I use illegal internet streams for everything.
I've been contemplating cutting the cord from my cable provider.
In my research it appeared Vue is the way to go. The only drawback I see is they don't have access to the MTV networks including Nick and NickJr, which my 3 & 5 year olds really like to watch. But it doesn't look like anyone really has those channels outside of cable.
Any other drawbacks?
None to me. I've even cancelled the extra sports package during the off season so I can pocket the saving there. As for drawbacks in logistics, that's your choice.
But since you mentioned kids, I think Roku still only allows one device to work in each home at a time. In other words, you can't watch the Broncos in the living room and have the wife watch The Batchelor in the bedroom at the same time. Plus, you'll want to make sure you have good bandwidth to handle all the streaming.
I miss the old Mile High Stadium.
I don't think bandwidth will be a problem.
My idea was to go with Amazon Fire and subscribe to Vue.
Between our current Netflix, & Amazon Prime subscriptions, if we subscribe to VUE at about $55/month, we'd save about $130/month after the out of pocket for the Fire devices and have access to virtually everything we have now sans the MTV networks.
Of course, the worry would be that Vue would just jack up rates over time. Logically there's not much reason that they'd be able to deliver the same content for that much cheaper over a long period of time. I hate changing stuff like this. In my experience, the grass usually isn't all that much greener after all.
We cut the cord in March, and have been using a Playstation 4 to watch Netflix & Amazon Prime. I just signed up with Vue, so I could have the sport channels (SEC Network) to watch college football. I have NFLN. I can't catch CBS, NBC, or FOX, which SEC & AFC play their games. I'd have to stick about a 60' antenna to catch those local channels, and then that's not a guarantee. It's a PITA. I should of just kept cable.
Anyway, do those channels (CBS, NBC, FOX) stream the games, whether college or pro?
I have had Sling for a while now and am very happy with it. Between that, Netflix, and the stuff that comes with Amazon Prime I pretty much have all my content whenever I want it. I use the Sling app on my phone a lot when I am on my lunch break at work to avoid talking to people and post here. It's great!
I don't think you can go wrong with which service you choose as long as the channels appeal to you. My kid is older so he really likes Cartoon Network and Discovery channel, I use it for News and Sports, and then I have some other options for movies on boring weekends. I am just happy I live in Denver so I get the over the air HD broadcasts of all the Broncos games, that would definitely make the decision harder if I had to get a service for games as well.
My parents have Apple TV and I like that because I can project my phone to the TV with just a swipe and access every app on my phone. Worth considering if you have an iPhone.
EDIT: Speaking of phones, not sure if they still run the promo but if you have At&T unlimited plans inquire about getting the HBO App (Mine is called Direct TV Now HBO) for no cost when you are on the plan.
Question for you tech savvy individuals. I'm watching NFLN, through PS4 Vue, and I keep getting pauses saying 'network connection speed'. Is that the channel, my wifi router, or is it that my internet sucks? I have the highest speed internet GCI offers. Anyway, it's driving me nuts, so how can I fix this? Thanks for any feedback.
A year and a half later, I pulled the plug.
Recently, we got a message on our Vizio Smart TV that the Amazon app on the TV would no longer be supported. We use the Amazon Prime TV quite a bit for movies with the kids. We have "digital" copies of a lot of our DVDs/BluRays on Amazon. So that seemed like a bummer.
However, we got an e-mail from Amazon notifying us that they would give us a coupon for half-off of a FireStick since they weren't supporting our TV anymore. So we ordered it this past week.
When we got it Monday, I plugged it in, set it up and started exploring. MNF was on, so I went into the ESPN app to see how it worked. . .. whoah! Everything was crisper and brighter. I thought I must be crazy, so I spent 15 minutes flipping back and forth from Cox Cable to the FireStick to compare. There was a very noticeable improvement in quality for the video over the Firestick vs. cable. There's the few second delay in the Firestick, which is the sole drawback in terms of quality.
So, I started wondering why the hell I'm paying more for a lower quality picture?
Basically after buying two Firesticks for our two TVs ($65) and signing up for Playstation VUE core plan ($54.99), + Sports Pak (NFL Redzone + a zillions sports channels $10.00) + HBO ($15) + Noggin (Nickelodian, NickJr etc. for kids $7.99/month) I'll save right at $100/month for virtually the same channels we watched before.
-$100/month savings.
-Better quality picture/video
-VUE includes a huge cloud DVR service
-Everything's basically in one place (TV, Netflix, Prime Video, Youtube, + many other apps).
Plugging that Firestick in and seeing a better quality picture put me over the edge. I mean, what the hell am I paying more for a lesser quality picture?
When I called Cox, they said they'd get my bill down by about $40-50 to help out. . ..if I hadn't already seen the Firestick in action I probably would have stayed, but I'm not going to pay more for a worse picture. If I'd had any idea that it was even possible that the cable quality was lesser than the streaming quality I'd have switched a long time ago.
When I priced out cord cutting last year it wouldn't have saved me any money since my cable/internet is bundled and I would have lost the bundle price on my internet in dropping cable. That, and no single streaming service had all the sports channels I wanted. Every one would have resulted in me losing at least one sports channel I otherwise get. Maybe I'll have to check again to see if anything has changed.
Playstation VUE Core plan + their "sports pak" got me all the sports channels I watch, plus a lot I don't. When I checked all this out 18 months ago I don't think they had that combination, and I was going to have to do a lot more piece-meal patching to cobble together something to cover what I like to watch.
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