OT: Good Read on 'Cord Cutters' Watching the NFL

Thought I'd pass this along as it's relative to how many of us follow the team:

http://www.techhive.com/article/297...15-2016-season.html?google_editors_picks=true

Thanks Ian.

Does anyone know of http://screenvariety.com/

I have not tired it but it looks pretty good and cheap.

We just cut the cord and couldn't be happier. We went with a Mohu Sky outdoor antenna because we are surrounded by hills and trees. With a bit of adjustment we are able to get CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox. We found we got better reception by not putting the antenna on the roof.

We have a smart TV, but opted to get Roku 3 for streaming Netflix and Amazon prime. We also went with a three month Slingtv subscription because by doing do we will receive a free Roku streaming stick which we will use for our upstairs TV.

We adjusted pretty quickly. There is little on cable and streaming offers everything we want for movies and TV.

Mark. said:

We just cut the cord and couldn't be happier. We went with a Mohu Sky outdoor antenna because we are surrounded by hills and trees. With a bit of adjustment we are able to get CBS, NBC, ABC, and Fox. We found we got better reception by not putting the antenna on the roof.

We have a smart TV, but opted to get Roku 3 for streaming Netflix and Amazon prime. We also went with a three month Slingtv subscription because by doing do we will receive a free Roku streaming stick which we will use for our upstairs TV.

We adjusted pretty quickly. There is little on cable and streaming offers everything we want for movies and TV.

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How do you like slingtv? how's the quality? How's the slingtv guide on the roku?

Wheelman said:

How do you like slingtv? how's the quality? How's the slingtv guide on the roku?

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We like Slingtv. Picture quality is good. The guide is at the bottom of the screen and it is easy to check on upcoming programming. There are more channels than expected.

I haven't had cable for 4 years and could not be happier with the result. We use a leaf antenna and the picture quality is great. I am unable to watch the games on ESPN and NFL Network, but surprisingly enough, I haven't really missed it.

The Patriots will always be on a local network, so I am not missing much.

nabwong said:

Thanks Ian.

Does anyone know of http://screenvariety.com/

I have not tired it but it looks pretty good and cheap.

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This site says that is a scam:

GrogansArmy said:

This site says that is a scam:

Full List of Stream TV Scams

Full List of Stream TV Scams. We are working to build the most comprehensive list of Stream TV Scam Sites available.

hotdog.com

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I searched that site and I didn't see screenvariety.com listed. Maybe I'm missing it, or it was removed after you posted but I just don't see it.

I checked for screenvariety.com on scamadviser.com and it doesn't say much about it other than it's a new site located in Poland

brap999 said:

I searched that site and I didn't see screenvariety.com listed. Maybe I'm missing it, or it was removed after you posted but I just don't see it.

I checked for screenvariety.com on scamadviser.com and it doesn't say much about it other than it's a new site located in Poland

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Screenvariety is just a dummy name/front for the service. If you go to the site screenvariety.com, you'll see that it's called screenvariety on that page, but then if you click the link "Switch to Screen Variety now!" you'll see that its actual name is 'OfficialTVStream' which is on the list of scam sites.

If anyone here is interested in cutting the cord and picking up their NFL /local news / broadcast networks over the air, TVfool.com will take your address, the FCC tv antenna database, and terrain data accurate to the size of a football field, and tell you how strong OTA signals are where you live, and what direction to point your antenna to pick them up.

Generate your own report here:
http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29

The following sample report for "Foxborough, MA"
https://www.tvfool.com/modeling/?id=8e03e14fab0f2b
indicates even a modest indoor bowtie antenna like a Mohu Leaf will be able to pick up around 20 stations if aimed along the True North/True South axis.

Ian said:

Thought I'd pass this along as it's relative to how many of us follow the team:

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Thank you very much. It's a good summary of where things are these days.

Mark. said:

We have a smart TV, but opted to get Roku 3 for streaming Netflix and Amazon prime.

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I've tried Roku 3 and Amazon TV. Roku has got a much better search function as it searches against something like a dozen content providers. It has a great selection of apps, but so far, everything I've needed is on both. Relative to the Amazon, it's interface is dated and it is somewhat slower. If you are already an Amazon Prime member then you get a lot of free content from Amazon but much of it is pretty dated, with the exception of a few first-run productions Amazon is producing. Amazon has a few apps that appear to be better than their Roku equivalents, one of course being the Amazon app which is the "home page" of the Amazon TV. It also has nice PBS and BBC News apps.

Nunchucks said:

The Patriots will always be on a local network, so I am not missing much.

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So, are we guaranteed the Pats games are on local TV even for ESPN and NFL Network games? I should know this but this is my first year as a cable cutter so it hasn't mattered to me in the past.

I've been spoiled with Live GamePass here in Argentina. I hope some day they make it available in the states. It's so friggin' awesome. We also have Netflix. We don't even own a tv here (although I do have a sweet 52 inch plasma in storage in Quincy) but I don't even notice.

One of the things I've found by "cutting the cord" that isn't immediately noticeable is that you become very reliant on your internet. You need bandwidth. Everyone in the house is streaming. With no one streaming, we're drawing 40 mbps. Then people start streaming one by one, and you see it drop drop drop. When all four are going at the same time, you practically have to be within a decent distance of the router, and that defeats the purpose.

Plus, the extreme/ultra internet packages are very costly.

So, what did we do? We go back to the cable bundle and just switch between cable/internet/phone and directv every year or two.

It's cheaper this way.

Watch out for bandwidth issues when you are cord cutting. Right now, we are off Directv and back on cable: internet/cable/phone for $95 a month.

Then they'll jack up the prices in 11 months, and we'll be back on Directv.

The nice thing is that we've done this so many times that there is almost no installation process than hooking up the boxes. The satellite stays up, all the cables stay up.

Bill Lee said:

So, are we guaranteed the Pats games are on local TV even for ESPN and NFL Network games? I should know this but this is my first year as a cable cutter so it hasn't mattered to me in the past.

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You will get the NFL network Pats games, but not the ESPN games. If you really want those games, Slingtv is $19.99/month. If you sign up for three months, you get a roku streaming stick which is a $50 value. Since I wanted the stick for another TV, it's only $10 for 3 months of Slingtv.

upstater1 said:

One of the things I've found by "cutting the cord" that isn't immediately noticeable is that you become very reliant on your internet. You need bandwidth. Everyone in the house is streaming. With no one streaming, we're drawing 40 mbps. Then people start streaming one by one, and you see it drop drop drop. When all four are going at the same time, you practically have to be within a decent distance of the router, and that defeats the purpose.

Plus, the extreme/ultra internet packages are very costly.

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Good point about the bandwidth. We wound up upgrading our modem because it was 3 years old. We upgraded from the turbo to the extreme with TimeWarner because we have two streaming tvs and a PS4. Once we did that we had no issues. It is around $50-$55/ month. It will go up, but is still significantly cheaper than cable was.

Cunk said:

I've been spoiled with Live GamePass here in Argentina. I hope some day they make it available in the states. It's so friggin' awesome. We also have Netflix. We don't even own a tv here (although I do have a sweet 52 inch plasma in storage in Quincy) but I don't even notice.

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My son's been living in Asia for 8 years and he feels the same way.

I"ve heard from a friend that if you buy VPN service you can connect to an international IP address and purchase NFL Gamepass for 199. You get access to any and all games both live and via replay (even playoffs), coaches film, Red Zone, and NFL Network. Even if your'e domestic, apparently you can just log in with a VPN, stream it, and cast it to Chrome/Roku.

I have it as well because I travel for work. It's friggin sweet.

Cunk said:

I've been spoiled with Live GamePass here in Argentina. I hope some day they make it available in the states. It's so friggin' awesome. We also have Netflix. We don't even own a tv here (although I do have a sweet 52 inch plasma in storage in Quincy) but I don't even notice.

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Since you don't miss it anyway. what's the unit number and the combination on the lock?

I haven't cut the cord yet but it would be easy. I have the Amazon Fire TV box, to it I added a program called KODI and with some addons to KODI I can get every movie, every tv show even expanded cable channels. I live in Maryland but I never miss a Pats game now.

Mark. said:

Good point about the bandwidth. We wound up upgrading our modem because it was 3 years old. We upgraded from the turbo to the extreme with TimeWarner because we have two streaming tvs and a PS4. Once we did that we had no issues. It is around $50-$55/ month. It will go up, but is still significantly cheaper than cable was.

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This is the problem I have though. For me Extreme would be a lot more expensive because there is no competition in my area.

So when I started elevating into the Extreme internet, I was already approaching $80. At that point, it was $15 more for cable and cable phone for a year.

This is how they get you.

You think cutting the cord is a good deal, and then you need so much more bandwidth when you cut the cord because suddenly you're streaming on a lot of devices. We have Netflix too. And Amazon Prime.

You really can't win, that's my conclusion, unless you're willing to change to new services for intro offers every 1 or 2 years.