HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > Canada


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #1  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 12:21 AM
GreatTallNorth2 GreatTallNorth2 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,446
Rogers/Bell TV Alternatives

Hello fellow Canadians, I have recently cut the cord with regards to cable tv and am wondering what others do to consume content other than Netflix. Living in London, Ontario, the OTA choices are extremely limited.

So far, I have Netflix, Sportsnet GO, CBC News & CityTV apps on Apple TV. Has anyone subscribed to Zazeen or VMedia streaming live TV?
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #2  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 12:25 AM
BretttheRiderFan's Avatar
BretttheRiderFan BretttheRiderFan is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 2,667
I watch a lot of YouTube on my TV through the blu ray player. Documentaries, music videos, sports highlights, CBC News, the Agenda with Steve Paikin, pretty much whatever you could think of.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #3  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 12:40 AM
VANRIDERFAN's Avatar
VANRIDERFAN VANRIDERFAN is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Regina
Posts: 5,144
I have kodi on an old laptop that is permanently attached to my TV. It works just fine, although I would like a faster internet to be able to stream sports.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #4  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 12:43 AM
logan5's Avatar
logan5 logan5 is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Mt.Pleasant
Posts: 6,839
I would pay for Netflix or some other streaming service if they had the same content as grey market streaming services, but they don't. The grey market services have way more content. The one that I use is called 123movies.to. All movies and all TV shows in good quality, all in one spot.

The only thing holding me back from cancelling cable altogether is because streamed sports programming looks not too great because of the low frame rate. The 30 second delay bothers me as well.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #5  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 1:04 AM
Stryker Stryker is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 3,558
HBO go is the only channel I could think of that doesn't usually have content on netflix.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #6  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 1:20 AM
Blader Blader is offline
Calgary Martindale
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Saskatoon-Toronto-Calgary
Posts: 889
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2 View Post
Hello fellow Canadians, I have recently cut the cord with regards to cable tv and am wondering what others do to consume content other than Netflix. Living in London, Ontario, the OTA choices are extremely limited.

So far, I have Netflix, Sportsnet GO, CBC News & CityTV apps on Apple TV. Has anyone subscribed to Zazeen or VMedia streaming live TV?
It seems to me that you still want cable TV content? If that's the case cutting the cord might have been a bad economic choice.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #7  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 2:11 AM
Infrequent Poster Infrequent Poster is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 613
Quote:
Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN View Post
I have kodi on an old laptop that is permanently attached to my TV. It works just fine, although I would like a faster internet to be able to stream sports.
This right here. I still pay for netflix (just so I dont feel too guilty), but honestly its all there on kodi. Just upgraded my internet service to top tier. I can now jump around in an hd stream just like I have the whole file downloaded!!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #8  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 3:21 AM
logan5's Avatar
logan5 logan5 is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Mt.Pleasant
Posts: 6,839
Gotta look into these Kodi boxes. They sell on Craigslist for 100 bucks. All content is free (so says the add). If it can stream all sports in high quality i would buy one. Seems too good to be true though.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #9  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 3:44 AM
Gresto's Avatar
Gresto Gresto is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Toronto
Posts: 3,707
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreatTallNorth2 View Post
Hello fellow Canadians, I have recently cut the cord with regards to cable tv and am wondering what others do to consume content other than Netflix. Living in London, Ontario, the OTA choices are extremely limited.

So far, I have Netflix, Sportsnet GO, CBC News & CityTV apps on Apple TV. Has anyone subscribed to Zazeen or VMedia streaming live TV?
Funny you should mention it. Sick of Bell (one of Canada's most disgraceful corps), and with Rogers being only a scosche better, we're taking a flyer with Zazeen. Equipment and installation haven't arrived yet, but I'll let you know how it is once all is up and running.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #10  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 3:51 AM
Infrequent Poster Infrequent Poster is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Posts: 613
Quote:
Originally Posted by logan5 View Post
Gotta look into these Kodi boxes. They sell on Craigslist for 100 bucks. All content is free (so says the add). If it can stream all sports in high quality i would buy one. Seems too good to be true though.
If you have a computer hooked to a tv thats all you need. I suppose the external box is nice in that everything is preloaded, but its not that hard to figure out. I watched a couple of you tube videos read a couple of forum posts, and was up and running in 30 mins or so. I cant speak for the sports content (as I'm not a fan) but it has all netflix shows, all amazon shows, all hbo, showtime, amc, sify, etc. etc. etc. and obviously all movies/documentries as well. Literally everything is on there and then some. It has exposed me to so many new shows I would have otherwise never watched.

All you really need (in my opinion) is the exodus add on and you're good to go. A good speedy internet connection is not gonna hurt either.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #11  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 4:02 AM
logan5's Avatar
logan5 logan5 is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Mt.Pleasant
Posts: 6,839
Yep. Thanks. Going through the Exodus set up now. It appears that there are a quite a few add ons for sports.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #12  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 4:15 AM
Corndogger Corndogger is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Calgary
Posts: 7,727
Quote:
Originally Posted by logan5 View Post
Yep. Thanks. Going through the Exodus set up now. It appears that there are a quite a few add ons for sports.
Did you see this?

https://www.tvaddons.ag/exodus-kodi-future/

Scroll down to the comments. Does not sound good at all!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #13  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 4:39 AM
logan5's Avatar
logan5 logan5 is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Mt.Pleasant
Posts: 6,839
Works fine so far.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #14  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 5:17 AM
casper casper is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Victoria
Posts: 8,971
Quote:
Originally Posted by logan5 View Post
Works fine so far.
Bell was actually quite good when I lived in Ontario before moving west. Here we have the choice of Shaw or Telus.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #15  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 6:03 AM
SpongeG's Avatar
SpongeG SpongeG is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Coquitlam
Posts: 39,083
I watch a lot of stuff on youtube too. Lots of BBC shows are on there. They may get taken down once in a while but a new channel will pop up within hours so you can follow a show such as Big Brother UK.

Most current shows are available online like city TV, Global, CTV or the American ones if you can hide your VPN. They will contain commercials though but they have a few weeks of the latest episodes of whatever shows are on their network. You can get hulu shows if you hide your VPN too but they usually have commercials in them too.
__________________
belowitall
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #16  
Old Posted Mar 7, 2017, 7:03 AM
Boris2k7's Avatar
Boris2k7 Boris2k7 is offline
Majestic
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Calgary
Posts: 12,010
I've never had cable in my adult life. I have an antenna for OTA, and everything else is from the internet. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll, etc. Sports are irrelevant to me, but I can get American football and HNIC on the antenna... although this means I'm almost never watching my local teams unless I head down to the pub.

Add on podcasts, video games, youtube and twitch, and there's not enough hours to consume all the available content.
__________________
"The only thing that gets me through our winters is the knowledge that they're the only thing keeping us free of giant ass spiders." -MonkeyRonin

Flickr
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #17  
Old Posted Feb 5, 2019, 6:38 AM
logan5's Avatar
logan5 logan5 is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Mt.Pleasant
Posts: 6,839
Funny seeing my old posts from a couple years ago. I gave up on Kodi and other not entirely legal streaming sites. Too much work and updating to keep things running smoothly. Using remote control is far easier.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #18  
Old Posted Feb 5, 2019, 10:39 AM
elly63 elly63 is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 7,864
Even with many of the streams not working as well as they did, Kodi is still a viable alternative for legal (cleared) content for those without cable.

It's funny that people use the term "cut the cord" and yet pay for many alternative services. My definition would be to not pay for anything aside from your Internet service or OTA which has barely been mentioned in this thread but once, I think.

Kodi can be fairly easily installed on a laptop directly connected to a TV as one poster had setup and just recently the long awaited Kodi 18 has just been released. No need to buy a special box or anthing just install on any computer and give it a try if you don't have too many alternatives or don't want to pay for them.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #19  
Old Posted Feb 5, 2019, 2:14 PM
esquire's Avatar
esquire esquire is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Posts: 37,483
CBC Gem is a pretty good side dish to Netflix. It is not very well known but there's some good content. It's free if you can live with ads, or you can pay to get rid of them.

Between Netflix, CBC Gem, YouTube and OTA, that would provide a pretty good range of entertainment and news, and it would only involve paying for one service. That said, I still have cable but at this point sports are the main reason I still have it.

I was always a bit fascinated by the idea of doing a FTA satellite dish but I could never bother with all the technical details getting it set up. Kodi and the like were a non-starter for me... I can't be bothered with the constant tinkering involved.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #20  
Old Posted Feb 5, 2019, 10:01 PM
elly63 elly63 is online now
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 7,864
Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire View Post
CBC Gem is a pretty good side dish to Netflix.
I was always a bit fascinated by the idea of doing a FTA satellite dish but I could never bother with all the technical details getting it set up. Kodi and the like were a non-starter for me... I can't be bothered with the constant tinkering involved.
I didn't know about CBC Gem, thanks for the headsup.

Unless something has changed, after years of having satellite and then not, I looked at FTA and I don't think there was a whole lotta content there.

Kodi, I wouldn't say has constant tinkering, especially when it involves cleared content, that seems pretty constant. Kodi is good for connecting to content programs like the Smithsonian Channel (addon now being rewritten), Food Network, and off the beaten path stuff like archive.org, and NFB.

My experience with Kodi has been interesting. Years ago I used to go to separate websites to find cleared content. A site like CTV for example would have some shows available but not a whole season or anything like that, same with NBC for example. I thought, wouldn't it be great to have a program to conglomerate all that and that is what Kodi essentially does. I knew about Kodi/XBMC for years but I didn't know what it did (to my regret). I always thought it was just another media player like Windows Media Player.

In case anyone hasn't heard of it USTVNow is interesting. It's purpose was to allow US citizens overseas to watch what they could at home with an OTA setup. It's less now than it was but you can get (with the free version) ABC, CBS, CW, My9, and PBS. I have mine hooked up in Kodi. After 60 days or so the resolution on the free accounts goes less than hi def but I've read you can sign out and back in with the same user/pass and it will go back to high def.
Reply With Quote
     
     
This discussion thread continues

Use the page links to the lower-right to go to the next page for additional posts
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > Canada
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 4:45 AM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.