Streaming
 

I currently have Xfinity internet and TV basic Package at $200/Mo. If I switch to streaming at T-Mobile for $50 for internet, what is the best live streaming plan to get local TV and Live CNN and FOX News etc?

You Tube TV gives you all of that and more for $75. Plus I'm pretty sure you'll get some extra's with the TMobile internet subscription (Peacock,or Paramount or something like that bundled usually).

This is a very helpful website.
Suppose | Compare Cable, Satellite & Streaming TV Services

Definitely look at the suppose.tv site.

If you are looking for local channels and a lineup similar to cable TV then you'll want to check HuluLive and YouTubeTV. Both are about $75/month and both should come up on the suppose.tv recommendations.

I recently switched from HuluLive to YouTubeTV because of a performance issue one night but I really don't have a strong recommendation one way or another.

If you have any interest in the NFL Sunday Ticket it is now offered on YouTubeTV.

U tube tv
 

We are seasonal, (6/TV, 6/WI). Have had several different services before.
Now stream via WIFI only, Quantum Fiber in TV, Century Link in WI.
We do use the ROKU sticks on all tv's.
Have tried HULU, and U TUBE TV. Both worked but finding U TUBE TV is better.
One big benefit for U TUBE TV is that I can "Re-locate" the local channels, from
TV to WI for our seasonal changes, and back again, at no extra cost.
Just seems that U TUBE TV is much easier to navigate the channels.
I guess it is personal preference.

U tube tv
 

We are seasonal, (6/TV, 6/WI). Have had several different services before.
Now stream via WIFI only, Quantum Fiber in TV, Century Link in WI.
We do use the ROKU sticks on all tv's.
Have tried HULU, and U TUBE TV. Both worked but finding U TUBE TV is better.
One big benefit for U TUBE TV is that I can "Re-locate" the local channels, from
TV to WI for our seasonal changes, and back again, at no extra cost.
Just seems that U TUBE TV is much easier to navigate the channels.
I guess it is personal preference.

Thank you for that information. We are about to cut the cable cord at or northern home and finally get internet installed at our Villages home. We will have xfinity internet at both homes (only wired option that’s not DSL at both locations). We are looking for the best streaming service that will work seamlessly at both locations. My research has pointed me toward Roku sticks for all TV’s so we have one familiar interface and you tube streaming (best channel lineup and cloud based DVR service).

I would be extremely interested in feedback from others who have two homes and use a single streaming service for both residences. Any advantages/pitfalls of one service at two locations would be greatly appreciated. The frequently asked questions section of the various services websites are very ambiguous on that particular topic, and good luck actually talking to someone to get better information.

We have the T-Mobile 55+....unlimited data, text and phone on two phones for $70 including all taxes and fees. This includes standard Netflix with one stream, we pay an extra $7 to get ad free Netflix in HD with two simultaneous streams. There are a lot of perks with the 55+ plan. They give you $10 off YouTube TV. That brings that price down to $65 plus tax. They give you a certain amount of free of Apple+. We got a free year of Paramount Plus. We got AAA on the cars for a year for $60 off. They have been giving mlb.tv for free to all customers, prior to signing up with T-Mobile I had been paying $120 a year for that. T-Mobile seems to work great in The Villages as well. This plan also gives you a free hour of go go wifi on plane flights. They have the T-Mobile Tuesday app and every week on Tuesday they have some coupon for dollars off certain things. One week it was a $3 Dunkin' coupon. I will never give up this plan, I don't think Verizon or AT&T have anything that competes with this plan.

Phone Number for the T-Mobule 55+
 

I would like a phone number to set up a similar plan for our family. Many thanks for sharing this information.
Michael Murrell Marsh Bend

Your T-Mobile internet is the 5G service so I would check out if that service would work in your area. It might be spotty or non-existent in your home. You can check this out using your phone by turning off wifi and do a network speed test.
For streaming, you can use a smart tv, an Apple TV 4K box, Roku, chromecast, firestick, or other devices. I use Apple TV 4K boxes all over the house for streaming audio and video plus they provide the hub requirements for whole house automation.
T-Mobile will give you free services or discounts as part of your plan.

As for streaming, go out to each website and look at which channels they provide. It doesn’t make sense to recommend say Hulu if they don’t provide everything you want to watch. None of these services provide everything you want (or at least they didn’t for us and for some friends) so you might need multiple providers.

or
 

go to you tube or hulu then amazon & netflix for movies - limitless dvr on you tube when you put in library

Be careful when using T-Mobile
 

T-Mobile has a 14 day free trial period with a $50 refundable deposit. I tried it. The service was so bad that the television constantly had to buffer and it was difficult to get my $50 back.
The 14 day trial starts the day you order the service NOT when you start using it. They finally sent me a partial refund, although I was still within the 14 days from ordering service. After much consternation I did receive the money I was due. They stink. Stay away.

You tube TV has all the channels plus unlimited DVR.

no issues with dual locations. If at one location for more than 3 months just change your home location - works great!

Do your homework with T-Mobile 5 G internet.
Their signal strength is inconsistent.
They will tell you their priority is their cell business....so when cellular is busy bandwidth is shifted from internet to cellular use.

When we first got their service signal was fine. A couple months later a lot of downtime with constant buffering.

They will have you move their router around looking for a better signal.
If that doesn't work they as much start to say goodbye.

No contract? Yes. It works both ways.....if they can't supply what they said....see ya....100 more new subscribers waiting to take your place.

Do your home work!

Do you have to change your home location after three months? I would prefer to keep our northern address as the home location for two reasons. First, we get the local network channels in the Villages already via our antenna. Second, I would like to keep access to the northern local channels when in the Villages because they cover some games of the sports teams I follow, especially the 1:00 Patriots games.

The Plan that I am on is the T-Mobile Magenta 55+ plan. They guaranteed at the time I signed up that they would not raise the price, and they haven't. I am paying $70 a month for two phones and $6.50 per month to upgrade the free Netflix, and there is tax on the $6.50 portion.

As I look at the website, I don't see the Magenta Plan still listed. I don't know if they have gotten rid of it or if it is still available but they are always very nice when I call, which is rarely, and I wish you good luck. Senior Unlimited 55+ Discounted Cell Phone Plans | T-Mobile

I totally agree with those who have said that YouTube TV is a great option for portability. I can use in Connecticut and seamlessly in The Villages on the same account for the same price, I don't need to have two different services.

I have TMobile in Virginia Trace. I have no problems with it. Because they are my cell phone carrier, I got the internet for $40 a month lifetime.

I looked a little deeper into their website and found that the Magenta 55+ is still offered. $70 for two phones....it includes Netflix and Apple Plus for 6 months. And other perks. Tax included. Magenta 55+ is a great plan.

As others have mentioned, T-Mobile works great in The Villages. I haven't been everywhere, but everywhere I was had a strong signal. I get such good signal strength as my house that I do not have a conventional phone installed.

The 5g home internet service is discounted if you have the phone plan. They offered it to me for less than $50 price. However, I chose to go with Quantum Fiber, I didn't think 5g could compete with fiber for the same price.

Good luck to all. There are a lot of options out there and one size does not fit all.

Get aa amplified TV antenna, $50 or less on Amazon, and a 25 foot flag pole to mount it. If you get a telescoping flag pole you can pull it down during storm events.
WUCF, WFTV both stream via Roku, and WESH and WKMG have YouTube channels.

T-Mobile internet. It ain’t rocket science

The internet “box thing” T-Mobile gives you is basically a 5G phone combined with a wireless router (same as using your cell phones hotspot - to simplify the discussion). In other words no need to connect your cell phone to it as both pull from the same 5G network. You only need to connect your smart TV(s) or your Fire Stick, Roku, whatever device you choose to use to connect to the internet and “stream” with. They are all basically the same and all offer the same streaming apps such as Hulu, Apple+, YouTube and a multitude of others. All of which have some free trial period and then a monthly $.

As the T-Mobile “box thing” pulls from the 5G network, you do want to make sure you have decent 5G signal in your home. To do this, just look at your 5G cell phone. What do you have? 2, 3, 4 bars of 5G or none? A minimum 3 bars signal is good for streaming. Minimum 3 bars of 5G uc is very good (it’s hard to see the”uc” on your phone next to the 5G symbol - so get your peepers out!).

We use T-Mobile internet because we have a good 5Guc signal in the house. We have 2 Magenta Plus 55+ phone lines with T-Mobile so we get internet at $30/month (you have to ask for it).

As an Amazon Prime member, we use the Amazon Fire Stick as the device we connect to the T-Mobile internet - no additional cost. So, we get all the Prime TV movies and shows. T-Mobile also includes Netflix and Apple+ TV for free, so of course we watch those movies and shows. Prime TV also has an App called News (Not sure how they brainstormed that name. Lol!) that gives us local news channels such as WESH2 and others.

As far as NFL games, there are a number of apps that sell the NFL Sunday Ticket, including the NFL app. There are other apps you can get that let you watch ALL games for a lot less. Ask your football buddies about those apps. They know.

So in summary, I can sit in my recliner, remote in hand, able to watch more stuff than I’d ever want to for $30/month. But I don’t ‘cos I’d rather be golfing :1rotfl:

You will want to check the megs available from T-Mobile internet now, Maybe get it first and test before disconnecting your xfinity. I did that about s year ago and had to return the T-Mobile as it was inadequate for streaming. I was streaming hulu at the time but it didn’t matter what I streamed (prime, netflix, etc), it buffered way way too much. I kept xfinity internet at the time but have since changed to quantum thru century link as it was a bit cheaper. Good luck cutting the cable cord!

Looking for a new Streaming Service: Sling Reviews?
 

After looking over the various options, it looks like Sling is the best buy. Anyone have any feedback on using Sling? I have never heard of them, but they have a great buy on the channels we do watch (Fox, History, Discovery, and National Geographic}. Please advise.
Michael

Live in the south part of the Villages. Put an antenna up in my attic with a pre-amp. I get all of the locals, subchannels, and more. 50+ channels in all. Rarely lose signal unless there is a big storm right over me.

Xfinity internet - $55 per month. I have Amazon Prime and Britbox. Had Netflix, but was having problems with it and had seen most of what I wanted to see, so shut it off. I'll get ESPN plus in November when college basketball starts, shut it off in March. I only have Roku TVs. I think the interface is superior.

I get my phones via Xfinity, but the two years is coming up, so I am going to shop around once I'm done. They used to give the Peacock app for free, but now they charge.

If flexible DVR services are important to you, my research indicates Sling is inferior to You Tube by a substantial amount. I would be interested in comments from others who use either service?

I believe I have used the DVR service on HuluLive only twice. It was nice to have when I wanted it but it turns out it isn't that important to us. It looks like Sling may provide 50 hours of DVR (not sure how flexible) which is more than I have ever used.

If access to true local channels without the need for an external antenna is important than that would rule out Sling. It turns out we don't watch those much either.

local channels
 

I just tried the NEWS on my Amazon Prime fire stick, but I am not able to get WESH live, I can get Newsmax, and some other stations live but nothing local. Is there a way to add that to the NEWS app?

Search the call letters of WESH and the other Orlando stations. At least a couple have their own app and will show their news live. You can also look for the "Local Now" app and there are other local news aggregator apps out there that include Orlando stations.

You are limited to two location changes in a calendar year. Besides that YTTV is fantastic.

Anyone have Difficulty Streaming Fox News with YouTube TV?
 

We are trying YouTube TV and are pretty happy with what we see, but occasionally Fox News will not show a picture...just audio. If we go out of the app a couple of times it will typically come in, but have not had that issue with our channels. Interested in your experience...BTW, we have 1 GIG speed and modem from Xfinity.

Quick question: do you get CBS? It is not listed on the channel lineup for zip 32163. Seems odd.

Directv Stream
 

We are snowbirds and Directv Stream works for us. If you use a Roku Stick your local channels are base upon you credit card billing address so here in FL we get the local Harrisburg channels . When in FL if we want to watch Orlando channels we use the Ipad and cast to the TV . The ipad tells Directv we are in FL . Need this option for the weather . No need to change anything when we travel between PA and FL . In FL we are allowed up to 20 streams connected to Directv Stream ! Never will need that many . In PA we are allowed only 3 streams at a time which is more than we need .

WKMG News 6 out of Orlando

Agree with this. Was attracted by their $40 monthly rate and free modem. First 6 weeks it worked fine after some initial trouble setting it up (went thru 3 modems (they have have another name for them) but managed to get it running). Now it’s constantly buffering and youtubetv and Amazon Prime is unwatchable. We are looking for something else. May have to go back to Century Link. My objection to CenturyLink was after spending $200 for a modem 6 years ago they now tell us our buffering problems are due to our modem being too old and want us to spend another $200 for a new modem with no guarantee that will fix the problem.

I’ve had the same Telco provided 10 years ago from AT&T Arris no buffering on 200mbs we use IPTV, Amazon and Netflix for streaming. ISP in Centurylink:Quantum. Our IPTV service doesn’t have recordings due to limitations of firestick and no cloud storage.