tv shows. It is a little hard to learn how to use but it is great because you never see a commercial. It requires you to add "AS-On" services that are free. Genesis and Phoenix are my favorite add-ons since they provide for about everything I want to watch ... including movies that are still in the theaters. I have seen live pay-per-view events in real time at no cost. The service is free.

I have also started using "Watch TV", It is another service provided at no cost.

I tried cutting the cable and was quite successful with an antenna and Chromecast until I wanted to watch local sports. I settled for as cheap a Comcast cable package as I could and still get my sports. I am in suburban Chicago so the over the air little antenna works very well as does Chromecast with my Comcast internet.

Very good topic considering last weekend I assembled a digital roof antenna and got great reception from one tower at 35 mile and even more channels with three towers the next state over. My better half has been after me to cut the cord since we got ROKU over a year ago.
A happy ending.
Thanks, Phil

I too cut the cord when DirecTV raised the rates again, and that was before ATT bought them. The only thing I missed at first was the sports. Realized I was spending too much time on that as well. Couldn't live without my DVR, so I boutht a OTA Tivo. Record what shows I like and watch them at my convience. Just push the little green button and fast forward through the commericals, save 20 minutes out of every hour show. Amazon prime membership takes us the slack, Netflix for the grandkids. Tried Sling for a while and found it clumsy, also didn't like their choice of a news channel. Also realized there is more on those few channels than I can see in the rest of my life. For those being held hostage by cable companies I say drop them, get a life, go do something.

I cut my cable cord 20 years ago when FORTUNE MAGAZINE ran a story about Jimmy Dolan's cocaine use (family owned Cablevision) and I decided that I was not going to pay for him to get high anymore!

Does Sling TV show commercials/ads? Is there a way to skip or bypass them?