I had been a DirecTV subscriber for what seems like forever. However, I got tired of fighting them to get promotional discounts. The final straw was in May when my bill went up $40/month and they wouldn't agree to give me another promotional discount. I spoke with my wife and got her to agree to just cut the cord and find alternative solutions. So, we cancelled DirecTV at the end of May and I couldn't be happier.

I looked at the various Internet based offerings - Playstation Vue, Sling, Hulu Live TV, etc... Ultimately, we settled on Playstation Vue and their Elite Slim package. It had all of the channels that we watched, and it also had the SEC Network (which was a "must have" for me). Being that the plan is only 44.99/month (now 54.99/month) compared to the 130/month bill with DirecTV, it was a no-brainer. The only worry I had was my Internet speed. I live in a very rural area in MS, and the top speed I can get with my VDSL2 is 12/1. However, I haven't had a single problem streaming in multiple devices at once.

Now, there was one other issue - local channels. PSVue didn't carry any of our local stations, and my wife just had to have her Judge Judy. I ended up purchasing a 60 mile RCA outdoor antennae, removed the LNB from my DirecTV dish, and hooked it up by mounting it to the arm of the dish and using the existing coax. This got us all of our local stations (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and CW). Next step was being able to record shows - after doing some more research, I decided to purchase a 4 tuner Tablo. Setup was extremely easy and I already had an external HD, and it has been absolutely trouble free. The one thing with the Tablo is you do either have to subscribe month for the Guide, pay yearly (which is what I did), or a one time liftetime purchase.

Other purchases I made: I had a Nexus Player hooked up in the living room, and Chromecasts in the other 3 bedrooms. However, I knew my wife wouldn't be happy with having to use a phone to cast TV on the lazy weekend mornings, so I swapped out the devices we used. I purchased a Fire TV Box for the living room, 2 Fire TV Sticks for the guest bedrooms, and moved the Nexus Player into the master bedroom. The Fire TV Box has worked great and is fast and responsive. The Fire TV Sticks work, albeit not very fast. The Nexus Player is one that I'll eventually swap out probably for a Fire TV Box, but it performs well enough for now.While there was an initial upfront investment in hardware to make this switch a bit smoother, I am very happy with how things have turned out. My wife got used to using PSVue and Tablo quickly. In addition, we do subscribe to Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, so we have more than enough TV to watch. I initially thought this would be a very daunting task but it turned out incredibly easy. I wish I had done this sooner!

There really hasn't been any time in which I have regretted going this route. My monthly bill is much cheaper, and we get all of the channels that we want. Surprisingly, the Tablo has turned out to be the "star" of my devices so far. I didn't realize just how many shows we watch that can be picked up OTA. I have the Tablo setup where I can access it remotely, so if we're not at home, we can watch anything on the Tablo that we want from out of town. Pretty neat stuff.

Edited to add - we do get WatchESPN, and SEC Network with this setup (in case anyone was wondering).

Last edited by MeridianOMRebel (10/11/2017 6:04 am)