Cord cutting time

[Dee_Ann]

Hi!

I think I want to cut the cord, so to speak and say goodbye to Dish.

I was looking at the new Playstation Vue service. Sadly they don't carry all the channels I would prefer but I saw that Sling does carry some of those channels missing from PSVue.

I think that I've found that if I subscribe to PSVue "Elite Slim" for about $45 a month AND the Sling "Blue" package at $25 a month that will give me almost every channel I'm getting now on my $110 ($1,300yr) monthly Dish AT250 package. There will be a few channels lost but it wouldn't be the end of the world, I could work around the loss.

That's a substantial monthly savings compared to what I'm paying for Dish. I'm sure there will be taxes on them but even with taxes added it would be a big savings. I'm guessing with taxes for both services I would be paying about $75 a month vs $110 a month for Dish.

My concerns are how well it actually works. I can't tolerate buffering. It's OK if if buffers at start but not in the middle of a program! That's 100% unacceptable!

Concerns are,

1. Buffering
2. Pause "live" video
3. Rewind "live" video
4. Time shifting or DVRing of programs for later viewing

My Dish tuners are DVRs so I can pause anything, I can rewind a few seconds or a lot (which I do often to hear or see something I missed) and I can record anything for later and that's important for me.

The devices and services that I currently own and subscribe to are,

• Roku 4
• Roku 3
• Apple TV 3
• Playstation 4

And

• Amazon Prime
• Hulu Plus (commercial free option)
• Netflix
• Plex Pass (I have a SiliconDust OTA recorder to record local OTA stuff plus my own library of saved shows)
• HBO NOW
• CuriosityStream HD

I know the devices themselves can't record anything with maybe the exception of the Playstation which has a piddly little 500gb drive in it. I've read that the PSVue service sort of has a so called "cloud DVR" service but that's all I know. I don't like, trust or use ANYTHING that has "cloud" associated with it. But maybe this would be benign enough that the risk is nil.

I haven't seen anything mentioned about Sling having a DVR type ability so am I safe to assume it's like old school cable TV where you have to watch it as it airs?

I've also read that a lot of people had problems with Sling on the Roku 4. Has this been fixed yet?
I've never tried to watch TV on the PS4, I bought it for when the grandkids come over so it's quite alien to me, also it seems to put out very hot air, like you could bake bread behind the thing!

I've been thinking about replacing the Roku 4 because it seems to freeze up a lot and do other stupid and annoying things. I've been thinking about buying a Roku Ultra and putting the 4 in my kitchen.

That Apple TV 3 is sort of stupid, you can't add anything to it at all. Here it is, this is all you get, ever.
I know the Apple TV 4 does allow you to install apps such as Plex but I'm waiting for the 5th generation Apple TV before I replace this one. The Roku 3 seems to work well, I can't really find any problems with it but this year I want to begin replacing my 1080p sets with UHD 4K sets. Even then the Roku 3 will still work but the Ultra would be better.

I still have a dream of having just one device to watch EVERYTHING. Originally I bought the Apple TV because that was the only way to watch Game of Thrones via HBO NOW but since then they have released apps for Roku and iOS.

I see that Sling and PSVue have apps for Roku but do they really work well enough to replace my Dish service? I'm a big fan of on demand viewing and binge viewing.

So considering the substantial savings I would have by dropping Dish and going to Sling and PSVue, is the service reliable enough that I would be happy with it? My internet is plenty fast, I'm getting like 24megabits down but I need to take my old modem and trade it for a new one since they upgraded everyone to 60megabits speed. I have no issues at all streaming from Amazon Prime, Netflix or Hulu, no buffering and the video is always HD quality so I can't imagine that I should have any problems with any other streaming services.

Anyone have any regrets for switching to sling and or PSVue? I'm a bit afraid to switch, I want to be really, really sure of this before I jump off the cliff.

Thanks!

 

[osu1991]

They offer 7 day free trials to both PSVue and SlingTV. Give them a try. DirectvNow is also an option and Google has new tv service coming soon thru YouTube as does Hulu

 

[JessicaR1]

We would hate to lose you! I would be glad to review your account with you to see what options are available. For further help, please send a PM with your phone number and PIN.

 

[Bobby]

Buffering is a symptom of slow internet speed. If what you have is slow is going to get buffering.

 

[bmetelsky]

Buffering is a symptom of slow internet speed. If what you have is slow is going to get buffering.

Buffering can be caused by a slow Internet speed, but can also be symptomatic of problems that have nothing to do with end user speed.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

 

[Zookster]

With the PS4 and a PS Vue package, you have the best OTT live TV service with DVR functionality and device for accessing it currently available. The Sling DVR is getting close, but the jury is still out - it will also come with limitations and cost at least $5/mo.

I recommend doing a 7-day trial of PS Vue on your PS4. If you don't have a PS4 media remote and you decide PS Vue is the direction you wish to go, I would get one. It's a universal learning remote, so it will also control your TV and a couple of other devices you may have. It's not the best universal remote in the world, but it's serviceable and better than a gaming controller for this purpose.

If you use a wired internet connection and have a good internet service, you won't have any problems with buffering on PS Vue. Is restarting after a pause, FF/RW functions, and changing channels in PS Vue on the PS4 as snappy as on a satellite or cable TV receiver with an internal hard drive? Nope. I won't lie. But it's gotten MUCH better than when I signed up last June. And when you consider all the money you'll save, it becomes more than acceptable (at least for me). Sometimes the response is near instantaneous, sometimes there's a second or two buffering lag.

Bear in mind too that with cloud DVR functions, you essentially get an unlimited number of tuners and unlimited recording space on any device you use in your home for PS Vue. The only limitation is that most recordings will expire in 28 days. So if you're someone who likes to maintain a recording archive, then you probably will need to stay with Dish.

The best way to see if PS Vue will work for you is, again, do a 7-day trial - or even a full month of the cheapest $30 package to give it a thorough workout.

 

[Dee_Ann]

Wow ! Great info guys! Thanks!

As for staying with Dish, I can't see that happening. $110 a month for AT250. If I knock it down a to like the AT200 I lose a few channels that I do watch from time to time but the savings is minimal.
Going to Vue PLUS Sling will let me keep ~almost all~ the channels I get now plus gain some new ones Dish doesn't have. Maybe I won't watch them, I don't know.
The difference I save each month would be substantial. Dish isn't going to cut me $35 a month slack just to keep me around. I've had a generally good experience with Dish but the price is just too darned high and there's this constant drip drip drip of $5 price increases.

Also I've found, to great annoyance, that many of the channels will not allow Dish credentials to access their libraries such as BBC America, Science channel, Discovery (family) and such. That really torks me off big times.
I have Amazon Prime but they want hundreds of dollars to watch OLD episodes of How the Universe Works while I'm not allowed to access Discovery's streaming content but DirecTV subscribers are.

Apparently with Vue I will be able to. I've waited patiently for years for this to get fixed but it's just not happening.

All of my devices are hardwired over ethernet. I HATE WIFI. I wish I could run ethernet to my iPhone. Because I HATE WIFI.
Our internet here was bought up by Spectrum and they are telling everyone that you now get 60Mbps (M or m, I have no clue) but I'm still using the same old modem they gave my dad 10 years ago so I'm only getting like 1/20th the promised
speed. I need to take the modem back and trade it for a new one but it's still in my dad's name and getting him to do anything takes an act of congress, glaciers move faster than my dad. Even with the crippled speeds my internet speed here is very good and I have no issues at all with the streaming services I use with the exception of youtube which always, always bogs down and stops, I suspect they are messing with me since I disable cookies and HMTL5 and use extremely aggressive ad blockers and Safari on a Mac running MacOS. Yeah, I'm the enemy of youtube and google. Oh and BTW, I will never be a "customer" of google. I refuse to sign up for anything with them and I block them hard at every thing they try to do when it comes to spying on me. I don't play their game. I won't give google the chance to data mine me. (needless to say, I will never have any of those stupid digital assistant / Big Brother devices in my home!)

Direct TV? AW HELL NO.. NOT EVER. AT&T IS THE DEVIL and I will never, ever do business with those &^%*&T*&!!#!!! THIEVES !!
If they were the last place on earth to get air to breath I would rather die of suffocation than give them one penny.
I will never, ever go to AT&T or any business they own for anything. Not cellular, not land lines, not TV, NOTHING. EVER.
I wish them nothing but the worst, I hope they fail and they all set themselves on fire and jump off bridges. They are the worst vermin in the universe.
(I was nice about AT&T, really, I was. I would probably be arrested if I said what I really think about them)

Anyway....
Ok, so here's my boggle..

I need for my billing cycles to start as close to the first of every month as possible.

On the 7 day free trials, when do the actual billing cycle begin for each, IE Vue and Sling?

Should I start my free trial a week before April 1? Does the billing start AFTER the week and recur each month from that date?

OR, does the billing cycle begin on the date I start the free trial? Should I start the free trials on the first so I'm billed on the 1st of each month?

I'm asking this because of how things got really messed up with Amazon Prime YEARS ago and they will not work with me to fix it.
I started on a date that always falls at a bad time for me financially (it wasn't a problem back then but is now) each month. And every stinking year they automatically charge me on the same date and don't care at all if it makes problems for me. I use debit cards only so I have to make sure money is in my account on the dates different places bill me for stuff. The only thing I can think of doing is to cancel my Prime membership and restart it at a different date but that will mess me up because I use the heck out of Prime as I've been designated the family Amazon ordering person and I watch a lot of Prime stuff. My family doesn't trust "ordering stuff over the internet" so they have ME do all the ordering and take all the risk for them. And I still have to pay the membership myself. Family.... What can ya say?.....

I guess the thing that's going to be the most problem for me is that in every room of the house I have different devices for watching TV. VERY OFTEN I will be watching something in my upstairs office/crafts room then pause live TV, go to the kitchen and resume it down there as I have a 50' HDMI cable run and I put some little remote control doodads in my Dish remotes so I can use them wirelessly. That's extremely handy.
Also, pausing live TV, VERY VERY OFTEN for taking restroom breaks and taking the dogs outside to potty. When I come back I can resume then skip ahead through the commercials until I'm back to realtime.
If I can't pause live tv on the Vue and Sling systems that's really going to be a huge bummer and might make me reconsider. I suppose I might learn to deal with it but I would not be happy at all if I can't pause live stuff.

But more important than anything really is how to start the free trials so that I end up being billed on or close to the first of each month. That's the biggest concern for now.

Thanks!

 

[Kraven]

IS OTA an option in your area?

We went from a cable package to OTA, FTA, Hulu and Netflix. Eventually got rid of Hulu..
The first couple of days it felt different but we quickly got used to it and are viewing habits have changed...

Another suggestion is you can install PLEX on a computer and link it to a console or Roku.
Plex can give you access to cable shows on CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC etc.

IMO, cutting the cord should be synonymous with cutting the bill as well

 

[FearTheVoices]

I signed up for direct now the first day available pretty much to try the service but mainly get the free Apple TV as I have been meaning to pick one up for a couple years now.

Hardware- Apple TV 4th Gen
Internet - Comcast 250/15

DIRECTV Now - Quick Review in the 4 months now I have had it.. no issues steaming at all. Quick response time loading channels and as quick as dish network when selecting a channel in the guide on my hopper 3. Prgrmaming package is great for $35 a month on the early adopter hobbit package, free HBO now as well for a year so that's great as well. Now the bad...The app is absolutely atrocious...they spent no time other than setting up a guide on this thing and it's so simplistic it reminds me of a blank excel sheet. I will not use thr service because of the app. Game over for now DTVnow.

PSVUE - Signed up for the trial before work at 4:00am Wednesday morning. 7 trial is pretty limited they should offer at least 14 I would hope. Anyway..the app is light years ahead of DTVnow's and it's like comparing Win3.1 to Win10. Won't go into details but the only bothersome thing is the Apple TV remote which is limited for all steaming services due to lack of buttons. Channel line up is great. I got the ultra slim package I think it's called for $45 a month. All the channels we watch in dish are their except for the locals and lifetime channels(wife!).

Speaking of locals I just had cbs Boston locals live added this morning so that is nail in the coffin for me! Canceling dish later today and sticking with the Vue as our main provider. I will hang on to DIRECTV for $35 a month with HBO and give it about 6 months to see how the app and service changes. Wasting some money every month but still paying the same amount between the two for my old dish bill. I wonder if I can transfer my DTVNow account to someone else and keep all the programming. I told my mom to get in on the Apple TV deal and she never did but I would like to give the account to her rather than drop it completely. She is getting gouged by DTV for about $120 a month then they drop it for for a few months to about $80 then it goes right back up.

Hoping Apple starts coming out with an updated Apple TV every year now. If not that they need to release a updated remote for they Apple TV. The most pressing need is a a page up/down and info buttons.

 

[harshness]

The problem with OTA, FTA and Netflix is that they don't provide first-run access to the cable networks that the TS has expressed an interest in.

Broadcast networks are often not available with Vue and SlingTV and things get confusing when you start using three or four different services with multiple hardware platforms. I have enough trouble just moving from Netflix to Amazon Prime on a Roku.

The show stopper with all the streaming services is the DVR functionality. What they're offering now simply isn't enough and without significant local hardware that they don't offer, it may never get to that point.

 

[Zookster]

Wow ! Great info guys! Thanks!

As for staying with Dish, I can't see that happening. $110 a month for AT250. If I knock it down a to like the AT200 I lose a few channels that I do watch from time to time but the savings is minimal.
Going to Vue PLUS Sling will let me keep ~almost all~ the channels I get now plus gain some new ones Dish doesn't have. Maybe I won't watch them, I don't know.
The difference I save each month would be substantial. Dish isn't going to cut me $35 a month slack just to keep me around. I've had a generally good experience with Dish but the price is just too darned high and there's this constant drip drip drip of $5 price increases.

Also I've found, to great annoyance, that many of the channels will not allow Dish credentials to access their libraries such as BBC America, Science channel, Discovery (family) and such. That really torks me off big times.
I have Amazon Prime but they want hundreds of dollars to watch OLD episodes of How the Universe Works while I'm not allowed to access Discovery's streaming content but DirecTV subscribers are.

Apparently with Vue I will be able to. I've waited patiently for years for this to get fixed but it's just not happening.

All of my devices are hardwired over ethernet. I HATE WIFI. I wish I could run ethernet to my iPhone. Because I HATE WIFI.
Our internet here was bought up by Spectrum and they are telling everyone that you now get 60Mbps (M or m, I have no clue) but I'm still using the same old modem they gave my dad 10 years ago so I'm only getting like 1/20th the promised
speed. I need to take the modem back and trade it for a new one but it's still in my dad's name and getting him to do anything takes an act of congress, glaciers move faster than my dad. Even with the crippled speeds my internet speed here is very good and I have no issues at all with the streaming services I use with the exception of youtube which always, always bogs down and stops, I suspect they are messing with me since I disable cookies and HMTL5 and use extremely aggressive ad blockers and Safari on a Mac running MacOS. Yeah, I'm the enemy of youtube and google. Oh and BTW, I will never be a "customer" of google. I refuse to sign up for anything with them and I block them hard at every thing they try to do when it comes to spying on me. I don't play their game. I won't give google the chance to data mine me. (needless to say, I will never have any of those stupid digital assistant / Big Brother devices in my home!)

Direct TV? AW HELL NO.. NOT EVER. AT&T IS THE DEVIL and I will never, ever do business with those &^%*&T*&!!#!!! THIEVES !!
If they were the last place on earth to get air to breath I would rather die of suffocation than give them one penny.
I will never, ever go to AT&T or any business they own for anything. Not cellular, not land lines, not TV, NOTHING. EVER.
I wish them nothing but the worst, I hope they fail and they all set themselves on fire and jump off bridges. They are the worst vermin in the universe.
(I was nice about AT&T, really, I was. I would probably be arrested if I said what I really think about them)

Anyway....
Ok, so here's my boggle..

I need for my billing cycles to start as close to the first of every month as possible.

On the 7 day free trials, when do the actual billing cycle begin for each, IE Vue and Sling?

Should I start my free trial a week before April 1? Does the billing start AFTER the week and recur each month from that date?

OR, does the billing cycle begin on the date I start the free trial? Should I start the free trials on the first so I'm billed on the 1st of each month?

I'm asking this because of how things got really messed up with Amazon Prime YEARS ago and they will not work with me to fix it.
I started on a date that always falls at a bad time for me financially (it wasn't a problem back then but is now) each month. And every stinking year they automatically charge me on the same date and don't care at all if it makes problems for me. I use debit cards only so I have to make sure money is in my account on the dates different places bill me for stuff. The only thing I can think of doing is to cancel my Prime membership and restart it at a different date but that will mess me up because I use the heck out of Prime as I've been designated the family Amazon ordering person and I watch a lot of Prime stuff. My family doesn't trust "ordering stuff over the internet" so they have ME do all the ordering and take all the risk for them. And I still have to pay the membership myself. Family.... What can ya say?.....

I guess the thing that's going to be the most problem for me is that in every room of the house I have different devices for watching TV. VERY OFTEN I will be watching something in my upstairs office/crafts room then pause live TV, go to the kitchen and resume it down there as I have a 50' HDMI cable run and I put some little remote control doodads in my Dish remotes so I can use them wirelessly. That's extremely handy.
Also, pausing live TV, VERY VERY OFTEN for taking restroom breaks and taking the dogs outside to potty. When I come back I can resume then skip ahead through the commercials until I'm back to realtime.
If I can't pause live tv on the Vue and Sling systems that's really going to be a huge bummer and might make me reconsider. I suppose I might learn to deal with it but I would not be happy at all if I can't pause live stuff.

But more important than anything really is how to start the free trials so that I end up being billed on or close to the first of each month. That's the biggest concern for now.

Thanks!

The pause buffer on PS Vue is 5 mins. But if you hit pause at the start of a commercial break, you'll buy yourself another 2-4 mins. You can also record and time shift everything you watch, exiting the show for longer breaks.

I'm pretty sure PS Vue starts charging once the 7-day trial is up. Since there's no contract, you are always free to cancel and restart whenever you want, though they won't prorate a partial month's fee.

 

[fayrich]

Dee Ann, you brought up about Spectrum and the 60 meg speed being pushed by them. I got their internet service only installed a couple of weeks ago. And indeed, their 60 meg speed is a legit claim. In fact, if I am hooked up to the modem by ethernet cable, I get over 70 meg speed. However, via Wi Fi, speed fluctuates. Sometimes gets below 10 meg, but mostly runs in the 30s and 40s. Guess the lowest speeds happen when usage is high. All in all, very satisfied with the speed though.

 

[primestar31]

Dee Ann, you brought up about Spectrum and the 60 meg speed being pushed by them. I got their internet service only installed a couple of weeks ago. And indeed, their 60 meg speed is a legit claim. In fact, if I am hooked up to the modem by ethernet cable, I get over 70 meg speed. However, via Wi Fi, speed fluctuates. Sometimes gets below 10 meg, but mostly runs in the 30s and 40s. Guess the lowest speeds happen when usage is high. All in all, very satisfied with the speed though.

She's right in that the older modems can't go above 30Mbps. If she calls Charter, they will send her a FREE self-install modem KIT. It contains the modem and cables, and everything she needs. NO monthly charge for the modem anymore, it's included in the $60. She installs it, then calls Charter to send it a download and hit.

Real simple, and she'll be running at top speed within 1/2 hour.

I did the same thing.

 

[Zookster]

After I cut the cord with Cox, I had to buy my own modem to replace their "free" one that doubled as my landline phone access box. If I had kept it, they would've charged me another $7/month on my internet bill. As it was, my internet bill went from $65 to $75 for the same 50 Mbps speed ($5 of that was the bundle discount I lost). Since then, I've also bought a new router to get the most out of the new modem.

 

[harshness]

However, via Wi Fi, speed fluctuates. Sometimes gets below 10 meg, but mostly runs in the 30s and 40s.

Unless you're using an ISP-provided wireless router, Wi-fi speeds are mostly independent of the provider. The performance goes down significantly as more users are added because they're all sharing the same relatively shallow pool of bandwidth both from your devices to the router and on the Internet itself.

As a rule of thumb, devices that don't move should be hardwired if possible.

 

[fayrich]

Unless you're using an ISP-provided wireless router, Wi-fi speeds are mostly independent of the provider. The performance goes down significantly as more users are added because they're all sharing the same relatively shallow pool of bandwidth both from your devices to the router and on the Internet itself.

As a rule of thumb, devices that don't move should be hardwired if possible.

The speeds that I get with my laptop around the house are fine. However when (and if) I follow thru with my tentative plans to dump DTV and go with PS Vue, I will use a Roku unit that will be hardwired. Just waiting for Vue to start carrying the rest of the Cleveland locals.

 

[harshness]

The speeds that I get with my laptop around the house are fine.

Unless you're streaming with your laptop, the speed doesn't much matter I suppose. If you have a lower-end Roku, it will be Wi-fi only and you risk issues.

 

[fayrich]

Looking only at the higher end Roku units with ethernet port. Already have the cable in place connected to my DTV unit.

 

[Dee_Ann]

IS OTA an option in your area?

We went from a cable package to OTA, FTA, Hulu and Netflix. Eventually got rid of Hulu..
The first couple of days it felt different but we quickly got used to it and are viewing habits have changed...

Another suggestion is you can install PLEX on a computer and link it to a console or Roku.
Plex can give you access to cable shows on CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC etc.

IMO, cutting the cord should be synonymous with cutting the bill as well

We do have a somewhat acceptable OTA lineup here. I get MeTV, Comet, Cozi, and several others. There are over 30 some odd channels but quite a few of them are channels I will never watch. After I prune out the dud channels I get about 23 channels that may potentially carry sometime I might watch on occasion. I have a SiliconDust HD two tuner gadget that lets me record two channels at the same time.
I have Plex server installed on two different Macs, one of them is running the Plex Pass DVR package so that I can record OTA stuff. I really like that a whole lot. BUT, I have not yet found any way to get LIVE OTA from the SiliconeDust to any of my Rokus, AppleTV, Playstation, etc.. I record the news by Plex every evening in case something comes up and I am away, I can watch it later. They cycle out after 5 days. The guide system for the Plex DVR is really nice, I like it a million times better than the Elgato Eye I was using on my Mac. I just wish the Plex system would convert the recordings from mpeg2 to HEVC x265 when it's idle. That would be the icing on the cake.
Also having it auto remove commercials before converting would be really darn cool. I deeply despise commercials and advertisements.

I have my OTA also split into my two Dish tuners and I can watch live OTA TV and record it too on my Dish tuners. I'll lose that, being able to watch live local stuff is handy. Like, MeTV on Saturday nights for instance. Having to wait hours to see Svengoolie will be a bit of an annoyance since Plex DVR won't let me watch something until it's stopped recording it. I can't understand why someone can't find a way to view live OTA on a Roku.

The way I have things set up now is that I have a Dish tuner at my desk and one in my living room. The one in the living room has three 50' HDMI cables that split out to my kitchen, my bedroom and back up into my little office/crafts room. I have a few of these so I can use the remotes all over the house.

Amazon product ASIN B000C1Z0HA
I also have a PS4 in the living room, an OLD Roku and an Apple TV (3rd gen). In my bedroom I have a Roku 3 and an HDMI feed from the Dish tuner downstairs. The remote extender lets me operate it though the floor. (I also use the same setup in the kitchen from the same tuner). Upstairs at my desk I have a Dish tuner and a Roku 4. I'm not very happy with the Roku 4 to be honest, it is sluggish and quirky and I have to pull the power cord on it from time to time.
I'm probably going to buy a Roku Ultra and put this Roku 4 down in the kitchen where it wouldn't get a heavy workout like it does up here. I'm afraid that I'm going to run afoul of Roku account limitations, as I recall they only allow you to have three Roku devices per account. That's just STUPID. I need one in each room because I do not want to share a Roku between rooms (like I do with Dish) and carry a remote around from room to room, I'll bet you can only bind one remote at a time to a Roku.

As for using the PS4 to watch TV, I've read that it (naturally) gives you the best performance. But I hate that it is a miniature blast furnace, you can set paper on fire with the heat coming out of it, I have one of those laser temperature reader guns and I've read over 200 degrees coming out of the thing ! That's HORRIBLE! I need to put a duct on it and pipe the hot air outside! Also the controller for that thing is awful. I'm sure it's great for kids with young hands and no arthritis but it's painful and clumsy for me to hold operate. If that's how you watch tv with that, I think it won't be so great. I'll have to investigate some of the remote control options mentioned here. In the end I don't know how I will hook everything up, I'm likely to rip out all the wires and start over from zero.

The pause buffer on PS Vue is 5 mins. But if you hit pause at the start of a commercial break, you'll buy yourself another 2-4 mins. You can also record and time shift everything you watch, exiting the show for longer breaks.

I'm pretty sure PS Vue starts charging once the 7-day trial is up. Since there's no contract, you are always free to cancel and restart whenever you want, though they won't prorate a partial month's fee.

Only 5 minutes? That SUCKS!! That's barely enough time for a bathroom break and certainly not enough for taking the dogs out to do their biz. Five minutes. Wow. That's awful. Really, really awful.. I can see a LOT of cursing coming up over that. Sometimes I'll hit pause on my Dish for a whole hour then I can blast through the commercials completely. Sometimes I get a phone call and I might pause it for 30 or 40 minutes. Lots of other reasons to pause for long times and I do it FREQUENTLY. I am an extremely heavy user of the pause and rewind feature. Sometimes I fall asleep and I can rewind to get back to the beginning of a show and start from there, also being able to blast through commercials is a plus. Pause and rewind is a big deal for me, being limited to five minutes is really going to make me very angry to the point of having a stroke in the middle of a cursing fit. I get so very mad so very easily. I admit it.
Oh well, I have to stay focused on the fact that I'll be saving about $50 a month and there's some things I have to give up.

It looks like Dish always generates my bill on the 29th of every month and they bill me on the following 9th. So I guess I better plan on canceling my Dish by the 28th, I'm sure that the moment I do my tuners will go dead and I will no longer be able to watch anything I've recorded on the two DVRs nor will I be able to use them to watch live OTA TV anymore. I imagine they will become doorstops seconds after I click the cancel button.
That considered, I should be able to sign up for the Vue and Sling accounts on the 26th, get my free week and begin my billing cycles for the two around the 2nd which would be fine.

The reason I'm also going with Sling is because of the A&E channels that Vue does not have.

I'm keeping Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon (I have it for the shipping but I do watch some stuff there) and of course my CuriosityStream. I'm going to keep my HBO NOW subscription as is, I pay $15 a month for it though iTunes and I'm happy with it as is, I can't see any reason to change it.

Oh, another question, has anyone watched The Walking Dead (and Fear The Walking Dead) and/or Doctor Who on PS Vue? How is the quality? About 6 months ago I switched all my Dish tuners from the FAKE HD LITE down to 720p which is what I believe they transmit in anyway and it is pretty decent. I've seen that Vue is 720p only and that's ok too. Do they have any on demand stuff in 1080p? I get Game of Thrones (HBO NOW) in 1080p on my Apple TV and on my big TV downstairs it looks EXCELLENT! As long as AMC and BBCA give me a good, crisp picture without buffering I can live with the rest.

 

[SpaethCo]

I've seen that Vue is 720p only and that's ok too. Do they have any on demand stuff in 1080p?

Everything on Vue maxes out at 720p, including on demand. (same as the other services)

Vue excels at preserving native broadcast frame rates and pushing streams at 60fps. Sling cuts everything back to 30fps. You can see the artifacts from this readily on channels with scrolling text at the bottom of the screen (news channels, sports channels) -- it shows up more subtly in other content where there will be more motion blur (from blending 2 frames) and judder in panning shots.

Most Sling channels top out at 720p30 at 3.8mbps, whereas Vue feeds are 720p60 at 5.2mbps. To me, the difference is night and day.