Thinking of downsizing our uverse channel package and number of receivers in favor of either AppleTV's or the Amazon Firestick. Thinking it would save me about $50-$60 per month. Has anyone done this? We typically watch the local channels, kids shows, showtime (homeland, the affair, etc), ESPN and the like, outdoor channel and a couple of others. We have a Netflix subscription already. Would we need anything else (Hulu, etc) to get everything we're wanting?

You're going to need to subscribe to ps vue or sling tv most likely. Maybe even direct tv'a new streaming option but I haven't price shopped that one.

We ditched uverse down to basic cable so we wouldn't have data caps on our internet, and picked up ps vue for $35/month. All in we are saving about $120/month, we already had and kept Netflix and Amazon prime account.

Hope you find similar success

The fire stick's interface is kind of slow. I'd go with the actual fire box.

CJS4715 said:

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The fire stick's interface is kind of slow. I'd go with the actual fire box.

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I'm making the Playstation Vue switch tomorrow! Got rid of UVerse TV and get rid of AT&T's crappy and over priced 24MB internet. Really excited about the savings and trying something new for once. I've had the Fire Stick for a while but I only relied on it for Prime Video or Netflix, so I didn't have need for it all the time, which I will with the Vue. I did notice that it will run slow/lag from time to time. Does the Fire TV run alot smoother. I just don't know what the point of the $50 price jump is. What are your thoughts? What makes it worth it?

FWIW, we have a Fire stick and like it just fine. Never had a regular Fire box though. I like that it hides behind the tv and is unseen.

The one feature I wish the FireTV had was headphone sound capability through the app on my iPhone. Roku does this and it practically saved my marriage until we switched to Fire stick to take advantage of our Prime membership.

A man can dream.....

Who are you going to use for internet, and what speed are you going with?

mt3950 said:

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Who are you going to use for internet, and what speed are you going with?

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Spectrum. 60-100 mbs

jock1020 said:

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mt3950 said:

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Who are you going to use for internet, and what speed are you going with?

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Spectrum. 60-100 mbs

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Same here.

Dumping Frontier FIOS. Did a speed test on my connection and was getting 3 mbps and paying for 75. Spend days with those imbeciles and finally gave up.

Purchase your own wifi router when you get Spectrum and you will save another $5-10 per month. Make sure the router is compatible with Spectrum.

I have used both. The Fire TV box interface is faster than the stick when you are using it for something with a lot of active scrolling (like a streaming TV service). I assume it has better hardware but haven't researched to confirm.

I might just try my PS4 for a bit. See if that does the trick for me. If it helps me save $100 by not needing the Fire TV, I'll give it a shot.

HvilleAggie said:

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You're going to need to subscribe to ps vue or sling tv most likely. Maybe even direct tv'a new streaming option but I haven't price shopped that one.

We ditched uverse down to basic cable so we wouldn't have data caps on our internet, and picked up ps vue for $35/month. All in we are saving about $120/month, we already had and kept Netflix and Amazon prime account.

Hope you find similar success

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Curious about this. I'm currently a DTV subscriber with UVerse internet. If I dropped my satellite DTV option and went with DTV Now (streaming service), would I have data caps on my UVerse internet?

I just got Apple TV with Directv NOW offer. I've been testing it out and have not yet cut the cable or changed internet.

I plan to either
a. ramp Uverse up to the 1000MB fiber solution
b. dump Uverse completely and get some cable internet option


On the Tv though my thinking is I might keep Uverse but go to the locals only (like $19 per month) because 90% of what we DVR are network shows. The reason is there are 2 issues for me with DirecTV NOW
1. no DVR functionality
2. the only local channel in DFW is FOX (NBC is available but only on mobile, desktop or Fire TV - not on Apple TV)

My biggest issue is - the wife - she can't stand change or technology and things like this really bug her. Like there are no channel numbers, you have to select alphabetically by network. Changing the TV back and forth between two inputs confuses her. If its not easy and point and click she gets frustrated. She isn't dumb in real life - just anti technology, it took her years to use more than phone and text on her iphone. gonna take some time to acclimate her.


Overall I like the DirecTV NOW service and offerings. I have the 100 channel package that was $35 per month on the introductory offer. The only 2 issues I really have so far are

- there is no LAST CHANNEL jump functionality. Sometimes the most recent watched channels show up on the menu when you scroll down but it is not consistent on the Watch NOW list. Seems to be some mix of recommendations and recently watched but it is definitely not always there. Some simple gestures on the touch remote for Apple TV would be great.
- Also you do have to specifically go back to the main Apple TV menu (out of DirecTV NOW App) or it still counts that as one of your two streams that is watching. I have a habit of just powering the TV off and walking away. My daughter watches from her dorm at college so at home if I move from living room to my office I will sometimes hit the warning that says there are already 2 streams watching. I have to go back to the TV and exit the App. There is no way from the other device to say interrupt that stream and play it here. I would imagine that might be an issue sometimes if I have left home and want to watch on a remote device.

my understanding is if you have at&t cellular service, you would not have data caps.

mt3950 said:

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my understanding is if you have at&t cellular service, you would not have data caps.

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I agree thats what I understand as I'm looking to do the same - as long as you have Cellular service and home Internet no data cap on the Internet (home)...there are still caps on the Internet via cellular however (whatever your voice plan includes plus rollover).


There is also a Everything Unlimited phone plan if you have enough devices - but although the data is unlimited after 22GB per month it is throttled to lower speed delivery. That blows.

Our cellular plan isn't attached to our Uverse, so when I talked to them about ditching Uverse and going internet only, I was going to have data caps. For what amounted to an extra $10/mo I could keep basic cable service (~20 channels, no DVR, no extra boxes) and have unlimited data on my home internet. FWIW, we are getting by with only 24mb/s, but there's only two of us in the house.

Ah, gotcha. We have AT&T mobile as well, so we should be good. I hadn't really considered the basic cable option yall talk about. My DTV contract is up in May and I think I may look at a DTV/UVerse basic subscription + the $35/mo DTV Now subscription I have. That'll beat the hell out of the $150 or whatever it is I'm paying for DTV right now.

mt3950 said:

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my understanding is if you have at&t cellular service, you would not have data caps.

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My understanding is the "data cap" is only enforced on ATT DSL. ATT says there is a data cap on Uverse internet, but they don't enforce it. I have Uverse internet and have never had an issue with "data caps".

have both. Just buy the firestick and jailbreak it. Easy video to follow on youtube.

I use Apple TV because of the integration with other Apple products. AirPlay is awesome.

Check out the 7 day free trial of PSVue. I just started it today and so far, so good. It has a dvr, local channels (dependent on your location) and the majority of everything we watched on uverse all for $35. Check it out. I'm impressed so far.