Sanity check from you cord cutters

[CMV]

Went to BB after work and looked at them in person. The 4 was fine and did not have the slight darkening in corners like the 5. The 6 looked a little better with blacks and I could not see any of the banding people mention a lot in reviews. So was pretty much set on just grabbing the 4 series. $350 for a 55?...why not? Then mrs cmv started fussing that she likes the one we have.....so there we are. Guess it stays put until it dies

There were of course many that looked better than the TCL. But there were also many that cost more that looked the same or not as good too.

The sound was pretty bad though. Had the guy mute all the others around it and turn up the tcl. It was the 4 series so maybe the others are better, but was real tinny. The sound bars there all cost as much as the tv or more. Guy there said they all sound like that.....so....if I have to buy a sound bar too, might make sense to just go with a more expensive tv that has good internal speakers. Unsure. Right now I have the speakers and sub that used to be on my receiver direct to the dell plasma. so old it has straight speaker wire connectors. Would have to go back through receiver to avoid sound bar/internal speakers and I was not able to make that work with roku. Plus I am liking the one simple remote so much hate idea of going back to additional one to turn receiver on and do volume with. Receiver is a few years older than the dell tv even. Has optical input but no hdmi.

 

[thekkfan]

Receiver is a few years older than the dell tv even. Has optical input but no hdmi.

Optical out of new tv into receiver. That's how the sound bars work.

Unfortunately, you cannot get good sound in a thin tv. You can't have both without adding external sound.

 

[goeduck]

Xfinity has us at 142 GB of data against our 1 TB cap and it is only the 5th. My wife who likes the TV on at night has been leaving Tablo on so that should not count. Doing the math takes us near the 1TB cap by the end of the month. I have all the TVs set up in ROKU at 1080p so something does not seem correct. Their billing last month was up to the 23rd so there could be another week on that 142 GB of data. I am going to keep an eye on it.

 

[thekkfan]

Is your cutoff 1-31st?

No, Tablo should not be. Check those other Roku's. You have to come to home screen before powering off TV so you have a visual its 'home.'

 

[goeduck]

Is your cutoff 1-31st?

No, Tablo should not be. Check those other Roku's. You have to come to home screen before powering off TV so you have a visual its 'home.'

Not sure of the data cutoff, I need to look into that. Either 31st or maybe 23rd like the billing. I am working on my wife to remember to go to home before turning off the main TV. Others I have plugged into the TV USB power so hoping if she does not go to home the streaming will stop once the ROKU is powered down. Today I shut down the Xfinity public hotspot out off my WiFi in case a neighbor was using it.

 

[CMV]

Optical out of new tv into receiver. That's how the sound bars work.

Unfortunately, you cannot get good sound in a thin tv. You can't have both without adding external sound.

That's what i did with Roku first. optical cable from TV to receiver. Cable box was HDMI to TV, RCA cables to receiver. That worked fine, but had to use receiver remote to turn sound on/off/adjust volume. Now with the speakers going straight to that TV, still sounds great (although lost the rear surround speakers) but just the Roku remote does all. Anyway, could not get sound doing optical cable from TV to receiver so after about half hour of tinkering with different settings just gave up on it.

Seems that some of the sound bars do HDMI to the the TV and the TV controls the soundbar. So would still be the one remote type deal (I think - that's the way I understood it). Best Buy guy agrees with you - he said any TV that thin regardless of brand or price isn't going to sound good....then proceeded to show me sound bars ranging from $350-$1300....

 

[CMV]

Not sure of the data cutoff, I need to look into that. Either 31st or maybe 23rd like the billing. I am working on my wife to remember to go to home before turning off the main TV. Others I have plugged into the TV USB power so hoping if she does not go to home the streaming will stop once the ROKU is powered down. Today I shut down the Xfinity public hotspot out off my WiFi in case a neighbor was using it.

I would do the opposite.....I'd be trying to NOT be miserly about the data and see if i could break the 1TB cap (unless that results in a huge $ penalty). Kids come home to visit, have some unexpected downtime where you're cooped up for a while with nothing to do but watch TV, find out you really dig 4k, whatever......I'd be intentionally trying to use more than typical vs being conservative about it to see if "worst case" is an issue.....

You'd think it would coincide with your billing cycle like other services - water, gas, cell...all that goes off your billing cycle dates, not calendar month.

But sounds like you're ~40% thru the cycle using only ~15% of your cap and in real good shape.

 

[thekkfan]

That's what i did with Roku first. optical cable from TV to receiver. Cable box was HDMI to TV, RCA cables to receiver. That worked fine, but had to use receiver remote to turn sound on/off/adjust volume. Now with the speakers going straight to that TV, still sounds great (although lost the rear surround speakers) but just the Roku remote does all. Anyway, could not get sound doing optical cable from TV to receiver so after about half hour of tinkering with different settings just gave up on it.

Seems that some of the sound bars do HDMI to the the TV and the TV controls the soundbar. So would still be the one remote type deal (I think - that's the way I understood it). Best Buy guy agrees with you - he said any TV that thin regardless of brand or price isn't going to sound good....then proceeded to show me sound bars ranging from $350-$1300....

You can also use these to control the second device. I use it in kitchen to turn on tv run vol, change tuner channel, and assign one of the buttons for the 'input' key to switch to roku.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sideclick-universal-attachment-for-roku-streaming-player-remote-black/6257133.p?skuId=6257133

 

[CMV]

Since I have time, I will look for a solution that either (1) has good internal speakers or (2) integrates the sound bar seamlessly. We both just instantly took a liking to that simplistic Roku remote and going backward to multiple remotes again - yuk.

Was using Logitech Harmony 550 remotes for a while. Esp when our boy was growing up and living with us - going between game, blu ray, cable inputs for TV and receiver - or getting back to what someone else wanted was a process and a lot of remote fumbling. When those worked and stayed in sync, they simplified things a lot. That eventually devolved to just watching TV so was easier to put the Harmony remote up & just use the cable box remote + receiver remote since rarely switch an input after he left home.

That was one thing I really liked about the TCL TV - looked almost exactly like the Roku remote.

 

[goeduck]

I would do the opposite.....I'd be trying to NOT be miserly about the data and see if i could break the 1TB cap (unless that results in a huge $ penalty). Kids come home to visit, have some unexpected downtime where you're cooped up for a while with nothing to do but watch TV, find out you really dig 4k, whatever......I'd be intentionally trying to use more than typical vs being conservative about it to see if "worst case" is an issue......

I did not get a full month in, but we kind of did that. We had two of the ROKUs set up for half the month and ran to around 500 GB. Xfinty gives a 1 or 2 month grace on exceeding the 1 TB so I am not too worried about getting billed for it. Yet. But I am using the new streaming a habit changer as well, otherwise all 4 TVs are on all the time with my wife in the house other than 3 get turned off at night . She does not work so (16 hours X 3TVs + 24 hours X 1 TV) x 31 days is A LOT of data in a month.

Isn’t it about 2.5 GB per hour at 1080p? If so that is only allows 400 hours per month or 13 hours per day. Less our regular internet usage which was about 100 GB prior to ROKU

 

[thekkfan]

I did not get a full month in, but we kind of did that. We had two of the ROKUs set up for half the month and ran to around 500 GB. Xfinty gives a 1 or 2 month grace on exceeding the 1 TB so I am not too worried about getting billed for it. Yet. But I am using the new streaming a habit changer as well, otherwise all 4 TVs are on all the time with my wife in the house other than 3 get turned off at night . She does not work so (16 hours X 3TVs + 24 hours X 1 TV) x 31 days is A LOT of data in a month.

Isn’t it about 2.5 GB per hour at 1080p? If so that is only allows 400 hours per month or 13 hours per day. Less our regular internet usage which was about 100 GB prior to ROKU

How do you leave 3 tvs on streaming for 16 hours each a day? :shocked: Sounds like somebody needs a hobby... thinking a bit less sedentary.

 

[goeduck]

How do you leave 3 tvs on streaming for 16 hours each a day? :shocked: Sounds like somebody needs a hobby... thinking a bit less sedentary.

My wife has never been very active due to health issues, then last year she had stage 2 and stage 3 cancers that she beat to make matters worse. So I want her to enjoy her womany shows, I just need to manage it.

 

[thekkfan]

My wife has never been very active due to health issues, then last year she had stage 2 and stage 3 cancers that she beat to make matters worse. So I want her to enjoy her womany shows, I just need to manage it.

I understand completely. I just don't get it from 3 tvs simultaneously. Sorry for your troubles. Cancer is no one's friend.

 

[CMV]

Find a knucklehead neighbor with a "guest" wifi setup. Our house is in a development on 1/4 acre lots.....I see 2-3 unsecured "guest" wifi connections now with the nighthawk router

Luckily our provider doesn't have a data cap. Can't even see a place on their website to see how much we use....

I've seen that 2.5GB or up to 3GB # before too, but that seems like a lot. That would be 5-6GB for a 2-hr movie which is getting close the uncompressed size of a lot on blu ray.

How to Monitor Your Internet Bandwidth Usage and Avoid Exceeding Data Caps Check this out - you might be able to quantify 1 TV, 2 TVs, 3 TVs simultaneously use X GB per hour & really know if it's a valid concern.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

My wife has never been very active due to health issues, then last year she had stage 2 and stage 3 cancers that she beat to make matters worse. So I want her to enjoy her womany shows, I just need to manage it.

My friend's mom lives in SF/Oakland area and watches 3 TVs worth of baseball when the season is going and the radio with her favorite announcers. Giants, A's, Cubs and Braves.....

Did I mention she loves baseball???

 

[buckeyefarmer]

My friend's mom lives in SF/Oakland area and watches 3 TVs worth of baseball when the season is going and the radio with her favorite announcers. Giants, A's, Cubs and Braves.....

Did I mention she loves baseball???

That's great. My oldest sister was a big baseball fan, used to go to fl for spring training. She was an astros fan when she lived in Houston, but moved to Cleveland around 1981 and became an Indians fan.

 

[goeduck]

If that's what you are using, you will be AMAZED with a CM antenna and preamp. Rule for antennas, size does matter.

I installed one of those for my FIL down in FL. Works ok for him, but hes close enough to Orlando that everything is nearby. Out in the sticks you need something more substantial.

I got my Channel Master Extreme 80 CM-4228HD EXTREMEtenna 80 | Channel Master installed on the roof but the preamp has not arrived yet. I went ahead and plugged the antenna straight into Tablo and the channel lineup went from 51 to 61 stations (no preamp at all). Most new ones are junk stations but the marginal ones are all solid now. We will see what the preamp gets me.

 

[Xfaxman]

-------------------
We will see what the preamp gets me.

It may get you signal overload, meaning the signal is too strong.

 

[goeduck]

It may get you signal overload, meaning the signal is too strong.

I thought of that. I did buy the adjustable (hi and lo) range preamp in part for that possibility and would set it on low. My understanding is that it also cleans up the signal from cell phone etc. interference which would be good. I have all 1 edge or 2 edge signals and I do not know if it helps clean those up as well. I do not have any clean line of sight signals. I know I mentioned this but I sure am impressed with Tablo. The only thing I wish it had was a numerical dB signal strength reading of each station.

 

[NorTracNY]

I just installed my Channel Master antenna this weekend. The 22 stations come in perfectly! I got the Roku earlier. Next is to drop cable TV and get Philo for the channels the family want. Then either I'll need to get something for the antenna to work with the Roku (is that Tablo?) or I'll try to drop cable completely and try Ubifi.