Thinking of cutting cable--does anybody use Playstation Vue? (Boston: home, live in)

[NewfieMama]

Hi all,

I'm currently a Verizon FIOS customer and have their bundle service, which costs over $200/month. For the past 6 months or more I've been debating whether I should just cut the cord and get a streaming service. We got a Roku to stream Amazon Prime shows and that's great. Here's the catch, though. I'm a big football fan. And I like watching the daily news, so being able to stream local channels is a dealbreaker for me.

It seems like Playstation Vue is my best bet as it seems they have some local channels that we can stream (CBS, NBC) + all the other stations that we tend to watch regularly and they have DVR service, which I definitely need. They don't have Nickelodeon, but don't tell my kids. I'm just curious if anybody else has made the jump and what their experience was like. Especially for those who watch local channels.

[GeePee]

I have you tried an HD antenna for local?

[jayrandom]

How are you going to get internet service? At least with my Fios plan, internet+TV+phone is about the same price as internet by itself, at least if you aren't a new customer.

[NewfieMama]

Originally Posted by jayrandom

How are you going to get internet service? At least with my Fios plan, internet+TV+phone is about the same price as internet by itself, at least if you aren't a new customer.

I can keep my Verizon FIOS 75Mbps internet for $65/month. Add playstation Vue and Ooma (I need to keep my landline) and Im guessing I'll be paying slightly more than $100/month for everything.

[NewfieMama]

Originally Posted by GeePee

I have you tried an HD antenna for local?

I haven't, but maybe I should give that a shot as a backup

[CaseyB]

Do you have any friends/relatives that would let you use their account? My daughter who lives in Georgia claims she can't afford cable so I let her log into my Comcast account and she can watch all the stations on her TV which gets internet.

[brs306]

I've been using playstation vue for about 6 months now. Its been great so far. The quality of the feed has been excellent. A few items to note:

1. if your ISP meters your useage, then you'll risk going over if you watch a lot of TV. I don't think FIOS does so you shouldn't have a problem there.

2. Quality of the feed will depend on your internet speed, which means both ISP and your internal network. Obviously being hardwired to your router is going to be the best, but I use mine on wifi without issue, you just have to make sure that you are getting a good signal to your roku or whatever you end up using.

3. I use mine through a 1st gen amazon fire tv box and the PS Vue interface is quite laggy. Apparently this isn't an issue with the newer generation of fire tv boxes and sticks. PS Vue is almost unusable on the 1st gen fire tv sticks. So just something to be aware of. If you have laggy performance of the menus and such within PS Vue, it may be a hardware issue rather than a connection or PS Vue issue. When I use PS Vue on my ipad, its very snappy. None of this has any bearing on the quality of the picture once you select a channel, just navigating the guides / menus.

4. PS Vue counts as a tv service provider for the apps related to any of the channels you get on PS Vue. For instance, one of my issues in the Boston market is that you don't get live Fox, which matters to me for sports. Fortunately, you can authenticate the FoxSportsGo app and watch any of the live sports Fox offers through that. Same with something like NESN Go. When i'm traveling I can authenticate NESN Go with my PS Vue credentials and use the app to watch Sox / Bruins games.

To be quite honest, I haven't really missed not having cable. There is still nothing on TV ever, you just have hundreds of less channels of nothing on TV

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by NewfieMama

I haven't, but maybe I should give that a shot as a backup

Results will vary based on location/obstructions. I live in a hilly area and I still pick up about 6 HD channels, and 6 or 7 SD. Its really all I need along with my Internet for streaming.My bill for internet only is less than $60 through RCN.

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by GeePee

I have you tried an HD antenna for local?

+1

I can get all the locals and 10 out of Providence, including all the weird ones (25.3? 66.4?) and Spanish ones. To get WBTS (NBC), it's repeated at 60.5, but 10 is also NBC. $40 decent antenna on my patio gets all that.

[MikePRU]

I cut the chord almost a year ago. It's been great. I had FiOS before that and my bill over the years had creeped up to almost $250/month for internet/phone/TV.

For local channels, I would definitely get an antenna. No point in paying for channels you can get for free. Plus, antennas are incredibly cheap. Check out a website like Antenna Fool to see what type of antenna would work best in your location.

To make TV use a bit more streamlined for my wife and kids, I invested in a Tablo DVR. It was a couple hundred but it basically turns your antenna feed into an electronic feed which you can view through an app on your Roku. This way you're not constantly switching inputs and you can record OTA shows as you'll. I guarantee you'll be shocked at how many OTA channels you'll get with an antenna.

Originally Posted by NewfieMama

I can keep my Verizon FIOS 75Mbps internet for $65/month. Add playstation Vue and Ooma (I need to keep my landline) and Im guessing I'll be paying slightly more than $100/month for everything.

I use Sling for my streaming channels. They all offer different sets of channels. So, if there's one you need (my kids have to have Disney Jr.) that might force you to one provider over another but I certainly wouldn't let those channels be local OTA's that you can get with an antenna.

Also, as I mentioned I was with FiOS prior to cutting the chord. If you're not under a contract, I would highly recommend shopping around for a new ISP. On the Comcast website (not over the phone) I found internet service with 200/15 speeds for $50/month. The up speed is nothing to write home about but I can live with that being that the down speed is good. Plus, it was much cheaper than the 75/75 package Verizon was offering.