Cutting The Cord on Cable TV and Going With Streaming Service?

[EagerBeaver]

I know some people who are doing the same thing with “Amazon Firesticks” in the US. This is essentially a gateway to piracy of copyrighted intellectual property - recent movies, TV shows. I questioned the user of one of these Amazon fire sticks and his response was, “if it’s illegal, then how are the Chinese able to sell it to me?” I don’t know if “China could sell it to me” is a legal defense recognized by any court. They have no control over how the device is used and it possibly has legal uses.

It sounds like piracy but the question is whether Canadian authorities will do anything about it.

 

[CaptRenault]

I know some people who are doing the same thing with “Amazon Firesticks” in the US..

An Amazon Firestick is just another brand/type of wireless receiver device that you connect to your TV. It does basically the same thing as a Roku, an Apple TV, a Google Chromecast or a bunch of other such devices. The advantage of the Firestick is that it's cheap compared to say, an Apple TV which is the most expensive such device. But not all devices will work with all broadcast TV services like Youtube TV. You have to check compatibility.

Any wireless receiver device for your TV can possibly be used to receive an illegal, pirated service like OK3 or others. There is no relationship between using a particular device and receiving a pirated/illegal streaming service.

It's comparable to computers--you don't need a special computer to do illegal things on it. Any computer will work fine for both legal and illegal activities! Same for wireless video streaming receivers connected to your TV. Although some wireless devices might be better suited to receiving an illegal service. I don't know, since I can afford to pay $50/month for a fully legal and legit service like Youtube TV.

 

[CaptRenault]

.
As for regular tv I just watch Netflix...,

Netflix is not "regular" TV. It's a streaming video service. It's wonderful and it gives you countless hours of shows, series, movies, documentaries, etc, all on demand.

"Regular TV" is broadcast TV, including live sports, live news, and other channels that broadcast live. Some people don't care about the content you get from broadcast TV and they are happy with Netflix, Prime, HBO, etc.

Eager asked about ways to get broadcast TV. Many people, including me, want both broadcast TV and streaming video services. But they are not directly comparable and Netflix in no way replaces the special live, content you get from a broadcast TV service. You can't watch the World Series, the Stanley Cup and NFL games on Netflix, Amazon Prime or HBO. Maybe that will change someday but not now.

 

[hungry101]

I spent the week in NYC. We watched college and pro football and MLB WS on Hulu Live. A HDMI3 cable was used to hook up to a Mac computer. We had to detach and reattach the HDMI cable to get the sound at the start of a broadcast. It would eventually work. About every 20 minutes to a half hour the screen saver of the Mac would appear and we would lose the picture and only have sound. I would have to get up and click on the Google Chrome Icon and the picture would reappear on the TV. What a pain in the ass but we had live sports and you didn't have to worry about blood clots from sitting too long. For 45$/month it beats the hell out of no live sports.

The curious thing is that we were using Hulu Live but the score icon on the TV said YouTube TV. You can tell I'm not a techie but when my contract is up for Direct TV, I will consider this.

 

[steed]

Try negotiating with your cable company . I got $ 50 off my phone/ cable/ internet package with Videotron . I had to listen to 55 minutes of ear bleed elevator music to reach a human but it was worth it . I pointed out that I was a old customer feeling abused after my bill had increased steadily . I said I would walk and send an e mail to PKP telling him why, if they didn't come up with a good deal immediately . The nice lady did some mumbo jumbo and came up with a new deal for $100 / month plus taxes .
Steed

 

[gll]

i cut the cable a couple years ago. i got a firestick from amazon for my streaming and set up an antenna that i bought over the internet for broadcast tv. i am saving a lot of money and still have all the channels i want- both sports and news channels. i started out by streaming live tv with direct tv now and then switched to hulu. i find hulu better than direct tv now. i get occasional pauses, which can be annoying, and i dont know whether this is due to the firestick, the streaming service or my internet provider- i suspect the internet provider. i will probably research this at some point because even an occasional pause is too many.

 

[Halloween Mike]

That’s all well and good, but if you like to watch live sports-NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA, MLB, F1, etc.- then you still need broadcast TV.

In all fairness i don't care for anything else than Hockey when it comes to Sports that is on TV. You can subscribe to some services on the internet that will let you watch every games of your club. I think with some of them you even get all games of the NHL period. Now if you are a sport fanatic and you enjoy all of them, i guess yeah you better get TV or something like that.

I used a website a few years ago that streamed every sports events for free. Not saying its not "shady" but it did the job. These days i barely watch hockey even (lack of time, something else to do) so im not really too much "a la page" on whats getting offered.

For news its all available on the internet, you really don't need TV at all.

Personally im more of a movie/series kinda guy, and i manage to watch all i wanna watch without the hassle of cable tv.

 

[chowzilla]

check out ipTv its very cheap, and they give you so many channels it’s ridiculous

 

[RomSh85]

I cut the cord with DirecTV a couple of months ago after fifteen years (!) of continuous service with them. I really think they should get in on the action and pursue a streaming-only option for consumers. I've got a Firestick and use some torrent sites with great success here https://www.firesticktricks.com/best-torrent-sites.html.

 

[Adnan Khashoggi]

I did a quick check on the net, evidently they are cracking down on illegal IPTV in the states.

 

[LeBoudoir]

Thank god we're in Canada

 

[TheBlob]

My way to enjoy television for the past 2 year is an 80$ android box, a couple of free apps to get movies and a paid iptv service for 12$ a month with over 2000 channels (us-canada and international) and I get all the NHL - NFL - NBA - MLB games and all ppv events such as UFC in HD included. Never going back to cable again!

Same setup for me. Works A1. Using an Amazon Firestick 4k which is Android based, paid 60$.

 

[Сonker]

No reason to pay for cable in this day and age. Here are some sites where you can watch for free. Some of these are not available in Canada, but you can be accessed through a VPN

Sony Crackle https://www.sonycrackle.com/
Yahoo View https://view.yahoo.com/
Pluto TV http://pluto.tv/
Tubi https://tubitv.com/
Popcornflix https://www.popcornflix.com/pages/tv-...
CW TV http://www.cwtv.com/
CW Seed http://www.cwseed.com/
Snagfilms https://www.snagfilms.com/shows
Xumo https://www.xumo.tv/
The Roku Channel https://therokuchannel.roku.com/

 

[Element 115]

I was looking into cutting the cable myself, but I will wait for a big reputable company to come to Canada before I take the dive.

 

[EagerBeaver]

So I started my free trial of YouTube TV. This was very easy to do. It's actually a 14 day free trial, not 5 days as I previously read and reported earlier in the the thread. So it expires 11/21/19. I downloaded the You Tube TV App on my iPhone and then started a YouTubeTV account, using my Google Mail account. Once the account was set up, my Smart TV, which also had the Youtube TV App, gave me a code to enter on my iPhone. Once I entered the Code in the YouTubeTV account on my iPhone, my YouTubeTV account then opened on Smart TV. Automatically, the account on my iPhone synched with the Smart TV. Very cool! I was able to navigate to the channels I wanted just using voice commands. I popped open SNY just by telling the TV, "SNY." However, SNY will be for tomorrow night's UConn basketball opener. For tonight, I watched a bizarre horror movie called "Get Out." A really weird movie. Anyway, the stream is perfect.

I am all set to cut the cord, NOW. Only one problem. I have a package of Cable and internet with Frontier. Obviously, I need to cut the Cable but keep the Internet. The funny thing is, on my bill, the Internet service charge is not itemized, it's bundled with the Cable, so I don't know exactly what component of the $185 monthly bill is Cable and what component is Internet. I am not exactly sure why this is the case but I am going to call and ask them to send me a bill that itemizes the charges. I am guessing it's like $110 cable/$75 internet- approximately. But the Internet is not sales taxed whereas the Cable is, so I do not understand why they can do this and whether I have been getting stuck with taxes I should not be paying.

 

[Numerati]

I had cable. Way back in the late 90s early 2000s when I needed CNBC and Bloomberg TV for stock quotes and news. Once streaming quotes became mainstream I didn't need it anymore. Plus I don't watch that much TV anyways as I find it to be a time wasting killer of luck and fortune. Now if I wanted to watch anything I just used torrents.

 

[Sal Bass]

Can you tell me where you get your streaming quotes?

 

[Albacor]

You have only one pair of eyes, and can watch only one channel or one movie at a time, so why are you paying for the other 200 channels which you don't watch ? think about it ! cut it man !

 

[EagerBeaver]

Can you tell me where you get your streaming quotes?

You might want to look at this comparative analysis:

https://www.pcmag.com/roundup/370908/the-best-live-tv-streaming-services

 

[Numerati]

Can you tell me where you get your streaming quotes?

Just open an online brokerage account and streaming quotes is available to you.