Cutting the cord

So I think your only question is what bandwidth we use to stream with. I have Comcast with a 50/10 pipe. I rarely have any issues watching on 2 TVs at the same time alone with a few other devices (iPad/touch/Nexus) all on the same WiFi.

Not sure what the sweet spot is, but that speed works for me.

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Apple TV has MLB subscription, but most likely your "home team" would be blacked out.

Flip through here as many have posted about their solutions to cutting the cable and watching their chosen content. You'll find a bunch if great suggestions. As far as MLB goes you'll be just fine running MLB pass on your Apple TV

I agree with the previous posters.

Depending what you watch, you may or may not be OK with Hulu+ and/or Netflix streaming.

I cut the cord at the start of the year and have AT&T DSL. Generally speaking it works fine for Hulu+. For Watch ESPN and MLB.tv, I do notice some drop off in quality during the evenings, but that's DSL for you -- the more people in the neighborhood online, the less bandwidth you'll get.

I love my MLB.tv. Rushli0n is right about the blackouts, however. Generally speaking, "in-market" games are blacked out on MLB.tv, as well as national telecasts on ESPN and FOX (I'm not as certain about the TBS ones, however). But if you are, say, a Cubs fan living in California, generally speaking, you should be good to go.

dannyhansen said:

Hello, I realize that this might not be the best place for this question/rant but I was hoping for some insight and help.

Last night after a long discussion with direct tv I cancelled my subscription (they wanted to charge me $50 for sending a tech out to fix the faulty SMS box and I was in disagreement paying for fixing their broken equipment). Now I'm trying to figure out my best options when it comes to signing up for Hulu+, Netflix or something else entirely.

My current ISP is a Uverse DSL connection with 15 MBPS Up and 1.5 Down and I'm concerned that the bandwith wont support running multiple TVs in different parts of the house. Whats the sweet spot when it comes to running streaming content to 2/3 tv's at one time?

My game plan is to purchase 4 apple tv's in the next couple days and
perhaps upgrade my ISP. My only concern is watching live baseball games.

Click to expand...

I've been cable free for years.

I experimented with a couple of different speeds from my only real ISP option, Time Warner, over the last couple of years. I started out with their 50 down connection - it was great, but pricey. I stepped down to their 20/2 service this year - streaming live baseball and netflix on different TVs and doing some surfing while that is going on seems to be just fine. I wouldn't go much slower than that.

I pay about $50 a month, and call in a couple of times a year and do the threaten to cancel dance with them to save a few bucks when they try and jack the rate up.

MLB.tv through Apple TV is great, this year is leaps and bounds better than it has been the last 3 or 4 years. A couple of years ago it was unwatchable for weeks at a time with rebuffering and dropouts. This year is much, much better - not flawless, but much better.

We started with Netflix and Hulu+, then ditched Hulu+ after we got tired of paying $9 a month to watch their commercials. OTA antenna, HD Homerun and EyeTV and we're recording OTA and dumping programs into iTunes for nothing.

cdavis11 said:

I pay about $50 a month, and call in a couple of times a year and do the threaten to cancel dance with them to save a few bucks when they try and jack the rate up.

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Don't you hate that this is what one has to do to be able to get the actual *gasp* posted rate.

I think this is one of the reasons the public hates telecom companies so much. If you advertise $50/month, then it better be $50/month on my bill, plus taxes and other compulsory fees that any other company is required to charge. If you want to raise my price, then raise it on your website as well and raise it for everyone.

cxc273 said:

I agree with the previous posters.

Depending what you watch, you may or may not be OK with Hulu+ and/or Netflix streaming.

I cut the cord at the start of the year and have AT&T DSL. Generally speaking it works fine for Hulu+. For Watch ESPN and MLB.tv, I do notice some drop off in quality during the evenings, but that's DSL for you -- the more people in the neighborhood online, the less bandwidth you'll get.

I love my MLB.tv. Rushli0n is right about the blackouts, however. Generally speaking, "in-market" games are blacked out on MLB.tv, as well as national telecasts on ESPN and FOX (I'm not as certain about the TBS ones, however). But if you are, say, a Cubs fan living in California, generally speaking, you should be good to go.

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Blackouts can be circumvented.

dannyhansen said:

how do you circumnavigate the blackouts?

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Proxy.

http://www.hotspotshield.com/

I recommend cord shaving. Yeah, DirecTV is a bitch. I have found Dish Network to be the best of not treating you like a caged animal. That's why even though I now have Comcast Internet service -- my old DSL was slow, and its inability to cancel my account when I told them to over the phone pissed me off to the tune of $150 yesterday -- I'm sticking with a basic Dish Network package. I've got the locals in HD, maybe a couple of premium HD channels -- I think I might have the old AXS, the old HDNet, in there -- and a few channels I NEED just in SD. I have Comedy Central -- the must -- plus MSNBC (no CNN or Fox News, which is what I wanted from the other damn packages ironically), stuff like TNT and TBS, and other stuff that I just don't watch. Throw in a DVR service and it's $27/month.

I bought "Deadliest Catch" from iTunes since I don't get Discovery. If "Whale Wars" ever decides to air again, I can do the same. I've got Netflix but am honestly hardly using it. I'm spending more buying TV shows/movies on sale -- check out the summer blockbusters for $10 this week from iTunes -- and renting. A friend is letting me "borrow" his HBO Go access on my iPad, so I have used that. OK, I'm cheating. But HBO is still worth about half to 75 percent of what you get charged.

It's not too bad doing without ESPN, especially since I get ESPN3 through my Xbox. I couldn't use WatchESPN even when I had the channels on Dish Network. I only really missed it when there was a USMNT soccer game on. College football season will probably change that, so I don't know my plan on that yet.

A la carte TV will come one of these days. You're already able to rent indie movies from iTunes before they are released -- check out Europa Report! The CW app, while kind of clunky, requires no service. You know Apple is working hard on figuring it out because we have all wanted a la carte choices from pay TV for about 30 years. It's the next holy grail of all the media Apple does.

dannyhansen said:

Hello, I realize that this might not be the best place for this question/rant but I was hoping for some insight and help.

Last night after a long discussion with direct tv I cancelled my subscription (they wanted to charge me $50 for sending a tech out to fix the faulty SMS box and I was in disagreement paying for fixing their broken equipment). Now I'm trying to figure out my best options when it comes to signing up for Hulu+, Netflix or something else entirely.

My current ISP is a Uverse DSL connection with 15 MBPS Up and 1.5 Down and I'm concerned that the bandwith wont support running multiple TVs in different parts of the house. Whats the sweet spot when it comes to running streaming content to 2/3 tv's at one time?

My game plan is to purchase 4 apple tv's in the next couple days and
perhaps upgrade my ISP. My only concern is watching live baseball games.

Click to expand...

Maybe throw a Roku 3 into that mix, I have an Apple TV but my Roku gets moreuse, with Netflix, Amazon Instant, Hulu Plus, MLB TV, Plex alone makes it great.

Here is what Netflix recommends for streaming movies:


0.5 Megabits per second - Required broadband connection speed
1.5 Megabits per second - Recommended broadband connection speed
3.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for DVD quality
5.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for HD quality
7.0 Megabits per second - Recommended for Super HD quality
12 Megabits per second - Recommended for 3D quality

I am not having any cable service for now. Using Plexnet on ATV3 to run some channels like comedy central , daily show , msnbc etc.
Check out Plexnet , no need to jailbreak atv anymore.

But once English premier league starts will have to find a cable/dish service to watch it as no better alt.