Cord Cutting or not?

Giant Moose wrote:As for the Tigers, I think you can now get local streaming for one team through MLB TV. I think they were sued for their blackout crap.

Turtleneck wrote:Baseball should be listened to on the radio.

Floyd Robertson wrote:I'm locked into my two-year Comcast deal until next February, but there's a 91% chance I'll be going OTA only at that point. I'm going to miss some games, and that's the downside. I can wait to watch every other cable TV series a season behind when it hits Netflix. It's not so much about the total cost of the package as it is my Don Quixote battle with having no control over the package. Fortunately, the bundling days are cracking.

Turtleneck wrote:Baseball should be listened to on the radio.

tGreenWay wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:Baseball should be listened to on the radio.

I agree with grampaw.

Giant Moose wrote:I like cribbage.

Turtleneck wrote:

Giant Moose wrote:I like cribbage.

I assumed you were more into pinochle.

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:A buddy recently turned me on to an app you load onto a regular Amazon firestick. It's called Kodi. You can then load an extension onto that called "TV add ons" that gives you access to some program that has a catalog of streaming shows and movies that would make Amazon and Netflix blush, even current seasons of hit shows. Hell there are brand new movies on there - The Revenant, etc. That was how I watched Sicario last week.

The quality is good, not great - like 720p or so for the HD streams. It's all very easy to install and it is above board. I've read articles that Amazon could shut it down if they were so inclined but they are not.

I'm not sure about sports. I think it relies on things like firstrow for those streams. I haven't had a chance to really research it more but it's worth looking into for people who are looking to cut the cord.

LooseGoose wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:Baseball should be listened to on the radio.

You have a point.....but up here I can't get it on the radio no WJR. It sucks since being an old
fart at times I've wanted to listen to west coast games on the radio and can't get them. It would
be like re-living my childhood with Ernie on the transistor radio under my pillow live from Oakland.

Turtleneck wrote:

LooseGoose wrote:

You have a point.....but up here I can't get it on the radio no WJR. It sucks since being an old
fart at times I've wanted to listen to west coast games on the radio and can't get them. It would
be like re-living my childhood with Ernie on the transistor radio under my pillow live from Oakland.

WTF? No local carriers? That sucks. Is that new? I used to listen to the Tigers during the summers and I was outside of WJR's range by a few hours.

LooseGoose wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:

WTF? No local carriers? That sucks. Is that new? I used to listen to the Tigers during the summers and I was outside of WJR's range by a few hours.

Last summer the closest stations were Cadillac and Alpena, I couldn't get either.  This year they're showing 101 in Grayling will have them again (they did a couple years ago) if that's true then I'll be set for radio.  I imagine I could stream something through my phone but didn't want to eff with that last year.

DWags wrote:Too complicated. I'll keep sucking comcasts dick. I'm a slut but at least it's easy.

Turtleneck wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:

I agree with grampaw.

I can't wait for my shuffleboard league to start

Turtleneck wrote:

LooseGoose wrote:

You have a point.....but up here I can't get it on the radio no WJR. It sucks since being an old
fart at times I've wanted to listen to west coast games on the radio and can't get them. It would
be like re-living my childhood with Ernie on the transistor radio under my pillow live from Oakland.

WTF? No local carriers? That sucks. Is that new? I used to listen to the Tigers during the summers and I was outside of WJR's range by a few hours.

tGreenWay wrote:

DWags wrote:Too complicated. I'll keep sucking comcasts dick. I'm a slut but at least it's easy.

This. Too complicated and much trouble. I'll take the easiest route to vegging out, thank-you very much.

tGreenWay wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:

WTF? No local carriers? That sucks. Is that new? I used to listen to the Tigers during the summers and I was outside of WJR's range by a few hours.

Coverage with local carriers has been spotty for several years. It's not a problem now, but prior to smart phones, there were a couple of years when the Tigers couldn't be heard in the Lansing market. It was frustrating AF. Carrying all 162 regular season games, plus the playoffs, is a hell of a commitment and there aren't that many businesses interested in advertising because of the low ratings.

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:LG I did some checking into Sportsdevil and some of the other sports streams. It's definitely not baked enough to allow for cord cutting, at least as far as I'm concerned. Streams for the tourney games were listed, but half didn't load, and the ones that did were very poor quality. Found some decent NBA streams but still nothing like via a cable/sat provider or OTA HD antenna.

The interface is nice, though...it's basically just like using an app on your Roku or Firestick. Pick an add on (channel) within the app, pick what you're looking for (movie/tv/sports), pick a category or the search and your list of results pops up. I'll take some screen shots later if I'm ambitious. I'm to the point where I'm convinced this thing could completely substitute for all of our show/movie watching needs. Hell, it would improve upon them. My wife bought the Good Dinosaur on DirecTV for like $7 a couple of weeks ago when I was out of town. Kodi? 25+ free streams, half of them in HD. Inside Out is on there. Hell, Zootopia is on there. Disney Jr, Nick Jr, every fucking Steven Seagal movie ever....and I don't even know what I'm doing with the thing yet.

Maybe there's a better way to view live sports, I just haven't found it yet.

Turtleneck wrote:

tGreenWay wrote:


Coverage with local carriers has been spotty for several years. It's not a problem now, but prior to smart phones, there were a couple of years when the Tigers couldn't be heard in the Lansing market. It was frustrating AF. Carrying all 162 regular season games, plus the playoffs, is a hell of a commitment and there aren't that many businesses interested in advertising because of the low ratings.

You were not given permission to quote me.

LooseGoose wrote:

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:LG I did some checking into Sportsdevil and some of the other sports streams. It's definitely not baked enough to allow for cord cutting, at least as far as I'm concerned. Streams for the tourney games were listed, but half didn't load, and the ones that did were very poor quality. Found some decent NBA streams but still nothing like via a cable/sat provider or OTA HD antenna.

The interface is nice, though...it's basically just like using an app on your Roku or Firestick. Pick an add on (channel) within the app, pick what you're looking for (movie/tv/sports), pick a category or the search and your list of results pops up. I'll take some screen shots later if I'm ambitious. I'm to the point where I'm convinced this thing could completely substitute for all of our show/movie watching needs. Hell, it would improve upon them. My wife bought the Good Dinosaur on DirecTV for like $7 a couple of weeks ago when I was out of town. Kodi? 25+ free streams, half of them in HD. Inside Out is on there. Hell, Zootopia is on there. Disney Jr, Nick Jr, every fucking Steven Seagal movie ever....and I don't even know what I'm doing with the thing yet.

Maybe there's a better way to view live sports, I just haven't found it yet.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I've got about 2 weeks to decide what to do, I spent a chunk of the day at amazon reading the comparisons and feedback there RE: Fire TV vs Roku vs Other solutions. Most people seemed to think Roku is still ahead of Fire although Fire is closing the gap.

WhiteBoyHatcher wrote:

LooseGoose wrote:

Thanks, I appreciate it.   I've got about 2 weeks to decide what to do, I spent a chunk of the day at amazon reading the comparisons and feedback there RE: Fire TV vs Roku vs Other solutions.   Most people seemed to think Roku is still ahead of Fire although Fire is closing the gap.

I have 2 Rokus under our roof and just added the Firestick. Obviously my situation is different than yours, but as far as I'm concerned I haven't noticed much difference between the two. Both are going to have access to the apps you want. Perhaps the interface is slightly faster/better with the Roku, but bottom line you can add Kodi to the Firestick and you can't to Roku.

Then again, they're each only like $40 so it's not like you can't add a Fire stick later if you decide you want to take the Kodi plunge.

Your question is: What is the difference between Amazon Fire TV box, stick, or other boxes such as a Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast Stick or using a DVD player with streaming service or a game console with streaming capabilities. With all these streaming options, competition is fierce, but content is king. Since Roku is the most comparable than I will use that as a side-by-side but afterwards, I'm throwing in another option.
As of today, Fire Tv does not get a fully functioning YouTube. What is available, often crashes. The YouTube app for Fire Tv page is full of complaints. YouTube has come a long way since the days of uploading videos of your friend crashing his bmx into a tree and ranks up there with Netflix and Hulu. For anyone who uses YouTube often, they will understand that living without it is not an option. For some, solving the issue of not having full-functioning YouTube on Fire is sometimes solved by sideloading KODI or Plex, a sometimes fee service used to upload and organize media content from places like YouTube but you have to get the YouTube plug-in for PLex or KODI to access it. Last I heard though, Amazon Fire is no longer or will no longer be making KODI available because of its ease of access to pirated content. Like any app on a phone or device, sideload apps like KODI or Plex update and change their features which can sometimes cause issues, issues which can cause users to have trouble accessing their content. There is a history of complaints about this. Additionally, there are sometimes fees. For that reason, I just want the channel not a problematic journey to a backdoor to get me to the channel, a door that could jam and may stop working or charge me a fee to get it - just give me the darn channel! Having the YouTube channel on Roku also allows me to cast directly to it from the YouTube app on my android tablet or phone. From what I've read, doing a search on the YouTube app for Fire TV is a letter-by-letter scroll and select adventure. Being able to scroll my subscriptions or type in a search using the app on my smartphone then casting my selection to the channel on Roku eliminates that headache entirely.
But what really got me with Roku is the Firefox app. I understand this is available on Fire as well, so is the allcast app or airplay app if you are on ios phone but the negative reviews far outweigh the better ones. I can pull up the Firefox browser on my android smartphone and play a video content and then cast it to my Roku using the Firefox app on Roku - personally, I have never had an issue with doing that or with a video timing out. Also, I can cast from my phone but I don't have to keep that screen on my phone dedicated, I can make a call, browse, play a game. I don't know how that would work with Fire TV but worth finding out. This is also the same concept as a Chromecast stick using a chrome browser on my smartphone, also a Mac or iphone can airplay to AppleTv, I found that Roku suited my personal preferences overall since we are an android household. Last year I took a long look at Chromecast stick to have in a spare room but it fell short in many ways which, I"m sorry I can't remember.
If Fire ever works out the bugs with YouTube and getting a browser app I can cast to without having to sideload Plex or KODI then I'll consider it but so far, as I'm in the market for another streaming box and stopping by to see if Fire has improved, it looks like it hasn't figured it all out quite yet. There are all these blogs and comments on how to get out of Fire what you get directly with Roku. What a hassle - sticking with Roku. Lastly, I have never had these reload issue or everything else people complain about with Fire. I'm a long time Prime customer and keep waiting and cheering for Fire to outpace the rest but so far it's not happened. But I'll keep checking!
One last option to consider is the one I finally took. Once I cut the cord I started to look around at all of my options. About that time, TV's were getting smarter, coming out with browsers installed with the TV but for an enormous amount of money. So I started to think about that and the future of media and decided to get smart also, find away to max my content without cable. After careful thought and a lot of research and reading. I went out and bought an Acer Chromebook and hooked it up to my 48" TV with an HDMI cable and got a wireless keyboard and mouse off Amazon. I use the Chromebook as a dedicated device for all of my streaming services except for Sling TV, which I recently activated on Roku. By doing this, I don't have to find ways to play content on my TV via a streaming device, content that is readily available online and then some. A dedicated browser hooked to a TV is definitely one of the smartest things to do especially if you have Netflix - and this is my favorite part.
When you use Netflix on a streaming device you get the library of the country you are in but if you watch Netflix on your computer, a browser with the Hola.org - that is a VPN (virtual private network) extension - you can change the country you are in via Hola.org and get a different library since Netflix does not have the same library in every country. That is included in the already monthly fee, you just re-sign-in from each time you change country or region, Netflix always recognizes you. Netflix is aware of this and does not discourage people from it, rather they use it as a sales tactic since people in China, for instance, do not get Netflix but by using a VPN a non-Netflix audience gains access which in turn gives Netflix a massive audience of millions that will one day be customers once their service is available in that region.
In media news, Hollywood Reporter last year was keeping tabs on the wordy brawl bwtween Netflix and Hulu. The use of VPN has been a cause of stink and word-slinging between Netflix and Hulu since Hulu does not allow access to their content using a VPN. So it makes them look like party-poopers and they are hating that and criticizing Netflix for allowing it! But for us, for me, by using my Chromebook, a dedicated browser hooked to my TV and using a VPN, I get Netflix in Germany, France, UK, Australia, Argentina, Spain, Canada, Chile', New Zealand, Belgium, Netherlands...and on and on and on . The list is endless, or at least until you run out of countries! For non-English countries, this is especially beneficial for a multilingual household since with cable, you have to pay extra for the foreign channels. The Netflix in Argentina for example, will have English speaking American programming but also programming native to that country. The same for France, Germany, Japan, and so on. Australia is English speaking, has Hollywood movies and popular American television shows but the foreign content is native to that country, having also all of the popular Australian movies or tv shows.
Doing this, using a Chromebook, I have multiplied my Netflix library several times over and still pay the same flat monthly rate I was paying before I added the use of a VPN online. As for my library list, what I can watch in one country may not be available in another. For example, in Netflix France library, they have the first five seasons of CBS The Big Bang Theory - no one else has that, not even CBS. Other services, you have to buy the digital season or pay per episode. But not on Netflix France! Furthermore, whatever list I'm building, if those movies or TV series is available in a different country as well as on my US library, my list follows me to each country as long as it is there also. I don't have to rewrite a list for each place, although I will add what I don't have in the US. Even better, sometimes a popular US show is available overseas before it is in the US. I notice this often. In the UK, they (Netflix) were airing 'Better Call Saul' next day, or next morning for me. I don't have cable so I don't get AMC but I have Netflix UK! lol It's very cool.
For anyone who wants to go this route, there is a search website called Flixsearch. What it does is, you type in a movie or actor or keyword that you are looking for. Flixsearch will give you all of the results after a search across all regions and let you know which region or country that selection is available, sometimes it can be anywhere from three countries to ten different countries so that selection follows you to each country once you add it to your Netflix library.
But you can't get VPN or change countries in Netflix on a streaming dedicated box like Fire TV or Roku. You have to be online. If anyone is serious about expanding content, controlling content and especially controlling cost, quit trying to find ways to put on your TV screen what you can get online or out of a streaming box, and sometimes with fees, and just hook up a Chromebook. It solved everything for me and it is so much better, safer than a laptop since all it is is a dedicated browser, no files to infect with trojans or virus. I will never go back to using a streaming device again, except in spare rooms which is why I'm looking for one now. And since some people are really keen on using headphones for watching loud movies with heart racing dramas and things explode while the kids are sleeping, my Chromebook has Bluetooth so I use an LG Bluetooth surround-sound headset that doesn't need to hook into a remote control.
If you would like to read more about comparisons of all of streaming players, the popular and reliable CNet Tech magazine online has some recent and very honest, unbiased reviews; guiding the reader on what the benefits and downsides are to each device. CNet recognizes that not everyone in their audience is tech-savvy and they are mindful of that, making their information clear and comprehensible.
It's a lot of information, but a lot is out there! Hope this helps - good luck! see less
By M.A.C. on November 21, 2015

Gomer wrote:This is one instance in which I feel sorry for you people in the sticks who only have acces to Comcast/shitty DSL and dish. 

FiOS is the tits.