“As many of you know, growth in the cable and satellite industry has slowed considerably. A host of alternatives have arisen to supplement or replace the traditional offerings of broadcast and cable-only channels. So Netflix is a significant example, expanding from basic DVD rentals, to a major provider of original — and often award-winning — streaming content,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “With judicious selection, some people are able to supplement or replace traditional cable/satellite fare snd perhaps save some money in the process. Sometimes it’s just returning to broadcast-only TV, assuming you are close enough to transmitters to get a decent signal via an old fashioned antenna.”
“In order to compete with some of the alternatives, both Dish Network (Sling TV) and DirecTV (DirecTV NOW) have debuted services that offer subsets of their standard satellite fare, which is streamed to set-top boxes from Apple, Amazon, Google and Roku,” Steinberg writes. “Right now, however, broadcast stations aren’t available in all cities, and you can’t time-shift, so you don’t have DVR capability to store shows for later viewing and commercial skipping. At best, you have on-demand. But it’s possible such features will come later. For now, DVR functions appear to be limited to Sony’s PlayStation Vue.”
“Cord-cutting is possible, but it’s easy to go overboard,” Steinberg writes. “It’s also confusing, because, with potentially hundreds or thousands of available channels, you may end up more confused than ever trying to find the shows you want.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: AppAdvice last month had a good article regarding cord-cutting:
Before we get started, here are the things you’re going to need:
1. A 4th Generation Apple TV
2. A Subscription to SlingTV, DirecTV Now or PlayStation Vue
3. An HD Antenna
4. An HDHomeRun Connect Box
5. The Channels App for Apple TVBased on my experience, if you have all these pieces, your Apple TV can serve as the way you watch TV, period. You won’t need to jump between inputs…
Read more in the full article here.
SEE ALSO:
The ultimate cable television cord cutting solution for Apple TV owners – February 17, 2017