Cable Cord Cutters - Finally ESPN and other sports offered w/ SLING TV


Bane said:
Question for you all. I am about to nix my personal smart phone and use the one my job provides. It comes with an unlimited data plan, but must pay for all calls. It also comes with mobile hot spot. Will it be feasible to use my mobile phone (mobile hot spot) as my home Wi-Fi to stream all internet and movies? I could probably connect my wireless router to it and then connect all devices to the router.
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Not unless that phone comes with an unlimited data plan. Using a phone as your primary home internet connection to stream movies would go through a data cap really quick. Even with an unlimited plan, once you hit a certain point, carriers tend to slow down your connection.
 
JAG89 said:
Some are very current, like 2014 and 2015. Most of the times I can get good quality movies (1080P) once they hit the store's shelves. PM me and I'll send you a list of my movies. If you are planning on collecting movies, I suggest you invest in an 4 TB and above external hard drive with ethernet connection. You would need the large memory space to save movies or else they would eat up the memory on your computer hard drive. The ethernet allows you to connect your external hard drive to your router so that you can stream movies to all your devices straight from your external hard drive. My Roku 3 box is the best device that streams those movies straight to my TV.
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I have a similar set up. I have a Plex server set up to stream my movies from. I use it to stream my movies and TV shows. I have a small form factor computer with 4 external drives connected to it as a server.
 

ToPdOg said:
Not unless that phone comes with an unlimited data plan. Using a phone as your primary home internet connection to stream movies would go through a data cap really quick. Even with an unlimited plan, once you hit a certain point, carriers tend to slow down your connection.
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At&T definitely does it, but they are being sued by the government for limiting 'unlimited data'.

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/ftc-sues-att-limiting-unlimited-data

Now AT&T is suing the government for trying to regulate them like a public utility. IMO, telecommunication companies, particularly internet service providers have become more like public utility companies, especially when they are providing essential services to the public, such as Emergency Service Announcement. Also, they should not be allowed to arbitrarily raise prices on their customers when they are not upgrading their systems to provide faster and more reliable service. They should be regulated like other public utilities, where a certain percentage of their profit (typical 15%) must go back into upgrading their networks so that they don't overload an inadequate system in order to make a profit.

http://www.fox28.com/story/28024293/2015/02/04/att-plans-to-sue-fcc-over-internet-regulation
 
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ToPdOg said:
I have a similar set up. I have a Plex server set up to stream my movies from. I use it to stream my movies and TV shows. I have a small form factor computer with 4 external drives connected to it as a server.
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I have a 2 TB hard drive that's approximately 90% full (approximately 177.5 GB left). I'm about to buy at least a 4 TB or a 6 TB external hard drive to expand my memory. I'm sure memory size of movies would probably double when they switch to the 4k format level. As of now, most of my movies are anywhere between 1 GB to 2 GB in size.
 
JAG89 said:
I have a 2 TB hard drive that's approximately 90% full (approximately 177.5 GB left). I'm about to buy at least a 4 TB or a 6 TB external hard drive to expand my memory. I'm sure memory size of movies would probably double when they switch to the 4k format level. As of now, most of my movies are anywhere between 1 GB to 2 GB in size.
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Oh, mine are typically bigger than that. Normally between 8 GB and 15 GB, depending on the length of the movie. I typically only get 1080p blu-ray rips. Those 4K videos are gonna be huge since it's 4 times the resolution of 1080p. Hopefully the h.265 format will become more common place which should help with compression, although some hardware devices might not have the power to handle it.
 
ToPdOg said:
Oh, mine are typically bigger than that. Normally between 8 GB and 15 GB, depending on the length of the movie. I typically only get 1080p blu-ray rips. Those 4K videos are gonna be huge since it's 4 times the resolution of 1080p. Hopefully the h.265 format will become more common place which should help with compression, although some hardware devices might not have the power to handle it.
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I always re-format my movies as mp4 files so that they can basically play on any device and they are still 1080p blu-ray quality. Also, I still have a few that's 720p, but most are 1080p. I might have a few that's over 2 GB, but most are between 1 GB and 2 GB, which is how I'm able to get approximately 1,000's movies on a 2 TB external hard drive. I see Seagate has already put out its 8 TB external hard drive. In the next couple of years, memory will be in the PB (petabytes - 10E15).

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http://www.seagate.com/products/network-attached-storage/home-network/personal-cloud/

For a couple $1,000 dollars, eventually people will be installing business like storage devices in their home.
 
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Bane said:
@TSUGIRL07 You should consider purchasing a HD antenna in addition to Sling. All major tv networks broadcast digital over the air for free. I pick up about 50 channels total. Heck I'm getting a better picture then when I had cable with HD box.
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Where we just moved we get the major tv networks and a few regional ones, so I don't need it right now. I got married in January and we are saving for a house now, but already decided we will be getting an HD antenna when that time comes. Thanks though @Bane ! I really didn't realize you get that many channels with the antenna. Cool.

@JAG89 Just got the ROKU3 last night. Looking forward to playing around with it this weekend.
 
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TSUGIRL07 said:
Where we just moved we get the major tv networks and a few regional ones, so I don't need it right now. I got married in January and we are saving for a house now, but already decided we will be getting an HD antenna when that time comes. Thanks though @Bane ! I really didn't realize you get that many channels with the antenna. Cool.

@JAG89 Just got the ROKU3 last night. Looking forward to playing around with it this weekend.
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Make sure to load Roku Media Player app to stream movies, music, pictures, etc. from your external hard drive that is connected to your router.

This is how the app looks:

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The Roku player has a smartphone app, so that you can control your Roku3 from your smartphone.

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Also, the Roku3 remote controller has a place to insert your headphones, in case you don't want to disturb others while watching TV, watching a movie, or listening to music.

Roku-3_REMOTE_WITH_HEADPHONES.jpg
 
Eventually remote controllers will be a thing of the past, now that most devices come with an app for smartphones. Smartphone will eventually be the universal remote for everything.
 
JAG89 said:
I always re-format my movies as mp4 files so that they can basically play on any device and they are still 1080p blu-ray quality. Also, I still have a few that's 720p, but most are 1080p. I might have a few that's over 2 GB, but most are between 1 GB and 2 GB, which is how I'm able to get approximately 1,000's movies on a 2 TB external hard drive. I see Seagate has already put out its 8 TB external hard drive. In the next couple of years, memory will be in the PB (petabytes - 10E15).
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Ahh yes, MP4 offers better compression than MKV, which is what I use.
 
ToPdOg said:
Ahh yes, MP4 offers better compression than MKV, which is what I use.
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Plus, most devices do not recognize MKV files. My little 123CopyDVDGold can convert almost any format there is. Also, it creates DVDs and download music and videos from internet sites like Youtube. It's a great little inexpensive tool to have. I like making DVD copies of cartoons for my twin nephews with their names on their personal copies.

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ToPdOg said:
That's because cable companies compress the hell out of the signal to reduce bandwidth.
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Exactly, which is why they should be made to upgrade their system to serve all their customers at the highest bandwidth. The best most cable companies can provide is 720p, which makes no sense for someone who owns a 4k t.v.
 
@JAG89 loving the Roku3 so far! Did you access any of the private channels? As for SlingTv - I still like it. We ran into an issue during all the snow last week where it slowed down drastically, but other than that I haven't had any issues.
 
TSUGIRL07 said:
@JAG89 loving the Roku3 so far! Did you access any of the private channels? As for SlingTv - I still like it. We ran into an issue during all the snow last week where it slowed down drastically, but other than that I haven't had any issues.
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What private channels are you referring to? Are they free??? I only watch the free stuff (news, movies, and old sitcoms) for now. And I stream movies right off my external hard drive. I watched the old movie 'Animal House' last night, which I downloaded a couple months back.
 
Google Roku private channel codes. They are all free except for Play On, which costs $50 (I think) and seems to let you access a lot of cable channels and sports (seems illegal lol). I stumbled across an article about the private channel codes this weekend. I don't think I am going to try it because it really sounds illegal, but I just wondered if you had since you have had a ROKU for a while.
 
TSUGIRL07 said:
Google Roku private channel codes. They are all free except for Play On, which costs $50 (I think) and seems to let you access a lot of cable channels and sports (seems illegal lol). I stumbled across an article about the private channel codes this weekend. I don't think I am going to try it because it really sounds illegal, but I just wondered if you had since you have had a ROKU for a while.
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I just google them. I don't think they are illegal. Roku distributes some of those channels for free.
 
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TSUGIRL07 said:
Google Roku private channel codes. They are all free except for Play On, which costs $50 (I think) and seems to let you access a lot of cable channels and sports (seems illegal lol). I stumbled across an article about the private channel codes this weekend. I don't think I am going to try it because it really sounds illegal, but I just wondered if you had since you have had a ROKU for a while.
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Nowhere TV great with a few live broadcasting stations, including some local channels.

nowheretv.jpg


http://streamfree.tv/apps/roku/nowhere-tv-6362-details.html
 
ToPdOg said:
I also use some private channels on my Rokus. They aren't illegal to use. The same person that created the Nowhere TV channel also has another channel that has some non-kid friendly content if you know what I mean, LOL!! :)
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I guess you see this image a lot. LOL!!!!

nowhere_porn_channel_roku1.png
 
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