I searched and couldn’t find the previous thread. I know there were a few of you who use iptv services too. Mine has become unreliable. Would appreciate any recommendations for an alternative before football seasons comes.
OT: Cord Cutting/IPTV
- Thread starter Rutgers Chris
- Start date
I use DirectTV Stream. It’s the most expensive but has all the sports stations you need. It’s the only streaming service with YES, SNY and MSG local sports networks. Throw in all the national channels and a ton of others I never would have imagined.
I also use DirecTV Stream for these reasons. Only service that gives me all I need. When I first cut the cord years ago, I was saving close to $200 per month compared to cable. Most of that has been eaten into by now when you contemplate price increases and all the various streaming services we subscribe to, but DirecTV Stream is best TV for my purposes.
Hulu basically has everything local Sports except the Yankees & MSG. But they have the Mets, MLB Network, NFL Network, B1G, ACC, SEC etc. not bad for sports unless you need the Yanks & MSG. .
Try AliExpress. They are hit or miss but that's where I always found them.
I think they're all hit or miss and sometimes can be here today and gone tomorrow. But since everyone of my teams are out of market its great for me even with the occasional warts such as buffering, freeze ups etc. Plus I like to watch PPV boxing.
I am interested in the answer as well. My last one requested payment in bitcoin a few years ago. And then my "contact" disappeared. So, I have been without since.
I do have a question and I am assuming the answer is "no". Do you get the RU games that are streaming on Peacock ?
I do have a question and I am assuming the answer is "no". Do you get the RU games that are streaming on Peacock ?
I think mine does get Peacock. But I have another connect that I always use when I need to watch a game on there.
I started writing this assuming OP wanted a local DVR solution, but they didn’t. Since I’ve already begun, here’s the setup I’m building for my sister, who lost her TiVo CableCARDs to Cablevision (they disabled them after the FCC ended support requirements, which I believe was a mistake).
Good news for PC tinkerers: If you have an old PC, you can likely build a DVR. I’m giving my sister a dual-purpose mini PC for browsing, email, office tasks, light 1080p gaming, and DVR functionality when not recording heavily.
Hardware:
Grok helped create a FileBot script (one-time $50 purchase) to scan PlayOn recordings, rename them using TheMovieDB, and move them to a Channels DVR folder.
Performance:
Channels DVR is fast—quick fast-forward/rewind, better control than streaming apps. I created virtual channels (e.g., Sports, Sitcoms, Movies, News) and collections to group episodes and movies.
Future-proofing:
If my cable company reclaims my CableCARDs, I’d switch to YouTube TV (does NOT include YouTube Premium, which I already pay for, would have been nice to get a discount).
Good news for PC tinkerers: If you have an old PC, you can likely build a DVR. I’m giving my sister a dual-purpose mini PC for browsing, email, office tasks, light 1080p gaming, and DVR functionality when not recording heavily.
Hardware:
- Beelink SER9 AI 9 HX370 (a less powerful PC works for DVR-only).
- 64GB RAM (soldered, non-upgradable).
- Two 4TB NVMe SSDs: One for OS/apps, one for recordings.
- Hardware note: Adjust Windows and BIOS settings to prevent NVMe drives from sleeping to save power. This caused issues mimicking hardware failure, as the storage drive D: wasn’t kept active..fell alseep did not awaken when needed and apps couldn't see it anymore.
- Windows 11 Pro
- RemotePC (for remote tweaks)
- PlayOn
- FileBot
- Subtitle Edit (fixed a subtitle timing issue from a downloaded file at opensubtitles.com; streaming service ads delayed audio, but I resolved it—needs rechecking).
- Channels DVR (required). Runs on the PC, records via TV Everywhere (TVE), which cable companies use for streaming apps. Not all channels are available (e.g., NBC blocks local channels).
- TVE sources: YouTube TV, Hulu + Live, Fubo. Local channels may vary by location when streaming remotely. Recordings are accessible anywhere.
- PlayOn local subscription: Records from streaming services locally, then integrates with Channels DVR. This preserves “leaving soon” content and skips ads automatically. I haven't quite gotten subtitles working from PlayOn recordings (it does screenscraping or images and audio so I hope the solution is not to "burn-in" subtitles so viewers must see them no matter what)
Grok helped create a FileBot script (one-time $50 purchase) to scan PlayOn recordings, rename them using TheMovieDB, and move them to a Channels DVR folder.
Performance:
Channels DVR is fast—quick fast-forward/rewind, better control than streaming apps. I created virtual channels (e.g., Sports, Sitcoms, Movies, News) and collections to group episodes and movies.
Future-proofing:
If my cable company reclaims my CableCARDs, I’d switch to YouTube TV (does NOT include YouTube Premium, which I already pay for, would have been nice to get a discount).
HD? depends if it is 4K or 1080... dfor space 1080 is nice because many modern TVs do a decent job upscaling.. and most sources do not provide 4K, so I will answer for 1080p.. about 500 hours.
If you were looking for options to steal cable TV, why didn't you just say that?
I figured people knew what IPtV was. My mistake, they do now
"Stealing" cable is a very interesting subject: The current landscape here is that many cablecos now own huge pieces of the TV and even Hollywood world outside of Disney/ABC/ESPN/Fox.
There was a time when the world was different. Where you had TV Networks who could only own 6 broadcast stations (and they chose the largest markets of course) and then they had to attract affiliate stations for the smaller markets who were then forced to buy X amount of hours from the networks to get their content (which were produced by themselves and content they purchased from independently-owned TV and Movie studios).
TV into your home was broadcast Over the Air (OTA) for free to you but had all the issues with interference and so on.
Then comes along cablecos who picked up those OTA signlals and stuck them on wires into your home to avoid the whole antenna issues. And they bought off municipalities to have effective monopolies while getting rights of way to string cable.
Now corporate consolidations ahve created these massive conglomerates who control everything and whatare they doing to "free" boroadcast TV over teh air?
They seek to force you to PAY for it. They are pitching ATSC3 "standard" that encrypts OTA signals and you have to pay them to get it. And, oh, you'll still get advertisements.
That's "progress" for you.
4K is old tech by now but is anyone broadcasting in 4K? No. They can make more money giving you 720 or 1080 using that same bandwidth.. they can have more channels and sell more ads.
The 6-station limit, as well as a barrier to owning other media in the same market, like newspapers (they stil don't own newspapers, maybe that's why print is dead), was also barred in order to limit the political power of media moguls. Now that's out the window.
And teh reward? Inferior definition TV that everyone has to pay for, enriching the corporate overlords even more so they can buy politicians and do whatever they want.
Yeah.. "stealing cable".. that's the worst thing ever. (and, No, I don't do it.. but this post, I think, shows why people do it.. same as people who get meds from Canada or Mexico.. yeah they are "stealing" from Big Pharma and it is a case of "need" vs "wamt".. though I am sure some of the meds are just "wants" also.. but it is driven by unfair prices, unfair tactics and control of the regulations).
2 companies control 70% of cable household.. overall these companies account for 88%. It's time to break em up and maybe they wouldn't have this huge incentive to mess around with OTA signals by buying off politicians.
(Grok made this.. I hope it did not hallucinate.
| Company | Ownership | Cable Subs (approx.) | % of Cable Households | Total Households (homes passed) | Broadcast Stations | Cable Networks | Other Key Assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comcast (Xfinity) | Public; Roberts family control | 14M | 35% | 64M | NBC (10 O&O), Telemundo (30 O&O) | USA, Syfy, Bravo, E!, MSNBC, CNBC, Golf | Universal Films, Peacock streaming, theme parks |
| Charter (Spectrum) | Public; Liberty Media (23%), Advance (13%) | 14M | 35% | 58M | None | Spectrum News (30+ local), Spectrum SportsNet | Advertising platforms; post-merger with Cox adds fiber/IT |
| Cox Communications | Private; Cox Enterprises (family) | 4M | 10% | 12M | None direct (partial via CMG) | Local channels | Autotrader; partial CMG (15 TV, 50 radio) |
| Altice USA (Optimum) | Altice Europe; Patrick Drahi | 2.5M | 6% | 9M | None | News 12 (local NY/NJ/CT) | Advertising/data business; sold Cheddar News |
| Mediacom | Private; Rocco Commisso | 0.7M | 2% | 3M | None | None major | Broadband focus only |
| Disney | Public | N/A | N/A | N/A | ABC (8 O&O) | ESPN, Disney Channel, FX, Freeform, Nat Geo | Hulu (67%), Marvel/Lucasfilm/Pixar films, A&E/History (50%) |
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