I know there's been old threads about this, but I can't find them.

My two year "honeymoon" period is about to expire with Directv and the rate will go up. What streaming service have you experienced cord cutters found works best for the money? I have cable internet service. Tia!

We are a very satisfied DISH customer. Yeah, they are a little expensive but they don't try to BS you about it and play games. Very good customer service.

Obviously, it depends on which channels you watch the most, but I think YouTube TV is leading an ever changing pack currently.

My other piece of advice is to take advantage of the offered free trials they all offer to see which one suits your needs. Being able to change online providers without penalty is extremely helpful.

I'm assuming you're going to keep an Internet connection of some resiliency. I'm a Grande customer because in my experience they have the most reliable and cost effective wired service.

I guess the first thing you'd need to be honest about is what channels you need. I don't typically turn on TV unless college football, soccer, or hockey are on (I have a separate source for Anime, but let's assume Japanese cartoon wizards aren't a factor in your decision). My 18 year old daughter primarily watches Netflix (as does the wife).

Next, what "hardware" do you have? That is, you used to have a cable box from the TV (in your case DirectTV) guys. It was really a small computer that took a digital feed (much like an Internet connection), decoded it, and showed you the "channel" you selected as a video signal. You're going to need something to replace that.

I personally chose the Amazon Fire TV device. Mine's a box because I got it in 2015. They make Fire TV sticks now for about $50 that perform flawlessly. If you're an Amazon Prime customer (for shipping and other things Amazon), then you'll automatically get a whole ton of movies and TV content free.

Other choices would be some sort of Google Chrome configuration or like a Roku box. I don't have much experience with those, but they're well respected names.

Anyway, you'll then install an application on that hardware once it's connected to your Internet source (wired or wi-fi) and TV (via an HDMI cable usually). This will be the app that you run in order to access whatever paid service you choose to replace your current cable TV lineup.

I personally went with Sony's PSVue. They have different tiers of service depending on what you like. It looks and works very similar to a current cable TV box menu. It has DVR style options, and they now also serve local ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX affiliates in most areas (previously, by rule, those had to be only antenna based). I've gotten great value and service out of them - and they have just about every sports feed channel I can imagine.

I really haven't done the research as to which service offers what in a while. So many different entities are sensing a profit opportunity and are launching their own streaming services. This won't continue indefinitely because consumers will balk. Right now, though, consider what channels you watch, what hardware you can get, and go shopping.

Mr. Tulip posts excellent advice. Here's one of the countless videos that may give advice specific to your situation. As I said earlier, these prices and channel lineups are very fluid and change often. Good luck.....

I'm actually leaning towards PSVue. I also have Grande cable internet so speed is not an issue. Thanks for y'all's input.

never had a cord to cut........

- frugal merle jung

BellCountyBear said:

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I know there's been old threads about this, but I can't find them.

My two year "honeymoon" period is about to expire with Directv and the rate will go up. What streaming service have you experienced cord cutters found works best for the money? I have cable internet service. Tia!

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Please be sure you've done all the "damage" you can with DirecTV. We've had U-verse for many years and I was tired of playing the game every 2 years of renegotiating a contract to the point that I was ready to experiment with cord cutting last year. Was surprised to learn late last fall that Uverse had instituted a direct phone number for customer retention - no more pounding on multiple layers of foreigners trying to get a better deal. My first call to that number last November resulted in an immediate $150 one-time credit and the suggestion to check back at the first of every month. OK... so, I've followed that plan to the point that we've gone from paying about $140 per month for their next to highest cable package bundled with HBO, Starz, Cinemax and others, along with 50mbps Internet service, unlimited data, and a decent DVR altogether now cost us about $68 per month. That price is good until at least next March. Don't know what it will be beyond that, but it's good enough as is to stay put for the time being. I can't find any combination of Internet, cord cutting, OTA antenna, and streaming service that can touch what we are now getting from AT&T.

Oh yeah, definitely take advantage of the free trial offers. There's a bunch of them.

Possibly useful resource for comparing packages:

https://www.suppose.tv/tv

For those who are cord cutting and live in the Central Texas area, which of the services actually has the local ABC affiliate. While a lot claim "local networks", ABC seems to be a problem. And it's been a problem for a year now -- so I'm not really buying the "it'll be settled soon" idea coming from the services.

It's best to go to the service's individual web site and plug in your zip code to find out about local service. In Waco (767_ _), ABC, CBS, and NBC are all shown on all the services.. YMMV.

Also, if your TV is reasonably new (10 years or younger) it should have a built in digital tuner. A $20ish antenna will pick up your local (up to 30 miles or so) network stations. Two advantages to doing this are A. better picture quality and B. if your internet goes out you'll have TV service.

transmit5by9 said:

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It's best to go to the service's individual web site and plug in your zip code to find out about local service. In Waco (767_ _), ABC, CBS, and NBC are all shown on all the services.. YMMV.

Also, if your TV is reasonably new (10 years or younger) it should have a built in digital tuner. A $20ish antenna will pick up your local (up to 30 miles or so) network stations. Two advantages to doing this are A. better picture quality and B. if your internet goes out you'll have TV service.

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I can tell you that in 76710, PSVue provides ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX in its package.

Now, transmit5x9 makes an interesting point

I'm a tinkerer at heart, so when I cut the cord, I giddily installed an outdoor TV antenna on the roof. At the time, local stations weren't being offered under any streaming service by rule (this has obviously changed). I used it as an excuse to buy a silly sized Antennas Direct DB-8 70mi 8-element antenna. That's a lot of words to say I bought something that looks like a 1950's era Marvin the Martian rig.

What you need to know about outdoor antennas (OTA for "over the air") is that they're not analog style rabbit ears type things. "Antenna" to most of us means "grainy picture that might work depending on the weather and direction". That is 100% NOT how modern TV signals are transmitted!

If you use an OTA antenna, the picture is either dead perfect or not there at all. There is no "grainy" or "snowy". That's because the TV station is broadcasting (and you antenna is receiving) pure digital data. Your TV set's tuner grabs this data and assembles it into a picture. When it locks on to a data signal, it's a perfect picture. If it doesn't lock on, there's NO picture. There is no in-between.

Here's the kicker to consider. When the cable company sends you ABC's picture (or any other channel), they have to make concessions. There's a lot of channels to send, and they only have so much space to send them all on. Consequently, each channel has to be "compressed", or limited in order to fit them all in. They are all sent at once, so everything has to be compressed.

An OTA antenna does not have that restriction. When the local ABC affiliate transmits its ABC picture, it fires it off in all of its uncompressed glory. It doesn't care because its only sending one thing. Your TV tuner will grab that one signal and display it to you. If you change the channel, it will grab that new signal and display it to you! It doesn't have to choose.

The takeaway from all of this is, even while a lot of streaming packages now include local channels, you'll be amazed at how much clearer those channels are when viewing via OTA antenna.

I went with PS Vue because it had the best fit of the channels my family watches (including sports--although I had to give up the Astros and Rockets channel), and also because it allows for streaming on up to 5 devices at the same time. Maybe this has changed, but when I was researching, none of the other services allowed more than 3, and some allowed only 2, which just isn't enough for my household.

I have been using PSVue over Grande for two years now, no complaints. PSVue core for $54.99 gets me all the Baylor sports that are broadcast except for those that are going to ESPN+ under the new B12 deal (that'll be another $5 per month). Additionally I have a Tablo DVR. It connects to an antenna and pulls in local stations and I can use the DVR with auto commercial skip. The PSVue DVR sucks because you can't fast forward through commercials and for some other reasons. Tablo is great.

I considered Hulu Live as well. But just didn't think I'd use the catalog of TV shows or original features they have. Most of the shows I haven't see I didn't watch the first time because I didn't think they were worth seeing, so why would I watch them now? Plus you have to pay more to get enough simultaneous screens for my purposes. Your mileage may vary.

Good thread. I was thinking about this yesterday.

Last fall I had PSVue but got rid of it after the superbowl. I only watched college football and a few NFL games.

For those with PSV currently would you say it is the best for those 2 things?

I love YouTube TV, but also hear PSVue is excellent. I haven't done this, but you can pause your YT account if you want to, rather than cancell. I don't know the rules, just remember seeing that when I signed up.

As a side note, we have 100mb cable internet on the Google Mesh system and it's plenty to power YouTube TV on our 2 TVs.

My mom has DirecTV and is paying too much. Can you share the customer retention number?

We tried PSVue about a year and a half ago because they advertised DVR. Other than sports we DVR about 90 percent of what we watch and will often save up 5+ episodes of certain shows.

Back then, the VUE "DVR" would only keep 2 episodes of a show max. Not sure if that's changed but that just didn't work for us.

CorsicanaBear said:

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The PSVue DVR sucks because you can't fast forward through commercials and for some other reasons.

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I fast forward through commercials all the time with the PSVue DVR. The PSVue website says that fast forwarding isn't available on DVR'd shows from FOX, FX, and FXX, but other than that I've never experienced any limitations.

Meladee said:

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We tried PSVue about a year and a half ago because they advertised DVR. Other than sports we DVR about 90 percent of what we watch and will often save up 5+ episodes of certain shows.

Back then, the VUE "DVR" would only keep 2 episodes of a show max. Not sure if that's changed but that just didn't work for us.

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The PSVue DVR saves each episode for 28 days.

RD2WINAGNBEAR86 said:

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We are a very satisfied DISH customer. Yeah, they are a little expensive but they don't try to BS you about it and play games. Very good customer service.

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We were DISH, but they kept saying the Baylor game would be on a certain channel on HD, then changing it to another channel that wasn't HD (this was years ago) so we're now DirecTV. I thought DISH was the king of bs.

I have PSVue - had it for several years now. I use it and a combo of amazon prime (have fire tv cube, stick and box), Netflix, and mlb.tv plus a VPN so I can watch the Astros.

Honestly, I liked Directv better but the amount of money you can save with PSVue makes it worth it to me. My only real complaints are internet related, but that has more to do with Xfinitiy (my sole choice of internet) and my 80 year old house with shiplap walls. I did install a mesh system and found a way to directly wire the one tv that gave me the most problems and that seems to have fixed most issues.

I have heard good things about YouTube TV, but like most people, until I start having issues with my current service or it costs substantially more I probably won't look too much into it.

I've been looking for a streaming service. My biggest issue is only one has at&t sports (astros and rockets) but it doesn't have the espn channels.

Here's a current lineup of channels for services, along with monthly prices. https://www.cnet.com/news/youtube-tv-vs-sling-tv-vs-directv-now-vs-hulu-and-more-live-tv-channels-compared/

VaeBear said:

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I've been looking for a streaming service. My biggest issue is only one has at&t sports (astros and rockets) but it doesn't have the espn channels.

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I buy the team package each year for the Astros from mlb.tv (85 bucks I think) and then I pay for a VPN called tunnelbear which is really cheap for a year (can't remember the price). I use the VPN and set it so that I appear to be outside of the Astros blackout area and I stream the Astros through my computer and hook it up to my TV. This is still much cheaper than cable or satellite when you look at the yearly cost. I dunno if the Rockets have anything like this but I would assume they do. I am not a big NBA fan and only watch the Rockets when they are on national tv.

AT&T seems to be playing hardball with their streaming services for sports and using it as a way to keep people on their services. I do believe Fubotv does have AT&T, but it has other deficiencies. Hopefully, that changes in the future and they will offer it on other services. What I do works, but it is definitely more complicated than just turning the channel to the game.

Just an FYI if you're looking for cheap. Spectrum is doing a thing where you get the local channels and 10 channels of your choice for $25 a month. It doesn't seem to work well with the Fire Stick though. And they are having the ABC problem apparently.

sahen said:

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VaeBear said:

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I've been looking for a streaming service. My biggest issue is only one has at&t sports (astros and rockets) but it doesn't have the espn channels.

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I buy the team package each year for the Astros from mlb.tv (85 bucks I think) and then I pay for a VPN called tunnelbear which is really cheap for a year (can't remember the price). I use the VPN and set it so that I appear to be outside of the Astros blackout area and I stream the Astros through my computer and hook it up to my TV. This is still much cheaper than cable or satellite when you look at the yearly cost. I dunno if the Rockets have anything like this but I would assume they do. I am not a big NBA fan and only watch the Rockets when they are on national tv.

AT&T seems to be playing hardball with their streaming services for sports and using it as a way to keep people on their services. I do believe Fubotv does have AT&T, but it has other deficiencies. Hopefully, that changes in the future and they will offer it on other services. What I do works, but it is definitely more complicated than just turning the channel to the game.

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Yeah Fubo has at&t sportsnet but not espn of all things.

We have PSVue, and it was between that and YouTubeTV. It ultimately came down to the fact the the Mrs. watches HGTV pretty religiously, and YouTube didn't have that channel as an option. I asked her if it was worth the extra $8-10 a month for HGTV and she replied it was, sooooo... that's what we went with.

Very happy so far with PSV, although the DVR option is a bit rinky dink as presently offered.

Meladee said:

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My mom has DirecTV and is paying too much. Can you share the customer retention number?

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877-999-1083. However, this may only work for Uverse. Good luck.

Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, the free CBS app.

TechDawgMc said:

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For those who are cord cutting and live in the Central Texas area, which of the services actually has the local ABC affiliate. While a lot claim "local networks", ABC seems to be a problem. And it's been a problem for a year now -- so I'm not really buying the "it'll be settled soon" idea coming from the services.

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Plug in an antenna to your TV and do an auto scan. You'll be surprised what pops up and the quality.

So for anyone that cares (apparently, not nearly enough people), Sony announced yesterday that they're pulling the plug (!) on PSVue.

YoutubeTV looks like my next best bet.

Mr Tulip said:

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So for anyone that cares (apparently, not nearly enough people), Sony announced yesterday that they're pulling the plug (!) on PSVue.

YoutubeTV looks like my next best bet.

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I had been on the fence about getting a new PS. Thanks for knocking me off.

Mr Tulip said:

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So for anyone that cares (apparently, not nearly enough people), Sony announced yesterday that they're pulling the plug (!) on PSVue.

YoutubeTV looks like my next best bet.

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I have really loved my PS Vue for the last year or so. This is pretty sad news.

so YoutubeTV is the best? Ever heard of Philo? Starting my search for a replacement.

Despite how well the team is doing, there is no replacement for Nia Philo.

None.

haha