Streaming services versus Direct TV

[Smokeydog]

Got Direct TV when it came out for over 20 years. Could not get local tv by antenna. Price increases and stupid dish up grade placement had me looking.

Beta tested Starlink. Great when I had signal but would drop at various times. Not cheap either.

Got AT&T to run 1/2 mile of fiber. Never better. Super easy record and watch. DirectTV streaming, prime and paramount +. Much cheaper internet and TV and 100x better. Probably better streaming service than DirectTV.

 

[MoKelly]

Got AT&T to run 1/2 mile of fiber. Never better. Super easy record and watch. DirectTV streaming, prime and paramount +. Much cheaper internet and TV and 100x better. Probably better streaming service than DirectTV.

Holy cow! That is amazing.

We cannot get ATT to run fiber across the street without a $5000 fee.

This is a business.

 

[ultrarunner]

Got Direct TV when it came out for over 20 years. Could not get local tv by antenna. Price increases and stupid dish up grade placement had me looking.

Beta tested Starlink. Great when I had signal but would drop at various times. Not cheap either.

Got AT&T to run 1/2 mile of fiber. Never better. Super easy record and watch. DirectTV streaming, prime and paramount +. Much cheaper internet and TV and 100x better. Probably better streaming service than DirectTV.

Comcast charged 15k to make the run to the house… several years wait list too.

 

[JJT]

We had DirectTv for years, it was ok. Switched to streaming 3 - 4 years ago on fairly slow DSL with few issues from time to time. The telecom hounded us for over a year to switch to their new fiber, for free. We finally did. It's $50/month cheaper and 100 times faster than the old DSL. We are very rural, the fiber run was part of a NYS program. I believe the telecom gets $ from the state for every customer they get on fiber. We were getting calls every week to make the switch. They plowed in an 800' fiber run in 2 hours, with no damage to the lawn. From signing up for fiber to having active fiber at the house was less than 2 weeks with 4 visits from the telecom.

 

[Oaktree]

One quirk about streaming through Hulu is their definition of a "main TV." Somehow they know if you use a big screen TV vs watching on your phone or tablet. Hulu only wants you watching your "main TV" at your home location. But watching on a tablet is OK anywhere.

Seems goofy but it is not Hulu imposing this on you, but a lot of broadcast rules in the back end that forces Hulu to behave this way. It works fine for me. I want my big sony TV at home, but only need a tablet or phone while camping.

Why would you even want to watch tv on a cellphone or tablet if you have a "real" tv handy? Personally, I'm not so much of a tv addict that I have any need or desire to watch when I'm away from home.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that many smart tv manufacturers have their own channels with lots of free programming. Roku does as well. There's enough free stuff that we haven't even bothered to subscribe to any of the pay streamers.
Someone mentioned local programming...not sure what in particular you're looking for, but there's a channel called NewsOn (available for Roku, don't know about anything else) that offers archived streams of local news from many stations. Don't think they offer them in real time, but they seem to be in 30 minute segments so you could watch a 6pm newscast at 6:30.

Don't know about sports, it's of no interest to me.

 

[Oaktree]

We had DirectTv for years, it was ok. Switched to streaming 3 - 4 years ago on fairly slow DSL with few issues from time to time. The telecom hounded us for over a year to switch to their new fiber, for free. We finally did. It's $50/month cheaper and 100 times faster than the old DSL. We are very rural, the fiber run was part of a NYS program. I believe the telecom gets $ from the state for every customer they get on fiber. We were getting calls every week to make the switch. They plowed in an 800' fiber run in 2 hours, with no damage to the lawn. From signing up for fiber to having active fiber at the house was less than 2 weeks with 4 visits from the telecom.

Yeah, they ran fiber down our road about 10 years ago as part of one of those similar programs. Both Time-Warner (now Spectrum) and the local telco ran it at the same time. For whatever reason the "last mile" is still copper, never got a straight answer as to why, but we get 100/23 which is more than fast enough. That's with TW, don't know what kind of speeds the telco offers. Not quite the savings you got, but phone/internet/tv bundle is still cheaper than our old landline & satellite internet.

 

[ultrarunner]

Mine went through old growth forest and bored point to point…

Neighbors have overhead but no longer allowed to add poles…

 

[bdhsfz6]

Our streaming experience so far:

We have a grandfathered Dish package that gives us everything but the premium channels for $107/mo. As a hedge against the inevitable Dish rate increase, I've been investigating streaming as a possible alternative.

So far, we've tried Amazon Prime and YouTube TV. Both give us the programming we want for around $72/mo. Our internet service gives us 70 - 100 mbps and we have a Samsung smart TV with the necessary apps.

I'm not sure if this happens on every TV but there is a significant amount of "black screen" time when changing channels, selecting recorded content, after commercials, etc. A bit of content is lost in the process as well. I suspect this is due to buffering. I also haven't figured out how to fast forward through commercials on recorded programs.

The process of watching streamed programming is nowhere near as "smooth" as the instant response you get with cable or satellite. A new TV, a set top box or dongle might make a difference and I may investigate these in the future, but right now, for us anyway, this loss of performance isn't worth the $35/mo savings.

 

[D&D]

Why would you even want to watch tv on a cellphone or tablet if you have a "real" tv handy? Personally, I'm not so much of a tv addict that I have any need or desire to watch when I'm away from home.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that many smart tv manufacturers have their own channels with lots of free programming. Roku does as well. There's enough free stuff that we haven't even bothered to subscribe to any of the pay streamers.
Someone mentioned local programming...not sure what in particular you're looking for, but there's a channel called NewsOn (available for Roku, don't know about anything else) that offers archived streams of local news from many stations. Don't think they offer them in real time, but they seem to be in 30 minute segments so you could watch a 6pm newscast at 6:30.

Don't know about sports, it's of no interest to me.

, definitely enough “free” tv available. It’s hard to not find something entertaining to watch. I’m a fan of the search function on Roku. Name something and it’ll tell you if it’s available, cost and on what channel.
A decent uhf (hdtv) antenna will bring in lots of “local” programming depending on where you live.

DTV Reception Maps

www.fcc.gov

 

[Smokeydog]

It did take some work on our part. Hard install even with existing underground conduit. Companies took millions from the Government to help rural families get better internet. It took some pestering, phone calls requesting updates. Using the tractor to unstuck subcontractor’s truck and air compressor trailer. Use my truck to transport ATT workers and materials around the woods and pastures. They are scared to death about reporting getting stuck. Had to dig for one ground flush box. Union workers don’t dig, manager didn’t want to. Met with workers over a dozen times in the span of four months. If we didn’t keep poking and prodding don’t think it would ever happen. One manager told I should be paying 2-3$ per foot. Cost us time, friendly respect and some work. Sure enjoy the service and cost savings now.