Has anyone taken the plunge?
I have the Xfinity Triple play and with "up to" 1200mbps internet. But by the time they charge for the box, modem, taxes, etc. it costs $275 per month.
I can get the 1200mbps for $105 through them (my only high speed option).
YTTV is $65/MO but with the add on for HBO/Max it is $90 with modem Then I have to add NetFlix to make it the same. So, total cost is $215.
Current plan also includes phone but that is not important.
So, have you guys changed?
I use youtubetv with sports family plan up to four people same town different households
Thankfully, my local ISP doesn't want to be in the TV game anymore. They provide 1gig/1gig symmetric for $80/mo and recommend everyone use a streaming provider.
I use YouTubeTV as well and really like it. It works perfectly both at home and on the go. Additionally, it integrates REALLY REALLY well with my Google Chromecast giving an almost cable box like experience.
I will note, if you are with T-Mobile, you might be able to get a $10/mo coupon for YouTubeTV
Last edited by PedroDaGr8; 01-25-2023 at 05:40 PM.
I've used DirecTV Stream for a few years and I like it. It has an interface similar to DirecTV, so if you're familiar with that you won't have much of a learning curve.
My DVR only holds 20 hours--I can upgrade for $10/month, but I think it's a ripoff they charge for that, so I stick with my 20. It's my understanding that YouTubeTV has unlimited DVR.
U really think players are going to duke without being paid over Kentucky?--Gilbert Arenas, 9/12/19
Originally Posted by bigsky
All of you guys Out of State. How is your UK Sports coverage? Especially Football?
I have bought ESPN+ for a month once or twice to get Montana State games. And iirc, Kentucky is in the same boat every once in a while. However, youtubetv is better than hulu for sports from every analysis I have read.
We have places in KY and FL and use DirecTV Stream in both. Our plan gives us the ESPN channels, SEC Network and local network channels, so I get good UK sports coverage. The only thing I don't like is when a game is on SEC+, but I don't think my streaming service is the issue there.
Last edited by KSRBEvans; 01-26-2023 at 12:38 PM.
U really think players are going to duke without being paid over Kentucky?--Gilbert Arenas, 9/12/19
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
seeya
dan
I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.
I think YouTubeTV gets me almost every Kentucky game. I can't remember, but I think last year I missed one that was on a channel they didn't carry.
For my ISP, I currently have both Spectrum cable ISP and T-mobile home internet. I pay $100 for one, and $25 for the other. The T-mobile one was a special deal that is $50 now, and I like it, but I am not sure it is as stable as I need it to be for my Zoom meetings and videos I do, so I haven't abandoned Spectrum cable yet, although that was the plan. I may end up keeping both and moving T-mobile to my office, where the internet is super slow provided by my landlord, and I always use my Hotspot anyway.
Hmm. I didn't know that about the coupon. I may or may not be eligible for it, but I am going to check it out.
ESPN+ on Youtubetv would be my question. Right now we have Hulu+ bundled with Disney and ESPN+, but it's pricey. I really only have it for UK games and may give it up for those + games and just be OK not seeing them. I almost never watch the Disney programs or Hulu as we rarely watch TV, so it's really not much worth it for us.
I'd love a cheap option that just gives us UK sports. I barely need anything else.
People keep asking if I'm back and I haven't really had an answer. But now, yeah, I'm thinkin' I'm back.
I don't think YouTubeTV has that. That's the one that required something extra, I think. I believe I had it through my son but couldn't figure out how to get it to work, so I just gave up and listened to the game.
I'm about to that point. The "big" games are on the regular channels, and we use the rest of it so little I think I'm just going to scale way back.
People keep asking if I'm back and I haven't really had an answer. But now, yeah, I'm thinkin' I'm back.
I checked out Pedro's tip on T-Mobile and YouTubeTV. It looks like it was originally a $10 off for 12 months, but they quietly allow you to renew it as well, so it's still ongoing.
Unfortunately, I have a business account with them and do not qualify for that benefit. I get plenty of benefits with the account I have, though, so I'm not irritated. Have 8 lines and complete unlimited everything on my main line, including hotspot, and the 5G works great in every area I visit; the T-mobile internet is fast and cheap (just like I used to like my wom...no, I won't go there), although not quite as consistent as I'd like (again, like my wom...no, I still won't go there), and they've bent over backward (still not going there) to take care of any issue I've ever had. I've been with them/their predecessor companies, Powertel and VoiceStream, since 1996, so they do a pretty good job of caring for the issues.
I only have YouTubeTV because I split it with a friend. Not sure when I last watched it outside of a UK game (last election probably). And I rarely watch those live if I even get to watch. The last few years, I have generally been able to watch the UK games on YouTube if I don't watch them live and that is what I prefer anyway.
Excellent for football. If I remember correctly, I think all of the games except the first one were on one of the standard channels (ESPN2/ESPNU/ESPNews/SECN). As such, you could stick with standard YouTubeTV subscription and get everything.
We ended up getting ESPN+ to watch UK volleyball and some of the basketball games. In a strange quirk, because the old Sprint plan I am on (which I refuse to give up until I am forced off of it due to the price and all of the benefits) includes a free "Hulu with Ads" subscription, I am able to get the Disney+ bundle for cheaper than the ESPN+ subscription would have cost on its own. So yeah, for now, we pay less than $70/mo for YouTubeTV, Hulu with Ads (never watch it because the ads are HORRIBLY annoying), Disney+ (wife watches it occasionally for Asian shows), and ESPN+. This more than serves all of our media consumption needs.
This is correct, it's really nice being able to just schedule whatever to record and not even think about it. I have it setup to record all of the UK Football games, Basketball games, USMNT Soccer Games, etc.
Last edited by PedroDaGr8; 01-27-2023 at 11:31 AM.
Looks like I have 5G available through TMobile. I am intrigued if I can really get it for $50 a month. Are any of you gamers? We use our PS5 online a lot and wondering how robust that TMobile 5G is?
I can get the TMobile home and YouTubeTV for $110 (with taxes). I can add the Entertainment + for YTTV for $30. and then Pay for Disney Package with ESPN+ for $14 and NetFlix for $20. Total cost is $169.
I am currently paying over $300 for all that.
But is TMobile Robust enough?
Last edited by VirginiaCat; 01-27-2023 at 12:29 PM.
Depends on your area as to whether it's robust enough. Won't know without trying as well.
Good news is, IIRC, they give you a 14-day free trial period. That's how I ended up with two internet providers I still have. I'm one room over, and checked before making this post, got 136 download, 9 upload. I think upload is more important for gaming. It's not uber-blooming fast, but fast enough, but the question for me is how stable is it. I'm not sure it's more stable than the Charter/Spectrum internet I have, so I've kept both.
Just checked Charter/Spectrum, but I'm several rooms away from it, and it was 88 download, 22 upload. I think the upload is the most important (Pedro, correct me if I'm wrong) for things like Zoom conferencing, etc., which I do multiple times a week.
I'm going to go into the room with the Charter/Spectrum and see what it is closer...will come back and edit this.
Edit: next to router, Charter/Spectrum was 234 down, 22.5 up. The upload is pretty consistent for me no matter where I am in my house, and that's the most important for me.
Meanwhile, I checked T-Mobile again. Download still 130's, but upload down to 2.61. That's why I'm just too hesitant to pull the trigger on relying on that solely.
I have super slow internet at my office, where I rarely do any videoconferencing or videos, so I may just take it and put it there.
Last edited by Darrell KSR; 01-27-2023 at 01:10 PM.
Does Xfinity not have the 900mbps plan in your area? That was on sale for a while here. I forget what I am paying, but it isn't bad. I think $60 for two years. I had to get it through their app.
Read an article, and I'm not even exactly correct on the upload speed being an issue. Basically, even for gaming, download and upload speed isn't really the concern--if you have 25 download, 3 upload, you are probably fine. The key is the latency.
Here’s the short answer: You don’t need a lot of speed to play games online. In fact, all you need is a 5 Mbps connection or faster. That’s it. Case closed.
But don’t leave us just yet. Speed shouldn’t be your only concern. There’s a lot more to a good online gaming experience than signing up for the fastest internet plan on the planet. You need a connection with low latency too, as no amount of speed will eliminate laggy gameplay if your latency ranges into hundreds of milliseconds.
https://www.highspeedinternet.com/re...-online-gaming
The article suggests a minimum download/upload/max latency of the following for gaming:
Nintendo Switch: 3 down, 1 up, n/a latency
Xbox: 3 down, 0.5 up,, 150ms latency
PlayStation 2 down, 2 up, n/a latency
Stream: 1 down, 1 up, n/a latency
It says if you want a consistent online experience you need a slightly better connection than that. They recommend 5 down, 3 up, and latency 100ms or lower.
Both T-Mobile and Charter/Spectrum tests I ran gave me latency from 23-29ms. They give a chart for various providers (probably won't come out very well posting it below):
Connection type Download speeds Latency7 Providers
Fiber 50–10,000 Mbps (10 Gbps) 11–14 ms Google Fiber , Verizon , AT&T , Frontier , CenturyLink
Cable 15–1,200 Mbps (1.2 Gbps) 15–35 ms Xfinity , Cox , Spectrum , Optimum
DSL 1–100 Mbps 25–43 ms CenturyLink , Verizon , AT&T , Windstream
5g 25–1,000 Mbps (1 Gbps) - Verizon , AT&T , T-Mobile
4G LTE 4–100 Mbps - Verizon , T-Mobile
Fixed Wireless 10–1,000 Mbps (1 Gbps) - Rise , Windstream , AT&T
Satellite 12–200 Mbps 594–624 ms Viasat , HughesNet
Consistent and reliable latency data is difficult to gather. The FCC was a source for some of the most comprehensive studies of internet latency. However, the agency has since stopped including latency in its annual broadband reports, so newer technologies like 5G and home 4G LTE are not included.
Although 5G is still an emerging wireless technology—especially its gigabit millimeter-wave connections—it promises to have lower latency than any other wireless connection. 4G and 4G LTE connections generally have much more lag than wired connections but are capable of reaching our recommended latency of below 100 ms.
https://www.highspeedinternet.com/re...-online-gaming
OK, with the 5G is there a wired connection? if so is it faster?
As far as I know, there's an ethernet plug in the back of it. But 5G won't be as fast as cable or fiber optics.
I pay for 500GB for Spectrum and whatever I get for T-Mobile. Ordered a new modem from Spectrum this morning which is supposed to make it more stable. Yesterday for some inexplicable reason, it went down about 9pm and was still down at midnight when I went to bed. Hopefully their new modem--which they had literally just notified us 2 days before for us to get (it's free) to upgrade--will remedyh that problem.
I'll do a quick test.
Spectrum, 96.6 download, 18.9 upload.
T-Mobile 122.8, 11.3 upload. Upload is more important to me, so for now, I'm still keeping both.
FWIW, I'm 3 rooms away from Spectrum modem/router, and only 1 room away from T-Mobile, so I'd expect it to be better. I'm hopeful when I get the new Spectrum modem my speeds from here (where I am mainly) will go way up.
I do have an ethernet line running to my downstairs office--well, I call it my office. When my son lived here, it was his office, and it has not yet been fully converted into my office. I am looking forward to having consistent speed when I finally start using that office more.
20 up 500 down. But my friend’s company has rights to the city’s fiber and for $80 I’ll have 1g up and 1g down. Or $55 and 500m up and down.
I have wire thru the house but may need a switch by the tv/game/apple/5.1processor. Hard to run 3 more wires thru the house.
Honestly, 500/500 will be more than enough for most people. Unless you are transferring LARGE files like some of my friends who work for Amazon/Microsoft/FB etc. who are transferring multi-gigabyte/terabyte server images, then you will never come close to saturating 500/500. Having said that, I have 1gig/1gig, as well, and like the fact that I can saturate my wired network with my internet connection.
Honestly, for a lot of usage cases a MESH wireless network (like an Eero Pro, ASUS RT-AX92U, etc.) will be more than sufficient for gaming/TV use and doesn't have the headache of running wires. Less so for people who live in apartment buildings, due to the crowded WiFi networks, but for someone in their own home those can be very good. In case you decide you don't want to run any more wires.
Great One, I have the one wire, and rather than run more I thought I’d get a switch. Usually I’d only be pulling the one line at a time. But upgrade the pre/pro, or down load a movie, or play a game, or just watch thru
The smart tv, all just one line out of the switch at a time.
Guest room and master bedroom both hard wired too. Office is hard wired. Garage is hard wired. My phone/laptop/Alexa/smarthome stuff use the wireless.
I have an EERO mesh system throughout my house for my Spectrum. But even with that, my "real live" speed 3 rooms away is generally closer to 100-150 down, rather than the 500 promised. Hopefully the new router that is scheduled to arrive tomorrow will fix that.
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.
That makes sense. I'm not really unhappy with the speed, anyway. It does everything I need it to do. I am interested to see what happens when the new equipment arrives, however.
450 is the best my iphone will do. That is my fastest device. I pay for 900 down and the router claims to do 1.2 down.
I checked with my phone (OnePlus 8t), but in the same room, and got 280 down, 22 up. I'll check after the new equipment arrives to see if it's closer to the 500. I think it's supposed to be 500/20, so the upload speed is fine.
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