With the ever-changing pricing with cable and satellite television, a lot of people are looking to enjoy television at a more reasonable price. One evidence of this trend is that for the past 6 months or so, streaming boxes such as Amazon’s Fire TV, Apple TV, and the Roku streaming stick has been flying off shelves of electronic retailers ever since Black Friday of 2017. These devices allow you to easily watch content streamed to your television over the internet.
What I am finding out is that there is a lot of confusion on how to use these devices to access television content online. They are asking this question because they are finding out that these devices don’t automatically connect to their local or cable television stations on their own, so they become disillusioned and stop using these devices altogether.
The streaming device is actually only one piece of an entire puzzle to stream television content online. The other piece is having at least an internet connection that has at least 40mb of download speed. To test your current internet download speed, click here to go to speedtest.net and click the “go” button. If your current internet speed falls below that, I would suggest calling the local internet providers in your area to see what deals they have for faster internet. The last piece of the puzzle is to put together a series of apps to use on the streaming device to be able to watch television over the internet. I aim for this blog post to be a guide on how to go through the process of putting this online streaming puzzle together.
About 6 months ago, I decided when I got my last bill from a specific satellite company of $135, up from $75, I decided to go head first into cutting the cord. I’ve experimented with using a few devices leading up to deciding to cut the cord with mixed results, but eventually, I found the correct app lineup for my entertainment needs. But before you do the same for yourself, you most definitely need to take inventory on what channels you do watch on a regular basis and the other features that you use (i.e. DVR service) because that will dictate which online streaming service will be best for your needs. And speaking about that, let’s go over a few of the popular online streaming services and their pros and cons:
DirecTV now – Cost ranges from $35 to $75 depending on desired channel package. At the time of the writing of this article (2/2018), there is no DVR Support but should come by the summer of 2018. Best mix of most popular cable channels
Sling TV – Cost ranges from $20 to $75 depending on desired channel package(s). At the time of the writing of this article (2/2018), there is available cloud DVR Support. Good mix of most popular cable channels
PlayStation Vue – Cost ranges from $40 to $75 depending on desired channel package(s). At the time of the writing of this article (2/2018), there is available cloud DVR Support. Good mix of most popular cable channels
YouTube TV – Cost is $35. At the time of the writing of this article (2/2018), there is available cloud DVR Support. Okay mix of the popular cable channels.
Spectrum Stream or Spectrum Choice-Cost ranges from $20 to $75 depending on desired channel package(s). At the time of the writing of this article (2/2018), Cloud DVR Support is not available for this service. Good mix of most popular cable channels where you have the ability to choose the channels you wish to watch.
Comcast Xfinity Streaming Service – If you live in an area that supports Comcast Service, you can opt for this service. I do not live in an area that supports Comcast, so I cannot tell you any pricing information for this streaming service. At the time of the writing of this article (2/2018), there is available cloud DVR Support. Good mix of most popular cable channels
And if you are a big sports fan like I am, you can now purchase the NFL Sunday Ticket, NBA League Pass, MLB Extra Innings and NHL now without having a cable or satellite service. You can now sign up for those packages at their websites and then download and install the apps to your streaming devices.
Those services mainly will take care of the majority of channels that would be on cable or satellite. But the main problem of all of these services is that they don’t take care of your local television channels. There are 2 ways to view your local television channels:
1. Purchase antennas for all of your television sets, but you will not have DVR capabilities.
2. Purchase and use a networked hardware device that all of your streaming devices will see and view your local television channels that come over the air. Also with the hardware device, you will have DVR capabilities.
I prefer to use a networked hardware device because one device purchase will cover all of your televisions in your home instead of purchasing an antenna for each television individually! The best one to use is a device called Tablo.
What you would do with Tablo is that you will connect one antenna to the Tablo, and then connect an ethernet cord from the Tablo to your internet router. At that point, all your streaming devices will see the Tablo after you download and install the Tablo app to the streaming device, and then you will be watching TV on the streaming device through the Tablo.
There is a nominal $5 a month fee for the guide or you could pay $150 for a lifetime subscription to the guide. Another option that is available for streaming your local channels that directly integrates into the Sling TV application is a device called AirTV. You would purchase the device from this website for $120.00, set it up similar to the Tablo, then open up the Sling TV Application and then connect it to the AirTV under the settings option as per the instructions here. Then your local television channels will show up in the guide under Sling. The only drawback to the AirTV at the time of this update (5/2018) is that you cannot use Slings cloud DVR service to record the local channels. I saw under the AirTV website that this will be updated to do so by the end of 2018.
So you may be wondering which combination do I have? I decided to have the Tablo device to take care of my local television channel needs with a Sling TV subscription which I pay a total of $55 per month for local and cable channels. I also purchased an AirTV unit to experiment with also. This setup is better than the $135 I would have been paying. Plus I also have Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Video (included for free for Amazon Prime membership) subscriptions for other exclusive content. I hope that this blog post has cleared up the puzzle that is streaming television content online. Thanks for reading and hope to hear from you soon!