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flosofl posted:Was going to, but apparently PCs and mobile devices only. You can Chromecast, I guess, but no AirPlay it looks like. Plus a lot the of the channel providers will have restrictions on whether they can be cast to a TV or TV device. DirectTVNOW had the same problem. I've been reading reviews and I haven't read anything about restrictions on casting except NFL can't be on mobile due to their deal with Verizon. In fact, it seems like casting is the preferred method for using it. Do you have some examples? Also, I don't think you're really understanding what a Chromecast does versus what AirPlay does. Chromecast actually streams directly from the source itself while using the device as a controller. AirPlay is just screen mirroring as far as I'm aware (at least on my Mac). A Chromecast is like a Roku/Fire TV without a user interface in addition to being able to screen mirror.
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Apr 8, 2017 04:14
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:Nope. AirPlay can mirror or just tell the Apple TV the stream source to snag it for itself. Mirroring actually came much later. Yeah I thought about that after I posted and realized that probably the AppleTV worked that way too but then I got distracted. What would be the advantage of supporting AirPlay over just creating an app for AppleTV? Apple being stubborn about approving it? Also maybe this is in the weeds for this thread but I don't think I've ever seen an icon or anything on a website that just allows me to AirPlay to a connected device but I see Chromecast poo poo literally everywhere. Is it just not that popular? flosofl posted:An example is the ABC/NBC on DirectTVNow (there was no CBS when I left, no idea if that changerd). It won't let you Chromecast (AIrPlay not a thing for DirectTVNow either) those channels since ATT only got the rights for mobile devices. So, no live ABC or NBC on big screen. They may have fixed it by now, but the poo poo On Demand, no DVR, limited streams and overall poor stream delivery drove me away. This seems like the kind of thing that Google is actively working to avoid by getting those deals in place for markets prior to rolling out in them. The Android Police review goes into detail on that. flosofl posted:Regardless, no native app for FireTV or AppleTV (or SmartTV apps if you use those) and I'm not interested, let alone that rather lackluster selection of channels for the price. I hate having to stream from a phone or tablet to a TV device. I bought a FireTV just for Amazon Prime, because I hated using AirPlay to watch it on my AppleTV. Different strokes, I guess. To me the worst part of watching TV is using whatever interface I have to navigate to get the show started. That said, I have my doubts about how well scrubbing would work on a Chromecast. The relationship between phone and casted material doesn't exactly feel 1:1 the way a TV remote and the STB does.
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Apr 8, 2017 06:25
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Bezos most definitely does not give a poo poo about your day.
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Apr 11, 2017 05:50
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Bizarro Kanyon posted:Did not see this posted but apparently, Amazon will be live streaming Thursday night football games for Prime Video subscribers. This could be a beginning of groups like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon buying into sports streaming rights. Thursday games are trash and everyone knows this so they lose nothing by doing this. It's why they let Yahoo stream the London games. Let me know when it's something anyone cares about.
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Apr 25, 2017 10:56
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RZA Encryption posted:This would happen fairly often in Jacksonville years back. Winn-Dixie, a local grocery chain, would buy a bunch and sell them cheap or give them away. I too am from an area with an historically lovely team. RZA Encryption posted:I hear what you're saying, but my desire to go though a paid third party DNS server and create dnsmasq entries on my router is far lower than my desire to watch the game. I get that some people are willing to put up with that kind of jank, but I'm not. This is my attitude as well, I'd rather just not watch the games. And let's be real here, the current ESPN layoffs and their radically shrinking subscriber base is proof that abstaining from the product will eventually have a positive effect. The current model for TV rights and carriage fees is unsustainable and everyone knows it. That said, it's tough to see this falling in any way beneficial to fans who've cut cords.
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Apr 27, 2017 11:55
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RevKrule posted:If this had been 2 or 3 years ago when they were going through a renaissance but now, it's just a channel I don't get and don't care that I don't get it. Exactly my attitude toward them. At first my way of thinking was that channels and families of channels get hits out of nowhere all the time. AMC wasn't important until Mad Men, The Walking Dead, and Breaking Bad all came out at the same time and now I never look at it. FX always had Sunny, but it wasn't until Fargo that I actually cared about it. SyFy wasn't important to me until The Expanse. What if Viacom has something like that happen? That's when I realized that if they do end up getting good TV in the future I'll never know since I won't ever see it and I won't care.
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May 5, 2017 09:06
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:there is certainly noticeable channel startup time with satellite dishes, so the "with buffering" isn't really a unique qualifier either. On a modern system there shouldn't be. The delay you see with DirecTV at least is due to the user switching to an inactive transponder and with the Genie models the likelihood of one of the five tuners not being on the same transponder as the channel stream you're wishing to tune is very low unless you're watching some really weird poo poo. I understood what he was trying to say with "with buffering" but I also have a tough time seeing a real distinction between digital cable as it is now and cable services through streaming services since they both operate in a technically similar manner. A better descriptor would be "cable with third-party middleware".
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May 10, 2017 05:34
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Krispy Kareem posted:So apparently my mom's home is in an OTA reception wasteland and Dish wouldn't even install an antenna if we paid them. I got a $500 quote from a local installer, but she decided to just make due with what Sling can provide. Have you looked at Dishpointer? It would show exactly whether you'll get a satellite signal for Dish or DirecTV. Unless she lives in a hole in the ground, it's usually possible.
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May 14, 2017 02:16
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Ein cooler Typ posted:so does watching HD cable TV as much bandwidth as streaming the same show? How come cable TV never has to buffer or anything? The way cable works is each node for a neighborhood (or street, or however it's divided in your area) is constantly tuning the most popular channels. When your tuner requests a channel the node sends that stream to it. If your tuner requests one that isn't on the set of channels, the node has to acquire the stream in order to send it to you (that's why some channels take longer to tune than others). There's no reason for there to be buffering because the streams are constantly there, just waiting for you to access them. That's basic and missing a lot of detail but you get the general idea. As for bandwidth, cable is very constrained so it's difficult to know exactly how much you're getting but it's certainly less that you'd see on DirecTV or OTA. Does that answer your questions?
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May 31, 2017 09:16
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bull3964 posted:Eh, not quite. What you describe here is SDV (Switched Digital Video) and it's usually only used for OnDemand Channels (for providers that haven't switched to IP based OnDemand.) Some cable operators use it for linear channels, but it's not all that common with most providers (you know if you have to use a tuning adapter with TiVo.) Thanks for the clarification. In my area it was all SDV the last time I looked (and that was a long time ago, maybe ten years?) so I wasn't sure if anything had changed but suspected it probably had. I don't know anyone with cable television so it's easy for me to fall behind with what's actually deployed.
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May 31, 2017 19:37
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teagone posted:Forgot about that app! Just checked it and I still have $8 play credit, haha. Made ~$40 lifetime from those surveys. Only $40? I'm at $130 and even a guy at work whom I introduced to it a year ago is at $55 now.
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Jun 2, 2017 01:26
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I'm guessing this is the place to ask. I've thought about getting rid of DirecTV on and off for a while. I watch very little scripted TV (in the last year I only watched three shows) so I'm sure I can save some money. One thing that concerns me is sports. I watch NFL football but I know that's available OTA. I don't really want to do OTA, but if I have to maybe I can be talked into it. My girlfriend though watches a ton of NBA. How does League Pass work with streaming services? Is that even an option? How does League Pass work during the playoffs and finals? How do I get that cool thing where it shows the stadium display during the commercials?
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Jul 14, 2017 05:01
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Scrapez posted:You should try a streaming option first. With DirecTV, you are tied into a contract so you have to pay to cancel. I'm not under contract, I've been with them since 1997 and last got new equipment more than two years ago.
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Jul 14, 2017 05:05
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Luceo posted:As for the NFL, you can get GamePass even in the US by using a DNS provider such as AdFreeTime or unblock.us. That'll also get you around blackouts with the NBA. I'm not worried about blackouts, our home team is the Cavs and she only cares about the West.
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Jul 14, 2017 11:37
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Matt Zerella posted:The 650 is great I love the 650 and hate the MyHarmony software (I was on the legacy software until I replaced my MacBook and decided it wasn't worth installing Java). Please convince me to move to the Harmony Hub. It looks so much worse in every way that matters. As far as I know none of my components use Bluetooth and there isn't a good line of sight for the hub itself.
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Jul 26, 2017 11:52
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Proteus Jones posted:The hub will scatter IR off off surfaces in the entire room, so you can place it just about anywhere. I have mine sitting where it doesn't have line of sight most of my stuff, and it works fine. Yeah the MyHarmony app requires Silverlight and it must package it with it because I never installed it and it complains it's out of date whenever I open the app. If the same app manages the Hub then ugh, it's so terrible. My main concerns are cost (it's not like my 650 doesn't work and it's paid for) and the fact that the remotes you can get seem so crappy. Do they even still make the one without buttons for lightbulbs and plugs and poo poo? I feel like I'm giving up the context-sensitive screen on the 650 (which I use frequently) and the Help button and backlighting for... what exactly? Being able to use my Google Home to launch an activity? I've done a lot of looking into the new Harmonys and I'd love to be talked into one, I've just never heard anyone lay out a case for it.
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Jul 26, 2017 13:08
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:If you have a Harmony remote you like, don’t have line of sight problems, and aren’t keen on using an Echo/Home for voice control, there’s probably no reason to switch imo. From what I read the Smart Control hub differs from the newer hub.. I've used Harmonys for over a decade and I know what it's like to have some of their "forgotten hardware". It's not pleasant. wandler20 posted:I bought last fall and I absolutely love it. You can set it up with your phone which is very easy and the remote is so simple and works flawlessly. Also, if you're lazy and the remote is on the other side of the room you can use your phone to control it. I bought an open box off Amazon for like $95. Get it, you won't regret it. I almost never have my phone on me or near me while in the house so that doesn't appeal to me. The only thing that appeals a little bit would be to have the Home control the setup via voice when I want to cast to the receiver since that's something I have to do manually before I can listen to music. The TV I have has a Chromecast built in but since it's outputting via optical the receiver won't power on when I cast to it and even if it did, it wouldn't set it to the audio input. I still feel like I'd miss the context buttons far more than I'd enjoy being able to cast hands-free. I'll keep an eye for sales and if one comes around I might jump but it makes me feel a lot better hearing others praise it. Is there any input lag when you're doing something fast forwarding? Seems like the longer chain would make hitting that sweet spot when resuming play much more difficult.
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Jul 26, 2017 16:39
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chocolateTHUNDER posted:This is old and outdated info. They updated the software on the hub so now it runs the same firmware as their other units. They're functionally identical now. Thanks, this is something I was unable to resolve through multiple Google searches. Proteus Jones posted:Hub: The Companion Remote was exactly the one I've been considering. The lack of context buttons seems like it will be annoying but I'm glad to hear that it works well. Proteus Jones posted:The Hub does not accept voice input, full stop. So no being able to use in place of a fireTV/ATV/AndroidTV for doing voice input via the Harmony. There is a model that integrates with Alexis, but that's to control the Harmony Hub using Alexis. I use Google Home and everything I've seen everywhere says the Harmony Hub works with it (through a convoluted phrase: "Hey Google, talk to Harmony to perform [activity name]"). Is this not the case? Thanks for the lag comments.
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Jul 27, 2017 05:46
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bull3964 posted:Yeah, that's how the native integration with Harmony works with Google home. I've had issues with IFTTT, namely I can never remember the exact phrasing I need to use but I think I could get used to this one. Thanks! Proteus Jones posted:Yeah, I feel the same, and I almost bought the "Elite" or "Ultra" (or whatever that version was a few years ago) that comes with a companion with a touch LCD. But it's very easy to map each button to whatever you want. I just made sure I was consistent with how I assign the buttons. So for both the ShieldTV and ATV activities Exit = Home and Menu = Menu and swoopy arrow = Back. Despite the purpose of the thread, the main thing reading it has done for me is convince me that it's not worth cutting the cord. All of my devices show up just fine in the Harmony software. I only instigated this derail because there seemed to be knowledgeable people on both sides (Hub vs. 650) and I knew I'd get a lot of good data about the actual nuts and bolts of living with a hub. I've been researching this on and off for months and it's great to finally get some real info about it.
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Jul 27, 2017 09:13
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Just so I'm clear: This Harmony Smart Control with Smartphone App and Simple All In One Remote for $70 is identical to this Harmony Companion All in One Remote Control for Smart Home and Entertainment Devices for $130 except the remote for the latter has six buttons I don't want (lights/outlets)? There's no difference at all for the $60 in the hub itself? For $70 I'm willing to just try it on a lark.
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Jul 27, 2017 11:48
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And that power adapter is $15 by itself direct from Google (I highly recommend it if you're like me and have Ethernet everywhere). By the way, thanks everyone for the Harmony advice. I got it set it up and it's working well. Some kinks here and there, particularly with Home (which I'm using for our way more than I thought) but I like it. The remote is far tinier than I thought it would be but laid out well. Also thanks Bull for the IFTTT advice for the Home for it. Completely necessary.
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Jul 29, 2017 01:53
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Soysaucebeast posted:I got the Google Home for free so it's not like I'm out crazy amounts of money. I did just read through the past ten or so pages and saw the Harmony/IFTTT discussion, so I might go that rate if the Harmony ever goes on sale. Currently it's a bit too much for me to justify. It's less than $80. Having a TV without a Harmony is like saying yeah, I bought a car but they just wanted too much for a steering wheel. I guess I should report back on that, now that you mention it. First off, you guys were right you really can put that thing anywhere and it works. I cannot believe it turns on the TV from inside the cabinet below it. Next, going from the 650 to the Hub has been... okay, I guess. The remote itself is way smaller than I thought it would be and I do miss the backlight and screen but so far, so good. The one source I really used the soft keys for I haven't been using so maybe I'll be more annoyed then but for right now I'm happy. The one thing I didn't think I'd use but use all the time is the Google Home > IFTTT > Harmony thing. I'd say it's pretty much every time I turn the stuff on or off with voice commands and the remote is only used for volume or DVR controlling. Using the "Talk to Harmony" command literally never works though, it turns up the volume every single time no matter what I say. Another thing that's confusing is to make an IFTTT command to turn things off, it would appear you have to pick an activity to end but that's not true. ANY activity selected in that dropdown will end ANY ongoing activity. Either way I'm glad I asked this thread for advice on the Hub. I never would've known the $80 pack was the same same as the $200 one, I never would've realized that IFTTT could be that useful, and I would not have been happy with my overpriced and underperforming purchase I would've made without your help. At $80 it's a no brainer. I mean everyone should have a Harmony anyway but at $80 there isn't a reason not to. Edit: I guess I could answer your original question. I typed up a reply when I first saw it but thought you'd get a higher content one than I had written so I didn't post. I have a very small house, a Google Home in every room and a Chromecast on every TV. I find the Google Home useful in a lot of ways but I think the thing you're specifically asking about just isn't going to be what you're imagining. I don't have my phone next to me but you should see in the Home app different services you can tie to your Assistant. Like WithoutTheFezOn said, I think it's probably just Netflix and YouTube but the thing he said that you really should pay attention to is the "better in theory than in practice" part. Even if you could find the thing you want to watch purely by voice (and I've never even tried but I really doubt you could) controlling it that way would be horrible. In short, you should pick a streaming doohickey based on other criteria other than voice command integration with Google Home. I don't use Chromecasts for what you appear to want to use them for (sitting down and watching a show), I mostly use them to have podcasts or music just playing in multiple rooms all at once which means I don't need a controller or UI. I start either on my MacBook or play a station/playlist with a voice command on Home and just let it do its thing. If I was picking out what episode of what show I was going to watch I'd probably want more of an interface than a Chromecast is going to give me (i.e. none). Does that answer your question or at least help? Like I said, I love my Google Homes but this is just not a task they do well or willingly in my experience. ClassActionFursuit fucked around with this message at 07:25 on Aug 21, 2017 |
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Aug 21, 2017 07:07
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:Wait, you have to use IFTTT? Can’t the Home talk directly to the Harmony Hub to fire activities? It can but it's really awkward. You have to say "Okay Google talk to the Harmony" as a preface to commands and even then like i was saying I can't get it to do anything except increase the volume. I'll admit I've never tried to use it to do things like Pause because saying "Okay Google talk to the Harmony Pause" is so long and awkward that I'll just use the remote, thanks. At least with IFTTT it works reliably for launching and quitting activities even if I do have to use exact phrasing.
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Aug 21, 2017 15:49
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FCKGW posted:As a side note, I buy way more poo poo at Best Buy now since they will price match almost anything and Amazon has basically eliminated any big electronics discounts and just matches everyone else's prices. I spent almost a grand on an iPad and all the accessories a few weeks ago, and they even honored a coupon after purchase that gave me like another $50 off even though they already got my money. Weirdly, same. I bought my MacBook Pro there because they accept trade ins on old MacBooks there. Was completely painless, unlike dealing with them in the past.
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Oct 23, 2017 22:34
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What OP's wanting is a site where you say "I want x, y, & z" and the site spits back "Those are available on services A, B, C" giving you packages and prices. Not that you're wrong about a la carte channels and the knock on effects, that just wasn't the question.
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Nov 23, 2017 15:34
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Boris Galerkin posted:Sounds like an idea for a new startup. CABLR, and it's not a site it's an app.
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Nov 23, 2017 16:26
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Boris Galerkin posted:Are you guys serious here because I am failing to find what you guys are talking about on Google. The only thing I can actually find is cablr.cab which looks like yet another Uber-like service. We are not serious, we're riffing on SV tropes.
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Nov 24, 2017 01:32
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It's actually so nice that I'm glad I got the cheapest remote instead of the one with a screen since I only use the remote for volume and do almost everything else through voice commands.
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Dec 17, 2017 15:23
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Bizarro Kanyon posted:I got a new chromebook and it offers 3 months of google music for free. Does that include YouTube red or is that a separate entity? It includes YTR.
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Dec 20, 2017 16:32
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Ixian posted:Right now voice control is a solution in search of a problem I use voice control for pretty much everything in my house and it's wonderful. That said, I wouldn't use it for media control, I just use the Harmony remote for that, but I do use it for turning everything on and selecting the input. Some things voice control just isn't suited to doing and I feel like media controls, especially shuttle and volume, the two things people do the most, is the best example of what voice just doesn't do well.
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Jun 9, 2018 15:23
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EL BROMANCE posted:Playing Jeopardy on Alexa is a good way of seeing just how iffy the speech recognition is. And having to ask it turn the drat light on 3 times before it actually does it. I've seen this written commonly about Alexa often but I have to say that's not my experience with my Google Homes at all. Google said at I/O 2017 that their speech recognition is more accurate than the typical person's and I'd certainly believe it. In practice I can't recall the last time I was misunderstood and I don't think I've ever had a false trigger. Almost all of the failures I've seen have been missing the trigger word or misinterpreting my meaning.
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Jun 10, 2018 11:24
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Although it famously has been a problem I do wonder how much of an effect accents have. There's a guy at work who is a huge Google fan and he's almost unintelligible to me, I have to wonder what his error rate is like.
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Jun 11, 2018 00:41
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teagone posted:I've finally convinced my parents to cut the cord Just reading this made me feel anxious. I'm pretty sure my parents would let me cut life support before they did cable.
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Jun 13, 2018 09:31
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chocolateTHUNDER posted:I guess something like Sling/DTVNow is technically "cord cutting" but the experience matches regular cable almost exactly. I got my parents to switch to DTVNow after I showed them how it worked (and more importantly how much money they would save). You say that and it might even be true but you have no idea how hard some people can still pretend it's the 80s. I'd have more luck trying to convince them that $100/m for a landline is a bad idea than convincing them TV can cost $50 and believe me that landline will be active the day they set foot in their graves.
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Jun 13, 2018 15:19
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Yeah all these new channels are great, thanks!
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Aug 4, 2018 18:42
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I don't see how you can't find a free TV with an HDMI input. I've thrown away working 52" TVs just because no one wanted to come and get it.
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Sep 22, 2018 05:17
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Nitr0 posted:lol this idiot comparing trillion dollar company google with "pluto" I mean it's not even a planet!
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Oct 4, 2018 00:57
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Something Offal posted:Check out Breaking Bad bro, you're missing out. Same but Mad Men.
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Jan 7, 2019 11:45
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Astro7x posted:Cool... lots of stuff to look into. Those old receivers still work on the newer satellites? I haven't heard of anyone using an AM21 in like a decade.
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Apr 5, 2019 05:32
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Croatoan posted:Excuse me, everyone knows Roku is the Volkswagen of the streaming devices. I've never thought of the Roku to be either overpriced or unreliable? Are they actively and maliciously cheating regulators? I really don't understand this analogy!
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Apr 19, 2019 00:24
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