trying to cut the cable

vanity ^ | 3/13/21 | Dad was my hero

[Dad was my hero]

I'm considering dropping cable, cutting the cord so to speak. My cable provider (Spectrum) has been to my house 3 times over the issue of dropped audio and pixelation. The issues have been so pronounced that it can make some shows almost unwatchable. They are coming again today but I spoke with a neighbor that also has Spectrum and he said they have the same issue, so I am sure it is somewhere in their lines feeding my development.

I'm not much interested in going to a satellite dish, I've had both dish and direct TV before. I dropped dish eventually because of loss of signal and they wanted to charge me to fix it. It later turned out the issue was the base mounting came loose d/t poor installation. But I went to Direct and had the pixelation issue with them and any storms. Being in FL, we have a lot of storms during the afternoon and I don't want to have shows I'm watching interrupted with pixelation again.

I have 3 TVs and 3 DVRs (probably only need one DVR now). What I am looking to replace is the channel lineup AND the recording function I had with the DVRs. I bought a Roku streaming stick plus and got that functioning last night. It appears that I can get almost all of the channel lineup if I download the AT&T app within Roku. My questions are:

Can I record (to a cloud maybe) shows I want to see? How? Can I record one show while watching a second or record two shows while watching something else I recorded or a third show live? How?

I still having 3 TVs, do I need to get two more Rokus to use the other TVs? Only one TV in the house is a "smart" TV, the other two are older flat screens but not "smart". The Roku is currently on the smart TV. Do I need to buy two more Roku sticks to use on those TVs? Do I also need to get two more AT&T subscriptions?

So how does this work, I'm not a highly technical person.

[phoneman08]

100 Mb will handle several 4K HDR streams without a hitch. How many times would a homeowner be streaming more than two 4K HDR signals at a time LOL?

Very few people will ever stream more than two 4K streams at any given time. 1080P HD only needs around 10Mb per device.

Most problems people experience are with a weak wifi signal. And you’re correct, if a home has a large number of wireless devices running at the same time, it’s helpful to use ethernet where practical even if the wifi is good to that device but especially if the signal is weak or is steering to the router’s 2.4Hz signal due to distance.

Whether you have 500Mb or 50 Mb to a given client will make zero difference in your streaming experience over ethernet.

Now if a household has several TV’s always on, and a couple of teenagers gaming all the time, then 100Mb may not be enough. Of course, in that case, it’s time to pay attention to what if any data caps your service has.

100 Mb here. 4K projector, two HD TVs, a couple of laptops, wife gaming, and multiple IoT devices.

And, keep in mind, the OP stated he had three TV’s and unless they’re newer displays all are unlikely to be 4K anyway.

So yes, for most cord-cutters, 1gig is overkill.

[nascarnation]

For the two of us in our house, we’ve done quite well with a 20mbps DSL line. Although we don’t have anything that needs 4k.

[phoneman08]

Yeah, 4K is THE bandwidth hog. 1080P from Netflix for example uploads at around 3Mbs for most content. So yes, a couple of streaming TVs and a PC or two on Free Republic will do just fine with 20Mbs DSL.

[USAF1985]

We have AppleTv devices, and we alternate streaming services once we get tired of content on one. Local TV? Try Locast...its free (with ads) or pay a a small fee. No need for an HD antenna, but it may not be available in your area. We also use Pluto TV for free...they have a lot of content!

[frogjerk]

Now if a household has several TV’s always on, and a couple of teenagers gaming all the time, then 100Mb may not be enough. Of course, in that case, it’s time to pay attention to what if any data caps your service has.

This is a very typical situation especially with the Internet of Things where everything and the kitchen sink is grabbing bandwidth.

[AppyPappy]

I’m running about 220M download. My wife is the only one who watches TV. I don’t mind paying for Dish service but I don’t look forward to cleaning the dish when it snows. I would rather stream but she only watches PBS, History, HGTV and the CliFi channel (Weather Channel)

[MayflowerMadam]

“I use fubo.tv.”

We’ll probably go with Fubo this week, and cut DirecTV/AT&T.

On one site I read that you can watch on multiple devices at the same location simultaneously. (We’ll get the two-device package.) BUT then it said you can’t watch on more than one Smart TV at a time — the second streaming device has to be on a PC or other non-Smart TV gizmo. Have you experienced that? We only watch on TVs; other devices are too small.

Also, my online research shows that the price seems to increase frequently. Some say $45.99/mo. Now it’s $64.99/mo. It seems that this is no different from cable when it comes to pricing. Why not just keep cable?

Thanks!