Cut the Cable? YouTubeTV, Hulu+, DirectTV Streaming???

[CGWildcat]

We've been streaming a few years after ditching DTV. We settled on YoutubeTV and really enjoy it.

We use Comcast for internet @80/mth 1gig.

[CitizenBBN]

That's not surprising, 500 over the current WiFi technologies (even 802.11ax) is extremely difficult unless you are directly by the router and/or using extremely wide channel settings. In general, 100-400 is far more typical once you are outside the room in which the router is in depending on how far away you are physically and what the walls are made out of.

Which is why I'm still hardwiring as much as possible. I'm fortunate as I planned for this 25 years ago when rehabbing the house, and I have good access most places anyway due to the structure, but I love hard wiring whenever possible. I pre-ran Cat 5 (the standard at the time) and coax in various places throughout the house while the walls were open.

Esp. for network and security it is faster, more reliable and for me at least worth it in the long term. I used to build wireless backbones and it's great for certain situations, we could even do mile long stuff from station to station and it worked great but mostly b/c the data bandwidth we needed was small.

It's not possible everywhere, but where it is I can pull some wire pretty fast in most cases.

I agree completely on your numbers on wifi effective bandwidth. It drops quickly with any interference or structure. It's still blazingly fast compared to the old days (I started with serial 900Mhz radios plugging into DB9 ports lol), but still not going to match a wired connection right now.

Also as the Mhz goes up so does the impact of structures, as you well know. My old 900Mhz stuff could go a mile or more with the right antennas. I guess it's a plus modern standards don't carry too far, but every wall is a bigger deal than ever too. I get a big difference on my newer Zyxel AP just taking it out of the basement stairway and putting it in the hallway. Workable either way for things like a phone, but a big difference in signal/throughput with just one wall.

[KentuckyWildcat]

I'm fortunate as I planned for this 25 years ago when rehabbing the house

I ran conduit from under the floor (basement) to any place I thought I might need a wire in the future. I really planned ahead, except, I forgot the most important piece of conduit in my closet from my patch panel...#facepalm

I just got busy getting the house finished and completely forgot. I could still do it, but haven't needed to. But it sure would have been easier before the drywall. lol

[KSRBEvans]

We recently got another price increase with DirecTV Stream, so we tried YouTube TV and decided to stay with it and cancel the DirecTV service. Stability is better through my Fire Stick, love the unlimited DVR and the price is about $25 less/month. We don't get Magnolia TV or History Channel anymore, but we didn't watch either channel very much, anyway.

[VirginiaCat]

Guys, quick question. Do any of you have your own router/wifi rather than paying Xfinity? Looks like I am paying Xfinity $15 per month for the router and another $10 for the set top box.....

[PedroDaGr8]

Guys, quick question. Do any of you have your own router/wifi rather than paying Xfinity? Looks like I am paying Xfinity $15 per month for the router and another $10 for the set top box.....

I almost never rent the router from the ISP. Xfinity routers are honestly solid but there are better options. That being said, there is no "one size fits all" and the recommended components will depend on the size/layout of your place.

[KentuckyWildcat]

I have my own. I did by a model that I know Xfinity supports so they could not blame anything on my hardware.

[dan_bgblue]

Boy, howdy, and I am happy camper right now. AT&T laid a fiber line in our subdivision back in the summer of 2022 . They sent a salesman around about a month ago, and my wife, who hated dealing with Spectrum and relished the idea of making that phone call to them and telling them to come rip their crap out and then hanging up without letting them go thru the song and dance about giving us special deals because we were such special customers, blah, blah, blah.

Got AT&T hooked up 2 weeks ago, and I am a happy camper. 450 megs down and 390 megs up. Spectrum was normally 215 down and 55 up for an additional 35 dollars per month over AT&T, and the AT&T rate is set in stone for 3 years.

We have Apple TV, then Hulu without adds, and the Disney+ ESPN+ bundle, and some other stuff for the grand kids that she does not even tell me about. The only UK sporting event that I have missed that I wanted to see was the UK baseball game vs WKU this year, and that was because SEC+ did not have a camera in the ball park in BG for that game.

Happy Dan

[PedroDaGr8]

Boy, howdy, and I am happy camper right now. AT&T laid a fiber line in our subdivision back in the summer of 2022 . They sent a salesman around about a month ago, and my wife, who hated dealing with Spectrum and relished the idea of making that phone call to them and telling them to come rip their crap out and then hanging up without letting them go thru the song and dance about giving us special deals because we were such special customers, blah, blah, blah.

Got AT&T hooked up 2 weeks ago, and I am a happy camper. 450 megs down and 390 megs up. Spectrum was normally 215 down and 55 up for an additional 35 dollars per month over AT&T, and the AT&T rate is set in stone for 3 years.

We have Apple TV, then Hulu without adds, and the Disney+ ESPN+ bundle, and some other stuff for the grand kids that she does not even tell me about. The only UK sporting event that I have missed that I wanted to see was the UK baseball game vs WKU this year, and that was because SEC+ did not have a camera in the ball park in BG for that game.

Happy Dan

Isn't it amazing how much better fiber is than cable? My local ISP has been going nuts with upgrading their fiber tiers. They just launched a 10gig/10gig option which is basically a fiber ethernet connection right into one of their routers for $300/mo (which is actually a steal all things considered). Way overkill for myself but for some the tech workers around here it makes sense.

We are pretty similar except we use YouTubeTV and haven't missed much at all.

[CitizenBBN]

Isn't it amazing how much better fiber is than cable? My local ISP has been going nuts with upgrading their fiber tiers. They just launched a 10gig/10gig option which is basically a fiber ethernet connection right into one of their routers for $300/mo (which is actually a steal all things considered). Way overkill for myself but for some the tech workers around here it makes sense.

We are pretty similar except we use YouTubeTV and haven't missed much at all.

lol, my routers can't even do 10G at the wan. I guess that would be a good problem to have, so much bandwidth your endpoint equipment can't handle it.

I'm running peplink routers that I really like. Way easier to work with than Cisco style stuff, and their higher end models like mine are gigabit at the wan, and they have a proprietary vpn I can run between locations that is pretty good.

insane to think of 10gigs, but cool.

[dan_bgblue]

Heck fire, 10gig service would load pages the day before I asked for them.

[JPScott]

You have to upgrade the Disney channel to get ESPN plus to get SEC network plus. I really wish Disney would lose enough money on their ESPN venture that they would sell it to someone that cares about sports. It is the same for all streaming services

I started looking into cutting the cable. Currently I use Verizon Fios for both internet and TV. I will definitely keep Fios for internet but considering cutting the TV. But I do need access to SEC Network during the football and basketball seasons.

I already have a Disney+ subscription for my children so I was thinking of upgrading that to Disney/Hulu/ESPN+ but the text is a little strange about whether this gives me access to SEC Network or not. (i.e. it seems to suggest that I still need to subscribe to SEC Network through an approved cable or satellite subscription, which defeats the purpose of cutting the cable in the first place.)

Here's one support article, it's clear as mud.

Does anyone have experience or advice accessing SEC Network without going through a cable or satellite subscription? Note that I'm outside the normal SEC Network footprint which may play a role in what my options are.

[dan_bgblue]

FWIW, and this may not be worth much, we use Apple TV and AT&T internet service, as our TV provider and we use Hulu (with ads) + Live TV which includes Disney + and ESPN +as our streaming service.

HULU is owned by Disney so they bundle ESPN, SECN, and Disney channel together at a fair rate. The HULU regular package comes with ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN News, ESPNU, SECN, BIGO, and ACC network With our KY zip code and mailing address the SECN + comes with the Hulu (with ads) + Live TV which includes Disney + and ESPN + and SECN+ streaming service it also gives me the a ton of contests from all over the country in multiple conference networks for their regularly scheduled televised games. As an example, with ESPN+ today, I could watch Ball State vs Indiana ST baseball, MTSU vs SEMO baseball etc.

The SECN+ service gives me access to 95% of the SEC basketball contests, baseball games and football games. I also get access to 75-80% of the ladies volleyball matches. The way I see it is if ESPN puts a camera at the sporting event in the SEC, I can watch it. If there is a conflict between volleyball and basketball, SECN+ provides a stream for both.

IF you can get thru to Hulu customer service they can answer questions about seeing SECN+ broadcasts outside the SEC footprint. I was looking at some info on line this morning so I would not give you bad info, and saw where if you buy Hulu with the Disney+ package described above you can watch SEC contests all over the USA and in many foreign countries, not all , but many.

I hope that provided some clarity for your questions, but if not, just task a specific question and I will be glad to try and answer it. BTW the service I have gotten from Hulu ESPN+ and SECN+ has been outstanding for the last 2 years or so. If my internet feed goes down, so does my TV, but other than that as long as I have had juice at the house I have had quality streaming service, and the streamed images are outstanding.

[JPScott]

Thanks for the reply. Some of the confusion is probably between SEC Network+ vs. just SEC Network. I don’t know that I necessarily need the + as much as just have access to SEC Network. But maybe because I’m trying to access without a formal TV provider by definition that means SEC Network+? I’ll definitely need to call customer service before committing to anything but I appreciate the feedback.

[dan_bgblue]

I "think" the regular SEC network is part of the regular Hulu package. I know it is for my footprint viewership. I am almost positive that if you choose to upgrade to Disney plus, then all ESPN (which includes the SECN as ESPN owns that) channels automatically upgrade to the + version. Advantage of SECN+ is that if the SEC game of the week on Tuesday and Thursday night happens to not include UK's games, you will not see them. If you have SECN+ you will have access to those UK games via the + menu under the ESPN basketball menu.


Info at this link may help

Another website with some More SECN and SECN+ info

I think Darrell has Youtube as his streaming service so he might be able to give you info on it. He has posted that he does not miss any UK games with his package.

[Darrell KSR]

YouTubeTV is a pretty good compromise. It gives you SEC Network, ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS Sports, NBA TV, etc. I thought I had some issue with finding a game on SEC Network+ once, but just googling around on ESPN Support channel, it says that YouTubeTV has SEC Network+, and that it is complementary to SEC Network and part of your subscription, so it probably related to me finding it on my TV instead of my computer, which makes sense.

[PedroDaGr8]

lol, my routers can't even do 10G at the wan. I guess that would be a good problem to have, so much bandwidth your endpoint equipment can't handle it.

I'm running peplink routers that I really like. Way easier to work with than Cisco style stuff, and their higher end models like mine are gigabit at the wan, and they have a proprietary vpn I can run between locations that is pretty good.

insane to think of 10gigs, but cool.

Heck fire, 10gig service would load pages the day before I asked for them.

Didn't get notified of these responses for some reason. It's pretty crazy to think that we are quickly entering an era where your network connection is faster than your network (at least we are if you are in any small/medium sized city).

Thanks for the reply. Some of the confusion is probably between SEC Network+ vs. just SEC Network. I don’t know that I necessarily need the + as much as just have access to SEC Network. But maybe because I’m trying to access without a formal TV provider by definition that means SEC Network+? I’ll definitely need to call customer service before committing to anything but I appreciate the feedback.

From what I can tell, you can ONLY get access to the SEC network via a television provider. A television provider is not the same thing as a cable or satellite subscription. In my case, I use YouTubeTV which doesn't require a subscription (you can keep it for certain months and drop it for others) but there are other options like HULU Live TV, FuboTV, SlingTV, etc. Access to SEC Network automatically gives you access to SEC+.

[bigsky]

I can get 10g/10g if ai want to pay a little bit more. But I can’t imagine needing more than 1g/1g right now. Were I participating in modeling warp drive modules with MIT and Cal Tech simultaneously with super cooled AI maybe I’d level up.

[dan_bgblue]

Is Geordi in your modeling group?

[dan_bgblue]

Guys, quick question. Do any of you have your own router/wifi rather than paying Xfinity? Looks like I am paying Xfinity $15 per month for the router and another $10 for the set top box.....

The new fiber service we have with AT&T comes with the modem/router as one unit. I could get a separate router I suppose, if I wanted to, but currently my email is arriving a day early, so I do not think I need it.