Cutting My Parent's Cord

[Haywood]

My step-father retired recently and has been lamenting their $156 DirecTV bill. He and my mom don't watch a ton of TV, but my sister's family does (they share a house). The big obstacle to cord cutting is broadcast TV. Specifically, they live too far out to get it. I just came up with a solution: Tablo Connect. Roku boxes do not currently allow for remote access, but Fire TV does and I happen to have a Fire TV Stick laying around. I can hook that up at their house and give them full access to my OTA DVR. If the load gets to be too much, they can buy their own and I can host it for them. They already have Netflix and Amazon. I suggested that they add Hulu Plus and maybe CBS All Access. If they want to channel surf, there is also Sling TV. Even if they bought all of them plus HBO (thru Sling), the total would be a hundred dollars less than they pay now and that's a ton.

 

[walls]

Just keep the in mind that sling only allows one device at a time.

 

[Haywood]

Just keep the in mind that sling only allows one device at a time.

I know. That is a big deal killer with that service, as far as I am concerned. The reason I think they might be able to do it is that they only have three TVs in the house. One is my parent's main TV in the living room, which is the one that gets the most use. The second is a small TV in their bedroom, which is rarely used at all and generally not at the same time as the main set. The third TV is in my sister's family's living room and that one is not used as much either. If Sling TV were the main or only source of content, this would probably not work. They already have Netflix and Amazon. I am recommending that they look at adding one or more of the following depending on their wants and needs:

Hulu Plus
CBS All Access
Sling TV
Sling TV with HBO

The only time the single stream with Sling would be at issue is if two people want to watch live TV from Sling at the same time in different rooms and I honestly don't see that coming up very often.

 

[Akula]

Is a bundle with TV and internet (assuming they have high speed internet since this solution wouldn't work otherwise) where they get the most basic TV package (for the locals) and streaming for all others more expensive? While cutting the cord completely always sounds attractive, I wonder if sometimes a good answer for some might not be to saw it almost, but not quite, all the way through.

 

[Haywood]

Is a bundle with TV and internet (assuming they have high speed internet since this solution wouldn't work otherwise) where they get the most basic TV package (for the locals) and streaming for all others more expensive? While cutting the cord completely always sounds attractive, I wonder if sometimes a good answer for some might not be to saw it almost, but not quite, all the way through.

That is something I want to talk to them about. I am not sure who their ISP is, but one big issue these days is that so many cable providers are encrypting all channels, forcing consumers to rent a cable box for every television. My step-father is not even sure they really want or need live TV channels outside the basic network stuff I can provide via Tablo. It is entirely likely that he will just add subscriptions for Hulu Plus and CBS All Access and call it a day. That would replace $156/mo with $15/mo, which is pretty cool.

 

[Akula]

Is a bundle with TV and internet (assuming they have high speed internet since this solution wouldn't work otherwise) where they get the most basic TV package (for the locals) and streaming for all others more expensive? While cutting the cord completely always sounds attractive, I wonder if sometimes a good answer for some might not be to saw it almost, but not quite, all the way through.

That is something I want to talk to them about. I am not sure who their ISP is, but one big issue these days is that so many cable providers are encrypting all channels, forcing consumers to rent a cable box for every television. My step-father is not even sure they really want or need live TV channels outside the basic network stuff I can provide via Tablo. It is entirely likely that he will just add subscriptions for Hulu Plus and CBS All Access and call it a day. That would replace $156/mo with $15/mo, which is pretty cool.

Sometimes a provider has gone all digital (I live in a Charter area, and they have). Sometimes they will have a basic standard def tier that's still analog... and they won't even throw a filter on the line, so the analog stuff comes in if you get their internet service (plug the line into the back of the TV and do a channel search... if this is the case, then while they won't have HD or DVR, it would at least give a useful feed to secondary TVs if they still go Tablo on the main).

 

[Haywood]

When I wrote my first post, I completely forgot about the Tablo channel for Plex. I can provide Tablo anywhere to any device that runs Plex and can connect to my server. That means they can use their Roku boxes. The interface won't be as nice, but it will work.

 

[heeman]

Is a bundle with TV and internet (assuming they have high speed internet since this solution wouldn't work otherwise) where they get the most basic TV package (for the locals) and streaming for all others more expensive? While cutting the cord completely always sounds attractive, I wonder if sometimes a good answer for some might not be to saw it almost, but not quite, all the way through.

That is something I want to talk to them about. I am not sure who their ISP is, but one big issue these days is that so many cable providers are encrypting all channels, forcing consumers to rent a cable box for every television. My step-father is not even sure they really want or need live TV channels outside the basic network stuff I can provide via Tablo. It is entirely likely that he will just add subscriptions for Hulu Plus and CBS All Access and call it a day. That would replace $156/mo with $15/mo, which is pretty cool.

Sometimes a provider has gone all digital (I live in a Charter area, and they have). Sometimes they will have a basic standard def tier that's still analog... and they won't even throw a filter on the line, so the analog stuff comes in if you get their internet service (plug the line into the back of the TV and do a channel search... if this is the case, then while they won't have HD or DVR, it would at least give a useful feed to secondary TVs if they still go Tablo on the main).

I tried this from my cable internet and just received "some" analog standard def channels......not what I need.

 

[Haywood]

Friends don't let friends watch standard def TV.

 

[walls]

In my last conversations with a sling rep I was told that they are indeed working on streaming multiple foods to one customer for $5 or less per feed.

Sling has worked really well for us, we had one day of HGTV trouble early on but haven't had a problem since.

 

[Haywood]

In my last conversations with a sling rep I was told that they are indeed working on streaming multiple foods to one customer for $5 or less per feed.

Sling has worked really well for us, we had one day of HGTV trouble early on but haven't had a problem since.

This entire product is really just a prototype. Dish being Dish, I suspect it will eventually evolve into something more robust with DVR capability. Either that or the entire linear TV model is going to take the dirt nap.

 

[Haywood]

I just found out that they can upgrade to 75Mbps internet for an extra $20 per month. They are currently using their ISP as a phone company, which means I can probably save them at least that much by switching them to Ooma.

 

[MatthewB]

I'm in talks with my mother about this very issue. She has Dish already and could easily switch to Sling. She gets Hulu Plus from my brother in law (he and my sister live in my moms guest house). My mother uses my Netflix and Vudu accounts and I figure all she would need is a OTA antennae and a TiVo DVR and she could have all she needs for about 30.00/month.

 

[Haywood]

I'm in talks with my mother about this very issue. She has Dish already and could easily switch to Sling. She gets Hulu Plus from my brother in law (he and my sister live in my moms guest house). My mother uses my Netflix and Vudu accounts and I figure all she would need is a OTA antennae and a TiVo DVR and she could have all she needs for about 30.00/month.

Unless you already have the TiVo, you should take a look at Tablo. It is a lot less expensive. I bought a quad tuner Tablo with a 1.5TB external hard drive, a Winegard Flatwave antenna and a lifetime program guide subscription for about $600 and now I pay nothing.