Cutting the cord

[EldrickOnIce]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

I wouldn't consider cutting the cord unless I had the local HD channels with an antennae. I can't get them here so I just follow along here to see how others are copping.

Can get Canadian networks in the 'city' with indoor antenna. Close to border, like I am, can get all American networks too (with small outdoor antenna).
Sucks for 'rural' people.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

I wouldn't consider cutting the cord unless I had the local HD channels with an antennae. I can't get them here so I just follow along here to see how others are copping.

Where abouts do you live? If you just happen to be in a bad spot in the city, sometimes a better antenna can help.

[gasman]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Where abouts do you live? If you just happen to be in a bad spot in the city, sometimes a better antenna can help.

I am in Braeside, and all it took for me was to go to a powered antenna that plugged into the wall, Now I get CTV, CBC, Global and City, with City dropping out on occasion (maybe a couple of days per year), but then I just need to move the antenna and I can pick it up again.

Antenna is one of the Flat antennas about 8"x8" and hanges on a north/West facing interior wall.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Where abouts do you live? If you just happen to be in a bad spot in the city, sometimes a better antenna can help.

A couple of mountain ranges between me and Vancouver.

[Drury18]

Possibly a dumb question I will never live down:

Cut the cord today and signed up for Netflix.

Are the movies that I see in the Netflix listing all free and included in the price? I see ones like Lorax and Coraline that have been out forever, but the Martian came out last year.

Just want to find out before my kid goes binge watching cartoon movies that aren't so free.

Edit: Yes, the Martian is not a children's movie. First one I saw for example purposes.

[Burninator]

There are no extra costs.

[ken0042]

You will need to keep an eye on your bandwidth. At high quality Netflix uses about 1-2 GB per hour. So if your internet plan only gives you 200 GB of bandwidth, you could go through that just by watching 6 hours per day. So if somebody falls asleep with the TV going (like my son), all of a sudden you go through your bandwidth early.

Netflix does have an option to drop the quality; which uses about 1/3 the bandwidth.

[Drury18]

Originally Posted by ken0042

You will need to keep an eye on your bandwidth. At high quality Netflix uses about 1-2 GB per hour. So if your internet plan only gives you 200 GB of bandwidth, you could go through that just by watching 6 hours per day. So if somebody falls asleep with the TV going (like my son), all of a sudden you go through your bandwidth early.

Netflix does have an option to drop the quality; which uses about 1/3 the bandwidth.

Thanks, that's good to know as I'm guilty of falling asleep with the TV on and my daughter is guilty of being a typical 9 year old and just leaving it on. I have a Roku box though and it asks me every 90 mins or so if I'm still watching whatever show it is. As it's only the second day I've had it, I'm guessing if I don't respond, it will shut off the show?

With my Shaw package, I got a 1TB of data included so I would hope that should cover us for usage.

[RedHot25]

Originally Posted by Drury18

Thanks, that's good to know as I'm guilty of falling asleep with the TV on and my daughter is guilty of being a typical 9 year old and just leaving it on. I have a Roku box though and it asks me every 90 mins or so if I'm still watching whatever show it is. As it's only the second day I've had it, I'm guessing if I don't respond, it will shut off the show?

With my Shaw package, I got a 1TB of data included so I would hope that should cover us for usage.

6 hours tv/day is a lot

I have a household of 4, incl 2 young kids. We have something like 400 or 500 GB / month, although also considering switching to the new shaw deal (With shaw now and this will save me money).

Anyway, point being we are significantly - and I mean significantly - under the cap. And we have no TV. My wife watches netflix/youtube, my kids live on netflix for kids, and I dabble in netflix and during the summer stream a lot of baseball via MLB.TV.

And when TV (Streaming) isn't on, often music streaming is - often spotify, but can also be via youtube.

A long rambling way of saying that you will be more than fine - especially with 1 TB.

[rubecube]

For NFL fans, from the Vmedia thread:

Oh, and a tip for Gamepass (I'll also post this in cutting the cord thread). The regular price in Canada is something like $324.99 for the entire season + playoffs and Super Bowl, but if you proxy yourself in New Zealand or Brazil you can get it for $250, which is almost the same price as NFL Sunday Ticket. I actually like Gamepass better than Sunday Ticket because you can watch condensed versions of the games where they basically cut all of the commercials, instant replay, etc., and just go play-to-play, which results in the games being about 30 min long (LOL, NFL), and it also has the all-22 coaches' footage if you want to go full football nerd.

I also downloaded the Kodi extension for gamepass and it's awesome. The app only streams at 1600kbps and looks like crap, whereas the Kodi extension gives you full 4500kbps and 720p. Looks as good as watching it on an HD cable channel. The Kodi extension is also pretty rad because it has a full library of games from past seasons (I think it went as far back as 2010).

[HotHotHeat]

So I've been testing Sling TV for the past five days, using both iOS devices and a 4th Gen Apple TV to watch. Setting up an account needed a US address, but my Canadian Visa seemed to work fine, along with unblock us for the actual connection.

The software is well done, a bit light on features though. Quality of the streams, especially on ATV are no doubt clearer than what Telus or Shaw can provide (compression wise), and the US channel selection is nice. Really enjoying FS1 and ESPN. There are three plans, I'm in the $25 option for now. Really, really wish something like this would come out in Canada.

[DownInFlames]

The BBC's iplayer is going to require a TV license starting Sept 1st. I don't know how they plan to enforce this, but I'm guessing they'll be blocking VPN access like Netflix did. I like to watch British shows so this sucks for me. I wish they'd offer TV licenses for foreign viewers. I paid for the subscription on the iPad app while they offered it.

Guess that's more content I'd gladly pay for that'll be easier to just pirate.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-...m%20Newsletter

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

The BBC's iplayer is going to require a TV license starting Sept 1st. I don't know how they plan to enforce this, but I'm guessing they'll be blocking VPN access like Netflix did. I like to watch British shows so this sucks for me. I wish they'd offer TV licenses for foreign viewers. I paid for the subscription on the iPad app while they offered it.

Guess that's more content I'd gladly pay for that'll be easier to just pirate.

This one stings a bit for me. Like you, I'd gladly pay for BBC content if I was able. A good chunk of my TV watching is via the BBC iPlayer. I don't know how it will be enforced. I think that it currently asks you to declare that you have a TV license when trying to watch live TV via a web browser, but nothing to stop you from just answering "yes".

It doesn't sound like they're targeting overseas people specifically, but rather those within the UK that don't pay for their TV license. But any form of authentication will certainly kill the dream for us.

[gottabekd]

What types of shows do you guys watch on BBC? News, Drama, Comedy? All of the above? Do any of the shows show up on iTunes/Google Play the day after airing, or do you have to wait months, or are there literally no ways to legally watch some of the content? Just curious how that is for BBC shows. Always infuriating when you can't throw money at anybody to let them watch their content.

[DownInFlames]

Originally Posted by gottabekd

What types of shows do you guys watch on BBC? News, Drama, Comedy? All of the above? Do any of the shows show up on iTunes/Google Play the day after airing, or do you have to wait months, or are there literally no ways to legally watch some of the content? Just curious how that is for BBC shows. Always infuriating when you can't throw money at anybody to let them watch their content.

Panel shows like "Have I Got News For You" and "QI" aren't available anywhere else as far as I'm aware. Some of the dramas are available elsewhere if you wait.


Again, there's no mention how this will be enforced. I'm hoping there will still be a way to watch in Canada.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by gottabekd

What types of shows do you guys watch on BBC? News, Drama, Comedy? All of the above? Do any of the shows show up on iTunes/Google Play the day after airing, or do you have to wait months, or are there literally no ways to legally watch some of the content? Just curious how that is for BBC shows. Always infuriating when you can't throw money at anybody to let them watch their content.

A bit of a mixed bag, to be honest. Sport, documentaries, some drama, concerts and music shows. Some of those (drama and documentaries) eventually make their way to Netflix, which I can deal with. The others, not so much.

Originally Posted by DownInFlames

Again, there's no mention how this will be enforced. I'm hoping there will still be a way to watch in Canada.

I'm not sure if the UK licensing scheme has a way of enforcing through authentication, to be honest. There are various legal clauses like "you can watch at your caravan if nobody is watching at home" and "if your device is plugged into the electrical mains at a certain physical address, that address must have purchased a license." Almost impossible to enforce stuff like that, particularly because the regulations were made with physical televisions in mind.

Enforcement will probably be the same as the current system : simply the threat of a fine for non-compliance. But they'll probably start scrutinizing IP addresses more closely, which may result in VPN and DNS services getting shut out eventually.

[Hockey]

Originally Posted by rubecube

For NFL fans, from the Vmedia thread:



I also downloaded the Kodi extension for gamepass and it's awesome. The app only streams at 1600kbps and looks like crap, whereas the Kodi extension gives you full 4500kbps and 720p. Looks as good as watching it on an HD cable channel. The Kodi extension is also pretty rad because it has a full library of games from past seasons (I think it went as far back as 2010).

Is this for live games or after they have been played?

Also I guess you would still need a GP account?

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Hockey

Is this for live games or after they have been played?

Also I guess you would still need a GP account?

For live games as well once the season starts. And yes, you need a GP account, but as I mentioned if you purchase it from a Brazilian or New Zealand IP (I use Private Internet Access for this) you get it for pretty much the same price as Sunday Ticket costs on Shaw, plus you get playoffs and the Super Bowl + NFL Network content, which isn't included with Shaw. You do need a VPN though to access the Sunday night, Monday night, and Thursday night games because GP blacks them out in Canada due to TSN and Sportsnet holding the rights. Pretty easy to get around though. I think I set mine to Danish or Italian IP addresses last year and it was fine. You also only need to have the VPN on when launching the games. Once they're actually streaming you can turn it off, so if you don't want to pay for PIA, you can just use something free like TunnelBear to get the streams up and running.

[Wormius]

Damn it, Netflix. Now I can't even use a DNS set to Canada to watch content? What the hell is wrong with you.

[Ragz]

Originally Posted by rubecube

You also only need to have the VPN on when launching the games. Once they're actually streaming you can turn it off, so if you don't want to pay for PIA, you can just use something free like TunnelBear to get the streams up and running.

Is this for very game after you bought gamepass with a Brazil IP, or just to access the blacked out games?

After you bought gamepass with a Brazil IP for a discounted rate, can you still watch non-blacked out live games with a Canadian (non-vpn) IP?