Cutting the Cord

[David Greene]

There's some talk over in the Minneapolis Fiber thread about alternatives to cable. I think the topic deserves its own thread.

We cut the cord a few years ago and haven't looked back. But there are still some things I miss, mainly watching the Twins and T'Wolves.

I've considered a Roku and Chromecast. Any experiences to relate about pros/cons of one over the other? What about Fire TV? We don't currently have Netflix but have considered it. It seems like they're purging a lot of stuff, though. Is Hulu a better option? We currently use iTunes for Doctor Who and the occasional movie.

I still don't know what to do about the Twins. MLB.tv sucks because you can't watch a local market game in real time. I could resort to VPN trickery but would rather not. I haven't looked into the NBA's streaming options. Is there an issue with local markets there?

Honestly, with a toddler we don't have a lot of time for TV watching, which is why we've hesitated to pay for monthly streaming subscriptions. I'd pay for MLB.tv if the local market thing wasn't an issue.

[SteveXC500]

I purchased the Amazon Fire stick and downloaded SLING TV to it. For $25/month, I get everything I was watching on DirecTV (paying well over $100/mo). However, Fox Sports is not on anything streaming, to my knowledge. We also purchased an antenna which replaced the dish, in order to receive the basic, local stations.

[mister.shoes]

We ditched Comcast back in March-ish. We have an Apple TV and a Vizio SmartTV. If Amazon were to put their streaming service on the Apple TV, we wouldn't need the smart functions of the Vizio, but for now that's the only way to watch it on the big television. I also bought a nice OTA antenna, but I haven't gotten around to hooking it up.

I do totally miss watching the Twins, especially now that they're worth watching again. But then the kid does something adorable and I forget about wishing I was sitting on the couch. In fact, that's what happens on a regular basis: the kid is so much better than the hours of House Hunters and sports that we used to have on all the time. I might miss ESPN come bowl season, but then I remind myself a) of how many hours of productive things I could get done instead, and b) just how terrible football is for the players. That goes for NFL games as well. Even though they're available OTA, I just don't watch much any more.

We'll revisit this entire topic again if Apple comes out with their long-rumored streaming service and I get myself the new Apple TV with the sweet search and content aggregation capabilities. The cord might only be metaphorically cut at that point.

[intercomnut]

I've considered a Roku and Chromecast. Any experiences to relate about pros/cons of one over the other?

I had a Roku years ago and have a Chromecast now. I'm a huge fan of the Chromecast because you can use your phone. This is such a huge benefit for me because you can search for things easily (rather than having to scroll through every letter on the remote) and also switch from watching things on the TV to watching things on your phone easily. The worst thing about Chromecast for me is that it doesn't have amazon. But, I just bought a $10 adaptor so that I can hook my laptop up for the very few times I actually watch things on amazon (ie when Doctor Who comes out).

Roku has more channels than Chromecast as far as I know (at least, it has Amazon), but the convenience of using your phone to control the TV is more important for me. However, I haven't tried out the Fire Stick, so maybe that's better.

On Netflix vs Hulu, they're cheap enough that I have them both. I also use them all the time though. Since you don't use streaming all that much, I'd ask this question: do you watch a lot of new TV shows? If so, Hulu will be your best bet. If not, the next thing I'd ask is: do commercial breaks drive you crazy? If you're fine with them, I'd probably go with Hulu.

[FISHMANPET]

As far as access to services that I'm interested in, Amazon Fire TV Stick and Chromecast were pretty identical (mostly cared about Netflix and Amazon Prime streaming). I ended up going with the Fire stick for the opposite reason as above, I think the remote is more wife-friendly.

When we moved we ditched cable to save money and went with Netflix instead. Only problem is my wife basically needs something on in the background when she's doing stuff. It was much easier before, she could just turn on Investigation Discovery and be set all day, now she has to actually figure out what garbage she's going to background binge on.

[mattaudio]

Just to clarify, newer versions of Roku, and older Rokus with new firmware, do support streaming from phone. And there's an app for remote control too. I use it all the time.

[jw138]

MLB.tv + VPN trickery is your only option if you're a hardcore Twins fan. I did this a few years ago on an old PS3 and was very happy. At the time, the PS3 MLB.tv application was far superior to the Roku version. It was very painful watching games on the Roku. I've no idea if they've improved things since then.

I find that Netflix, Hulu, HBO NOW, Amazon Instant Video, and YouTube all e xcel on the Roku platform and I watch them regularly.

When/if US Internet offers IPTV service, I'll still subscribe if for no other reason than to support a local alternative to the Comcast monopoly.

[twincitizen]

It is not the only option... if you're already resorting to breaking their terms of service, why not go all the way and simply watch on some (illegal) streaming website? Google will lead you to a few streaming sports websites. I have a couple that I rotate between for the occasional Twins game. That's the only sporting event I watch, period. And not super often either, so I don't feel that bad about it. This is professional sports we're talking about...it's pretty hard to feel bad about stealing anything from them.

Drawbacks: the quality is not great. You wouldn't want to watch it on anything bigger than a laptop screen. Sometimes you can't get the FSN feed, so the only stream is the opponent's broadcast. But if you just want to have the Twins on in the background a handful of times per year and don't want to pay for it, it's totally workable.

If you're totally unwilling to break the law to watch a baseball game, there's always 96.3FM and MLB.com Gameday and a healthy imagination. All free and legal.

[mckilanowski]

I'm also a cord-cutter. Ditched cable over a year ago when we got an Apple TV for Christmas. We chose that over the Roku simply because of i teroperability with our iDevices and our Mac, but I'm sure we would have been equally happy with a different streaming box. Here's our setup now:

-Apple TV inthe livingroom and bedroom, with iTunes library shared from the Mac (ripped all our DVDs into it)
-OTA through the rooftop antenna (distributed through the house via the coax that cable used to use)
-HDHomeRun network tuner, with Elgato EyeTV running on the Mac as a DVR

Right now, we just pay for Netflix. We loked at Hulu, but anythng we wanted to watch on there we could get elsewhere. I do watch a lot of video podcasrs, and I'll tune in to Pluto.tv sometimes as well. We're consodering Sling, but we haven't really missed cable all that much. Plus there isn't an Apple TV channel for it, so watching it would mean monkaying around with Airplay.