Hey all I’m getting tired of forking over ~$140 per month to Direct TV and another $160 per year for NHL center ice. My kids are telling me to get Hulu and ESPN+. That would solve my issue for about ~$20 per month give or take.
Here’s my questions…
1. Does anyone know if you get hockey night in Canada and other Canadian broadcasts for hockey. This is a deal breaker!
2. Do you get shows that are generally on local channels? Apparently the boss still wants to watch soaps and other prime time programs like Gold Rush, NCIS, Greys Anatomy etc…
3. Do you get Fox News? Again the boss likes to have that on during the day as she works around the house.
4. What internet speed do you recommend? We have a computer, 4 smart phones and 3 smart tv’s. We currently have 25MB but probably need to consider 50MB?
Thanks in advance!
We have been streaming and also receiving local TV stations in our home since cutting the cord now, well over ten years ago.
Never missed anything and ended up with more then we could ever watch.
1. We had some help, our home built in 2006 was prewired for cable to 5 TVs in the house, not only that but the builder left a cable lead up in our attic to the main panel on the lower level for an antenna, that was REALLY lucky for us.
Before cancelling cable I search TV antenna aiming, figured out what size antenna I needed. I bought a rather large RCA $100 outdoor antenna in Lowes. I mounted it in the attic, used a compass to aim it in the direction the TV antenna sites showed where our broadcast towers were.
The antenna feeds down into a distribution panel of our home and distributes it to 5 TVs in a perfect picture.
Everything worked perfect, my skeptical wife was amazed, I even amazed that the picture quality was superior to now Spectrum cable.
All in all we get 25 + digital channels from our attic antenna, ALL the MAJOR network stations are super clear, pristine really, then the other channels are lower quality side channels of the major broadcasters.
So that took care of our local channels and TV shows, AND we bought a Channel Master DVR TV tuner for the main TV (now sold as TIVO, surprise again! It works EXACTLY like our cable TV box did, only better, full TV schedule and recording.
(in addition to the above)
2. At the same time (keep in mind this was 10+ years ago that the general public didnt even know the term cut the cord. We bought our first Roku player in order to stream on the main TV. Excellent, every thing worked out so well, it was really stupid, here we were, no longer paying for cable and had so much TV and moves to watch there was no way to watch it all. Stupid simple.
(present day)
3. ALL in all we have 6 Roku players on 6 TVs for streaming, endless moves ect, ect... 5 of those TVs are also hooked up to the same attic antenna for all local shows on all the major networks and side channels. We do pay for a monthly basic Hulu subscription $7 and a Netflix subscription ($14?) That is it. Its truly stupid all the stuff we want to watch but never can because there is no time to watch it.
You can do this on 50 Mbps service I would say min for our above set up in this present day with 4k material.
But 10+ years ago we managed on 5 Mbps DSL, then REALLY stepped up to 10 or 15 Mbps cable internet and blew our doors off when we got to 25 from there it keep going up as well as the price of internet which ****** me off, it didnt bother me much at the time because my wife's company paid for it but they stopped paying for it last year.
We now have their smallest internet package for 200 Mbps service and actually get 225 Mbps. However the price is now $75 a month though we did cancel last year, went to another provider for a month and then Spectrum gave us a 1 year deal at $49 ... We may repeat that process this Feb 2022
So yeah, I think to give your best shot 50 Mbps service you should get but I will say, there are people in our community that do get by with ATT copper 25 Mbps DSL and I have yet to hear someone complain about it. I thought about it myself but I cant go back that far in speed, been spoiled, unless I try it out next Feb for a month and see how it goes.
I am someone who invests a small amount of money to try stuff, I say you have to spend money to save, so even if I tried ATT, I would keep spectrum a couple weeks incase I didnt like the ATT. I did this last year with TMobile home internet service, it started out great but their local towers weren't yet up to par which they found out when we tried it. I would go back to them in a second for $50 a month because I got to see they are capable of 100 Mbps speeds. I just have to wait, it will happen sooner or later. We are the family in my family and friends always at the cutting edge of everything electronic *L*
There is also Elon Musk Starlink that will be available to us in the early spring of 2022 but its too pricey for 100 Mbps service, $400 for equipment that you install and $100 a month.
Good news for us, we do have ATT in the area, currently 200+Mbps from Spectrum and TMobile will be very possible in the near future PLUS our electric co-op has fiber service but not yet in our area at a killer price.
Good luck, I LOVE not being dependent paying for cable TV. Now my next battle is the cost of internet.
)
Ps, we dont watch regular sports so cant help you with that, just major events, Superbowl ect, ect and in case I rambled on like I normally do.
AS far as internet speed, if you REALLY want everything to be done the right way, you need at least 50 Mbps service with 3 smart TVs computers and a sports family on top if it. I wouldnt disappoint your family with 25, though you can try it.
If you want home phone service, you only need to remember one name Ooma (I assume its available in Canada too but have no idea.
Ooma basic home phone is free, you have to buy the device for $100. We have had that for at least well over 5 years now, works EXACTLY like our cable company phone does. We dont use it for calls but just have it as a back up once in a while, no cost except we have to pay the tax every month like $5 +
All dollars are USA.
