More on Cord Cutting - costs going up

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Originally Posted by marine65
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Originally Posted by alarmguy

Here is where buying a good quality TV pays off. The upconverting and local dimming will bring satisfaction from any streaming service.
Meaning, you really dont need to pay extra for Netlfex 4k if your TV has really good up converting and your watching it on a 65 inch Tv at 5 feet or more from the screen.

Something in the areas of the Sony 900 and up series and the equal of Samsung and LG.
These sets are in the 1200 to 2000 range. not the 200 to 500.


All but the absolute cheapest of TV's do a decent job of upscaling content. I can't really tell a difference between my $500 65" TCL tv and one that costs 3x as much when streaming.

That being said, if you have an older tv, the new ones are significantly better. My parents went from a Vizio they bought in 2007 to a new LG that was half the cost a few months ago. The difference is truly amazing.


I was in Walmart a couple days ago and saw a 58" HDR 5K T.V. for $288.
I know it wont be as good as more expensive sets but a family on a tight budget can have a decent T.V. for $300 with tax.


Absolutely, there are even 65 inch TVs close to that price range now.
Without comparing side by side in your home you'll be perfectly happy with any of these TVs.
Assuming of course they prove reliable but that goes with any brand.
We went from a 58 in lower-priced Samsung to a 65in Sony X900 something TV.
We were perfectly happy with the Samsung picture but being where we are at this time in our lives we figured we would step it up after extensive research. The true contrast ratio and unbelievable black levels of the Sony blew us away when we hooked it up. The picture was so deep and rich until we got used to it was almost 3D like. I was relieved after what we spent.
The more expensive sets in the mid to high price range give you true local dimming which results in true HDR even though just about every set claims HDR it isn't the same.
But I'll repeat again all these sets deliver nice picture.
It's almost like a good sound system unless you're looking for and listening for every little detail they're all pretty good.
disclaimer, I haven't personally checked out any of these really less expensive sets that have just been hitting the market I think there is also something to be said on how well they upconvert to 4K versus the much more expensive sets but again either way people who don't wish to spend a lot I think we'll be more than happy.

Ps to quattro, all is good I understand what you are saying with the local channel compression.
 
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Originally Posted by dubber09
IPTV boxes are cheap to buy and subscriptions are quite cheap too.
We got a box and a year subscription for $120 Canadian with (I think) at least 500 channels or so.
TV is live only while TV Series can be watched on demand.


Careful-FBI is cracking down on some of these providers...

Just saying... ...Ž
 
Originally Posted by Warstud
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by JTK
I'm still trying to figure out your claim of Netflix Hulu and Amazon for $20. Netflix by itself is $8-9/mo.

I'm not knocking you. Just trying to learn!

Hulu Premium (with no ads) is $12/month. I suppose one could claim that Amazon Video is free if you already have Amazon Prime.

Don't forget to add in Internet cost.... since you need that to stream.

... Yeah....that is the ugly little secret the "cord cutters" conveniently leave out. You can't stream jack with DSL so cable and fiber optic are the only game in town... yeah there's Direct TV... but than you still need internet in your home and sorry, if you think that the data plan, whatever it is from your cell phone carrier is internet, you may as well live in a cave. Every cable provider knows that.
 
Originally Posted by Toros

... Yeah....that is the ugly little secret the "cord cutters" conveniently leave out. You can't stream jack with DSL so cable and fiber optic are the only game in town... yeah there's Direct TV... but than you still need internet in your home and sorry, if you think that the data plan, whatever it is from your cell phone carrier is internet, you may as well live in a cave. Every cable provider knows that.


I don't think they're leaving it out, as most people are running internet+tv+their choice of streaming services. If they can get most of not all their entertainment from streaming alone, why also pay for TV service? As for living in a cave, streaming from a cell phone would work just fine for me
wink.gif
Not bad for being in a basement out in the country!

[Linked Image]
 
Originally Posted by CKN
Originally Posted by alarmguy
Originally Posted by madRiver
If you rely on internet for work then $70/month is peanuts based off typical salary. I happily pay $80/month to Xfinity for internet. Beyond reliable but neighbor(we share line) apparently has the $500/month commercial offering for according to the Xfinity tech. They get our line up ASAP.



I understand what you are saying, I am simply pointing out, whether for work or pleasure, whether it is my house or the house next door, a 75% ish price increase is retarded with no option from the company to go to a slower speed, this is because , mega mergers between internet providers AND Spectrum has to keep profits up and millions of people cancel their pay TV service.
There will be a time that similar things happen with pay internet. 5G, various cell phone providers and in our area, our electric utility offering faster speeds ($49)at close to 40% lower prices then Spectrum.
This is the good news about free markets, once price gets crazy, someone will always come along and do it cheaper. As far as internet for work and being peanuts, its certainly is since my wifes company pays for it!

I dont know why a consumer would happily pay Xfinity $80 a month for internet when less then 5 years ago you could get it for $39 or less, at least here.


When people are paying that much (like me) it's because in reality there are no viable options.....ComCast (Xfinity) knows that too.

Precisely.
 
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Originally Posted by Toros

... Yeah....that is the ugly little secret the "cord cutters" conveniently leave out. You can't stream jack with DSL so cable and fiber optic are the only game in town... yeah there's Direct TV... but than you still need internet in your home and sorry, if you think that the data plan, whatever it is from your cell phone carrier is internet, you may as well live in a cave. Every cable provider knows that.


I don't think they're leaving it out, as most people are running internet+tv+their choice of streaming services. If they can get most of not all their entertainment from streaming alone, why also pay for TV service? As for living in a cave, streaming from a cell phone would work just fine for me
wink.gif
Not bad for being in a basement out in the country!

[Linked Image]


If you wish to watch movies on a phone vs a 75" 4K TV with a Dolby sound s or even a decent sound bar, than have at it.
 
Originally Posted by Toros

If you wish to watch movies on a phone vs a 75" 4K TV with a Dolby sound s or even a decent sound bar, than have at it.


They make Lightning and USB-C to HDMI cables. Yeah, it's "only" 1080p, but I sit far enough away I can't tell the difference between 1080p and 4K anyway. If I really want to watch something in 4K, I'll get a 4K blu-ray and play it through my nice Yamaha sound bar.
 
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Originally Posted by Toros

If you wish to watch movies on a phone vs a 75" 4K TV with a Dolby sound s or even a decent sound bar, than have at it.


They make Lightning and USB-C to HDMI cables. Yeah, it's "only" 1080p, but I sit far enough away I can't tell the difference between 1080p and 4K anyway. If I really want to watch something in 4K, I'll get a 4K blu-ray and play it through my nice Yamaha sound bar.

So the only internet connection you have in your home is through your cell phone?
 
Originally Posted by Toros
Originally Posted by Skippy722
Originally Posted by Toros

If you wish to watch movies on a phone vs a 75" 4K TV with a Dolby sound s or even a decent sound bar, than have at it.


They make Lightning and USB-C to HDMI cables. Yeah, it's "only" 1080p, but I sit far enough away I can't tell the difference between 1080p and 4K anyway. If I really want to watch something in 4K, I'll get a 4K blu-ray and play it through my nice Yamaha sound bar.

So the only internet connection you have in your home is through your cell phone?


At one point yes. Not really feasible for our lives now though.
 
Originally Posted by Toros
Originally Posted by Warstud
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by JTK
I'm still trying to figure out your claim of Netflix Hulu and Amazon for $20. Netflix by itself is $8-9/mo.

I'm not knocking you. Just trying to learn!

Hulu Premium (with no ads) is $12/month. I suppose one could claim that Amazon Video is free if you already have Amazon Prime.

Don't forget to add in Internet cost.... since you need that to stream.

... Yeah....that is the ugly little secret the "cord cutters" conveniently leave out. You can't stream jack with DSL so cable and fiber optic are the only game in town... yeah there's Direct TV... but than you still need internet in your home and sorry, if you think that the data plan, whatever it is from your cell phone carrier is internet, you may as well live in a cave. Every cable provider knows that.

I had DSL at my prior house, not sure on speed but I tried a couple of times various online tests, and they said 5MB down and 0.5 up. Watched Netflix without issue most of the time; once in a while it'd buffer (like a handful of times per year). Maybe I had fast DSL?

I do like the fiber at my new house.
smile.gif
100MB and it's wonderful. At my old house I'd VPN into work and it was just laggy accessing anything on the server there. Now it's instant. The ability to work from home periodically easily pays for whatever extra it costs.
 
Originally Posted by Toros
Skippy722 said:
Toros said:
I don't think they're leaving it out, as most people are running internet+tv+their choice of streaming services. If they can get most of not all their entertainment from streaming alone, why also pay for TV service? As for living in a cave, streaming from a cell phone would work just fine for me
wink.gif
Not bad for being in a basement out in the country!


I know just about where you are out on RT 1. Are you in the neighborhood itself? You should have Comcast..and Verizon FiOS if not now soon.

BTW I lived off of RT 100 near Andrew Wyeth's home and Hanks Place.
cool.gif
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Originally Posted by alarmguy
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by BigD1
Pluto...free streaming TV. News channels, music channels, movie channels, and on demand movies too.

https://pluto.tv/live-tv/channel-lineup


Is that for real? Won't require you to pay for a subscription after an hour or a day like Hulu did?


$6.00 a month for Hulu (for those that dont know)isnt going to break the bank.

Again, get a Roku Player, hundreds of free choices. Yes Pluto too.


Yep, I bought an indoor antenna and a Roku (spent total of $60) and can get enough over the air HD channels and tons of free streaming (ie Pluto) to satisfy my TV watching. Spent a one time $60 to save $1200 a year for rip-off cable.
 
Originally Posted by AC1DD
Originally Posted by Toros
Skippy722 said:
Toros said:
I don't think they're leaving it out, as most people are running internet+tv+their choice of streaming services. If they can get most of not all their entertainment from streaming alone, why also pay for TV service? As for living in a cave, streaming from a cell phone would work just fine for me
wink.gif
Not bad for being in a basement out in the country!


I know just about where you are out on RT 1. Are you in the neighborhood itself? You should have Comcast..and Verizon FiOS if not now soon.

BTW I lived off of RT 100 near Andrew Wyeth's home and Hanks Place.
cool.gif
13.gif



That Speedtest was at my current residence. The house I'm thinking of out that way isn't quite Rt 1, some goofy country road with entirely too many numbers. I navigate via landmarks
lol.gif
Last time I was out there, you had a better chance of catching an unmutated fish in the Grand Calumet River than you did catching a cell signal!!
 
Originally Posted by Toros
Originally Posted by Warstud
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by JTK
I'm still trying to figure out your claim of Netflix Hulu and Amazon for $20. Netflix by itself is $8-9/mo.

I'm not knocking you. Just trying to learn!

Hulu Premium (with no ads) is $12/month. I suppose one could claim that Amazon Video is free if you already have Amazon Prime.

Don't forget to add in Internet cost.... since you need that to stream.

... Yeah....that is the ugly little secret the "cord cutters" conveniently leave out. You can't stream jack with DSL so cable and fiber optic are the only game in town... yeah there's Direct TV... but than you still need internet in your home and sorry, if you think that the data plan, whatever it is from your cell phone carrier is internet, you may as well live in a cave. Every cable provider knows that.


Its no secret that a small percentage of Americans in rural areas do not have fast enough internet to support streaming on more then 1 device at at time.
So how is this conveniently leaving anything out? This thread is about cord cutting, some people cant but the vast majority of Americans have an internet connection of at least 10Mbps . ..
Many people do not need or use the potential of the speed that they have, most homeowners with unusable internet have improperly configured and cheap internet equipment/faulty connections and also improperly placed equipment.
(I said most, not all) but if people take it upon themselves to simply search the internet and learn how to get better performance, they can.
 
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Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by alarmguy
What someone describes as heavily compressed is subjective without the data.
I have not seen you present any data either.


Quote
Im not saying depending on what area of the country an OTA cant be 'heavily" compressed but find it hard to believe it can be anywhere near any pay TV site.
That's what I thought, too, until I saw my local OTA channels. Not saying they're awful or unwatchable. It's just that you can see compression artifacts, similar to what I saw from DirecTV and ATT Uverse. If you sit 10 feet away or more from a 55" TV, it's a non issue regardless of source.



I noticed a few of my OTA channels on are on Pluto TV. I wonder if Pluto detected I had an antenna and added them?
 
Originally Posted by Warstud
I wonder if Pluto detected I had an antenna and added them?

Pluto has no way of knowing if you have an antenna. They serve content based on your location. Some regions/networks allow for free streaming of their content via platforms such as Pluto or Locast.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by Warstud
I wonder if Pluto detected I had an antenna and added them?

Pluto has no way of knowing if you have an antenna. They serve content based on your location. Some regions/networks allow for free streaming of their content via platforms such as Pluto or Locast.

IDK....I have a few channels that say OTA channels which are local.
 
Originally Posted by Warstud
IDK....I have a few channels that say OTA channels which are local.

Specifically, which local OTA channels are you seeing in Pluto?

I am not seeing any of the major ones (NBC, ABC, Fox, CBS) in Pluto, even though I do have an OTA antenna. But I know that even Locast tells me my area does not offer any streamable OTA channels yet.
 
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by Warstud
IDK....I have a few channels that say OTA channels which are local.

Specifically, which local OTA channels are you seeing in Pluto?

I am not seeing any of the major ones (NBC, ABC, Fox, CBS) in Pluto, even though I do have an OTA antenna. But I know that even Locast tells me my area does not offer any streamable OTA channels yet.


I'm thinkin' he's referring to the "live TV" option to the left on the pluto main screen. You can stream NBC, the today show, etc. but it's not the same content as the OTA versions.

I have to say, between free pluto and tubi, there's no way I'm keeping hulu past it's free trial period. Like said above, the content really is amazing. There's more on there than I'll ever get the chance to watch. It's kind of overwhelming actually.
 
Originally Posted by Warstud
Originally Posted by Quattro Pete
Originally Posted by alarmguy
What someone describes as heavily compressed is subjective without the data.
I have not seen you present any data either.


Quote
Im not saying depending on what area of the country an OTA cant be 'heavily" compressed but find it hard to believe it can be anywhere near any pay TV site.
That's what I thought, too, until I saw my local OTA channels. Not saying they're awful or unwatchable. It's just that you can see compression artifacts, similar to what I saw from DirecTV and ATT Uverse. If you sit 10 feet away or more from a 55" TV, it's a non issue regardless of source.



I noticed a few of my OTA channels on are on Pluto TV. I wonder if Pluto detected I had an antenna and added them?


No
 
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