Cutting the cord
 

Dumped direct tv! That’s the good news. Got a fire stick from the fire stick tvguy at market of Marion. Had 2 weeks, been inoperable for over a week! Don’t waste your money. What a headache.

I think the Roku streaming device is one of the best ones to buy.

And Roku is legitimate; not sure about the one from the guy at Marion Market.

We use Apple TV and have for years. Very happy with it. Not as flexible as Roku, but works for us.

I agree. Not to suggest that this thread is about illegal streaming, but some people who would never even think about shoplifting, will use certain streaming devices to steal video content. I don't know anything about the Marion market guy either, but there are merchants selling devices to enable people to steal video content.

:ohdear: It's called a "jailbroken fire stick"

:ho: Google it......:police:

You bought an electronic device at the Marion Flea Market and expected it to perform as advertised? PT Barnum was right!

One of my friends has a couple of these Jail Broken Sticks See? I can't remember his name! I don't know where he lives See! I can't imagine someone at a Flea Market would be involved in something Shady See!

Roku is The Bomb! It constantly gives you more choices. There is so much good stuff on I'm losing my tan! Book 'Em Danno! :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

So did you go back to direct tv or find a better service? We have direct tv cause we take boxes back and forth. Just wondering if you found a better service? Thanks for sharing this.

We have been thinking of streaming for a long time, but have not so far had the guts to jump into it. However, we have just spent a couple of weeks with our son in southern NH who got rid of his cable TV company. He now brings broadband/WiFi into the house through a phone cable, he then added Hulu and gets everything they want through Hulu and a couple of other smaller aps. He is in the tech industry so for him it was a no brainer. I am not a techni, so I have been consulting with "STTEVE" (352)250-4571 whose business is all things technical.

I am still nervous about dropping Direct which I have had for many years to learn a whole new system. For me, it needs to be much much cheaper than what I am paying now to make me learn something new.:)

It's easy to "jail break" to Fire Stick, just go to www.troypoint.com" and follow his video along with his written directions.

If "jail-breaking" was illegal, then Amazon (that makes the Fire Stick) could send down a update that would stop it. They don't.

I understand completely.

Cord cutting can be cheaper and can be more expensive, it depends on what you want. If you need access to everything (100's of channels, sports, etc.) it all adds up.

For us it is cheaper since we watch only a couple things and several of them come with our Amazon prime.

To us the BIG advantage is we watch what we want when we want. We no longer have to be at the TV when our favorite show comes on.

Good Luck

I don't see how that is evidence of legality. Amazon is not doing the jailbreak. Ford does nothing to prevent speeding.

We rely on the DVR. We record everything and anything we intend to watch. Hence we view at our convenience and not have to endure commercials.
Some programming now has what they call smart resume. You hit fast forward and it starts again after the commercials.

Until streaming gets more convenient (a relative term) with suitable DVR capability we choose to pay a little more for the convenience.

I believe streaming is still in it's early evolution and will operate similar to today's packaged providers at some point. And yes the price will go up along with the convenience.

IMHO.

Interesting, everything you pointed out as negative does not happen with us at all. I guess we all have different experiences.

1. We have a DVR, but never use it any more since we can go back and watch anything we want on demand from the original streamer or one of the many other sites offering shows 2 or 3 years old. I am a geek, and I do have a media server (computer) that is dedicated to being a DVR and storage for all the movies we might ever want to see (400 or 500 at this point), but we mostly just stream them from Apple, or other sites, our DVR is very lonely at this point.

2. I don't think I have seen more than a commercial or two in 10 years of streaming. I don't know what you have streamed with commercials. The last commercial I watched was on HULU years ago and a simple increase from $10/mth to $12 or $15 per month (I don't recall) eliminated those.

One thing that may explain the difference is we watch almost NO first run commercial TV shows from networks like ABC, NBC, CBS. Fox, etc. Most of what we watch is from Prime, Netflix, HULU and HBO, Showtime and BritBox.

Again, we watch very little TV anyway - maybe 2 to 3 hours some nights just before bed. I have no interest in Sports, and 99% of commercial TV is boring to me.

Some of the streaming services, such a YouTube TV, have both DVR capabilities and a program guide with the look and feel of the programming guide from cable/statellite providers. Regarding cost, YouTube TV is $50/month for about 70 channels with no contract.

We use a VPN in USA to watch all UK tv programmes live and Catchup when in US from our laptop when over wintering at TV's
Also have Amazon firestick with a download called Smart IPTV which enables us to watch pretty much any channel in the world.
Funny thing is we are not avid TV watchers, but its good for all Sports channels, and I do like PD Live!!

Simple. YouTube TV ………..Good coverage...includes local news....has a great DVR feature. I think it is up to 5 or 6 tvs on one account. We are using on 4 tvs in the home now. Would never go back to Direct TV with AT&T.

On their web site they make it sound oh so simple. Even calling it "...intuitive...".

On a scale of 1-10 techie ability I would rate myself a 6.

Is it really as simple as presented?

And if the offering is as capable and easy as advertised for a significant reduction in cost.....why are there not more responding with their satisfaction.

:icon_wink: AS I told Nucky months ago..... I have a hard time setting the clock on the microwave. I decided to give streaming a try because I disliked Comcast. Did the FREE streaming for a couple weeks before cutting the cable. Sort of like working with a net under you for safety. Worked out the bugs and cut the cord. At first went with DirecTVNow (ATTNow). They cut channels and raised price..... said good bye to them too. Have YouTubeTV and love it. Also have Prime with my Amazon acct. and Netflix. Netflix is very reasonable. We have 3 SMART TVs so don't use any sticks. If I can do it.... anyone can! :coolsmiley:

Couldn't be happier with Roku & YouTube TV with History Channel, Discovery Go, The Munster Channel, Crackle Prime TV. Many Other that are all free. The only charge is YTTV = $53 all in, taxes, everything.

CWGUY gave me the push to try it and I can see the point of paying for the convenience of DirecTV up till the point they were bought out. It really is not an inconvenience at all to Stream. It was easy.

One point of interest. YOUTUBE TV can be shared by 6 households not, just 6 television sets. We have two of our sons on our account up north so they pay Zippety Do Da and I pay the bill just like the old days. They found a way back onto the payroll! :1rotfl::1rotfl:

We did direct tv for the same reason, back and forth to Indy. For the last year the 5 minute zip code change call took over and hour! Then they made a $700 mistake on our August bill and 3 hours on the phone would not correct it. I reported them to our bank as fraud and got our money back.

Just beware of “fire stick tv guy” at market of marion. Server is still down now. If isn’t fixed soon I’ll be paying them a visit all day Saturday and Sunday with a “ask me about my service” sign! Don’t fool around with us retired guys....we got all day!

Speeding doesn't affect Ford's bottom line, watching Amazon shows without paying for them affects theirs.

IANAL but, the DCMA specifically makes it illegal to modify a computer system for uses they were not intended for. So, jail-breaking iPhones, Fire Sticks, whatever could be illegal technically. The problem is it is not worth it to Apple or Amazon or Microsoft or whoever is being hacked to take legal action.

That does not make it right or moral.

Personally, I don't have a problem with jail-breaking devices, it is what people then do with the device that bothers me. Kind of like guns, I don't care if you own a basement for of guns, rockets, and bombs. It's what you do with them that concerns me.

If the purpose of jail breaking a device is to allow the user to view media without paying for it (which is often the purpose - done with a wink wink - nod nod), that is illegal and immoral.

As a professional photographer I actively protect my copyrighted materials. When someone copies a photograph I sold them they are stealing from ME and my children. When someone watches a movie they did not pay for they are stealing from the copyright holders.

Maybe they will get away with it, and maybe they smooth over their morals by thinking thinking the "big business" deserves it.

But it is still stealing and immoral.

If on the other hand you jail break a device to make a use of it you could not have done without the jail break, and that use does not involve stealing, then I see no harm and no foul in the jail break.

The law does not care if Amazons bottom line is affected or not. This is NOT a Tort law where one must show damages to have standing to sue.

The law is the copyright law and it is illegal and punishable by up to $25,000 per incident to copy, distribute or view movies and tv shows without paying for them.

As a professional photographer many people believe that once they pay me for the prints they get they can do what ever they want with them. That is NOT true. I own the copyright, (Amazon owns the copyright on their productions/creations). If someone. copies or even displays publicly a photograph I sold them - I can and do sue for breach of copyright.

Whether or not it is "worth it"' is another question entirely, but make no mistake it is stealing and immoral.

Not Enough sports....your friend😁😁😎...see?

I have Brian's number...352-801-0785

You are a Funny Guy! :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl: I still can't remember the guy's name!

:ho: https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...rkshop-298524/

We've been using Roku for about 6 years now, and are very happy with it. We can stream many different "networks" from it, such as Amazon Prime - free, if you're already a Prime member, HULU, Netflix, YouTube (although, I don't know if that's the same one people get as their primary device. There are probably many other just as good or even better, but once you start using a system, many become lazy and don't research other devices

DO NOT BUY from The Firestick Guy Brian at the market of Marion. Remain part has been down almost 2 weeks. I call or text Brian and I get responses that are very rude. Live and learn

In Europe, authorities shut down a service called Xtream Codes. It is not a IPTV Service, but rather a front end system used by the IPTV services. This has caused many of the services to go off line. The shut down occurred about two weeks ago. This most likely why the “Firestick Guy” services are down.

Whats worth watching Perhaps repeat of the screen test pattern from the 60's

What does this mean? Do you think the services will be restored?

There is no such thing as a free lunch?


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When we lived in southwest, Florida, we cut the cable and got Roku, and an HD antenna as the reception was good, and we got about 18-20 channels off the air. We kept basic internet only. Crapcast says it's 50 Mbps at $49 but in reality it's only about half of that. That's OK, as one only needs 5 Mbps for streaming video. But here in TV we didn't have much luck with antenna reception, so we went back to Crapcast, but kept our Roku, which we use more than regular TV. I would recommend Roku.

We did, at one time, have DirecTV, but every time it rained, we lost our picture. That was about 8 years ago. Maybe they improved it, but I don't know.

Ditched Directv, put up an antenna, roku plus smart tv's
Hulu just offered 1.99 a month for 12 months. And Netflix and prime. Too much to watch