Ditching the Dish, Roku?

[RoadKingLarry]

I've been thinking about ditching the satellite dish and getting a Roku box or similar and a digital antenna.
I really like the DVR feature that comes with the Dish though and I'm not sure what I'd need as a substitute but I don't really want a PC dedicated as a DVR. I have a 1.5K DSL and a wireless router that is 7-8 or more years old. It does fine with my laptop and relatives wifi devices. 

So anyone using a Roku and what would you consider a worthwhile subscription set, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu?
I'm open to suggestions on alternatives to a Roku box and an option for a DVR.

[Ben]

I have a Roku box, but have not thought about making it my lone access point for media. I use it for Amazon, Netflix, and some of the free Roku channels, which mostly are not that great, but there are a few good ones. I've never subscribed to Hulu Plus, so am not sure how much stuff that you would find on cable or dish you would find there. If Hulu covers most of what you're watching on your sat channels, that plus the Netflix and Amazon would set you up.

I should actually look into this myself because my cable bills have been increasing into the outrageous range for the last couple of years. I'd just need to find an equivalent or better Internet provider since I have a bundled package, and going to Internet only with them increases that price a good bit.

[AZRedhawk44]

I've been free of TV for 5-6 years now.

I use Roku, or a network-aware BluRay player.  Most BluRay players have the same capabilities as a Roku box.

I have a Netflix subscription which is getting a bit tedious, but at $7 a month it's not a big deal.  Offerings get stale and I leave it alone for weeks at a time, then new stuff shows up and I have things to watch again.

I have done Hulu in the past, but I don't anymore.  I gave it up a year ago, when Hulu increased commercial duration from 30 seconds to 45-60 seconds, and I could see the writing on the wall.  This would be the new way to compel people to watch commercials.  So I cancelled it.

My favorite electronic toy in my house is my Synology Diskstation NAS (network attached storage).  Basically a turnkey over the counter Linux server with a pair of hard drives in it giving me 1.5TB of redundant storage.  I've digitized my entire DVD collection using AimerSoft's DVD Ripper software, and have what is essentially my own Netflix server in my house.  My Sony BluRay player connects to it seamlessly with no configuration needed, through DLNA.  I stream content from it.  I'm going to replace the Sony player with an LG or Samsung one soon, though, because they have a better client interface for the media server (It's a Plex server running on the Synology box, and LG/Samsung have the official Plex client available for free download in their app stores for their BluRay players, rather than relying on the limited functionality of DLNA).

And... there are other very easy ways of stocking the NAS with fresh content.


Your big weakness will always be sports, though.  NFL/NHL/NBA/MLB don't want to get into streaming at all.  They hate it.  If sports matter to you, and you still want to go dishless/cable-less, you'll need to find a favorite sports bar or a buddy who still has dish.

[RocketMan]

Your DSL may be too slow for good video quality. I'm guessing that in calling it 1.5k, you meant 1.5mbps.  From what I have read, 6mbps or so is the minimum for good consistent quality HD streaming video.  Lower resolutions require less bandwidth.
We're thinking about ditching cable ourselves in the next year or so, once a couple of shows that we enjoy end their runs.  They are not available from Hulu or Netflix, unfortunately.

[Brad Johnson]

Your DSL may be too slow for good video quality. I'm guessing that in calling it 1.5k, you meant 1.5mbps.  From what I have read, 6mbps or so is the minimum for good consistent quality HD streaming video.  Lower resolutions require less bandwidth.

I can tell you from experience that 1.5 Mb DSL is too slow for decent video quality.  At best you'll get something akin to a standard def broadcast in terms of pic quality, and even that will probably have a good bit glitching from buffering pauses.  From what I can tell when I tried streaming on DSL you need to be a stable  4 Mb or so I'd get decent pic quality.  At 7-8 I was getting into hi-def territory.  In the end I went with 10 Mb U-Verse and all was well.  Important note, the XBox I use for my NetFlix console is hard-cabled to my router.  When I tried it via wireless I was having problems with it switching between pic quality modes.

I tried a couple different streaming services to see if it was worth ditching my sat subscription.  Hated it.  Pic quality is good with my interwebz connection, but it got pretty limited after a while and I kept coming perilously close to my web package's data usage limits.  Most of that had to do with selecting "best pic quality" on NetFlix, but that was what it took to make the pic look comparable to my sat setup.

In the end I kept my DirecTV subscription along with streaming-only Netflix.  I like DirecTV over Dish because they carry more of the off-beat channels I like, plus they have a better HD selection among channels I prefer.  The pic quality seems a little better, too.  (My parents have Dish so I can do a direct comparison).  The cost is pretty much a wash between the two after the intro-special-sign-up-with-us discount pricing period has ended.

Brad

[ArfinGreebly]

Have Roku + Hulu + Netflix.

Also have Dish + DVR.

The variety and quality of channels and content has steadily declined over the years on all the cable/satellite conduits, so I am continually looking for ways to finally finesse out of TV altogether.

Wife still has a few channels and programs she watches.  Still unable to convince her that the value she's getting for our $100 a month is insufficient.

News is still not entirely dead as a value, but it's getting there fast.

We are seeing more and more of the shows we bother watching at all showing up on Hulu/Netflix.  Yes, the ads are teh suk, but if I'm paying 1/10th of the fees and getting most of the content I prefer, I'm okay with it.

I'm kind of liking Az's solution with the Synology gadget.  I'll probably solicit a tutorial from him.

However . . .

For what I spend a month on cable/satellite, I could afford to shoot regularly at any local range of my choice, and have money left over.  And spare ammo.  And a new gun once every six months.

Just in case any of that matters . . .

[RoadKingLarry]

Yeah, I meant 1.5Mbps for my DSL. I don't have an HD TV but my line has been tested capable of 3Mbps. We don't watch sports, like ever. So that isn't a big deal.
I may pick up the low end Roku and see if my DSL will support it.

Kind of funny but I got on AT&T's website and their online DSL test says I can't get DSL at my address but I can get Uverse.   
Since I work out of the office my service comes out of it's real funny to me.

[RoadKingLarry]

I'm still using a SD TV. I picked up a Roku box this afternoon. Set up Netflix on it. tried a few different programs and watched part of a movie. my 1.5 Mbps DSL seemed to work OK for what I tried. I'd be watching it now but the wife wanted to watch a PPV movie tonight.
I think I could be satisfied with it as a replacement for the Dish but I'm not sure the wife will be, yet.

[GigaBuist]

We ditched satelite a while ago.  I think it has been nearly a year.  We replaced it with a Roku and use Netflix, Amazon Prime, HuluPlus, Vudu, and Amazon VOD.

Basically Netflix, Prime, and HuluPlus get us most everything we want.  For some shows that we can't get anywhere else (Dexter, True Blood, Game of Thrones) we just wait for them to hit Vudu or Amazon VOD and buy them.  At about 40 bucks a season that's half a single month's cable bill.

You can pick up a lot of PBS stuff if you install the Nowhere TV private channel to your Roku.  Wife does that to get Dowton Abbey soon after they air.

I tried a Boxee Box for a while but just stopped using it.  It's basically a good device for scrounging up free content off the web, and Netflix, which is great for some people but the there one day and gone the next aspect started to bug me.