Cutting the Cord 2022 Edition

Hey folks...

As we close out 2022 - figured it was time to revisit my Cutting the Cord analysis.  

Over the last 4 or 5 years - I've done an analysis every year or two to see if I could "cut the cord" while will providing my family the entertainment choices they wanted, with the same convenience they were used to and lower my monthly costs.

Back in 2017 & 2018 the answer for me was a definite no.  There were simply too many caveats, compromises and complexity to make it work.  

My last analysis was in late 2020 and the market had matured quite a bit - with much better offerings and technologies.  My conclusion then was that cord cutting was a very viable option and in fact starting in 2021 I started switching some of my property management customers to streaming, but I still hadn't done it myself...

Finally in 2022 I did "Cut the Cord" - albeit a Satellite TV cord vs a Cable TV Cord.  

The catalyst for the change was actually a move - we bought a new home in 2022 and I figured it was time to dive back into the various market offerings and see if we could achieve the two main goals of a cord cutting - A) no more worrying about coax locations for locating TVs along with STBs, Dishes, etc, etc and B) lowering the cost while still providing a good quality TV experience for my family.

When compared to my 2020 analysis, 4 big changes made a streaming only option the preferred one

First was the number of registered devices & concurrent streams that could be associated with a single account.  Previously this was a big problem for me.  In our home we have 5 TVs and while all 5 are rarely on at the same time, many of the streaming options in 2020 limited you to 2 sometimes 3 concurrent streams.  In 2022 that changed - now you can easily find 5 - 7 concurrent stream offerings.

Second was video quality.  Some of my early experiences with streaming limited me to 720p for some channels - even with 1Gbps internet service - so I couldn't see paying for something that was lowering video quality.   In 2022 - 1080p is the norm and HDR/4K for some platforms is available

Third was local channel support. Back in 2020 - several of the streaming services had local channel services - but sometimes it was limited - so now you had to look at either A) a separate local streaming subscription like LoCast or B) going to ATSC antennas - which was kind of a nuisance and could be pricey.  In 2022 - all the offerings I looked at had full local channel support.

Finally the fourth was recording capabilities.  Back in 2020 - most offerings had some sort of recording option - but they were often limited capacity and you had to pay a lot extra if you wanted a larger capacity if they offered any at all.  In 2022 - now unlimited recording is available.

So here is what I implemented, why I chose it and some surprises along the way.

First step was proper internet.  Besides all the entertainment streaming - I also had to support my home office - which includes some 5 computers, laptops, tablets, etc for all the beta testing I do for MS, Apple & Google as well as all the WebEx, Teams, Zoom, etc meetings and work related stuff. Then we have at least 5 phones - one of which is used by my 16 year old - who like almost every 16 year old lives on it and has a constant stream of content across all her apps.  

Finally there is home automation devices, doorbells, cameras, thermostats, etc, etc.   About 40 devices in all.

Luckily - I was able to get 1Gbps Fiber to the Home (FTTH) service.  Combining that with a Netgear Orbi Mesh Wifi provided a proper home network to support all the above.  

If you considering switching to streaming - quality internet service and good WiFi are critical.   Can you get away with less than 1Gbps ? Yes - but just remember to factor in all your internet usage when planning.

On the entertainment side - I've been a big fan of Roku and specifically TCL based TVs that run RokuOS and so 3 TVs are TCLs from 50 - 75".  For others TVs like LG and Samsung - I added Roku streaming sticks to provide a consistent experience across all TVs in the home.   While the LG & Samsung TVs did offer the DirecTV streaming app - I wanted to keep the remote experience the same - so going to Roku across the board accomplished that.  

In my 2020 review I also looked at Google Chromecast/Google TV and it is still a good choice and some aspects of voice search, etc are are actually better than Roku.   

The great thing about going to a streaming solution over Wi-Fi is that now a TV can effectively be mounted anywhere that has easy access to power.  Any even if you need to move and extend the electrical outlet to TV level for wall mounting it's still a much more flexible option than being bound to coax outlet locations. Even versus DirecTV Wireless STBs I've found that Wifi TVs just seem to provide a more consistent connection than the wireless video bridge option.

For my streaming provider I ended up choosing DirecTV Stream.  I chose it because not only did it meet the 4 criteria I mentioned earlier - but it also supported a wider range of channels than my second choice YouTubeTV.  

I like both products, but for my use case DirecTV stream seemed to be the best option and it ended up costing about $70 less than the DirecTV satellite service I had previously - even with optional services like HBO, Cinemax, etc.  

Additionally, being able to remove the dish and not having to deal with Set Top Boxes (STB), remotes, DVRs, etc was a joy.  Finally the UI was slightly more familiar and easy for my family to accept.

With that said - there are a few caveats.  

As of today - DirecTV stream does NOT support multiple profiles to share across a family.  Meaning - all TVs are logged into the same DirecTV stream account and things like last channel selected or what's in the recorded library is shown to all.  Our daughter has very different viewing habits from us and so it would be nice if she had her own profile to segment her content choices from ours..

The second thing that can be a little challenging is navigating the guide using the Roku remote vs an older DirecTV satellite remote that has a number pad.  In DirectTV stream - you can sort the guide either A->Z or channel number.  But if you need to make a large jump in channel number for example from channel 15 to 356 - you ended up doing a lot of scrolling- you can't just enter 3-5-6 and get there.  

DirecTV stream tried to compensate for that by allowing you to mark specific channels as favorites and then display a guide with only favorites or just look at most recent channels viewed - but there are still times you end up scrolling quite a bit.  

And while all my Roku devices have voice support - it doesn't work within the DirecTV Stream app - so you can't pickup the Roku remote within the DirecTV app and say "ESPN" for example and have the DirecTV app change to that channel.  instead Roku will want to take you to the ESPN App - if you have it.   This is where Chromecast/GoogleTV is superior.

My hope is as the offerings mature that these issues like profiles and voice navigation will get sorted out.

So the good news was when I first installed everything - so all the TVs, loaded all the apps, etc, etc everything worked great.  Plus we eliminated one somewhat annoying feature of satellite TV in that weather was no longer an issue.  

But after the first month or so - I got a surprise.  I started receiving warnings from my Internet provider that was reaching my data cap limits and would be charged one rate for any overage that escalated depending on the level of the overage or I could change my internet plan to allow unlimited data.  So remember that $70 savings I saw from switching to DirecTV stream from Satellite - yep you guessed it - pretty much gone.  

Some of this is our own fault.  Like many folks we turn on a TV in the morning for news, weather, etc - but often we leave them on the vast majority of the day as kind of background noise.  So we're effectively streaming content all day - even though we aren't "watching" all the time.  

The key is check with your Internet provider and see if you have data caps and then monitor your usage to understand if your bumping up against those limits to avoid excess charges.

The same can be said for what all streaming services you use.   The one thing that has changed in the last 5 - 6 years are the vast number of streaming services out there and the associated subscriptions.  Between DirecTV Stream, Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, Paramount, AppleTV+, Disney+, Spotify, etc - it's really easy to end up with an additional $100+ / month in streaming subscriptions.  

While for many folks the big draw of cord cutting was reducing costs - the reality is depending on your entertainment choices - you may not really save anything or even increase your monthly costs.  My only advice here is be aware of all the subscriptions you have active and be prepared to make some decisions if you're blowing past your budget.  

Sometimes you subscribe to a service for maybe one or two shows - then find out the rest of the channel is crap.  The good news is that you can easily cancel subscriptions and stop the payments - you just need to discipline to do so.   

Bottom line is this.  I cut the cord in 2022 - should you ?  For me the answer was a definite yes.  The flexibility of TV location, Single UI & remote, no STBs, cables, dishes, etc outweighed some of the profile and navigation caveats.  

I'm paying about the same when you factor in the internet costs but that is driven by our choices, not the technologies.

The reality is that streaming has replaced dedicated cable or satellite TV and you see it in the ever decreasing subscriber counts from those services.   With that said many of the Cable TV providers also provide broadband and are increasing those costs to try and make up for loss in TV subscribers.  

Have a great 2023.