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pandora
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join:2001-06-01
Outland

pandora

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[DIRECTV] Thinking of cutting the cord in the next 2 weeks

I'm preparing to cut the cord. Currently my legacy video content provider is DirecTV, before that it was Dish Network, and prior to that it was Comcast.

I was going over our bill for 4 DVR's, and it's about $130 per month from DirecTV. It is possible to call and complain, or threaten to leave. That isn't something I'm comfortable doing.

The video service that is helping me to get ready for this jump, isn't Netflix or Hulu Plus ... it's Amazon.

$130 a month is over $1,500 per year. That is a ton of content that could be purchased on Amazon. Content that would accumulate, and to which I would hold a license for unlimited use. Amazon handles storage, no need for a local DVR.

Most movies are $10 to purchase, most seasons of TV series are $20-$40 (more recent programs offered in HD at around $40).

My decision is based on a recent experience with DirecTV ... the new Batman movie was being released ... and one of the DirecTV channels was playing it. I think it was TNT, but am not certain.

When clicking on record, a message popped up "Batman Begins" has been added to your watchlist. This seems to mean that instead of recording the program, DirecTV put a for purchase copy of Batman Begins in my video queue at $3.99 for a 24 hour rental.

It was possible to record the program by hitting select then record via the select button, but not using the normal record button.

That same weekend, Amazon was selling a non-HD version of the same movies for $3.99 a piece with lifetime licensing.

The recorded "Batman Begins" was commercial laden, and somewhat edited. I tried the Amazon $3.99 version, and it was unedited, complete, had no commercials, and while not HD, Amazon's SD is good enough to be entertaining (closer to typical Netflix vs Hulu Plus HD if that helps). On re-review of the DirecTV Batman Begins, it wasn't quite HD over the air either. The quality was slightly better than Amazon's, but only slightly.

DirecTV had a dispute with Viacom, and my kids like Futurama, they got the new episodes from Amazon about 7 hours after they were shown over Comedy Central. Hulu Plus had the Daily Show and Colbert Report when DirecTV didn't.

We relied more than in the past on our network content as a result of the DirecTV / Viacom dispute. The free channels DirecTV added had a handful of movies I may want to purchase, but all the movies they had, which would be of interest to me, would have cost under $80 from Amazon.

I am increasingly unable to justify $130 a month to DirecTV ... anyone else seriously thinking of cutting the cord? Until recently, I was more on the fence ... but of late, it occurs to me it'll probably work out for my family. We'll pay $10 for Netflix, $8 for Hulu Plus, and whatever we want from Amazon that isn't included with prime.

$100 to Amazon for content that accumulates over time, would let us pick the programs we want, to view when and where we want them.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32

Premium Member

quote:
That same weekend, Amazon was selling a non-HD version of the same movies for $3.99 a piece with lifetime licensing.
Wow, seems like a complete rip off to me, considering for $6 more you can buy the same movie on blu ray in full 1080p with Dolby TrueHD.
pandora
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Outland

pandora

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said by Happydude32:

quote:
That same weekend, Amazon was selling a non-HD version of the same movies for $3.99 a piece with lifetime licensing.
Wow, seems like a complete rip off to me, considering for $6 more you can buy the same movie on blu ray in full 1080p with Dolby TrueHD.

Maybe, but I don't have to worry about where the disc is when its time to play on any video device we use. Some don't have blu ray players.
davidhoffman
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join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

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I never got the cord. I have been OTA for 26 years. I might sign up for that Google Fiber+TV if it ever shows up in Warner Robins, Georgia. Some serious competition might get Cox of Georgia to operate their customer service well enough that I would even consider them for video. OTA is very limited, but the constant re-transmission disputes lead only to higher bills on cable. Not worth it in my view.
pandora
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Outland

pandora

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said by davidhoffman:

I never got the cord. I have been OTA for 26 years. I might sign up for that Google Fiber+TV if it ever shows up in Warner Robins, Georgia. Some serious competition might get Cox of Georgia to operate their customer service well enough that I would even consider them for video. OTA is very limited, but the constant re-transmission disputes lead only to higher bills on cable. Not worth it in my view.

I'm in a no OTA area. ... but at the end of this month, DirecTV will likely be cut. Going over it with the family.
08034016 (banned)
Hallo lisa Aus Amerika
join:2001-08-31
Byron, GA

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said by davidhoffman:

I never got the cord. I have been OTA for 26 years. I might sign up for that Google Fiber+TV if it ever shows up in Warner Robins, Georgia. Some serious competition might get Cox of Georgia to operate their customer service well enough that I would even consider them for video. OTA is very limited, but the constant re-transmission disputes lead only to higher bills on cable. Not worth it in my view.

We will never get that service in this Area dream on and am serious.. OTA Digital you get alot of Channels Atlanta is one of them WSB2.

I can get this which is near the Ala border WRBL-DT 3.1 CBS

»www.antennaweb.org/Default.aspx

Badger3k
We Don't Need No Stinkin Badgers
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join:2001-09-27
Franklin, OH

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Not sure if this applies to you or not, but what about stuff like HBO/Showtime/etc? What are you going to do for sports? OTA stuff on your locals isn't an issue but anything on ESPN would be.
pandora
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Outland

pandora

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said by Badger3k:

Not sure if this applies to you or not, but what about stuff like HBO/Showtime/etc? What are you going to do for sports? OTA stuff on your locals isn't an issue but anything on ESPN would be.

No real sports here. A baseball game now and then, but we could live without it.
08034016 (banned)
Hallo lisa Aus Amerika
join:2001-08-31
Byron, GA

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said by Badger3k:

Not sure if this applies to you or not, but what about stuff like HBO/Showtime/etc? What are you going to do for sports? OTA stuff on your locals isn't an issue but anything on ESPN would be.

Go to the local ballpark and support them!!!!!
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32

Premium Member

said by 08034016:

said by Badger3k:

Not sure if this applies to you or not, but what about stuff like HBO/Showtime/etc? What are you going to do for sports? OTA stuff on your locals isn't an issue but anything on ESPN would be.

Go to the local ballpark and support them!!!!!

Dumbest response ever!

The NY Yankees are my MLB team. I live 367 miles from Yankees Stadium. The Buffalo Sabres are my NHL team. I live 22 miles from First Niagara Center. Games end between 9:30-10:30PM, taking into account traffic, I don’t get home until about a little before midnight. I have to get up for work at 3:30 in the morning. See a problem here? Not to mention every team no matter what sport, plays half of the games on the road. Care to drive me the 2,300 miles to Glendale, AZ on October 14 so I can watch my Buffalo Bills play the Cardinals?
08034016 (banned)
Hallo lisa Aus Amerika
join:2001-08-31
Byron, GA

08034016 (banned)

Member

said by Happydude32:

said by 08034016:

said by Badger3k:

Not sure if this applies to you or not, but what about stuff like HBO/Showtime/etc? What are you going to do for sports? OTA stuff on your locals isn't an issue but anything on ESPN would be.

Go to the local ballpark and support them!!!!!

Dumbest response ever!

The NY Yankees are my MLB team.

Dumbest response ever? do you go to a Ballpark!!

Answer Yes,
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

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Yes, I used to get some far away channels at night due to atmospheric bounce in the analog days. It rarely happens now in the digital era. I am limited to indoor antenna due to apartment restrictions. I went to TVFool and found that even if the landlord agreed to put up antennas on the roof 40 ft above ground level, we would not get any more stations consistently due to the low area we are in . Most of the area is surrounded by rising terrain with tall trees and buildings.
08034016 (banned)
Hallo lisa Aus Amerika
join:2001-08-31
Byron, GA

08034016 (banned)

Member

said by davidhoffman:

Yes, I used to get some far away channels at night due to atmospheric bounce in the analog days. It rarely happens now in the digital era. I am limited to indoor antenna due to apartment restrictions. I went to TVFool and found that even if the landlord agreed to put up antennas on the roof 40 ft above ground level, we would not get any more stations consistently due to the low area we are in . Most of the area is surrounded by rising terrain with tall trees and buildings.

Could be worse and you live in Macon with high rises which Warner robins doesn't have.
davidhoffman
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join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

I wonder if some of those high rise buildings could support TV broadcast antennas. But even then that does not help everyone. I used to live in Chicago and even after the John Hancock and Sears Tower skyscrapers were built with TV broadcast antennas on top, some people had bad reception in the City of Chicago. That was one of the reasons the city council sped up approval of the cable TV franchise system, people could not get good reception. There had been talk of building an antenna only tower on the lakefront. I think they scrapped the project when it was shown that even a tower a half a mile high would only have marginal benefit. Too much building interference and multi-path distortion exists.

maartena
Elmo
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join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

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Looking over your posts, there are a few things to consider.

First, if you have 4 DVR's right now, I am assuming you have a family with 4 regular TV watchers. While you can use Amazon and/or Netflix services, you would need 4 accounts if you have multiple people watching at the same time. (Otherwise you and the whole neighborhood could share 1 account and whatever others in the neighborhood watch, you could watch at the same time). It is possible this is IP restricted, so you can watch multiple streams at the same time from the same IP address, but this is probably something you should investigate.

Second, Amazon doesn't carry everything. Neither does Netflix of course. In particular, you will have to go without television that doesn't make it to DVD's or has a distribution agreement with an online provider. Examples are shows like American Idol, America's got Talent, and these big reality type shows from the major networks. If you had OTA, this of course would not be a problem as most are shown on OTA networks. (A roof antenna could help here, you could use the same current DirecTV cabling already in place to distribute signals to all TV's).

Third, sports. Currently there is the Olympics. You have indicated you aren't interested in sports, so it should not be a problem for you, but keep in mind you cannot watch the Olympics and such events online if you do not have a subscription to a cable/satellite service that includes MSNBC and CNBC. Also keep in mind that "occasional baseball games" are not streamed online anywhere, you would have to buy a full-season plan such as MLB.tv.

Fourth, can your infrastructure handle it? Once you figured out whether you can legally (with the same account) stream shows, how many can you handle at the same time? Keep in mind that streams in HD go at around 4-5 Mbps/s per stream, so look at the maximum speed that your internet connection can handle, and you will see the amount of people that can watch something different at the same time. Since buffering will occur, and internet speeds often fluctuate a bit, I would count on 6 Mbps per user to make it all work right. (And hope you don't have kids that flood the line with torrents, online gaming, etc etc).

I have actually considered doing this a few times.... but never pulled the trigger. Sports is the main reason for me, that just can't be found anywhere else, unless you pay a premium. Additionally, the "know what you want to watch and stream it" approach is quite different then the "let's see what is on, surprise me" approach. I have found that sometimes it is just great to pick up a remote and see what is currently playing. I would not have thought of finding out old episodes of MASH for instance, but every time I find it, I seem to be sticking to that channel because they are so brilliant. So I think I will stick with a pay TV provider for some time to come.

I think in your case, the decision would be SO much easier if you had at least OTA options. But I guess it depends on whether your family watches some of the reality-type shows that you won't be able to find online. (Mostly because they require user-interaction, like voting, and you won't want to watch it days later when you already know who goes home, right?)

Good luck!

Hayward0
K A R - 1 2 0 C
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join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL

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said by davidhoffman:

I never got the cord. I have been OTA for 26 years.

Of course what you don't consider is the VAST area of this country that is not possible.... nice if you live around a large city with flat terrain.
Hayward0

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OPPS accidental double post
Hayward0

Hayward0 to 08034016

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said by 08034016:

Go to the local ballpark and support them!!!!!

That would be nice if tickets were still 5 - $20 not $50-200.

Because of the new mega parks (old ones were just fine) and absolutely OBSCENE salaries and politics.
davidhoffman
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Warner Robins, GA

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Oh, I remember the BUDs(Big Ugly Dishes), when I traveled out into the rural areas and far suburbs of Illinois and Indiana. In Wisconsin they existed too. Those people could only get atmospheric skip channels at night from OTA. A friend of mine at work has lived in the forest area of Georgia for 25 years and could never get OTA to work. The TVFool maps would lead you to believe otherwise. They do not take into account dense tall forest interference. He has had DirecTV for a long time. The installers have had a difficult time each time he upgrades getting the antennas positioned to see through the few gaps in the tree cover.

Hayward0
K A R - 1 2 0 C
Premium Member
join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL

Hayward0

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And thing that pisses me off wiith sat for years here in Key West I could get distant locals like west coast which more fit my night schedule and didn't timer conflict with other things...

A few years ago Congress and FCC once again caved, and just because tied by CABLE though 150 miles from Miami and even over water no way any OTA without giant tower....we are now part of the Miami DMA... and not an option anymore, even though physically far closer toFL west coast Ft Myers DMA if anything.

And believe me KW and Miami socially and politically have about as much in common as Apples and Oranges.
davidhoffman
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join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

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I have visited Key West and Miami for a short time. It was on the Majesty Cruise Ship Line, now gone. They had one ship. Yes, I was one of those befuddled tourists who stayed for only a day. No way are Miami and Key West similar. I do not know if I could take living in Key West with the long period of hurricane seasons. Always on edge, having to be ready to go north on a narrow road into mainland Florida or even Georgia at great expense. The homeowner's insurance rates must be astronomical. It is a beautiful place, so I guess the sacrifice is worth it to many.

DocDrew
How can I help?
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SoCal
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said by pandora:

Content that would accumulate, and to which I would hold a license for unlimited use. Amazon handles storage, no need for a local DVR.

...

That same weekend, Amazon was selling a non-HD version of the same movies for $3.99 a piece with lifetime licensing.

How long will Amazon honor that unlimited use license? Amazon's support life of that particular service AND as long as you pay.

If either stops, you'll find getting what you paid for difficult.
pandora
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join:2001-06-01
Outland

pandora

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said by DocDrew:

How long will Amazon honor that unlimited use license? Amazon's support life of that particular service AND as long as you pay.

If either stops, you'll find getting what you paid for difficult.

I assume Amazon's life expectancy is longer than mine.

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena

Premium Member

said by pandora:

said by DocDrew:

How long will Amazon honor that unlimited use license? Amazon's support life of that particular service AND as long as you pay.

If either stops, you'll find getting what you paid for difficult.

I assume Amazon's life expectancy is longer than mine.

Don't assume. Companies go bankrupt all the time, and Amazon is also not immune to corporate fraud that brought down large companies like Adelphia, MCI/Worldcom, and others. And once a company gets bought or merged with, they are under no obligation to honour these kinds of things.

Additionally, laws may change, media companies (who ultimately own the copyright of the movies you buy) may change their stance.

People buying MP3's from Yahoo's music service were screwed that way as well, they shut down their service, and people that didn't convert their music to CD tracks in time would lose their music.

Don't assume you will have your movies in 10 years from now. Or even 5 years from now.

Amazon as a company may continue to exist, it may be highly successful, or it may be bought out.... but there is no guarantee that any of their licensing models will survive.
ke4pym
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Charlotte, NC

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Not really going to answer the "cut the cord question" here.

But if you're not calling DirecTV and/or your internet provider every 6 months looking for discounts, you're doing yourself a disfavor.

Just call them up, ask to speak with retentions and say "Are there any retention promotions my account is eligible for?".

That's all you gotta do. Let them hem and haw for a short period and when they give you the first off, just say "Is that all?" and see what they come back around with the second time. Sometimes you win, sometimes you win more.

Can you live without so many STB's? That's 6 bucks a pop. Minus the first one - free. So $18 in your case a month just in box fees.

Just putting some options out there.
pandora
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Outland

pandora

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I could reduce the number of dvr's and save $18, I could call retentions and for 6 months to a year save $20 per month more or less.

My cost would still be around $90 per month, and I'd have one set connected.

$90 for one set, calling every 6 months to whine for a deal with retentions? ... I don't think so.
turnerbrewer
join:2011-11-22

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turnerbrewer

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I ditched DirecTv over 6 months ago due to the rate increases. I was paying DTV $92 a month. Out of 200+ channels my family only watched 5. I am 40 miles south of Atlanta and receive the national networks + PBS over the air with an attic antenna. I purchase all of our "cable" shows via Apple TV. I have Netflix & Hulu+. I never cared for watching movies on the cable channels unless it was a premium channel like HBO. The networks butcher and edit the heck out the movies for content and commercials.

I figure that I spend at the most $350 a year to watch TV instead of the $1100 that I was paying DirecTv. I do have Comcast Internet which I do not factor into the cost because I would have it as a service regardless. I will never return to pay TV under the current business model which is broken and out of control.
Phaetos
join:2003-09-21
Purvis, MS

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I am also considering cutting the cord. I have looked into it and have decided to use Vudu for movies released same day as dvd, fine with me. For regular TV channels, I have settled on Hulu+. Both have apps on my BluRay player and work well. There is one caveat, Hulu+ isn't able to stream some channels to devices other than a PC or laptop. So to fix that problem I found this device, »www.amazon.com/Warpia-SW ··· MVJMQ39W . If it works well enough, it will pay for itself in 2 months after cutting cable. Vudu is pay as you go, and Hulu+ is $8/month. Cable is costing me $120/month. Major savings. Does anyone see anything wrong with the direction I'm going or offer advice on some other wireless devices ?
19579823 (banned)
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I dont blame you if you do DROP SERVICE!!!!

What I have is now $49.95!! -- IT STARTED AS $29.95!!!!! -- And there is nothing much more good now than there was then!!



A TOTAL RIP OFF FOR NOTHING!!!!!!! (But compared to Time warners garbage NAVIGATOR (And slow boxs),its worth it)