Cutting D* for H+, iTunes, OTA

[IVB]

I currently have 1 D* HD tuner, 3 OTA tuners, HuluPlus, and Netflix Streaming.

I just mapped out all my favorites to alternative locations, realized 100% of them are available either OTA, H+, or iTunes season pass. Granted some are a limited time (ie Burn Notice is 30 days post-airing and only for 2 weeks) so we'd likely miss many of them, but it ain't that good :-)

Given that we're paying probably $90ish/month for D*, i'm suddenly contemplating begging the wife to cut that cord. She's a big RHo<xx> fan (won't spell it out, if you don't know then count yourself lucky), I can get all the franchises via iTunes season pass.

How many of you have cut the cable or D* cord but still use SageTV? Happy with your decision?

[davenlr]

I use Hulu (not plus) via PlayOn, FTA satellite, OTA, and DirecTv. Since I am a sports and live news watcher, dropping DirecTv would be a big hole in what I watch. Sure I can watch bits and pieces of news shows, and some live sports on ESPN3, its not ever going to be a viable option for me to drop subscription TV until all the major players offer a live HD streaming option on a subscription basis.

[pjpjpjpj]

WANTING to cut the cord was what led us to SageTV. We had D* with Tivo (v1) and were happy with it, but the cost kept increasing and we were watching trash just "because it was there". Wife said "figure out a way to keep "TiVo functionality" via OTA and you can get that big HDTV you've been eyeing". Enter SageTV (with two HDHRs). Four years later, couldn't be happier. PlayOn plugin even allows access to wife's design shows and my sports. Not to mention that OTA SageTV is super-easy to set up and avoids all the issues that were inherent with HD-PVR, IRT control, drivers, codecs, etc., over the years.

[panteragstk]

If it weren't for sports and some other shows I'd re-cut the cord. I had ota only with hulu, netflix for years before getting dtv. I love it. It costs too much, but I think it's worth it to me.

[samgreco]

I cut the cord (cable) over a year ago when the wife lost her job. I use Hulu (not +), Playon and OTA. There is very little we have missed.

We rent more than we used to I think we may jump on Netflix soon.

Otherwise happy and saving a ton. I wish Sage handled online stuff better. Getting around and finding stuff can be tedious.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

If it weren't for sports ...

There are PlayOn plugins and scripts for that.

[stanger89]

To the Poll, I've got Dish (the Gold or whatever package), plus OTA, plus Netflix (no HuluPlus).

I'm almost the complete opposite of IVB, just about everything I watch is not available OTA. About the most OTA I ever record in a single day amounts to about an hour and a half. There's only three or four network shows I actually watch. So the vast majority of my TV comes from Dish.

Netflix, first and foremost it's for the Blu-ray's of the new movies each week. But as far as streaming goes, it's easily 90% stuff that's not available via disc or TV.

I tried the huluplus trial on my Xbox a while back, and none of the stuff on Hulu that I was interested in is on plus, so that's out.

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

There are PlayOn plugins and scripts for that.

That include F1?

[batwater]

We cut the cord 18 months ago. PlayOn, Netflix, Hulu (not plus) and OTA. Never looked back!

-Ben

[IVB]

part of my strategory is also to show the wife that watching Real Housewives is effectively costing us $90/month. The other 3 "only on D* or iTunes" shows are "Brad, Brad World", "Southland", and "Project Runway".

I like Southland, but it would be a glorious if those other shows never sullied my TV again. And there's no way I go through the complexity of adding an AppleTV box to our systems just for Southland.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

There are PlayOn plugins and scripts for that.

DirecTV Sunday ticket can't really be touched for NFL. That's my main reason for DTV. Plus, playon is crap when you put it on a 120" screen. I didn't invest money in HD equipment to have a subpar video stream. Netflix HD is as crappy as I'll put up with. Now, when playon finally adds HD support I'll be very interested, but there are still college sports channels that I can't get anywhere else.

[phelme]

Originally Posted by IVB

... and "Project Runway".

And it's obvious who is going to win this season anyway.

How to people find the quality trade off when using PlayOn? Isn't the HD quite downgraded? I've use it occasionally for "Slings and Arrows" (can't get the cursing in broadcast ), but that wasn't shot in HD in the first place. Plus actually finding the shows on there is a chore.

[jchiso]

I've had DirecTV since '96 and my monthly bill averages about $225 (for 6 STBs), due to seasonal sports packages. The only OTA viewing I do is a few Fox animated shows on Sunday nights and a handful of live sporting events that aren't on satellite. I'm not giving up Sunday Ticket or many of the regional sports channels for out of market games that aren't blacked out or for original programming ...

[batwater]

Originally Posted by IVB

part of my strategory is also to show the wife that watching Real Housewives is effectively costing us $90/month. The other 3 "only on D* or iTunes" shows are "Brad, Brad World", "Southland", and "Project Runway".

I like Southland, but it would be a glorious if those other shows never sullied my TV again. And there's no way I go through the complexity of adding an AppleTV box to our systems just for Southland.

You could always "delay gratification" and buy the boxed set when it comes out... It's soooo much sweeter and could be watched in a marathon session. You still come out $1000 ahead

Our latest "hook" is Masterpiece Theater's Downton Abbey. Been recording it OTA...

[batwater]

Originally Posted by phelme

And it's obvious who is going to win this season anyway.

How do people find the quality trade off when using PlayOn? Isn't the HD quite downgraded? I've use it occasionally for "Slings and Arrows" (can't get the cursing in broadcast ), but that wasn't shot in HD in the first place. Plus actually finding the shows on there is a chore.

If we really want quality, really want the movie, will watch it many times, we'll buy a Blu-Ray of whatever it is. Otherwise streaming is good enough through PlayOn. Now, if there is something in HD on Netflix that we just gotta see in HD, we'll just fire up the Blu-Ray player, a little less convenient but gets us there.

Just popped for pre-order of Blu-Ray of Game of Thrones season 1 on Amazon, $34.99 and free shipping with Prime.

As I touched on in my previous post, for the savings we're realizing, we are okay delaying gratification until the movie is available on DVD or in a boxed set if it is a must have.

[drewg]

Until we cut the cord, we had cable mainly for college basketball. We ordered / cancelled standard analog cable (enough for ESPN) each winter & spring (ordering in December, cancelling in early April after the final four). We "cut the cord" back in 2006 or so. It was mainly due to the birth of my son. With a crying baby, and both of us working full time, there was just not much time to watch TV.

Now that our son is in kindergarten, and lets us sleep a bit more, we've found that ESPN360 on the Xbox has about as much college basketball as we have time to watch, so we still don't need cable.

We watch a few cable shows via Hulu (not plus) and the Amazon Prime VOD service, but mostly watch OTA TV.

Unless you count the Amazon Prime fee (which I signed up for mainly for "free" 2 day shipping), or the Xbox live charge (which we also use for games & chat) I have not payed a dime to TV providers since 2006 or so.

Drew

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Plus, playon is crap when you put it on a 120" screen. I didn't invest money in HD equipment to have a subpar video stream.

I can't deny that. But I like free. If I was worried about perfect picture quality with everything I watched, I would spend thousands to get it. But in general, I avoid monthly fees as much as possible, and 95% of what we watch is available OTA. To each, their own; everyone here has different priorities.

Originally Posted by jchiso

I've had DirecTV since '96 and my monthly bill averages about $225 (for 6 STBs), due to seasonal sports packages.

Wow. That's officially the most I have ever heard of anyone paying per month for just TV (I've heard of some paying more but they had phone, wireless, internet, etc., all bundled with it).
We dropped DirecTV because we didn't like paying $65/month. Well, like I said above... everyone has different priorities.

Maybe we ought to have another poll, how much do you pay for JUST your TV service? That might give some interesting results.

[Taddeusz]

I just can't see cutting the cord completely. We pay about $95/mo to Cox Cable for TV, internet and phone. That includes the rental for 2 STB's. The two things that keep us from cutting the cord is quality and content.

For me it's mainly quality. There's no streaming service save maybe Netflix (and that's a stretch) that I've seen that even comes close to the video quality I see from the 720p/1080i from Cox.

For my wife it's content. We watch a lot of HGTV and Food Network and other stuff that I've never seen available for streaming. If we watched mostly local network TV I'd say we could do it by buying an antenna but we do watch a lot of the cable network programming. I don't foresee that changing at all in the near future.

Unless cable networks start providing all their shows in at least at 720p quality I just don't see us getting rid of cable. It's just not going to happen otherwise. Call us stubborn but that's just the way we are. My only wish right now is to be able to record the digital streams directly rather than having to "transcode" through an HDPVR for anything that's not in clear QAM. I would switch to MC7 if it weren't for lack of extenders. Maybe Ceton will fix that last bit.

[ybrew]

I REALLY want to do this. I've wanted to for a long time, but the only thing holding me back have been my wife and kids. My kids are starting to watch a lot of stuff online now that they're old enough to use computers. I will either ditch DirecTV or at least drastically scale back on it within a few months.

[loomdog32]

I pay $95 Month for Suddenlink, Cable and Internet. No STB - just a single CC Rental (a whole $2 vs $10 STB fee). Only 1 OTA Channel will keep me with Cable for a while. We watch too much TV (mostly live).

I watch some Amazon VOD, but on the computer. I do not use any streaming services via Sage - the picture quality is a joke when viewed on HDTV. It would be nice if Sage incorporated online services as nicely as J River Media Center has. I would probably use it more often if that was the case.

[pjpjpjpj]

I don't have Netflix so I have not seen that via PlayOn in Sage (seems like most teeth-gnashing and issues in the PlayOn thread are related to Netflix). But my wife watches all her old HGTV and FoodTV shows through PlayOn using the podcast recorder plugin - when a new episode appears online, it records and just shows up in the recordings list. I don't know if picture quality might vary if watching streaming vs. Recorded, but I've passed through the room when she's been watching some of those shows and thought they were something she'd recorded in HD off OTA. I suppose it varies based on the quality that the networks choose to post them on their websites.