Discounts or Cord Cutting, Please Assist!!

[adam61]

I've been a DirecTV customer for about 12 years no late payments use auto-pay etc. if that matters. A year ago I seriously considered cutting the cord, but was a bit lazy and DirecTV offered me $40/mon for 12 months and all premiums free for 6 months so I just decided to stay. All the premiums have expired and the bill that just came out has $40 credit 12/12 on it so next month I'm looking at $150-155 for Preferred Xtra +HBO. Since HBO Now is available one of my incentives to stay is now gone as well.

I utilize Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and if I decided to cancel I already own an antenna that would get me the 4 locals, along with purchasing HBO now a la carte. I did a bit of a family experiment for both off-season and during the TV season and we watch about 95%+ off-season either Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, HBO, or networks. During the TV season it's about 85%. However, inertia is a powerful force, and I'm not sure how I record off the antenna or how easy it is to split to 4 TVs and everything is set up beautifully how I like it with an HR44 and 2 HR24s.

So my main questions are...
1) How big of a discount or change in subscription (or both) with DirecTV could I likely get to make it semi-worthwhile?
2) How hard is wiring up an antenna that could service 4 TVs and do I have any reasonably priced recording options? Most of our "shows" are on the big 4 networks.

I just keep looking at a $110-160 bill that our family uses (outside of HBO/Networks) maybe 2-4 hours a week.

Thanks in advance for the help!!

 

[edisonprime]

Get a TiVo! They can record off-air!

 

[osu1991]

If you have coax in the other rooms, it quite simple to setup and distribute an antenna signal throughout house.

1TB Tivo Roamio OTA is on sale currently for $299 with lifetime service from TiVo website. Has 4 tuners and Netflix, Amazon and VUDU integrated. Tivo Minis refurbished are also on sale for $99. Mini allow full access to Roamio functions in other rooms.

 

[edisonprime]

If you have coax in the other rooms, it quite simple to setup and distribute an antenna signal throughout house.

1TB Tivo Roamio OTA is on sale currently for $299 with lifetime service from TiVo website. Has 4 tuners and Netflix, Amazon and VUDU integrated. Tivo Minis refurbished are also on sale for $99. Mini allow full access to Roamio functions in other rooms.

Or if you don't mind spending the extra money for one time and have a 4K TV, get a 1 TB TiVo Bolt and add lifetime/all-in service and have your picture upscaled to 4K quality by only checking the 4K box in the resolutions section. I plan to get a 1 TB TiVo Bolt with my rent rebate this year and do that.

 

[osu1991]

Or if you don't mind spending the extra money for one time and have a 4K TV, get a 1 TB TiVo Bolt and add lifetime/all-in service and have your picture upscaled to 4K quality by only checking the 4K box in the resolutions section. I plan to get a 1 TB TiVo Bolt with my rent rebate this year and do that.

I wouldn't.
Not worth the cost difference and most tvs are going to do a better job than the Bolt upconverting.

For OTA only the Roamio OTA is the better value, especially at $299 as it already comes with all in/lifetime service. It's also much easier to drop a standard 3Tb desktop drive into the Roamio than finding a 3Tb laptop drive that will work with the Bolt. In terms of dvr performance the Roamio and Bolt are about equal. The Bolt is faster in launching apps. Most tvs already have 4k apps for Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube so not missing out on the Roamio just having standard apps. The Bolts apps are also not all 4k apps so even there Roamio doesn't lose much.

 

[edisonprime]

I wouldn't.
Not worth the cost difference and most tvs are going to do a better job than the Bolt upconverting.

For OTA only the Roamio OTA is the better value, especially at $299 as it already comes with all in/lifetime service. It's also much easier to drop a standard 3Tb desktop drive into the Roamio than finding a 3Tb laptop drive that will work with the Bolt. In terms of dvr performance the Roamio and Bolt are about equal. The Bolt is faster in launching apps. Most tvs already have 4k apps for Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube so not missing out on the Roamio just having standard apps. The Bolts apps are also not all 4k apps so even there Roamio doesn't lose much.

I don't know what kind of 4K TV you have, but mine won't upconvert anything to 4K quality, especially 3D content. My AVR will do that when the upscale function is selected, but only when the source is playing at 1080p. My 4K Blu-ray player will also do that (on 2D content) as well as my Roku Ultra but that's about it.

 

[adam61]

Do I need the Mini's if I propogate the antenna signal as mentioned above? (I have a master cable box in the garage with all coax in it). I have 4 TVs so the $300 sounds awesome for a lifetime TiVo box, but $100-150 for each little mini seems steep. Also since no one's mentioned it, I'm assuming DirecTV is unlikely to give me enough discount to be worth staying for things like Comedy Central/simplicity? And Hulu Plus isn't going to have enough of the shows to be worth the cost $8-12 a month I believe and just skip the boxes and antenna?

 

[fayrich]

For me I have PS Vue for the cable channels I want, Amazon Prime for movies, and a Tablo unit for OTA reception and recording. With cheap Roku Express units you can feed the Tablo content to other tvs around the house with no wiring. Assuming that you have decent wifi internet service. The costs are reasonable. Up front purchases of the Tablo and Roku units. Then just $35 per month for Vue, $10.99 per month for Amazon Prime, and no cost for the Tablo unless you opt for the much better guide that costs $5 per month. This combination works very well for me and sure beats the $130 plus per month that DTV was costing without any of the premiums.

 

[osu1991]

Do I need the Mini's if I propogate the antenna signal as mentioned above? (I have a master cable box in the garage with all coax in it). I have 4 TVs so the $300 sounds awesome for a lifetime TiVo box, but $100-150 for each little mini seems steep. Also since no one's mentioned it, I'm assuming DirecTV is unlikely to give me enough discount to be worth staying for things like Comedy Central/simplicity? And Hulu Plus isn't going to have enough of the shows to be worth the cost $8-12 a month I believe and just skip the boxes and antenna?

If you just want antenna access in the other rooms, you can send the antenna feeds to the rooms over coax and use the tv tuners. If you want access to the Tivo dvr then you need the Mini's. I just added Mini's whenever I found them on sale, but usually $99 is the cheapest I found them new or refurbished. You might find some used for less. The mini has lifetime service so there is no charge for them other than the purchase price. Between my personal home, my lake cabin, my dads house and our condo in Vegas, I have 4 Roamio's and 4 minis that I've bought on various sales the last 2 years. They are pretty much plug and play. You will need a moca adapter to send the Tivo signal to the other rooms over coax if you don't ethernet ran. The Tivo app works very well too. I use the app every day to check timers and delete shows I might watch at home that also had recorded to one of the other Tivo's. You can also use programs like pytivo or kmttg to pull the video files off the tivo to your computer and take with you on trips or just to archive.

Here is the Tivo sale page. It ends tomorrow

TiVo DVR Summer Meltdown Sale 2017 - Buy Now and Save.

 

[rapidturtle]

Have you looked into Directv now? I am considering going that route, and taking advantage of AT&T's $25 a month discount.

 

[Bruce]

Have you looked into Directv now? I am considering going that route, and taking advantage of AT&T's $25 a month discount.

The main problem with DTV NOW is no DVR.

 

[jcrandall]

I moved to Tivo and have been very pleased with the interface (thought I moved to cable). If we went streaming only I would be comfortable with the Tivo interface for OTA and how it integrates Netflix and Amazon (and hulu though I haven't used it). The $100 Tivo Mini is a great way to setup a whole-home DVR network that also brings hard-wire ethernet to your rooms. Keep in mind you will need a MOCA adapter for the Roamio OTA, so you're really closer to $400.

I watch too much sports to go completely OTA, but I have a feeling at some point I"ll have to revisit that too. I tried Sling, PS Vue, and D-Now, and didn't like the interface of any of them. The PS Vue DVR was terrible to browse and setup recordings.

 

[mdram]

never depend on discounts. if you dont like the full price, trim the pack, dorp rooms, ect

 

[edisonprime]

The main problem with DTV NOW is no DVR.

Can't "move" either.

 

[rapidturtle]

Pretty sure DVR is coming soon. The no moving part could be a deal breaker though. I live in PA, but get stuck with NY locals. I do like the ability to move for PA news, and Philly sports.