Dumping Direct and Cable TV

[leggo PE]

Does anyone have experience with Hulu Live TV?

 

[knight1fox3]

Does anyone have experience with Hulu Live TV?

Is that different from Hulu Plus?

 

[leggo PE]

Is that different from Hulu Plus?

I believe so, as it involves being able to watch typical cable channels live. Haven't really read that much about it, but this is a somewhat interesting and helpful comparison of several live tv streaming services I found: http://www.businessinsider.com/streaming-services-comparison-hulu-youtube-tv-sling-directv-now-playstation-vue-2017-5/#so-which-one-should-i-get-22

 

[Road Guy]

Yeah at $40 a month for Hulu Plus I would just get a regular cable package and call and haggle for a lower price once a year.

 

[leggo PE]

Yeah at $40 a month for Hulu Plus I would just get a regular cable package and call and haggle for a lower price once a year.

Yeah, but the one kicker is that I saw that Hulu Live offers the local sports teams games around these parts. Apparently it's because the local channels that show them are owned by Comcast, and Hulu is partially owned by Comcast as well. A friend of mine recently made me aware of this.

 

[envirotex]

I need to catch up on this thread.  As long as I can watch college football, I am totally about this.

 

[Road Guy]

But if you had cable wouldn't you also be able to see the local sports games?

I just don't see where Hulu is that much of a savings over just cable?

If you have Hulu and you get local channels you're probably going to also pay about $20 in nitpicky fees

 

[knight1fox3]

I need to re-look at the Playstation Vue offering. At one point, you could get NFL Sunday Ticket for way cheaper than going through DirectTV. LOL

But if you had cable wouldn't you also be able to see the local sports games?

I just don't see where Hulu is that much of a savings over just cable?

Depends on what you watch. Current season shows are a little more tricky. But at $8/mo., Hulu is a substantial savings over cable but that is based on the shows available that we might watch on Hulu.

Local sports is pretty easy by watching OTA. It gets challenging to watch other team sports (i.e. college, etc.) though. Same with MNF and TNF. But SNF is broadcast OTA

 

[leggo PE]

By local sports teams, sure, I can watch football on the basic cable channels. But NBA games and MLB games are often on local channels that you need bigger, more expensive cable package for. Hulu Live seems to offer these channels (that would otherwise make our bill go way up) to our market as part of its programming offerings. Sling TV doesn't seem to have them.

 

[knight1fox3]

Here's a good collaboration of all the latest streaming services and what they do and do NOT offer in addition to monthly pricing. To me though, the live TV stuff is nearly approaching the cost of a standard base-level cable package. I'll continue to stream from the Netherlands. :thumbs:

http://lifehacker.com/does-your-streaming-service-have-the-programming-you-wa-1797185149

 

[Road Guy]

^- that’s some good intel I will look through when I get off the clock!

So I was at the wal mart the other day and picked up this $30 antenna that sort of clips onto the back of my TV. It gets the main 3 channels really solid + TBS and a few others really good.

I am thinking of just going with this and not dealing with putting anything up on the outside of the house or attic.  Those of you with the better quality antenna in the attic or outside do you really get that many channels that you watch? (seems to be half of mine are in Spanish).  The Family Feud channel comes in kind of fuzzy but I cant really see that I am going to watch that very often

 

[jeb6294]

According to Mr. Antenna, http://mrantenna.com/location/, there are 41 channels available over-the-air in Cincinnati.  With my outside antenna I get all of them.  The antenna works so well that if I aim it a little further to the north I get all the Dayton channels but they are basically the same.  There are websites that will tell you where the transmitters are in your area.  I took my iPhone up the ladder with me and used the website and compass to point in the best direction.

Those flat sheet antennas really aren't that bad if you don't mind looking at them.  I've got one on the TV upstairs in the bedroom.  I used to have it taped on the wall up at the ceiling and I was getting all the Cincy stations and some of the Dayton stations with that one.  Once the wife moved it down to the wall behind the TV, it still gets most of the Cincy stations.  The flat antenna that was originally on the TV on the 1st floor didn't do much.  There was a window right next to the TV so I was able to tape it up at the top of the window so it was hidden behind the curtain and I still only got a fraction of the local channels.  Even the big network channels would lose the signal once in a while.  To be fair, the window was on the side of the house facing away from downtown do it may have worked better if it was in a window on the opposite side of the house.

 

[Road Guy]

This one you can't really see since it's behind the tv. For $30 bucks it's not bad.

But of those 42 how many of them do you find yourself watching? I imagine it's similar listings from city to city.

The site says 55 are available in my zip code but the 20 or so I have now have several duplicates? But I don't think I see myself watching more than 5 of them. There is a really good movie channel if I spoke Spanish. It was playing the great outdoors last night .. RIP John Candy

 

[youngmotivatedengineer]

The other thing to consider is the Internet costs. Hulu and similar programs cut out the cable bill but now you have to watch out for increased Internet bills or overage charges if they limit how much data you get.

 

[jeb6294]

I started going through the list of channels and figured out that we actually get more channels.  For some reason they didn't have a few of them listed, but while they would have boosted the number of available channels, they would have been for show only because they are home shopping channels.

Depending on your taste, you could easily find yourself watching the majority of the channels, but it's really a matter of what kind of stuff you like to watch.  There's a channel that plays a lot of the old 70's-80's game shows.  There are several that lean towards old westerns, TV and movies, on weekends.

I'll just say that between the OTA channels and streaming stuff, I don't see myself getting cable again any time soon.

 

[knight1fox3]

I'll just say that between the OTA channels and streaming stuff, I don't see myself getting cable again any time soon.

QFT.

Some of the main OTA channels we watch (among the various national channels) Super 18, My 24, Ion TV, H&I, and then some PBS on the weekends.

 

[matt267 PE]

PBS OTA is great for my little ones.

 

[knight1fox3]

PBS OTA is great for my little ones.

Nature Cat and Curious George!!  

 

[Audi Driver P.E.]

PBS OTA is great for my little ones.

Just ensure you have that Caillou BANNED.

 

[matt267 PE]

Nature Cat and Curious George!!  

Those with Wild Kratts and Odd Squad for my 10y/o

Just ensure you have that Caillou BANNED.

hahaha, my oldest used to watch that all the time when she was younger.