Has cutting the cord jumped the shark?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Ty D. Tatman, Jul 6, 2020.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. jbmcb

    jbmcb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Troy, MI, USA
    We have two apps not available on our LG television - HBO+ and AppleTV+. However, our TV supports AirPlay, so streaming those apps from our phone to the TV is trivial. Amazon Prime, Netflix and Youtube are all on the TV already, as well as Plex, so 90% of the time it's all on one interface.
     
  2. RobRoyF

    RobRoyF Forum Resident

    Location:
    Southland
    I had a very basic cable package with HBO as the add on for a few years. I liked it some, but all the other channels were mostly local with tons of commercials. I ditched that after the pricing kept going up and up. Now I just have internet, no cable. I don't miss it much other than watching something now and then on HBO. I haven't bothered with getting rabbit ears to see if I can pick up local channels. Just so little on there would interest me.

    When I watch something I usually just fall back on Youtube or something similar online.
     
  3. hifisoup

    hifisoup @hearmoremusic on Instagram

    Location:
    USA
    Wow, was that me posting that? I sound like a mean old crank. Think I need to :chill:
     
    wrappedinsky likes this.
  4. Wow, thanks for mentioning Locast - looks like a great app! I can’t pick up much locally with an antenna so this is perfect. One step closer to cutting the cord with Xfinity. I wonder if Locast will ever offer a DVR feature?
     
  5. Ty D. Tatman

    Ty D. Tatman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I could see that as an add on feature if the supreme court suit they have with the big four networks is a win. It's a no frills app and really just replaces an antenna for me but more importantly, living too far from the city in my DMA, it is saving me from paying for OTA which is far more important. A real life saver during football season!
     
    Shawn likes this.
  6. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    If it wasn't for access to TMC on demand (can't get it without cable) I would not even be bothered with this ****...


    :unhunh:
     
    PTgraphics, MikeInFla and brownie61 like this.
  7. geetar_await

    geetar_await I heart Linux.

    Location:
    USA
    I saw the justification for cord-cutting after seeing my monthly cable bill and the amounts on it and only watching a grand total of 5 channels out of 500 available. After inital outlays for a new antenna and TV, they have paid for themselves, and I can stream all sorts of MeTV cool old shows and films on other services I rarely saw on cable. Winner winner chicken dinner.
     
    CatchAsCan and MikeInFla like this.
  8. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    "Cutting the cord" was just semantics from the get-go.

    A subscription is a subscription, regardless of the means of access.
     
  9. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident

    Maybe. But if I have $100 to spend on entertainment I would rather spend it on the few services that I actually use and support them directly rather than pay the same amount to 500 other channels that I have no interest in ever watching. Plus, with fewer to no ad breaks the switch away from cable subscriptions to streaming apps is a no brainer. The traditional cable model is a relic of the past and ultimately doomed to extinction.
     
  10. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    The "cord" is still there.
     
  11. Chauncy

    Chauncy Well-Known Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Locast was never going to last. Aero proved that. Anyone remember them? They put thousands of antennae in a building and rented them out for 10 bucks or so a month. Ha! Now the content owners realize that they might as well put up their stuff on the net ad supported and make some money - see Pluto, Tubi, etc. The amount of ads depends upon how much the the content owners demand in revenue, or so I was told. I watched one of my favorites Inside Man on Pluto with very few ads recently. Then I watched Coen brothers No Country for Old Men on Pluto and I couldn't deal with the endless ads. I cut the cord long before cord cutting became a thing but I have my methods. I'm thinking I'm going to put a ton of movies and TV series on SSD drives to last a lifetime and call it a day. I also love my Youtube. I watched That Thing You Do on Youtube and very few commercials - first time I watched a movie on there. I recently found there is an extended version with something like an extra 40 minutes so I will watch that pretty soon, such a great movie.
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2021
  12. Chauncy

    Chauncy Well-Known Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
  13. brownie61

    brownie61 Forum Resident

    Well, the cord that is cut by canceling cable is the cord to all those rented cable boxes. That was my number one reason for getting away from traditional cable TV. That was just money down the drain every month.
     
    Isaac K. likes this.
  14. Chauncy

    Chauncy Well-Known Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    Here's a cord cutting tip. Install a Plex media server and you get many thousands of movies and documentaries and other stuff free. Just their documentary section has 1988 documentaries and lots of great ones. I like documentaries and they are cheap to license.

    I subscribe to Cord Cutters News on Youtube. I don't watch it regularly since their main guy Luke sold the site. You can also check their web site that has lots of info about what is going on. I don't check these much at all any more but they are good sources for info. I'm a Roku guy but they're always at war with someone, now it's Youtube.

    Home | Cord Cutters News


    Here’s Everything Coming to Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video the Week of November 15, 2021
    And so on.
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2021
  15. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident

    Sure, if you go ahead and redefine the commonly accepted definition of what “cutting the cord” actually means. You can make any word or phrase mean anything you want in that case.
     
  16. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    Unfortunately soon I think this will be true. For the time being, however, I prefer what you call a "relic of the past." I can record what I want on my TiVo, save the programs as long as I want, transfer them to my computer if I'm running low on disc space on the TiVo, skip commercials while watching. My biggest issue with the subscription model is, like music streaming services, the rights holder can decide at any time to pull their content. Just because you can listen to or watch something today doesn't mean it will be there tomorrow. That's my biggest gripe with subscription services. If they allowed me to capture programs while streaming and keep them as long as I wanted, then it would be a good alternative to cable for me.

    As for the hundreds of channels I don't watch, it's also true that any given subscription service is likely littered with stuff I don't want to watch, either. What's the difference?
     
  17. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

    I get what he's saying. You're cutting one cord (the cable box) and plugging in another cord (the internet and/or media player) so it's not a great metaphor. I think most people get the point of what "cutting the cord" is trying to say though.
     
  18. brucewayneofgotham

    brucewayneofgotham Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bunkville
    Cable is having exploding growth , once people realize they can stream right through there Cable DVR Boxes. I have a friend that works for a Cable Company , and has he installs these "new" DVR boxes with Streaming ability. He states half of the people , honestly thought they could only stream on a smart phone, before this newer Cable DVR box was available. They are already scheduling into Feb. for new (or returning) subscribers , that want this newest type of DVR Box. Also they are hiring employees at record rates. The more thing change, the more they remain the same.
     
    NickySee likes this.
  19. NickySee

    NickySee Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York, NY
    Oh, yeah - you're referring to the World Boxes, a hybrid IP/QAM video device with downloadable security and a cloud-based interface which enables you to watch streaming apps like Netflix and YouTube.

    Trouble is, companies like Spectrum here in New York, don't provide their employees with information on the World Boxes and don't keep track or distinquish the newer boxes from the older non-app boxes. So when you sign up or walk into a Spectrum office to obtain or replace a unit no one knows exctly which type of box you're getting! Apparently, they're distributing the newer boxes in large batches to the bigger markets but without tracking or delineation, other than the individual box serial number. So it's a luck of the draw pick! Absurd.
     
    BeatleJWOL likes this.
  20. Uncle Meat

    Uncle Meat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, Tx, US
    I haven't yet because of news and Turner Classic Movies (shows way better stuff than anyone around, with the exception of the 24 hours MST3000 channel)
     
    altaeria likes this.
  21. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident

    It makes it hard for employees when Spectrum has literally dozens of box models in service at a time. Not so long ago I installed entertainment systems and it seemed like every house I went into had a different box with different remotes and different functionality. And they don’t pay their technicians enough so I doubt many of them keep up with their training.

    Anyways, I’m positive that there are ways to record streaming if you looked into it. I fail to see the issue of rights holders taking away licenses for streaming services or how that is a disadvantage it has over cable when the same thing happens with cable. And the last I looked into it, a Tivo is hardly a permanent solution. Don’t you have to pay a subscription fee for that, too? If you don’t then don’t you lose all of the recordings? If you are concerned about things disappearing never to be seen again then I suggest something few people know about: dvds and blu rays.
     
    bmasters9 and NickySee like this.
  22. brucewayneofgotham

    brucewayneofgotham Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bunkville
    After reading the comments I feel very fortunate , that our Cable Company , offers one box. The one box that has every streaming service at my fingertips.
     
  23. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident

    The problem is that a company like Spectrum would probably have your particular unit in stock for half a year. Then they might get a slightly different model, maybe even from a different company, with another style remote and different user interface. And access to the service menu will change too. And keep in mind that customers don’t swap out for new boxes every year. Some people are still using ones from 20 years ago. It’s chaos.
     
    brucewayneofgotham likes this.
  24. I have youtube tv (basically to watch Premier League) , disneyplus, MLB.tv.

    I'd have to add a different sub to watch Champions League, another for La Liga. Screw it, I'm not doing it. Couldn't even tell you how I'd add Root sports now to watch Trailblazers.
     
  25. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    I paid for lifetime service on my TiVo, so it works until it breaks. With a little work, most TiVo faults can be repaired so that lifetime can be a long time. Even without a subscription, though, the stuff already recorded on the hard drive can still be played. The subscription fee is to download fresh guide data daily so the box can record new stuff. I do buy a lot of blu-rays and dvds, but there are a lot of shows that don't get released on a physical format and sometimes I don't want an entire season of a show (which is how one would have to purchase it on blu-ray/dvd) but rather just like a specific episode enough to want to keep it.

    At any rate, I'm feeling weird to be cheerleading TiVo as my current TiVo will surely be my last due to a variety of factors: TiVo making less appealing hardware, the Feds removing the mandate for cable companies to support third party hardware, my cable company's escalation of moving channels from QAM to IP which the TiVo cannot receive. TiVo has always been a niche product but I think soon it will be extinct, something which makes me sad because I much prefer buying equipment (router, modem, cable box/dvr) than renting it and, in the case of TiVo, getting far greater functionality out of it than I would the cable company's dvr.
     
    Alan G. likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine