Good bye to my Direct TV Streaming service

[k_obeastly]

Congrats on no longer paying to watch commercials.

[Chappy]

Life was simpler when there was 13 channels and nothing on tv.

[Tarsun2]

we dropped cable a few years ago. between the strem's there is always something to watch.
netflix, hulu, disney, prime ...

i do miss channel surfing but not enough to pay for it. lol it drives the misses nuts when i watch 3 shows at the same time; bouncing in between them during commercials.

you have to start look at TV's like computers though. since everything is app based, you have to make sure you have enough internal storage, make sure there is enough RAM, look at the connection speeds...

[Seajay]

HD Broadcast TV is technically free. You get the major channels and some others depending on where you are in relation to the signal tower, and your antennae of choice.
It ain't bad...

If you just want to watch "tv" it is an available option. No on-demand, recording is up to you to figure out, no guarantee it will be worth watching. But it's "free"!

[Tarsun2]

Seajay, i actually went through that when we 1st moved in. there are a few apps you can download and websites you can go to to see what channels you might be able to get.

in my area, wooded Eastern PA, we were supposed to get about a dozen channels. We only every really got half that and of those, some were in a different language too. the 6 channels were coming from 2 different directions as well. Since the signals were coming from different directions, youd have to CARFULLY move the antenna to point in the right direction. then you be able to see the other channels.

we started with a TV top antenna. that did nothing.
then we got one of the "as seen on tv" flat window antennas. also did nothing.
we upped our game and got a powered antenna. that got us SOME channels. ~3
then we got a powered antenna to rotate with a remote. that was a waste. it would wiggle and wobble, only moved in one direction, and wouldnt stop quickly.
finally, we got an old school yagi antenna, filter, and amplifier. (think of your grandparents house and the antenna they had on the roof). that got us the 12 or so channels. but on windy days, it would go in and out. and rotating that was a pain.

finally went to netflix / hulu / prime... and didnt look back.


point of the story, look into the signals you could possibly get before you go that route lol

[coyote]

My wife and I bought our first house in 2003. We were pretty extended financially for a while.

The cable went away as a cost cutting measure. We did the Netflix DVD thing, then Amazon prime.

We both have better jobs and are more financially stable now. I look back and crunch the numbers and the minimum savings is $20,000. That buys a few tanks of gas.

[Morgenstern]

It’s kind of unreal stuff like cable/dish tv is still a thing. I understand why the sports folks use it but one guy in his basement on YouTube can and has put out more and better history content than the history channel has put out in ten years. The free content for hobbies and documentaries is amazing, unimaginable 20 years ago, and you’re right when you say a lot of the pay stuff feels like it’s from Idiocracy.

[maggot]

We have the Hulu package (ESPN and Disney) plus get free HBOMax through our cell provider. Between those two options we have more TV than we could ever want to watch, including sports. Even cancelled Netflix.

[Jonnydread]

We have Hulu (w/ HBO), Netflix and Disney. I think the only account that we foot the bill for is Netflix and we have plenty of stuff to watch. I have been toying with the idea of going TV-free (outside of video games), but we're not there yet.

[glaman5266]

We have Netflix & Disney+ (mainly for the kids). I myself don't use any streaming services now that I've cut my Crunchyroll subscription.

I've considered SlingTV, but I also know that I'd get nothing done if I had cable/like-cable TV. I'm not a fan of piracy... but the only thing I watch religiously is AEW & I refuse to pay the cable companies their absurd prices for one or two channels, even at SlingTV's good pricing. And like it's been mentioned before- the networks are wanting "their share" of the pie. Can't use the TNT app unless you have a cable subscription... No thanks.

But I suppose I'll live.

And that's just it, right there. Not trying to get into a deep & philosophical conversation, but people in general have forgotten how much they can live without. I do my darndest to stay in touch with that. I've been heavily debating if I should go back to a flip phone just to get away from all the crap associated with smart phones. If I had my way, I'd do that & cut my internet connection speed in half to save the money. But, of course, the wife has opposite thoughts on that.

[Siress]

This isn't what I do due to my SO's wants, but what makes the most sense to me is picking up 1 promotional offer at a time, watching everything you want on that streaming service until you get bored, then dropping it and trying another. This way you can binge shows at your leisure, only pay for one at a time, and you get the mini-game of tracking shows you want to watch on all of the other streaming services so you can decide which one to get next. As far as I'm aware, none of them have duration agreements so it's pay as you go... treat it as such.

Oh, and because I staunchly reject any content with advertisements, you can watch anything you want ad-free using a PC running Firefox browser with the uBlock Origin plugin (last I checked... lmk if you have issues). That includes youtube and hulu specifically.