Cut The Cable TV: What Are You Using?

Augie81

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I heard Hulu had a good selection of stuff to watch but being old an cranky I don't want to search for something to watch (streaming only services) I want to look at a list of stuff an chose. If there's nothing I like I'll stream
They do have a good library of shows and movies to stream. I may keep their $5 plan for that. Their live TV channel offerings are decent as well. But the interface is clunky in my opinion and can chew through remote batteries with some extra steps get to where you want that I find unnecessary. And as mentioned the audio on live TV can be a bit weird at times including their own self inflicted annoyances.

Both Hulu and YT have channel guides for live TV similar to regular cable. YT's is superior in my opion.
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treimche

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I decided to give YouTube TV a test drive today. I paused my Hulu subscription before it renews to see if I want to stick to YT. It cost me the same as Hulu with live TV since Hulu up charges for the enhanced DVR.

So far I like the YT interface much, much better than Hulu. Also the sound and picture seems better so far. No weird random volume spikes or commercials louder than shows like I was getting with Hulu. As an added bonus no obnoxious repetitive commercials like the ones Hulu broadcasts for their own programing. I just wish YT had the History Channel.
My girlfriend and I both already think the YouTube TV commercials are very repetitive, but what tv service isn't? I don't think the commercials are as annoying as cable, yet anyway. I do wish there was a way to have a remote with more features. I want a button to flip back and forth between 2 channels, and a page up and down through the guide. Then it would be almost perfect.
 

Augie81

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My girlfriend and I both already think the YouTube TV commercials are very repetitive, but what tv service isn't? I don't think the commercials are as annoying as cable, yet anyway. I do wish there was a way to have a remote with more features. I want a button to flip back and forth between 2 channels, and a page up and down through the guide. Then it would be almost perfect.
Hulu has ads for their own shows. There is one that seems to run 2-3 times per show with quick blurbs of characters and at one point this guy yells, "You're tearing me apart." It really gets on my nerves to the point where if I hear the commercial start I hit mute.

As for YT and flipping back to the previous channel in case you didn't know, press the down button twice and the recent channels you viewed will show in tiles at the bottom of the screen. The last channel you viewed will always be the first one displayed. So press down one more time will highlight it. Then press OK to go to that channel.

I agree a page up/down feature would be nice. I use a universal remote and and even though it has the buttons for that it doesn't work with YT.
 

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Has anyone used Philo? It is only $20/month and has 63 channels - the downside is that it does not have local channels.
 

treimche

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Hulu has ads for their own shows. There is one that seems to run 2-3 times per show with quick blurbs of characters and at one point this guy yells, "You're tearing me apart." It really gets on my nerves to the point where if I hear the commercial start I hit mute.

As for YT and flipping back to the previous channel in case you didn't know, press the down button twice and the recent channels you viewed will show in tiles at the bottom of the screen. The last channel you viewed will always be the first one displayed. So press down one more time will highlight it. Then press OK to go to that channel.

I agree a page up/down feature would be nice. I use a universal remote and and even though it has the buttons for that it doesn't work with YT.
Cool thanks for the tip! I'll try that out. So far I'm either just using an Apple TV remote or the remote app on my iPhone to control Youtube TV, so I'll have to see what's easiest for me.
 


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Dr. Zaius

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Has anyone used Philo? It is only $20/month and has 63 channels - the downside is that it does not have local channels.
I use a combination of Philo and Locast.

Philo is fine since I don't watch much TV, I don't watch sports, and they have most of the channels I would be interested in anyway.

Locast is for local channels ($5 per month) but they serve limited metro areas so you would need to go to their website to see if your area is covered.

Locast is actually free but you'll get a Locast commercial every 15 minutes reminding you to please consider signing up.
 

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Unfortunately, here in Honolulu, Spectrum has the monopoly on internet service, so I've cable TV bundled with it along with a few "premium" channels. Monthly bill is $160, they nickel and dime you for EVERYTHING.
The local phone company also provides internet, but others have told me it's very slow.
However, I've also Spectrum Mobile as my cell phone carrier, that's a great deal @ $14 a month but with only 1 gig a data, no matter though when I am at home I use my WiFi signal exclusively.
Spectrum also has decent hotspot coverage on Oahu, albeit still 4G.
 

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Unfortunately, here in Honolulu, Spectrum has the monopoly on internet service, so I've cable TV bundled with it along with a few "premium" channels. Monthly bill is $160, they nickel and dime you for EVERYTHING.
The local phone company also provides internet, but others have told me it's very slow.
However, I've also Spectrum Mobile as my cell phone carrier, that's a great deal @ $14 a month but with only 1 gig a data, no matter though when I am at home I use my WiFi signal exclusively.
Spectrum also has decent hotspot coverage on Oahu, albeit still 4G.
I was paying $155 for internet, tv one box an the phone I didn't even know the number to. now I pay $80 for spectrum an 65 for youtube tv which has a lot more channels than the basic spectrum had an I got unlimited everything spectrum wireless phone for $45.

when I lived in Hawaii there wasn't internet yet, only a few nerds had home computers.
 

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Way back when pay service was first offered the big selling point was “no commercials!”

We cut about 6 years ago. Have Comcast and bundled plan. That got up to 260 a month. So started weighing what’s available and stripped everything but Internet. That’s 77 a month now with a 1.2TB cap a month. Dropped them for VOIP landline phone and went with Ooma for 7 bucks a month from 48 Comcast was nailing me for. Use Google cast, Apple TV, OTA and I own the network and modem. The less they know the better.
 

Mokume

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I think I got my first computer (Dell desktop) in 2005 or so, internet service was dial-up. AOL to be exact. Since then I've built 3 or so desktops, the first running XP, others Win7 and 10...also bought a laptop with Vista, what a mistake that was....
 

port43

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I was paying around $160 for Wide Open West and dropped the cable for their highest speed internet so now they only get $70. I have Hulu with Disney+ and ESPN+ bundled together, Prime and CBS All Access. It's all still cheaper than the initial $160.

As for the commercials on Hulu I have an ad blocker extension in my browser so when an ad comes up I get a pop-up message saying I need to disable it. That message stays onscreen for however long the commercial would have played and then the show continues. I would rather have the message with no sound than be bombarded with idiotic commercials.
 
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Dr. Zaius

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I was paying around $160 for Wide Open West and dropped the cable for their highest speed internet so now they only get $70. I have Hulu with Disney+ and ESPN+ bundled together, Prime and CBS All Access. It's all still cheaper than the initial $160.

As for the commercials on Hulu I have an ad blocker extension in my browser so when an ad comes up I get a poip-up message saying I need to disable it. That message stays onscreen for however long the commercial would have played and then the show continues. I would rather have the message with no sound than be bombarded with idiotic commercials.
You're in Detroit area so you can get all of your local channels for $5 from Locast.org if you want them.

Of course, if you're close enough you can get them free with an antenna.

I live 50+ miles from Atlanta so an antenna was not an option for me.
 

port43

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You're in Detroit area so you can get all of your local channels for $5 from Locast.org if you want them.

Of course, if you're close enough you can get them free with an antenna.

I live 50+ miles from Atlanta so an antenna was not an option for me.
Woo-hoo! Never heard of Locast and I'm not really all that interested in local programming but at least I can watch live sports now. Thank you!
 

Big Blue

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Probably posted this before, I've got an antenna on my roof with a 4 channel Tivo 1TB OTA DVR. 1 get 28 local channels. The Tivo box also works with streaming, so I have Netflix And Prime TV on my sons accounts. (He owes me something, right) Just found Pluto TV, so now I can get my Dr Who fix. (All Dr Who all the time):clap: The DVR let me record up to 4 channels at once so I can time shift when two or more shows I like are on at the same time or I'm not home.

Work great with COVID this year.

[EDIT] Forgot, have Spectrum for internet only. About $60/month for 100 MB, normally runs about 120 MB.
 
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Ripper3785

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Unfortunately, here in Honolulu, Spectrum has the monopoly on internet service, so I've cable TV bundled with it along with a few "premium" channels. Monthly bill is $160, they nickel and dime you for EVERYTHING.
The local phone company also provides internet, but others have told me it's very slow.
However, I've also Spectrum Mobile as my cell phone carrier, that's a great deal @ $14 a month but with only 1 gig a data, no matter though when I am at home I use my WiFi signal exclusively.
Spectrum also has decent hotspot coverage on Oahu, albeit still 4G.
Hawaiian Telcom has cable TV service. We had it for a couple years, was a great price and it put pressure on Spectrum(then Oceanic/TWC). The HT guy who hooked it up wired it into our coax in the attic. Next day TWC guy knocks on our door and shows me his laptop with a device connected to detect interference and it's spiking at our door. Asked if he could come in and traces it to our attic. Well the HT guy hooked up the coax without disconnecting the old Spectrum(then Oceanic/TWC) signal. Causing interference/noise for the other 5 units in our building. Otherwise service was good until we needed more data bandwith and the two pair telephone cable coming to our unit couldn't provide it. Switched back to Spectrum and rising prices ever since. Leaving HI in a few months after 35+ yrs and looking forward to cutting the CATV cord.
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