Cutting the Nords cord (upgrading to streaming video)

[Nords]

My spouse is about to cut her cord.

I mean she’s getting ready to cut her cable bill, and maybe eliminate cable TV service entirely. 

I’m posting this to make sure I haven’t overlooked some terrible tech mistake.

I’m a hardcore reader, and I’m a negat with visual/audio media.  I rarely watch TV, and I can barely sit still for a YouTube video.  Neither of us watches sports, and she rarely watches live TV.  I hardly listen to podcasts (although I enjoy being interviewed for them) and I only listen to radio if I screw up and get stuck in rush-hour traffic.  I go to a movie theater every six months or so but even that’s meh.

We’re at an age where we tend to get very comfortable in our habits.  For my spouse, it’s recording analog cable TV (Oceanic Time Warner --> Charter) on a Tivo Series II (vintage 2004, analog only) for playback on a Panasonic 29” CRT TV (2002).  The monthly bill for our [“standard” analog cable service + 50 MBPS bandwidth] is $95.  This is a pretty low baseline for an upgrade.

She’s seen her service shrink for years as analog channels get shifted to the digital side.  We’ve gone through several CRT TVs over the last couple decades (Craigslist free, neighbor discards or curbside bulk pickup) but now they’re hard to find.  Her TiVo has held out exceptionally well but that won’t last much longer.  However she’s had no interest in upgrading before something breaks-- until now.

The cable company’s offer of the month is a [digital TV + 100 MBPS Internet] subscription for $60/month.  (That’s the introductory price, which will be jacked up after a year.)  In less than a year she’ll save more than the price of a LCD TV.

Due to dimensional constraints (and low-end preferences) she’s going with a 32” TLC Roku described at http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-small-tv/  That’s already on order with Amazon ($170) and it’ll be here in a couple weeks.  When it arrives she’ll order the digital TV package from Oceanic and plug it straight into the back of the 32” TV.  (Oceanic might include a “free” set-top box for ordering pay TV.)   I’m not sure what other gear TLC or Oceanic will provide, and we might be missing a HDMI cable or two, but we’ll figure that out when the TV gets here.

She’ll shut down the TiVo and play with the digital TV subscription for a while (and with various YouTube content) and then experiment with Roku.  At some point it’s possible that we’ll go with just a naked Internet service (~$40/month) and a separate Roku or Hulu subscription ($??).  It all depends on how much she finds on streaming.  She doesn’t feel the need for a broadcast antenna (and a DVR) if the show is on the station’s website a week later.

I suggested a TiVo Roamio or equivalent modern DVR, but she’s willing to go with streaming for a while to see if there’s anything she cares to record.  Maybe we’ll add in an OTA digital antenna (perhaps http://gubmints.com/2016/04/04/tv-cord-cutting-for-dummys-part-ii/), or maybe she won’t care.  Right now she doesn’t care.

If this upgrade goes well then maybe we’ll buy a second 32” TLC LCD for the familyroom.  That’ll replace our backup Series 2 TiVo as well as our backup 1990s 21” CRT TV.  (You know da kine, with slots for both DVDs and VHS cassettes.)  We’ll also get rid of our separate DVD player-- I don’t think I’ve turned it on since our daughter left for college in 2010.

I used to joke that spouse's digital TV upgrade would be like the time we upgraded from a PC XT to a Pentium.  Now I think it’s more like upgrading from DOS 3.1 to Win10.  But I'm glad she's doing it now, while our extant gear is still working, so that she has plenty of time to experiment and decide on her preferences.

I know there are many more possibilities, but this is all she’s interested in for now. 

Am I missing any technical network issues here?

I’ve been using 50 MBPS Internet access for several years through a DOCSIS3.0 cable modem, and I don’t think I’d be able to tell the difference with Oceanic’s 100 MBPS service. 

I wonder why Oceanic is offering 100 MBPS for “free”.  When we add a digital cable TV subscription, will I notice any slowdown from 50 MBPS?  The digital cable TV subscription will be going straight into the TV (for now).  If she decides to drop the digital TV subscription and just stream over the Internet then I’m not sure whether I could connect the coax cable from the street box to the TV or whether it first has to go through the modem & router and then to the TV.  If the TV is streaming from the Internet through the modem/router (while I'm browsing the Web on my PC), will we see a slowdown or a quality difference between 50 MBPS and 100 MBPS?

Ocean is essentially the monopoly choice.  We don’t see the need to get involved with DirecTV.  Our local phone company, Hawaiian TelCom, is not keeping up at all.  They literally let their street DSL line rust until the signal died, and that was several years ago.  About six months ago they finally strung fiber through the neighborhood conduit, but they’re still making the connections and I have no idea when they’ll be ready to compete with Oceanic. 

Anything else I should consider?

[sokoloff]

I’ve been using 50 MBPS Internet access for several years through a DOCSIS3.0 cable modem, and I don’t think I’d be able to tell the difference with Oceanic’s 100 MBPS service. 

I wonder why Oceanic is offering 100 MBPS for “free”.  When we add a digital cable TV subscription, will I notice any slowdown from 50 MBPS?

You will notice no difference whatsoever between those two. Streaming works well down to single-digit Mbps speeds.

I think the average person won't notice speed differences above 10Mbps (if you're actually getting 10Mbps). Sure, it shows up on a speed test website, but for day-to-day usage, you will not see a difference.

On the TiVos, I'd be inclined to buy one new digital HD TiVo with MoCA networking (Bolt or Roamio, take your pick), put it on a lifetime service plan, and add a TiVo mini (no subscription fee; links to your main TiVo over coax lines using a MoCA network) at any satellite TV locations. This puts all your recordings and season passes in one place and you can watch them from wherever you want without any more subscription fees. There are TiVo minis with RF remotes, which means you don't even need to see the box, so you just have the TV and remote visible and the mini can hang off the back hidden from sight.

We had a TiVo with just OTA for a while and it was fine, though I admit we got back onto the cheap-ish cable plan last year.

To deploy the MoCA network, you will need coax cables that "home run" to some central point. That's the most common wiring arrangement. You may also need an inexpensive MoCA point of entry filter and may need to upgrade some of the splitters. For me, it was all very painless and cheap. I think I only had to buy the point of entry filter/splitter which was under $50 IIRC.

[Nords]

You will notice no difference whatsoever between those two. Streaming works well down to single-digit Mbps speeds.

I think the average person won't notice speed differences above 10Mbps (if you're actually getting 10Mbps). Sure, it shows up on a speed test website, but for day-to-day usage, you will not see a difference.

On the TiVos, I'd be inclined to buy one new digital HD TiVo with MoCA networking (Bolt or Roamio, take your pick), put it on a lifetime service plan, and add a TiVo mini (no subscription fee; links to your main TiVo over coax lines using a MoCA network) at any satellite TV locations. This puts all your recordings and season passes in one place and you can watch them from wherever you want without any more subscription fees. There are TiVo minis with RF remotes, which means you don't even need to see the box, so you just have the TV and remote visible and the mini can hang off the back hidden from sight.

We had a TiVo with just OTA for a while and it was fine, though I admit we got back onto the cheap-ish cable plan last year.

To deploy the MoCA network, you will need coax cables that "home run" to some central point. That's the most common wiring arrangement. You may also need an inexpensive MoCA point of entry filter and may need to upgrade some of the splitters. For me, it was all very painless and cheap. I think I only had to buy the point of entry filter/splitter which was under $50 IIRC.

Good, thanks.  I saw a huge improvement going from rusty DSL (1.7 MBPS) to 15 MBPS cable Internet service, but I couldn't see a difference when Oceanic upgraded that to 50 MBPS.  As long as streaming doesn't hog the bandwidth, I won't have to configure the router for my PC's quality of service.

Yep, I'd rather own the lifetime service than pay a fee.  We also have a couple loops of coax running through our walls so a network is no problem either.  My spouse's TV (in the livingroom) sees heavy daily use but the second one in the familyroom... almost never.  It's not even plugged in.

[chasesfish]

I was late to this thread....we just went through a similar debate, but do still watch some live sports.

You may just want to go to Costco and get the least expensive Samsung Smart TV(.   They have a nice little linux computer inside the TVs and you'll be under $250.  It'll have nice streaming options and get a digital antenna to see what you get for free.

 We still have the base package digital cable with a DVR the cable company owns, but can negotiate the price each year by threatening to cut the cord. 

+1 to the reply about bandwidth, we stream fine in the mid single digits.   

[Nords]

I was late to this thread....we just went through a similar debate, but do still watch some live sports.

You may just want to go to Costco and get the least expensive Samsung Smart TV(.   They have a nice little linux computer inside the TVs and you'll be under $250.  It'll have nice streaming options and get a digital antenna to see what you get for free.

No need for Costco's generous returns policy now (even if SuperBowl season is almost here).  The 32" TLC Roku got here in less than 72 hours and it's doing a fine job.  The hardest part of the change was hauling the 108-pound Panasonic CRT out of the hole before sliding in the 10.6-pound LCD model. 

Before we swapped old for new, we did a side-by-side comparison on a PBS documentary.  We used digital streaming on the LCD to the left and analog coax cable TV to the Panasonic on the right.  What a difference! 

We plugged the new LCD TV into the (analog) video output of the ancient TiVo and it still looks pretty good.  But when I walk by I can still tell at a glance whether she's watching a digital streaming signal or the analog TiVo feed.  She's happily set up a few free streaming channels and this week she'll experiment with Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu Plus.  Eventually she'll decide whether it's worth upgrading to digital cable, or just reverting to Internet only and streaming.

Hawaiian Telcom is starting to advertise 1GB fiber-optic Internet service and a slew of other digital services.  They're just a dollar or two a month cheaper than Oceanic... but the HT trucks are still parked in our neighborhood connecting the fiber.

[Bicycle_B]

Glad to see this thread is about something innocuous like video streaming.  From the headline, I wondered with horror whether Nords was going to disappear entirely from forum life!

[Nords]

Glad to see this thread is about something innocuous like video streaming.  From the headline, I wondered with horror whether Nords was going to disappear entirely from forum life!

Sorry, good point.  I was just going for the rhyme, but I edited the first post to update the subject line.

I've been on some forums for over 14 years.  I may not read every post, but I check in every week or so.

[eyePod]

You seem like you did your homework.

Several other things to note - how far away are you sitting from the TV. The further away, the less the quality matters. Stuttering is something that'll be a pain, but it's easily figured out.

As to the sports issues, there are plenty of sites that let you stream and most sports have an online package now that you can watch on your computer. NFLs is something like $200+ a year though.