Way OT: Thinking about cord-cutting- Sling TV?

My concern is that Internet plus Vue plus Netflix plus HBO Now is the same as paying for cable.

I don't know if you have a PlayStation, but PSVue + Local Digital Antenna served me very well this season.

The only thing PSVue doesn't have that I would have liked was/is History Channel and A&E.  $35/mo.

EDIT:  Apparently you can run PSVue through alternative platforms.  I did not know this.  In that case, PSVue is even better than I thought.

PS Vue and chromecast. 25 mbps internet and PS Vue gets me everything I want from a sports perspective for ~$60 per month all in. 

I tried Sling and it has a lot of positives, but my streams weren't completely reliable. Friends of mine use the Playstation service, without owning a playstation, and swear by it. Never had any issues watching the games at their houses. Considering it for next football season.

Streaming in a big spot. Doesn't matter if you are getting 1 or 100 Mb, buffering is going to happen.

Last month my Directv bill increased from 140 to 162 dollars, I am not under any contract. I called to see what caused the increase and they told me I had some promotion drop off and so the increase. Well I went at them for about 45mins on the phone, threatened to cancel, asked for Comcasts number(idle threat) about 5 times and they finally made an offer. They upgraded my tv package to the next tier and lower the bill $30 a month. It cost me a two yr contract but that was ok for me. When football season starts I'll call them again, bitch, and they'll give me NFL Ticket. You have to get down in the dirt with these people.

Its like $30 a month for streaming and had Big 10 network. I also kept my comcast internet package for 100mb so I'm under $100 for both right now. I use my own router and modem and save $10 there and dropped the $10 charge for the cable box. I knocked off about $70 a month all together. I have a PS3 that was sitting in a box and use that for one room and my PS4 for the other TV.

I had Sling on a Roku stick. It was worthless. I ended up only using it to login into WatchESPN app. Got PSVue. Soooo much better.

I've been looking into cable-cutting alternatives myself recently. My gf and I have been watching so much Netflix/Hulu, etc recently that we basically never use any of our cable channels anymore. I've been looking mostly at Vue and Sling, but was leaning more towards Vue. I have an 18 Mbps internet connection but can upgrade to a 24 Mbps connection at our apt. Do you think 18 would be enough or would it be too slow?

I liked Playstation Vue but the menu for Firestick was clunky.  I tried DirecTV Now when they were running an offer earlier this year $35 for 110 channels good until I cancel.  The offer expired and now it's $60 which isn't that much better than cable for me.

I have been happy enough with the DirecTV Now to keep it.  One nice thing is that you can also use the same login for the providers.  Sometimes the picture on WatchESPN is better than DirecTV Now.

I was a big user of Kodi but I have found that after getting DTN I barely use it.

Keep an eye on your bandwidth usage if you have caps.  We're averaging about 300GB/mo.  The only time we were drastically over that is when I forgot to set the router to stop my daughters internet access at certain times.

than cable. But inevitably you still end up paying for channels you'll never watch. What I've done in the past is order sling the day before a game on ESPN. If it's on Big Ten Network, you're screwed. Sling doesn't carry it. after the game I cancel it and get my money back. Free games.

Seriously - thank you.  The last time you asked a variation of this question I literally bookmarked the thread and read answers later and got one hell of an education on cord-cutting.  Made the move and got an Amazon Firestick and Sling for my cottage and love it.  

I'll prolly do the same for this thread too.  

I looked into it back before the football season and the savings really wasn't there. My bill is around $80 for internet w/ no data cap/basic tv package that includes BTN. We have two providers in my area, so I was able to pit them against each other and ended up saving around $40 just from that alone. 

You just need to know each factor that one company supports vs. the other and negotiate out a deal. 

1) If you are currently considering cutting the cord, TAKE THE PLUNGE! Just try it. I considered it for years due to the aggravation of cable companies constantly changing the cost. And don't worry about alternative media options at first. Go cold turkey.
2) Similar to everybody, I worried about sports. You prioritize what you really care to see. Take the $150/month and reinvest it towards tickets to live events, budget for the sports bar, or bringing a dish to watch it at a friend's place. That is way more social!
3) Your over the air antenna will get higher quality HD than cable. The shows on those channels aren't horrible during prime time.

On a related note, I'm currently getting billed $150 for an early termination fee. I plan on taking it to small claims court. They increased the surcharge cost and included in my bill a warning that my base rate was going up in the next month, so I canceled and claimed breach of contract. Do MGoLawyers think I'll be successful?

But I went from DirecTV and Xfinity in succesive years to a cord cutting option of:

- Xfinity high speed internet ($40/mo)

- Sony Playstation VUE mid range subscription ($35/mo). Gets me all the local stations, all the sports networks I care about (ESPN/2/News/U, BTN+alternates, regional Fox Sports, FS1, NFL Network, NBA TV, NBC Sports), and most of the good cable staions (Viacomm networks liek Nick, MTV, Comedy Central were taken off late last year in a fees dispute with Sony). Allows up to 5 devices streaming from the same account login. Also has limited DVR capability via cloud services

- Amazon Fire TV box w/ game controller ($99), 2 Fire TV sticks ($30 each). I also have Amazon Prime, so I get access to all the Prime Video content (which is starting to be really good with Grand Tour, The Tick upcoming, Man inthe High Castle, and their Tv / movie archive is pretty good)

- Bought my own router so I didn't have to rent one from Xfinity ($100 sale). 

 

I'm on about 8 months on the service and couldn't be happier. I still can see all the shows I care about and my monthly recurring costs are about $75/month. Highly recommend Playstation Vue over Sling and DirecTVNow for the better live local channel and sports content for the price, but if DirecTV Now figures out a DVR service, local channel solution I may switch just 'cause of the $5 HBO subscription and the AT&T free data benefits. 

If you can get someone to give you their cable subscription password you could get Watch ESPN and B1G Network and other sports apps on Roku and not miss any sports. 

 

Or you coud do the easiest thing and spend $40 on an Amazon Firestick and jailbreak it and get every channel, event and movie known to man for free.