Will Philo Replace Your Cable TV Subscription? - Comments Page 1

I'm curious about how many people may have tried Set TV IPTV subscription for $20/mo which gives you all the channels that you would get on cable, including some of the movie channels.

You can buy a Set TV box which comes with a remote which makes a $20/mo a seemingly much better deal than cable.

Just curious about how well it works in terms of resolution and lack of buffering issues.

Please clarify:

"You can record shows on Roku, too"

is that "record" or "watch"?

Does a subscription to Philo require wifi access?
The 'bundle' packages offered by cable companies include much too many duplicate channels, sports channels and foreign language channels which I do not watch. What I do watch are the major broadcast channels, KCET and PBS which I get for free via antenna.

Not interested. SPorts, including MMA and NASCAR, are the kings of live television; everything else can be watched as a rerun, in my opinion. I'm a retired military guy and was gone most of the '80s, '90s, and up until 2010. I'm just now watching some of the great SiFi series for the first time that I missed AND LOVING it.
Since my retirement, I put an antenna in the attic and get up to 50 channels. Some local broadcast stations up to 7 sub-channels with multiple classic, western, SiFi, mystery/crime channels, and more. And, with ROKU & AmazonFire, I have more than I need or should watch and have yet to miss any sports that I really wanted to watch with online streaming.
The only service I pay to watch is with CRTV. With so much free content available, I don't see any reason to pay for "loser packages."

Where would we get our news? All I want is FoxNews and previously the NFL (from antenna or ESPN before I joined the boycott)...I've been trying all of the online providers (and getting free Roku's each time).

Interesting subject.

For those like our family, and apparently Bob also, who are still staying with the cable company and dislike that $10 a month fee for the cable box, which at least with our cable company is necessary to receive any channels, there is an option you may not have considered.

After realizing that over ten years we had paid more than $1000 for a cable box which was not a DVR, we decided to buy a TiVo to replace it.

We bought an older model on eBay, and we paid $67 for it. It came with everything we needed including a lifetime subscription which was easily and quickly changed to our ownership with a quick phone call to give TiVo the access number provided to us by the eBay seller. Be sure to buy one with the lifetime subscription, that is the expensive part of TiVo.

In just seven months it had paid for itself and it works just like the cable box, except for no channel 1 "On Demand" which we don't need, with the plus that it is also a DVR, and all the channels and program info is available at the press of a button.

It has proved to be a good option for our family.

And when / if cutting the cable, the company will not disappear into the sunset with all the recorded shows as they would if a DVR was rented from them.

You can get IPTV subs for $15 month they come complete with all Sport channels ..movies.just need a good Internet speed..

To Mike ....

You should be able to get the broadcast channels with an antenna unless you live too far from a transmitter ... and it is free once you purchase the antenna.

We are very happy having DISH for many years now after leaving Charter cable mostly due to customer service. We chose America's Top 250 package and are still able to afford it. Whenever issues may arise I get in touch with them and usually they will discount me even more for many months. Also, we do utilize the sports channels and local stations and have an antennae on the roof pointing in another direction for flexibility i.e. Milwaukee vs Madison channels over the air.
So, in closing, there is no reason to change at this point in time..

@KL I have three ROKUs: Roku1 in my office since placement doesn't change and the IR remote is adequate; ROKU2 in the living room w/the very useful WIFI remote; ROKU3 in the bedroom since it has a headphone attachment on the remote. Of the three ROKU remotes that I have, only the ROKU2 has an "out" port (yellow) for composite video. I haven't tried it but I don't see why a person couldn't record from a ROKU2 device.
I would LOVE to find a device that records digital signals from the monitor (the way the old VCR did) rather than the source (input from TV or Cable). I have a ChannelMaster DVR+ but it can not record from the TV/monitor so those shows I watch via ROKU, AmazonFire, or streaming can not be recorded - yet.

I have 39 channels marked as "favorites" on my cable service. Philo doesn't offer any of them. Worthless.

@Jonathan, I don't disagree but TIVO has limitations and if that is all you need then it's a great choice and probably still one of the best recorders on the market.
However, I have a TIVO Premiere that is now boxed up and out in the garage (I probably should just put it on ebay) for four reasons: 1) It is simply a good recorder and there are others out there that can do the same thing; 2) With the license, it still only gives me limited broadcast channels (not multiple OTA channels) and other free channels that I can get with other devices; 3) Unless something has changed, the license only covers one device; not additional devices if you want the same capability in other rooms; 4) Again, unless something has changed, the recording protocol is proprietary and cannot be watched on other devices without converting it to useful video such as mp4 or avi

Of the 37 channels offered, I regularly watch only one! So, this is a 'no deal' for me. I'll stick with DISH and my rooftop antenna (which gets me 70+ more channels for free).

This is a non-starter for me. I can't receive broadcast signals with an antenna, so if Philo doesn't give me local live channels, forget this! Not to mention a bunch of other negatives. I still haven't found a streaming package to replace cable that will save me $$$. For example: I don't need or want sports, but I have to include it just to have my desired channels. The same situation as cable. Sigh.

@Mike, All I can say is what I do. I try to keep my evening open for social events and meetings. Therefore, I miss out on watching FoxNews live. Even if I wanted to now, I wouldn't because 3-4 hours of one thing can be mind numbing. Because of that, I'm a huge fan of FoxNews channel on ROKU. I don't watch the live or full length option; I watch the "segments" option. That way, the next morning or during the day, I can watch the FoxNews segments I'm interested in and can reduce 3-4 hrs of watching into less than an hour or even 30 minutes; including Lou Dobbs on FoxNews Business channel. I also recommend on ROKU, the ACLJ channel w/JaySekulow; the MarkLevin show channel; as well as, TuneIn for recorded radio shows that I missed. The great thing about news/radio shows is that they don't require that you stare at a screen in order to understand then content.

I cut the cable (DIrectTV actually) a couple of years ago and never looked back. Quality of Over-the-air-channels is superb. Movies with Netflix and many cable channels, including ESPN, with SlingTV for $25/month, no contract. Use TIVO for DVR capability. Drop the big guys!

Thanks to those who responded to my post. I forgot to mention that I already have an antenna, so I was getting all football except ESPN that way. @Soldier, not sure what you mean about ROKU...I was getting 'DirectTV Now' via my ROKU...which did give me FoxNews. Today, I am switching to YouTubeTV because it also includes local channels, at least where I live (near SLC), AND, as I understand, DVR is included...$35 plus tax

Why are you renting a cable modem, Bob? Does your provider require it? I bought my own modem, told my provider the MAC number, and they activated it. Been doing that for over 20 years. I pay zero rental fees.

Check out the TVFox on facebook modern gizmo http://moderngizmo.com-cdn.co/en/tvfox/011.php

@Mike, yeah, you can get FoxNews through any number of services but FoxNews also has a free channel on ROKU. It's great for watching the shows that were broadcasted during the evening after I get home from an event.
I need to amend my previous statement. If you want to just watch segments on the ROKU FoxNews channel, it is called "Show Clips" and not "segments" as I stated before.