Cord-Cutting, Or How to Stream your Way to Success

Tarrant

Tarrant

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So you can stream any game from your PC to the shield?

As far as storage, I'm trying to decide if I need the larger version. If games stream then it's not a huge deal really, I wont buy little crappy games to put on it anyway...other than streaming services I'm trying to think of what else would take up space on there?

Do you guys just bunny ears for your local channels? I am going to go total cord cut soon myself.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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There's likely a few games that will give streaming fits, but I haven't read about any so far. I believe the general requirement is that if your GeForce 6xx(or higher) can display on your desktop, you can also stream it to the Shield TV(or their other two shield devices).

I decided $100 extra for local game storage(I honestly don't know what else you would put there unless you go app crazy) wasn't worth it. Android M will fix Android's retarded file system hierarchy and you should finally be able to use external hard drives as actual storage.

I have no experience with OTA reception as I care little for watching sports. But, from the reviews I've read, it looks like getting something like a digital antenna and tuner and the content will be served up via the HomeRunHD app.
 
Arative

Arative

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The hdhomerun app is from silicondust, they make over the air tuners and cable card tuners. The hdhomerun app I think is $1.99 from the play store but it will only work with the silicondust tuners.
 
Crone

Crone

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2 different topics here Tarrant.

To get OTA channels, you have to get a little HD tuner box. Can go cheap, and get one for like $20 from Radio Shack, I assume Best Buy, etc. or you can go for better, and get some of the antennas and stuff from Amazon.

The shield streaming is for games only I think? Or if it can run apps, I guess you could stream TV to it as well through the apps that some of the antennas put out with their products.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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Alright so HD tunner and maybe this Shield. I was going to get an Amazon Firestick but this seems to be able to do everything that can plus more.
 
Gnomedolf

Gnomedolf

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My cord cutting won't officially start until Friday when I get the new internet service installed, but I've started using SlingTV and OTA channels exclusively to ween myself away from cable.

I went to Walmart and picked up a GE powered OTA indoor antenna. It costs $27. There's cheaper and more expensive ones, but this seemed like a good deal with 40 mile range. It has worked flawlessly so far. In fact, local HD channels look much better than on cable. I could be wrong, but I think it's because OTA channels are not compressed, or not compressed as much.

I've also had no problem with SlingTV. It streams great on a Roku 3 and a Roku streaming stick. I have it set to use the highest possible quality. The SlingTV app will tell you what your current bandwidth usage is, which seems to be about 3.7mb/sec for high quality HD.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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joeboo_sl said:
how is the latency on the shield tv for gaming?

I'm trying to decide whether to just run a 25' HDMI cord from my PC to my Plasma, or get an Nvidia shield(which would also replace my Roku, so it would serve multiple purposes). I'm just a little worried about latency for fast-moving/action games.
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As far as I could tell, there was none. A simple reboot of my desktop fixed the problem. Hearthstone is playable with the controller. D3, not so much. Neither game detected that I was using a controller instead of mouse and keyboard, so I had to use mouse emulation with one of the joystick. Which, isn't that surprising since it's Blizzard. I've read of other games automatically detecting that you're on a controller and remapping controls. In light of that awesome trailer, I'm going to reinstall DX:HR and play it on my TV.

Another downside is that Hearthstone settings(resolution at the very least) were changed on my desktop when I went back to play it there. Might be a good idea to have games and only play them in one place or the other.
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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Yeah, I kinda assumed that the Shield would mostly be for playing games that natively support a gaming controller (stuff like Witcher, Assassins Creed, Batman Arkham, etc). Games that are KB & mouse probably don't translate too well
 
edko

edko

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Our move date is set for July 24. We decided to start with a cheaters way of cord cutting. I have a slingbox setup on a relative's Fios and I'm paying for the extra box. The benefit to this will be access to local sports and of course, local news coverage of any additional Baltimore rioting. Can't get enough of that...

Our internet choices are Comcast or Uverse. As discussed previously, I suppose this is a no brainer. I guess I will get the blast package, unless y'all can convince me of something else. We need to stream and have a rock solid connection for telecommuting.

So, hardware wise, in addition to the cheater box up north, we will have roku's in the rooms with TV's.

I don't want to rent a crappy modem from Comcast anymore. I've been way to lazy on this aspect... Been looking into Surfboard 6141 and a Nighthawk X6 router. Seem like a decent pair? I kinda want to have some future proofing, especially with a router that costs so damn much.
 
Deathwing

Deathwing

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You can buy a more than suitable router now and another in 5 years(which will have better features/standards) combined for less than the price of that netgear router.
 
edko

edko

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Deathwing_sl said:
You can buy a more than suitable router now and another in 5 years(which will have better features/standards) combined for less than the price of that netgear router.
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Thanks. I'll stick my head in the router thread and do the homework.
 
Gnomedolf

Gnomedolf

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Got my 20mb DSL installed yesterday. Their modem/router box seems like a capable product. They allow full access to all the settings. I put it in bridge mode, turned off wireless, nat, dhcp, etc so that I could continue to use my Asus router.
 
Gnomedolf

Gnomedolf

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I thought HBO Now was a live stream of their channel. Instead, you can start streaming an episode when it airs on TV. Live events, like boxing, won't be available until days later.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Thinking about cutting the cord as well. Our Comcast bill is up to $200 a month now with a single TV in the house. Wondering if it's gonna be rough on our kid or if it's one of those things where if a kid didn't grow up with TV they'll never know the difference. Or is that what one of those antennas are for? No idea. Just tired of paying so much for TV service
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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Little kids don't give a crap about live TV. Torrent some sesame street and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and use Netflix/Youtube for the rest. My kid will browse through Youtube as long as you would let him(we try to limit it to 30 min) on a tablet, and he's only 2.
 
Brahma

Brahma

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Noodlemod_sl said:
Thinking about cutting the cord as well. Our Comcast bill is up to $200 a month now with a single TV in the house. Wondering if it's gonna be rough on our kid or if it's one of those things where if a kid didn't grow up with TV they'll never know the difference. Or is that what one of those antennas are for? No idea. Just tired of paying so much for TV service
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Woah...That's a lot. How much would it be just for internet service, and what speeds?

My kids definately can do without television. They have full schedules after school. My mother would be the issue. She got a little part time job to keep her occupied...but most of her day is spent looking at television.

I just swapped from FIOS to RCN. They offered me the full gambit of HD channels minus the premiums, couple TIVO boxes, 110/50 internet for $150 to swap. Thus far I can say I am impressed. My speed last night was crazy...Like 200/100 for some reason.
 
BoldW

BoldW

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I always watch local channels OTA. I have an HD antenna in bar format that goes behind my sounbar so no embarrassing ears.

What's awesome about OTA is that it is better quality than cable or satellite - No compression.
 
Dandai

Dandai

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We haven't had a TV service for 3-4 years now. Still use cable for internet, but with google fiber coming to our area soon, cable internet will soon be a relic of the past as well. Our kids watch Netflix/Amazon Prime kids shows, and if a show isn't on there, we just grab a season pack off of IPTorrents. When the Super Bowl was on we got some rabbit ears to watch it, but I think it was live streamed for the first time this year.

tl;dr: my family doesn't miss standard TV.
 
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