Mods please merge this into another thread or move to the appropriate area if need be. I didn't see any threads specifically devoted to US people cutting the cable. Who reading this thread has cut the cable? How has it been so far? If you are a diehard US national team fan who wants to tune into every single US match played have you had any problems? What do you supplement the loss of cable with--over the air antennae, streaming services etc? I'm in a pickle. The over the air signals in San Jose, amongst the tenth most populous US cities, sucks to high heaven. No CBS, NBC, FOX or ABC for me, but I do get Univision and Unimas. I have to have my soccer, so MLS Live, NBC Sports, Fox Sports and ESPN1 and 2 are a must. I also can't live without AMC and Discovery. I suppose I'm looking for the opinion of anyone who lives in the US, not necessarily US soccer fans, MLS fans etc.
Have you ran your address through http://www.tvfool.com/ to see what you should get. You might just need a better antenna and/or an amplifier. If that sight says you can't get anything, I feel your pain. In between my house and the LA broadcast towers are a couple of very large hills, so I can't get anything. Sling TV has ESPN1 and 2 and AMC. I don't know of any alternative that would give you NBC Sports and Fox Sports, though with Fox you can at least sign up for Fox Soccer 2 Go. But now your already up to $40/month and you still don't have NBC Sports or Discovery.
Sling TV isnt the be all end all but for 20 bucks/month you get ESPN and ESPN 2 with a bundle of other channels included... For 5 bucks a month more you can also get BeIN sport in Spanish/English as well as the UDN network. Not the be all end all but it does fill a good chunk of the soccer need.
Thanks for the response. Yes, I've been to tvfool.com to have a look at the possibilities, and even if you are in the most ideal location in San Jose they have most of the major networks coming with below excellent signals. I happen to live in an apartment with all kinds of other buildings around so I struggle to even get the few channels I mentioned. I've tried outdoor and indoor antennae, and aimed them in about every direction possible. Sling TV does seem like an option that would probably get me a lot of what I want, although I'd have to combine it with Hulu+ to get NBC, ABC etc. I do have an Apple TV that has Apps for NBC, ABC etc, but I'm not sure if you have to have a cable subscription for them to work.
I think you only need a cable subscription to watch live. For (most) archived episodes you should be able to watch without one.
If you are a sports fan, and have no desire to use illegal streams, it's not easy to "come out ahead" by cord-cutting
I have also been thinking long and hard about this last couple of months after seeing my comcast bill hit $200. (There are lots of things in there, not only soccer). Looking at the option, sling looks the best. For $25, you can get everything but NBCSN and FOX Sports. You still get ton of soccer but lose some big things. I have been waiting for Bundesliga a long time. If I could get NBCSN without cable for hockey and soccer, I would jump on it. The other thing is relying on the internet can suck sometime.
Yeah, I wish there was a satellite service that was sports only. Even if it were around $50/month it'd be a decent deal if we got all the (English and Spanish language) sports networks and the individual league networks.
True. I don't mind playing the retention game every few months. $35 off TV, $15 off per internet adds up. Throw in some free HBO/Cinemax on occasion and I'll take that "more channels for the same price" game as well. I guess what someone could do which is probably a gray area at worst would be to find a buddy, get them to install a Slingbox on a backup TV, have them get the "everything" package and share the bill. After the retentions game, I'm guessing it would probably be between $75-$90 per person. It would be the equivalent of "sharing the password" only you may be getting full DVR controls instead of just streaming access. And why people share their master password is anyone's guess. I'd just set up a secondary account for probably a small fee, but that's just me.
Ok, I've done some playing around with my Apple TV. With the apps for ABC and Fox there are limited programs that you can watch without a cable description. If you want to watch a lot of older episodes of shows, and even some current ones they require you to authenticate by getting on your computer and logging into your cable account. That kind of blows, but me old Mum has a ATT U-verse cable subscription so..... I think I'm going to still cut the chord though as I've invested in a "enhanced" razor thin antennae for $29. So far I'm getting Fox, CBS, Univision, Unimas--and sometimes ABC/NBC.
Anyone know anything more about FuboTV? From looking on their website briefly it looks like it connects to other online sites and you can stream content thru it. Is it free? Seems too good to be true. What's the down side? Do you have to have a cable subscription to get the content thru it? I'm cutting the cord later this month and just trying to gather all my options.
For anyone who has cut the cable, have you invested in a DVR that can record over the air antennae transmissions? I've looked around on the web a bit and seen some expensive options but don't know if they are really worth it. Here's a little update on my cable-cutting experience: I'm over one month into cutting the cable and it has been far easier than I'd imagined. Here's what I've been doing: 1. I bought this non-amplified, razor-thin antenna http://www.shopyourway.com/alphaline-enhanced-indoor-hd-antenna-se-5000/326326371 for $25.00 at Sears (was on clearance). I did manage to get Fox, PBS and a few other non-major network channels. I then went out and invested in an amplifier from Walmart for $12. This did the trick. I now get all of the major networks, Telemundo, Univision and Unimas. It does help that I live in the Bay Area and we have a lot of overlapping towers from the various cities. I'm finding that the signals on some channels are going to be dodgy no matter what you do. It's a bit frustrating, as I sometimes have to move the antenna around, but the experience has been more than satisfactory. I was able to watch nearly all of the US Women's World Cup games and am very happy that Unimas is showing all of the USA and Mexico Gold Cup games. 2. I use my Apple TV for watching MLS Live which has been great of course. For blackout games, I use the sneaky Chrome App on my laptop which gets you around that. The Network TV Apps for Apple TV are really only worth something if you can't get any channels with your antenna. You can get some news, maybe some of the primetime stuff(especially ABC) but Apps such as Fox Now are frustrating because they require a cable account to view certain programming. I don't stream Netflix or do Hulu because I don't have the time. 3. Many of the tv stations also stream stuff directly from their website. I don't like to do this because of all the commercials, but Univision, Unimas, Telemundo have a lot of streams for those interested US national team soccer. Thus far I haven't looked into SlingTV or any other similar services because I'm getting most of what I want.
FuboTV is $6.99 per month. You do NOT have to have any cable/satellite subscriptions to receive their service. Its stand-alone as far as any TV providers are concerned. You can get it via different devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire, AppleTV, etc. With FuboTV you get: both beINSports channels, GOL-TV, SporTVAmerica (Portuguese), Benfica Channel, Dortmund Channel, Ajax Channel, Everton Channel, Football Report TV (note: the "Channel" networks do NOT provide live matches for their teams but you will have pretty much all of their matches on delay). The picture quality is HD. You will find it just a notch below what you get with satellite or cable. Occasional buffering but overall very reliable. For cord cutters, I would safely say very much worth the monthly cost. You may want to also take a look at Sling Int'l (DishWorld) which also offers the 2 beIN channels along with One World Sport for $9/month. There is plain SlingTV which offers beIN-English, Univision, ESPN, ESPN2 as well as ESPNWatch service. I believe its running around $25/month. As you can see by just the 3 examples above, there is a lot of pick-and-choosing as no service provides "all" the soccer channels. Cutting out your cable/satellite altogether leaves you in the dark for NBCSN's Live Extra service for example. If you start picking all of the smaller packages to get everything you want, you're costs will run up to damn near what you may be paying for cable/satellite now. In other words, we are not quite there yet. If you have your favorite leagues and don't mind missing some stuff, then cord cutting is a good option. Just make sure you have the internet speed. As a final note, several of my friends have now gone the "Int'l IPTV" route. There are services (via computer or inexpensive boxes) that get you 200-300 channels from Europe with all of the major Sports channels (Sky, BTSport from UK; Sky Bundesliga; Sky Calcio; FoxSports Netherlands; beIN-France channels, etc.) in HD quality (slightly BETTER than FuboTV on Roku, for example). Prices run from $25 to $50 per month. Just make sure you go with a service that is reliable and been around for a while. Hope this helps, SA www.soccertvblog.com
Just to note that SporTV America is not in the $6.99 per month package. You have to get a special package that includes it which costs about $10 per month more. (Total waste unless you need Portuguese second division given that NGSN carries Primeira Liga for much less.) Additionally, fubo actually did show Dortmund games live during the rare times that the games weren't picked for GolTV. With the Bundesliga moving to Fox, it's almost a certainty that this will no longer be the case and that Dortmund games will only be available on 48-hour delay.
I've also been looking at Sling TV and there is quite a bit of negative comments about it online that it buffers all the time and makes it impossible to watch. Anyone have more personal experience with it?
On the DVR issue: I have an old Intel Core2 Dell that I picked up surplus for $40. I decided to upgrade the graphics card to be hdmi-compatable (used on ebay, $15) and hard drive (250gb used on ebay $30). I bought a SiliconDust HDHomerun with two tuners (about $70). I had an antenna that I plug into the HDHomerun. I put a variant of Ubuntu as the OS on the computer, MythTV as the DVR software and XBMC as the viewer. It works great as an over-the-air DVR and was relatively easy to set up.
Thanks, looks like I may actually have a use for my old desktop after all. I looked into something Tivo has but see that they make you pay a monthly fee for some services that you may not find useful. Also, I did see that there were possibilities of using a PS3 (which I have) in combination with an add-on device, but it's not available in the US
Do you have any of the IPTV services you can recommend, or your friends would recommend? I'm interested in this.
There are many but few reliable. Here is one I use and have no complaints whatsoever... http://ziggyiptv.co.uk/ SA
Thanks, I set it up through Kodi on my Mac Mini, which is hooked up to an HDTV in the living room. Got the 48 hour trial and so far, so good. I plan on digging in deeper.
So last night, while fiddling on my iPad, I had the Italian version of Sky Sports News 24 HD on, using the ziggy iptv. It was great just having it on as background noise, I could do what I was doing on the iPad, while still hearing what they were talking about. I have to admit, I could get used to this iptv stuff, especially when the various leagues start. My only complaint is that some channels don't work, but all of the sports channels seem to work, which is really what I want it for.
Yeah, watching Bayern v Inter Milan from Shanghai now on Sky (why didn't anybody pick this game up in the US?). You can get pretty spoiled with this service! As far as some channels not working, its true that some come and go but with 600+ channels you have to expect some inconsistencies. Amazing to think where this technology will be in a few years time! SA www.soccertvblog.com
I'm having freezing issues with my IPTV provider, but the one thing that does work and is a huge benefit is the catchup TV function.. No need to DVR matches. I haven't seen other IPTV providers provide this.. I checked Ziggyiptv website and I didn't see anything, just curious on other people's thoughts on this. Cantona----
Just cut the cord today. I'll have to stay on top of this thread to check on my footy options. I've seen people post about the Argentine league's youtube channel. Is that futbol para todos?
Yes, its the futbol para todos. NGSN is a great source for Argentine league (and much better picture quality compared to the YouTube channel). As far as IPTV, SporTV/Portugal shows Argentine football and its available on the above mentioned 'Ziggy' service in HD. SA www.soccertvblog.com